Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
08 January 2011
Read Online for Free
@harperteen, HarperCollins Young Adult Twitter, tweeted that you can read ALL of Emily the Strange: The Lost Days online. Click here to read!
Change of Weekend Plans
I was planning on going to visit Aaron's mom and stepdad this weekend, however, I think I'm getting sick and I don't want to pass that on to them. So....this leaves my weekend schedule surprisingly free for reading! When it opens, I'm going to head over to the local library to pick up a couple more books, specifically, The Heros of Olympus, Book One: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (author or the Percy Jackson / Lightning Thief Series)
I have placed on hold three more titles, The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid also by Rick Riordan, Fallen by Lauren Kate, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (author or Delirium) and The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech.
I have placed on hold three more titles, The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid also by Rick Riordan, Fallen by Lauren Kate, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (author or Delirium) and The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech.
05 January 2011
Review of "Changing Moon"
What its about:
Nola is a middle school girl who lives with her workaholic mother in Alta Donna. She is a good student, but isn't a fan of school, and dreads going. Life was ok until two new students started attending Nola's school. Damiano has a few classes with Nola, and seems ok. But, there is something about his sister, Ines, that Nola thinks is weird. She is manipulative and always gets her way.
Nola starts investigating Damiano and Ines and realizes that things aren't always as they seem.
The Good:
Normally, I like graphic novels, especially for struggling readers, however in the case of Changing Moon, the vocabulary used is really advanced.
The Not-So-Good:
Like I said, I like graphic novels, because they allow the struggling reader to rely on visual clues instead of words words words. But, the vocabulary used was very high, and sometimes questionable (ie. saying Damiano had "hair herpes").
I also found the frames hard to follow, and, for me, it was hard to distinguish between a thought bubble and a speech bubble. I don't know if it was because of this, or just the plot of the story itself, but I found myself having to reread because the story seemed to jump around and not make sense.
Lastly, there were a few questionable illustrations (Nola getting ready for school).
All in all, I don't think I would have this book in my classroom (grades 3-5). It is definitely not one for the elementary reader. But, I also think that high school readers would have a hard time getting into the story, because it jumped around so much.
Nola is a middle school girl who lives with her workaholic mother in Alta Donna. She is a good student, but isn't a fan of school, and dreads going. Life was ok until two new students started attending Nola's school. Damiano has a few classes with Nola, and seems ok. But, there is something about his sister, Ines, that Nola thinks is weird. She is manipulative and always gets her way.
Nola starts investigating Damiano and Ines and realizes that things aren't always as they seem.
The Good:
Normally, I like graphic novels, especially for struggling readers, however in the case of Changing Moon, the vocabulary used is really advanced.
The Not-So-Good:
Like I said, I like graphic novels, because they allow the struggling reader to rely on visual clues instead of words words words. But, the vocabulary used was very high, and sometimes questionable (ie. saying Damiano had "hair herpes").
I also found the frames hard to follow, and, for me, it was hard to distinguish between a thought bubble and a speech bubble. I don't know if it was because of this, or just the plot of the story itself, but I found myself having to reread because the story seemed to jump around and not make sense.
Lastly, there were a few questionable illustrations (Nola getting ready for school).
All in all, I don't think I would have this book in my classroom (grades 3-5). It is definitely not one for the elementary reader. But, I also think that high school readers would have a hard time getting into the story, because it jumped around so much.
First Post!
I posted this last week on my tumblr, but I thought it would be nice to post on my new blog as kind of a mission statement, or why I'm doing this.
Do you ever just have that aha moment when you realize the answer that you have been circling around for years, thinking that it was wrong or just not the way to do things, really is the right thing?
I have always loved to read. And I’ve always kind of felt like a dork telling people that was one of my favorite things I to do, because it just sounded so boring.
But, I had a minor aha moment earlier this year when reading a book for my master’s class. And yes, my masters will be in Reading Education, and after that, I plan on getting endorsed in Library Science. But I digress. I was reading a book* about inspiring children to love read and to read for pleasure and not just for a test, I realized with everything going on in my life (work, family, life in general) I was losing that wonder and joy that reading brought to my life. And I didn’t like it.
Reading was my escape. It was my way of traveling to places I knew I’d never see. It was my way of learning about the world, about history, about life. And I was losing it.
So, I did what the book suggested. I asked my students what books were cool and for suggestions. I asked friends the same. I got on twitter (@amandafurman if ya wanna follow) and started gathering recommendations. I started keeping a notebook of books to read. Then, I got tech saavy and joined a website that would do that for me (http://www.goodreads.com/) And then, I started sitting and reading. And enjoying it.
I’m carrying a book with me wherever I go (waterpark included). Yesterday, I was to meet a friend for dinner, but had some errands to run beforehand. I actually plotted how long my errands “should take” and if that left me enough time to read before we were to meet.
You might be thinking, “Great. You like to read. I wasted about 5 minutes of my life reading about how you love to read. Super. Now what are you going to do about it?”
My next step is to start reviewing books. Yes—-to read books for a living. I never thought you could actually do that. I had hoped as a child, but I never thought you could do it for real. I have some feelers out to book publishers (suggestions welcome) and I’ve applied to be on some book selection committees, so hopefully, it will all work out.
As part of that, I will be posting reviews of books that I’ve read on here and on my goodreads.com page. And as always, I’m open to suggestions (about what books to read and on how to improve my reviews, and even how to go about being a book reviewer).
*The book that I was reading was The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.
Do you ever just have that aha moment when you realize the answer that you have been circling around for years, thinking that it was wrong or just not the way to do things, really is the right thing?
I have always loved to read. And I’ve always kind of felt like a dork telling people that was one of my favorite things I to do, because it just sounded so boring.
But, I had a minor aha moment earlier this year when reading a book for my master’s class. And yes, my masters will be in Reading Education, and after that, I plan on getting endorsed in Library Science. But I digress. I was reading a book* about inspiring children to love read and to read for pleasure and not just for a test, I realized with everything going on in my life (work, family, life in general) I was losing that wonder and joy that reading brought to my life. And I didn’t like it.
Reading was my escape. It was my way of traveling to places I knew I’d never see. It was my way of learning about the world, about history, about life. And I was losing it.
So, I did what the book suggested. I asked my students what books were cool and for suggestions. I asked friends the same. I got on twitter (@amandafurman if ya wanna follow) and started gathering recommendations. I started keeping a notebook of books to read. Then, I got tech saavy and joined a website that would do that for me (http://www.goodreads.com/) And then, I started sitting and reading. And enjoying it.
I’m carrying a book with me wherever I go (waterpark included). Yesterday, I was to meet a friend for dinner, but had some errands to run beforehand. I actually plotted how long my errands “should take” and if that left me enough time to read before we were to meet.
You might be thinking, “Great. You like to read. I wasted about 5 minutes of my life reading about how you love to read. Super. Now what are you going to do about it?”
My next step is to start reviewing books. Yes—-to read books for a living. I never thought you could actually do that. I had hoped as a child, but I never thought you could do it for real. I have some feelers out to book publishers (suggestions welcome) and I’ve applied to be on some book selection committees, so hopefully, it will all work out.
As part of that, I will be posting reviews of books that I’ve read on here and on my goodreads.com page. And as always, I’m open to suggestions (about what books to read and on how to improve my reviews, and even how to go about being a book reviewer).
*The book that I was reading was The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.
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