It's Book Fair Time!!!!

The book fair is coming to EES from Dec. 4th to Dec. 13th.  Here is a link to the online fair which you can order directly from or get information about our fair.  Hope it helps!

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/effinghamelementaryschool

Shooting Kabul

Well, I finally finished reading Shooting Kabul, by N.H. Senzai.  I haven't had as much reading time as I would like.  I did really enjoy this book.  It pulls you in at the start with a missing child. She's only six and she gets separated from her family as they are escaping from Afghanistan.  It has great elements of intrigue, lots of action at the beginning, and more struggles for the family as they try to find the youngest child.  Adding to their troubles is the fact that the terrorist attack of September 11, occurs while Mariam is missing, and being from Afghanistan makes life more difficult for Fadi and his family as they try to make a new life in the United States.  Fadi uses his passion for photography to try to win a trip to India which would get him close enough to try to find his sister, but bullies end up wrecking his camera. Will they ever find Miriam and bring her home? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Cosmic

Now that I'm home from vacation it seems harder to fit in my reading time!  But here is one that I finished while I was away:
 Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, is truly cosmic!  Cosmic is the way that Liam describes the great things in his life, and Cosmic is a great book! Cosmic is not the way that he would describe being twice as big as kids his age and looking twice as old as he is, however his size and looks end up enabling him to go on a truly cosmic adventure, into the cosmos of outer-space. Even though he's only twelve, most people think that Liam is an adult, so he  finds himself in some sticky situations.  How would you like to be twelve and be allowed to test drive a pricey sports car? How about test driving a rocket?

Liam also enjoys thrill rides and he proceeds to go on the biggest thrill ride ever.  A rocket into space.  The problem is that Liam is supposed to the the responsible adult on the trip and the rocket is thrown off course and may never return to Earth.  Liam- a big lad- has BIG problems.

This story is a great read for grades 4 & up, very enjoyable!

Next on my list is Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai. I think it's going to be great!

Reading My Way Across the USA

           

So I read most of Endangered while I was on a plane to Las Vegas, we arrived just in time for record heat! I know that it got to at least 117 each day that we were there!  We were ready for heat, but that was HOT! What was really strange to us was that it did not cool down much at night.  The city lights were beautiful at night.  As we cooled off by the pool I finished Endangered and I really loved it.  It had action and adventure, it had apes and a great heroine who really had to use her wits as SHE was endangered through most of the story. I highly recommend this book for 5 & 6th graders.

Next we were headed to Mesa, Arizona (more heat!) and the book that I pulled out of my bag was Plunked by  Michael Northrop.  This is a perfect book for baseball fans. Jack Mogens is going through some trouble at the plate as he prepares for baseball season to get into full swing!  This book has lots of great, detailed recounts of Jack's trials and tribulations on the baseball field. Great book for grade 3 and up.

After a week in Arizona we headed north, visited the Grand Canyon (just incredible!) and we are staying in Mesquite, Nevada still hot, but down to 106. That's a cool down!  We visited Zion National Park in Utah today.  Amazingly beautiful! My next book from the bag is Cosmic. More on that next time.

Summer Reading List

School ended on Friday and I came home with a big bag of books to read this summer.  Yesterday I started a book called Endangered by Eliot Schrefer.  It's one of our newly added titles in the reading room, and it's got me hooked already.  It takes place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that's struggling with poor leadership and corruption.  Sophie, who's fourteen, is spending the summer there with her mom, who runs a  sanctuary for a type of ape called bonobos.  Sophie buys a young bonobo with the intent on rescuing him, but that proves to be more of a danger to the bonobos than she thought. I have the feeling that more danger lies in the pages ahead!  Can't wait to finish it.        

 

Summer Reading Activities

Here's a link to a site from We Give Books for summer reading activities!
Summer: We Give Books Read for My Summer | We Give Books

Summer Reading!

Summer is a time to relax and have fun and get outdoors and be active, but don't forget to keep your mind active too!  One of the most important ways to keep your mind active in the summer is to READ!  Kids work very hard on their reading skills during the school year and we don't want kids to lose those skills so please be sure to read!  I have posted some links to some good book lists if you need some suggestions, but the best bet is to go to the library and find something that catches your attention!  Or, if there is a particular book that you want to read ask to get it through inter-library loan.

Join us at EES for our Literacy Night and annual summer Book Give-Away on June 12th at 6:00!  I will present some info. on literacy and Ms. Swan will be here to give an update on the library's summer reading programs and you'll get to pick out at least one new book too!

We will also be having a special book event at EES this summer:  Marty Kelly, author of The Bran Muffins of Doom, and many other great books, is coming as part of the CLIF grant provided to the Effingham Public Library.  For more details check the library's website: http://effingham.lib.nh.us/.