1st Storybook Sunday and 2 Reviews!

I know, I know... it's 11:00 and I'm just now getting to the daily reviews. However, this is how it'll be most of the time, due to this crazy "lifestyle." So, without any hesitation...



The first review for the week is Flotsam by David Wiesner. In this wordless picture book a young boy goes to the beach and collects flotsam; things that float, may get washed ashore, or something that someone finds and shares with someone else. The wordless painted watercolor illustrations provide students with an opportunity to create their own story. So many students are tremendous writers if they only have a little something to get them started. Wordless books provide them with exactly that. A must have in any classroom!



The second review for my first Storybook Sunday is Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor. O’Connor tells the story of Nancy, a little girl who loves to be fancy. Not only does Nancy dress fancy and act fancy, she even uses fancy language. Although this text is written for children aged 4-7, it could be used in an upper-elementary classroom in teaching students to use a thesaurus for using “fancy” words, or synonyms in their writing pieces.

Weekly Reviews

Each week, as mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm planning to review at least ten books from a variety of genres. I'm hoping to stick to a schedule for these reviews, as follows:

Storybook (Realistic Fiction) Sunday, on Sunday
Miscellaneous Monday
Truthful Tuesday
Historical Hump Day
Fairy Tale (Fable) Friday
Science Fiction (Fantasy) Saturday

Hopefully this all pans out as I'm planning, but you may see a few differences here and there! Look for the first reviews later on today!

A New Season... A New Blog

The arrival of a teacher's summer vacation also brings out the much anticipated reading lists! This year, along with the typical books from the newspaper's summer reading lists and the library sponsored Book Pages, I'm hoping to branch out from the adult books I tend to read and fill in with an equal mix of children's literature.

This is important to me because as a teacher, an important part of the curriculum involves relating the material to the children's every day lives. Children's literature provides this tie and so much more!

My goal, in the coming weeks of Summer 2008 is to read and review at least 10 children's books each week from a variety of genres. My intentions at this time are only to be writing the blog reviews based on the children's literature. However, since I am planning to read from my own adult summer reading lists, if I do come across something spectacular worthy of sharing, I will certainly do that as well!