Graduation Books

I know that for the most part graduations around the country are over. BUT if you are one of those people who puts things off till the last minute and you haven’t bought your graduate a gift yet here are two of my favorites.

The first book is the Little Big Book of Life.  This book has some fantastic quotes, letters, short essays and songs about, well, life.  It is a truly fantastic book.  There is a bit of bad language but overall really a great item, and I think most graduates would find it a book they’d go to repeatedly throughout the years.

The next book is a long time favorite from Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!.  I know what you’re thinking, he’s a children’s author.  Well, yes and no.  This is a great book for graduates because it tells them you believe in them.  Most of the kids I know who graduated this year were very anxious about leaving school behind and this book is child like enough to comfort but the message is powerful enough to be touching.  You could even splurge and make a little gift basket with the Places You’ll go theme.

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I found a great blog that podcasts children’s book reviews.  The book I’m going to link to is Someday When My Cat Can Talk but you should really take a look around the site because it totally rocks!  I’m always on the look out for good book reviews to point me to a new favorite author and this is going to be book marked for sure.  I can see using this in a classroom or school library to help children find out about new books or as a teacher or parent to get ideas for gifts or assignments.  Pretty great all around.

Let me know what you think of the site (how cute is “Just One More Book” for a blog name anyway?)

I hope you enjoy it!

the-lion-in-love-worksheet.doc

the-lion-in-love.mp3

This Podcast is a reading of The Lark, one of Aesop’s fables.  I love the lessons that Aesop’s fables provide and think they are a great lesson for any age.  You will also find a printable worksheet to go along with the podcast.

The lesson for me is to not lose myself while in love.  It is so easy to change yourself so that you are what your object of desire wants you to be.  Often, however, when you make those changes the other person will not want you anyway.  It is more important to be true to yourself than to change everything that makes you who you are to try and make someone else happy.   Wow!  This one is a hard one.  I generally like to make people I care about happy but if they really care about me they’ll want me to be myself.

Staying true to myself has also been something I have struggled with as a teacher.  It seems like either the administration or parents or even other teachers want you to change what you do or how you look or any number of other things.  Sometimes it is almost like you are supposed to give up your own personality and identity when you become a teacher.  While I don’t think your personal life should be part of your teaching life, I do think you should be allowed a personality and view points that may differ from that of the administration or district. 

What lesson did this fable teach you?  Do you find yourself changing because of someone or something you love?  Were the changes good for you or bad for you? 

As always, please, let me know what you think of the podcast and the worksheet.  If you have a request for a specific fable I will try to use it in an upcoming post.

The Lion in Love Photo Credit:  Smudge 9000 from Flickr, Creative Commons License

At the first of the month I did my second post on banned books.  Now it is time for the next installment in the series!  Several of you have given your opinions on the books that I’ve listed and I’m looking forward to more great information from all of you. 

These are books 21-30 from the

ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000

• The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
• Haven’t read it.
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• I love this entire series and it is completely beyond me why this would be banned….anyone?
• Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
• Haven’t read it.
• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
• Haven’t read it.
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
• Haven’t read it.
• The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
• Haven’t read it.
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• Haven’t read it.
• You’ll have to go look if you want to know
• Not putting it in my blog because of one of the key words.  I don’t have a problem with the book but don’t want anyone finding me with that one word.  I’ll give you a hint…it starts with an ’s’.
• Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
• Don’t know it but generally love the books written by Lowry
• The Goats by Brock Cole
• Haven’t read it.

I’m sorry I don’t know more about these but I am determined to go through the list of one hundred banned books.  Once I’ve listed them all along with the ones I have and have not read I intend to go back and….ok big step here…I’m going to… read them all.  Well…maybe not all of them but all of the ones I think might actually be in a school.   So there would be the exception of a few that would obviously, in my mind anyway, not typically be found in a school anyway.   Not that I’m for censorship, think I covered that already.  BUT the librarians I know spend their book money pretty carefully and some of these books would never make it out of a preliminary budget.

Have you read any of these books?  What did you think of them?  Good for a school library or not something you’d want your child to read?

the-lark.mp3

the-lark-worksheet.doc

  This Podcast is a reading of The Lark one of Aesop’s fables.  I love the lessons that Aesop’s fables provide and think they are a great lesson for any age.  You will also find a printable worksheet to go along with the podcast.

I love the lessons this fable teaches.  The first for me is that you should always listen carefully to what is being said as well and listen for the unspoken meaning behind what is being said.  The second, more obvious lesson, is if you want something done right you must do it yourself.  Sometimes I follow that lesson a little to well.  I know I should delegate, but dang is it hard.  I think letting go of any kind of control is probably something most teachers have trouble with. 

What does this fable mean to you?  Do you have a tendency to want to do everything by yourself?

As always, please, let me know what you think of the podcast and the worksheet.  If you have a request for a specific fable I will try to use it in an upcoming post.

The Lark Photo Credit:  Stephen Barnett from Flickr, Creative Commons License

Leslie Brooks had a wonderful post recently about Literacy Coaches.  She provides some wonderful resources on helping your child become an enthusiastic reader that I plan on using.  I’ll probably end up talking about several of the sites she recommend individually in the future.  For now though you can check out her blog in the link above.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

What did you think about the resources?  Did you find them as helpful as I did?

Open Bood Photo Credit: FXR from Flickr, Creative Commons License

the-donkey-and-the-statue.mp3

the-donkey-and-the-statue-worksheet.doc

This Podcast is a reading of The Donkey and the Statue one of Aesop’s fables.  I love the lessons that Aesop’s fables provide and think they are a great lesson for any age.  You will also find a printable worksheet to go along with the podcast.

I know sometimes it can be hard to know if people like you for yourself or for something you have or because of something you can do for them.  This fable reminds me to always think about the motives behind others actions.    Do you have a less cynical interpretation? 

As always, please, let me know what you think of the podcast and the worksheet.  If you have a request for a specific fable I will try to use it in an upcoming post.

The Donkey Photo Credit:  ccarlstead from Flickr, Creative Commons License

I was reading a great little blog the other day, Bibliotica, and she had a list of the

106 books most often marked as unread by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded.

Well I’ve read a few and have several on my bookshelves so I thought I’d give it a go.  I’m not going to list all of them only the ones I do have and have read.  If you want to check out the original list go here. 

The books that are bolded I’ve read and the others I own but have not read.  Why do I have books that I haven’t read?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Most of them because I saw them at some book sale or another and thought oh, I should read that! But somehow I haven’t found the time yet.  I’ll get there though!

The other thing I found interesting about this list is that a great many of these books were required in one of the many classes I’ve taken.  Some of the others I know are required by teacher friends of mine. 

• Wuthering Heights- Good book that I was forced to read in high school.  Not sure if I would have read it on my own
• Don Quizote
• Moby Dick
• Ulysses
• Madame Bovary - I read this one in college, good but not my favorite.
• The Odyssey
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Great Expectations
• Atlas Shrugged - Someone told me this was similar to Alas, Babylon so I gave it a try.  Good but not as good as Alas, Babylon.
• Memoris of a Geisha Loved this book and I loved the movie!
• Middlesex
• Wicked
• The Canterbury Tales
• The Fountainhead I read this because I liked Atlas Shrugged.  Good.
• Middlemarch I read this one in college as well.  Good, but it took some effort to get into it.
• Frankenstein
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Dracula
• 1984 I read this in high school and loved it.  I’ve read it a few times since then and like it more each time.
• Angels & Demons Really not sure how this book fits with the rest of the list but I read it and liked it…read it because of how much I liked The Da Vinci Code.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray Not sure why I read this but it was all kinds of creepy.
• Tess of the D’Ubervilles Yet another college requirement.  Not my favorite.
• Oliver Twist
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Les Miserable
• Slaughterhouse Five Here is where I’m going to upset a bunch of people.  I was forced to read this in college and I hated it.  I even told the professor how much I hated it..not the best idea I ever had.  One of the few books I’ve disliked intensely but there you have it.  I’ve had people tell me I’m an idiot for hating it but at least I’m an honest idiot, right?  
• Lolita I read this in college and didn’t like the content.  But it was well written.
• The Hobbit How could anyone have NOT read this??  I love this and the entire series.
• Treasure Island
• David Copperfield Read this when I realized it was a classic that I hadn’t read…will probably end up reading the rest of the books on this list (maybe even the entire hundred from the other list who knows) for the same reason
• The Three Musketeers

Which of the books have you read and what did you think of them?

the-donkey-and-the-salt-worksheet.doc

the-donkey-and-the-salt.mp3

This Podcast is a reading of The Donkey and the Salt  one of Aesop’s fables.  I love the lessons that Aesop’s fables provide and think they are a great lesson for any age.  You will also find a printable worksheet to go along with the podcast.

Please, let me know what you think of the podcast and the worksheet.  If you have a request for a specific fable I will try to use it in an upcoming post. 

This fable reminds me that it is always better to work hard than to shirk your responsibilities.  You never know if the task you are avoiding is better than the task the is yet to be assigned.

What does this fable mean to you?

The Donkey in Water Photo Credit:  ogwen from Flickr, Creative Commons License

A few weeks ago I did my first post on banned books.  I thought it was time do the next ten and include my comments on each.  From that first list several of you mentioned a Judy Blume book that is now on my Amazon wish list.  I’ll be reading it after I finish the Robert Jordan books I’m currently reading (may be awhile). 

These are books 11-20 from the

ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000

• Not at all sure why this one would be banned.  I thought it was excellent and went on to read every other book of hers I could find.  It was in my classroom library and always very popular.  I found this link that details some of the challenges it has received.  I won’t go into my "freedom of speech campaign" again but I will say most of those made me want to scream.

• I’ve read several R.L. Stine books and have enjoyed them all.  These were also very popular in my classroom library.  CNN has this to say about one group that was trying to ban the books in their school.  I have no problem with parents not wanting their child to read scary books.  I probably won’t want my child to read scary books.  Does this mean the book should be banned…no.

• A powerful book.  Again, I’m not saying let your thirteen year old read it but it certainly shouldn’t be banned from a high school honors class.

• Well.  This one pushes my tolerance levels a bit.  I can’t see a reason for it to be in a school library but I have no problem with it being in a public library.

• Love this series.  Lots of great information about the way anthropologists think ‘cave men’ lived.  Excellent.  Again, if it were my child, I’d rather they be in high school.

I’d love to hear which of these books has a special meaning to you and any that you think I should definitely check out.

The Books Photo Credit:  Faeryan from Flickr, Creative Commons License