Red Clover Winner!

For the past 10 weeks students in grades K-3 (and a small selection of 4th graders) have been reading books on this year's Vermont children's' choice list, aka The Red Clover books. Each year there are 10 new picture books to read and discuss and then the students get to vote on their favorite story.

The hands-down winner at Oak Grove this year was the World's Greatest Lion by Ralph Helfer. It is based on the true story of a lion cub that was rescued in Zambia after a close brush with death, and came to live on Ralph Helfer's Africa USA dance. There he was trained and ended up being featured in several Hollywood movies.

Turns out that our Oak Grove students are right in step with everyone else, because Vermont kids from all around the state voted The World's Greatest Lion as this year's Red Clover Winner.

Give this heart-tugging story a read and then another one. There's lots to look at and lots to wonder about. I'm sure Zamba's movies can be found on netflix or other movie sources and more information about Zamba and Ralph Helfer can be found online. This is a story that sticks with you.

Student Stories

     Students in my last 6 week skills block chose to write narratives. Some had their own ideas and others used a very cool writing tool called STORYMATIC. This is a box of situation and character cards. Students pulled two or three cards from each of the two categories and had to come up with a story that made use of all the cards.
     These stories can be accessed by clicking on the students names on the right side of this page. Work from other sessions is also posted on their pages, with the newest being on top.. Feel free to read that as well.
     Students in the last session were: Carter, Emma, Erick, Jonah, Margaret, Nick, Wyatt, Zola.
     Enjoy!

NEW DCF list

The new DCF list for 2014/2015 has been posted on the Dorothy Canfield Fisher page. To view the list and to get a complete set of annotations click on https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B55N8oQex0aJQXh5dTR2YlRKNDQ/edit

We have ALL these books in the library. So if you want to get a head start on next year, come on in!

Free Reading Online

Check out the Useful Sites tab on the right of this page. I have started to collect free reading and reading games sites. Check back often as I hope to add more on a regular basis, and if you have some you'd like to add, let me know!

Graphic Novels

 Some people think that graphic novels are just comic books. Well, they ARE comics, but a great graphic novel is also a really great read with pictures that totally support the text. The can be funny stories, mysteries, tales of friendship, adventure, history, mythology...

We have a pretty good selection here in the library. Check out the 741.5 section and see what's there.

Here are a few of my top pix:

Retells in graphic novel format stories from Greek mythology about the exploits of Aphrodite, including her birth from the sea foam and her role in the Trojan War. We have other books in this amazing series.



 In Kansas in the year 1937, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father's failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness.

 Two roller-skating best friends--one tiny, one tall--share three comical adventures involving outrageously bright socks, an impromptu trek to the Andes, and a most unlikely marvelous companion.

    From sixth grade through tenth, Raina copes with a variety of dental problems that affect her appearance and how she feels about herself. This book won the DCF award several years ago and is a GREAT read!

MORE!!!

The give-away cart is getting very full. There are lots of well-loved titles and books with tons of interesting information, biographies, a few picture books, some chapter books. Stop by during conference time or school sing and take a book or two away with you. The cart is right outside the library.

Parrots Over Puerto Rico

 

Parrots Over Puerto Rico

by Susan Roth and Cindy Trumbore

collages by Susan Roth

The first thing you notice about this book is that there is no title on the cover. It is a bold display of three bright parrots, a collage of cut paper so textured you can practically feel the feathers, almost imagine the birds flying off the page.

When you open the book, the orientation is lengthwise, giving an impression of height and depth, perfect for the setting of this story of near extinction. You can sit with the parrots in the treetops, soar with them in the blue green sky, get a bird's eye view of village life in 5000 BCE.

This book chronicles the birds' demise, from their original habitat, to them being hunted for food, given as gifts to royalty, battling against red-tailed hawks, and then fighting for survival against other predators brought to the island by settlers. They lost their homes to people who needed the trees to build their own dwellings and kept being edged out bit by bit. In 5000 BCE there were hundreds of thousands of them. By 1967 only 24 remained.

This is their story as well as the story of bringing them back, and a short history of Puerto Rico, to boot, all in one gorgeous, small, readable and engrossing book. There is an afterward about the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program, a timeline of Puerto Rican History and the parrots, an extensive bibliography, and pictures you could look at forever.

What more could you want in a book? Available in the library!