After a break from blogging, I'm starting back.

This week I'm reading these two books by Dr. Seuss in celebration of Read Across America. Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Sam and the Lucky Money is my favorite book to read in celebration of Chinese New Year. My kids love it. It's a wonderful story of giving. We have a nice size population of Vietnamese students at my school who celebrate Chinese New Year and give the beautiful red envelopes. Over the years, I have been blessed by their spirit of giving and am grateful.

These are two books I like to read at school for Valentine's Day. Share the love!!

Have you ever been in competition with your sister? Megan McDonald writes a story about three sisters, Alex, Stevie, and Joey, discovering who they are in the second book of the Sisters Club series, Rule of Three.

One of the graphic novels I ready this past year and really loved was Lunch Lady by Jarrett Krosoczka. How clever to have the Lunch Lady as the super hero of the story! Kids will love it! Here's a fun video by the author about the making of this book.

These are a few of my favorite Christmas books. Each is special in it's own way. Hope you enjoy this wonderful season of the year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus! Merry Christmas!

This week I'm sharing this funny book, When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor with my first grade classes.

This is a fun ghost story that kids will enjoy. I.B. Grumply has rented an old house to finish writing a book because he is stuffering from writer's block. Little does he know that it is already occupied by a young boy, Seymour, and his friend Olive, the ghost of the former homeowner. This makes Grumply's problem even worse. What will he do?

What makes the story light hearted and quirky are the unique names of the characters and how the story is told. The author presents the story through letters and emails between each character. This extraordinary book will be a hit with kids!

I just finished reading Winnie's War by Jenny Moss. It is a historical fiction set in 1918 in my neighborhood of Houston/Galveston. Winnie is the oldest of 3 girls who lives with a troubled mother, quiet father, and controlling grandmother. Spanish Influenza is spreading in the area and Winnie feels compelled to keep her family safe from this deadly disease.

I'm about to start a new school year. It brings me a great deal of excitement to think about the books I want to introduce to my students! I will have a new schedule with more time to do Book Clubs, projects, and promote reading! This will be a terrific year with more opportunities to encourage a love of reading.

I've been taking some time off from blogging and miss it!  Having one TAKS test down and another in April, I'm hoping that I can get back to reviewing and talking about books.  

This creative and lively book is a retelling of five classic fairy tales by Zoe Alley with illustrations by R.W. Alley.  The illustrations are set up like a graphic novel that is easy to follow.  The dialog is updated and quick witted. It made me giggle several times with the sarcastic comments of the sheep exposing their point of view.  I started to feel sorry for the wolf by the end of the book.  This is a fun read for second through fifth graders with a good sense of humor.

Lost and Found is the latest book from Andrew Clements. It is the story of identical twins, Jay and Ray Grayson, trying to find their individuality. They have moved to a new school, so when Jay goes to school while Ray is at home sick, Jay feels like a real individual.  But when the school makes a mistake and only Jay is enrolled and not Ray, the plan begins. They decide to share the identity of Jay. The twins switch days going to school but soon begin to face complications.

Dog Gone by Cynthia Chapman Willis is a touching story of a young girl, Dill, dealing with the loss of her mother. Everything has changed around her house. Her special attachment to their dog, Dead End, becomes stronger because he was her mother's dog. Then, Dead End runs off and is suspected to be part of a dog pack attacking livestock in their rural town. Her grandfather is seriously ill while her father is busy trying to keep the family business running. With her friend, Cub, they try to catch Dead End to hide him from the townspeople. Through these events, Dill must face head on her loss.  

Turtle's Penguin Day by Valeri Gorbachev is a story of a turtle who wants to pretend to be a penguin after his father reads him a book about penguins. He goes to school and all of the students want to become penguins after the teacher reads the book. This book encourages reading and how it stimulates knowledge and imagination.  It would be great as a focus when engaging kids to become information literate.

With great anticipation and excitement, the new 2009-2010 Texas Bluebonnet Book Nominee List was announced on Saturday. Here it is: TBA