Book of the Day: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I loved this book; it was an excellent choice for the Newberry Award. Grace Lin is an amazing author and the students are our school enjoy her books immensely. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is the kind of book that you just cannot put down. Minli is a character who is easy to relate to and you desire her to succeed and her journey is exciting and magical. Thank you Grace Lin for another wonderful story.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* In this enchanted and enchanting adventure, Minli, whose name means “quick thinking,” lives with her desperately poor parents at the confluence of Fruitless Mountain and the Jade River. While her mother worries and complains about their lot, her father brightens their evenings with storytelling. One day, after a goldfish salesman promises that his wares will bring good luck, Minli spends one of her only two coins in an effort to help her family. After her mother ridicules what she believes to be a foolish purchase, Minli sets out to find the Old Man of the Moon, who, it is told, may impart the true secret to good fortune. Along the way, she finds excitement, danger, humor, magic, and wisdom, and she befriends a flightless dragon, a talking fish, and other companions and helpmates in her quest. With beautiful language, Lin creates a strong, memorable heroine and a mystical land. Stories, drawn from a rich history of Chinese folktales, weave throughout her narrative, deepening the sense of both the characters and the setting and smoothly furthering the plot. Children will embrace this accessible, timeless story about the evil of greed and the joy of gratitude. Lin’s own full-color drawings open each chapter. Grades 3-6. --Andrew Medlar

Book of the Day: Any Which Wall

Any Which Wall by Laurel Snyder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Friends, magic, wishes, and old fashioned fun make this book a winner!  Henry, Emma, Roy and Susan are wasting away their summer waiting for something exciting to happen when on a bike ride they discover a large dark wall, in the middle of a corn field.  In a very Narnian event the children rest against it and in doing so mistakenly active the wall which whisks them immediately into a nearby soda shop.  This happens to be the exact wish of Susan as she sat down to rest and they realize the potential of the wall.  If you could wish to visit anywhere at any time in history where would you go?  A deserted island, a famous American city, the old west, ancient Egypt? The way the four children relate to each other is a throwback to the Pevensise’s on their visit to Narnia or the Penderwick girls.  There is nothing brand new here but the book has a wonderful old time feel and is a purely enjoyable read.



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Book of the Day: The Sixty-eight Rooms

The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Have you ever been so enthralled by something, a book, a movie, a piece of artwork; that it magic pulls you in, you can imagine yourself living inside it, as a character in the story?  Ruthie has experienced the same thing.  She is generally disappointed in her boring life, her small, nothing special apartment, her cramped, shared bedroom, and herself.  On a school field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago she finally sees something special.  The Thorne Rooms, a set of 68 miniature rooms set into the walls of the exhibit.  She is amazed by the miniature furniture and dreams of what her life would be like if only she could live in rooms like these.  After Ruthie and her best friend Jack find a mysterious key, their combined curiosity; his for an adventure and hers to study the rooms further; take them to places they never dreamed possible.  Will they find answers in the rooms, will they be able to avoid being seen and thrown out of the museum?  Read the Sixty-eight Rooms and allow yourself to be pulled into the magic of the Thorne Rooms. Compare with The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.



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And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Janet Stevens


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Hey diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon; the little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon. Every night this rhyme is read and every night the dish and spoon come running back until tonight. Where have they gone? Cow, Cat and Dog embark on an adventure through Nursery Rhyme land to find their friends; and as they travel they encounter many favorite Nursery Rhyme characters. Little Boy Blue is sleeping on the job, the Three Bears house must be avoided but then Miss Muffet's Spider sends them to visit Wolf. They race from one nusery rhyme to the next on an exciting journey full of puns, twists and turns.




Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel have a way with words. This tale is engaging and laugh out oud funny. I was afraid it would be over my kindergartner's heads but they eonjoyed the ride through the familiar rhymes and giggled at the conclusion. Kids of all ages will roll their eyes and love this one.




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THe Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Such a great book! I enjoyed the Percy Jackson series and so have all the kids I've read it with as a classroom teacher and now as a librarian. I like this one so much more. It was less silly, a little more grown up which will be great for the kinds who have been reading since The Lightning Thief was released as they are now older. The cliff hanger ending mad me so mad because i have to wait a whole year for the continuation!!! But it has me hooked.




