"I Am Drums" Book Review

Sam isn't like other girls. All day long Sam taps out rhythms and hears drums in her head. Her deepest desire is to make jazz band next year until she finds out that the music program at her school is being cut. There will be no jazz band. There will be no drums for her to play. How will she get her own drum set? Who will teach her to play? This book centers around Sam fighting through all odds to persevere and make her dreams a reality. 

I enjoyed this book because I think we all need to be reminded to keep moving forward. Sam shows the world that stereotypes are unfounded and she can do anything she sets her mind to. It also shows that not every child or person fits neatly into one box. As a teacher, this touched on the things I believe. Every child is unique and has an unbelievable capacity to create their own unique place in our world.

"Steelheart" Book Review

Imagine a world in which superheroes not only exist, but they are part of your every day life. Now imagine that our typical idea of a superhero is flawed. These mean and women are power hungry and greedy. They use their powers to subject the "human" population to their dominion. That's exactly the trip you go on as you read "Steelheart." The world is turned upside down one day as people start exhibiting powers and use those powers to control everyone else and start territory wars. They are seemingly invincible so most of the population is too scared to fight back. Except for the Reckoners. The Reckoners have set out to bring down superheroes and fight back in secret. David wants in to get revenge for his father and to kill Steelheart. 

I really enjoyed this book because of its different take on superheroes. We put this idea of a superhero on a pedestal, but Brandon Sanderson knocks that pedestal down and reimagines the stereotype. I can see kids who love dark books falling for this story. The one thing I didn't love was that there was minor language so putting it in the elementary library might be a stretch. Overall, the language wasn't bad though. I definitely want to read the next installments in the series. 

"Butter" Review

Butter is a teenage boy who is obese and seemingly unconcerned with his health and appearance. His weight overshadows his incredible musical ability and his interest in the most popular at girl at school. As he deals with the tense relationships with his parents and ridicule from other students, Butter decides he is going to bring in the new year by eating himself to death. He posts his plan online and overnight his blog becomes the thing to talk about. Other people even start befriending him and encouraging his plan. New Years Eve comes and what happens now?

I randomly found this book in my public library's online shelf. I have to say when I read the synopsis I thought it was the oddest thing in the world so I borrowed it. It's definitely original in my opinion. I thought it was an interesting way to look at the pressure kids feel and even create. It may surprise some that the author had other characters encouraging Butter, but I truly believe something similar could and is happening. This opens up not only the topics of bullying, but also depression, eating disorders, and taking cries for help seriously. This book is for mature readers who can understand the content and the major themes behind it. 

Character Education

This year we are trying to focus more one character education each month as we talk about the word of the month. For September our kiddos are working on Respect. For my younger kiddos I read aloud:

As we went through we talked about character traits and giving evidence for how we knew they were respectful or disrespectful. Unfortunately, neither of these books were housed in our library, but both are read aloud on YouTube videos. They are now on my next order so I'll have them on hand. 

We also watched the "For the Birds" short by Pixar. As we watched we gave thumbs up when we saw respectful behavior and thumbs down when we saw disrespectful behavior. At the end we talked about what the birds should have done instead. 

Fourth grade is doing something a little different. Since we have a new green screen, they are creating videos that show respect and disrespect. Those vodeos will be published on the school website. We practiced this week, film next week, and having a viewing of all the videos the final week. 

"The Monster at the End of this Book" for the Win

 

I don't know about you guys, but this was one of my favorite books growing up. Grover trying to tie the pages and build brick walls to stop us from getting to the end was hysterically funny. The words that took up half the page just begged to be shouted. It's a staple of any library, either public or at home.

A few weeks ago I read this aloud to my first and second graders and it's still magical. My kiddos were floored and covered their ears when I shouted Grover's frustrated statements. They giggled when I pleaded that we not turn the pages. They even begged to hear it two and three times. I could have read it for the entire class period and they probably would have kept collapsing in giggles at poor Grover. 

If you don't have this book in your bag of tricks you have to find a copy. 

Card Catalog Races

I'm going to state right now that this was in no way my idea.

Another teacher told me about a game her library teacher used to play when she was a kid and I took the idea. The previous teacher took two cards from the card catalog, handed them to two kids and they raced to find their book first. I thought this was fabulous (ABC order anyone?) because it teaches students to find books within the library and is a natural precursor or extension to a lesson on the online card catalog. 

Well we don't have a physical card catalog anymore so I made these cards for students to use. That have the title and call number. 

I've done this with third through sixth grade kids and they love it. Even my kids who think they are too cool for everything were begging for another turn or to race their friend. It also means my students actually want to learn where different books are in the library and how to navigate it. I get them to learn what I want and they enjoy it. Everyone wins.

"Vengeance Road" Book Review

"Vengeance Road" is a young adult western. The protagonist and her father live quietly on a farm until their peaceful life is destroyed by a gang of men looking for something. Although she isn't sure what they want, she begins a quest to find out the secrets her father has been hiding and to take revenge on the men who killed him. She isn't prepared for the secrets that unfold on her ride through the west.

I love watching westerns as I grew up on John Wayne movies, however, western books haven't always appealed to me. Specifically, this book wasn't my favorite because there was a large focus on the romance that unfolds as they cross the terrain and encounter dangerous situations. I thought it was a little far-fetched and over done. The plot twists were intriguing though and I wanted to know what was happening. There is some language which would make me nervous about putting it in some school libraries and it is for a more mature audience.