I like the characters a great deal. Jason, Piper and Leo are easy to relate to, they seem to think clearly and rationally and have good relationships with each other. I liked the twists on the gods and heores that were thrown in, and the addition of the Roman mythology. I appreciated seeing some of the solid characters from the Percy Jackson series reappear. All in all very enjoyable and an exciting begining to the next phase of heroes!




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I am so excited!!

Last year Savvy by Ingrid Law was one of my favorite books on the Bluebonnet List. I read it very quickly and recommended it to many students throughout the year. I was also was able to enjoy it with Bledsoe's 5th grade book club at the end of the year, their video was posted a few weeks ago, take a look. I have been looking forward to the companion book Scumble ever since I heard about it last March. It is finally here!!!

I am about half way through Scumble now and it is great! Ledger, Mibs cousin, is the main character in this book and it is about 10 years later or at least enough time has passed for Fish to be getting married! Ledger has been waiting for his 13 birthday and he had convinced himself that his savvy would give his super speed, or make him extremely talented at something athletic. BUT, that is not the case so far all he can do is destroy anything mechanical or manmade. He is a walking demolition machine, and he doesn’t know how to stop it. Many of the wonderful characters from Savvy make an appearance but the main show is taken by this new and intriguing boy, Ledge, as he tries to come to grips with his new Savvy and learn to Scumble.

If you loved Savvy then Scumble will become yoru new favorite book, and if you have not read either one come on it to the library and get it today!

An end and a begining...

Tonight was Meet the Teacher and I was so happy to see all the smiling faces coming in the doors of Bledsoe.  So many that were glad to be back and see all their favorite teachers and some excited new faces as well.  As I thought about the great things that are going to happen in the year to come I wanted to share one of the highlihgts of the last year. 

Book clubs, getting to sit down with a group of kids who were excited about reading and stories was a highlight of many days.  5th grade last year worked very hard on a few different book projects but this one is by far the largest and best!  They all worked together with the final editing and voice over done by Dylan and Lora.  They completed it in May, just before they left for their last summer before starting middle school. 

Enjoy and I hope that this coming year we will continue to enjoy books through Book Club and find even more creative ways to share what we thought about them using various tecnhology!

Just Finished...

Vande Velde, Vivian. Stolen. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 2008.

Booklist recommends this book for grades 5-8.

Summary: A girl finds herself running through the forest at the edge of a village with no memory of anything, even her own name, and later learns that she might be twelve-year-old Isabelle, believed to be stolen by a witch six years before.

Mrs. Wilson Says: The cover of this book looks scarier than what is actually inside of it. Don't get me wrong, the very beginning of the book and the end of the book are thrilling. But most of the book is taken up by Isabelle simply thinking about her true identity. So, if you want to read a quasi-scary witch tale badly enough to muddle through the middle, then go for it. Read this book.

Search for Stolen at the Bledsoe Library.

Already read Stolen? Leave a comment!

Want to read more magical tales? Try The Anybodies by N.E. Bode and Septimus Heap by Angie Sage.

Just Finished...

Rowling, J. K. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. New York: Levine, 2008.

Booklist recommends this book for grades 3-6.

Summary: The tale of the three brothers, this book contains five illustrated moral tales for children from the world of Harry Potter, reportedly discovered and translated by young witch Hermione Granger, with an introduction and commentary from Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Mrs. Wilson Says: If you miss Harry Potter, read this book! Sometimes you might find that Dumbledore's parts a bit difficult, but mostly you'll love the stories and the extra bits of information that you'll learn about their wizarding world. Also, J.K. Rowling did all of the illustrations inside of the book herself (HP's usual illustrator is Mary GrandPre and she did the cover art).

This book is coming to the Bledsoe Library, but it hasn't arrived as of December 30th. Let Mrs. Wilson know if you want to be on hold for it when it arrives.

Already read The Tales of Beedle the Bard? Leave a comment!

Like fantasy books? Try the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer or the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo.