S.U.R.F.’s Up!*
April 30, 2008 — Mrs. B
One of the activities I am looking forward to when summer vacation arrives is that I will have time to read, read, read to my heart’s content!!! The list of books that I want to read keeps on growing! The latest one added to my list is the novel that our reading book story, “Passage to Freedom: The Sugihari Story” by Ken Mochizuki, is based on.
Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved reading. When I read, it takes me away to places I haven’t visited, introduces me to “people” I’ve never met, and I often finish books feeling as though I have “lived through” a character in the book.
Some of you have shared with me how much you love reading also. A couple of you have become “speed readers”, I think. I know that Zac may have read more than all of us put together! :-) Summer is just a month away and I’d like to issue a challenge to you: For 30 minutes a day, walk away from the TV, computer, video game, etc., and READ! Now, isn’t that a NOVEL idea…..PUN INTENDED! I guarantee that you will find you might actually enjoy the break, it will keep your reading skills from getting rusty, AND it may even raise your reading level. One thing’s for sure, it will make getting back into reading in the fall a bit less difficult!
Your Blogging Task:
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I’d like for you to recommend some books to your friends.
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Just tell the name and author of the book, genre, a very brief intro to the book, and what kind of student you think would enjoy the book.
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Also, if you read something you like this summer, how about taking five minutes to tell us about the book in this blog?
*S.U.R.F.’s Up: Silent Uninterrupted Reading for Fun
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April 30, 2008 at 10:42 pm
You might want to get a jump start on this year’s Sunshine State Young Readers Award
Enjoy!
May 10, 2008 at 11:13 pm
They’re out! The names of the Sunshine State Award Books for 2008-2009 for 6th-8th graders:
Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach
Whisper in the Dark by Joseph Bruchac
Red Kayak by Priscilla Cummings
The Sacrifice by Kathleen Benner Duble
Kimchi & Calamari by Kent Rose
Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle
Rules by Cynthia Lord
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
Out of Patience by Brian Meehl
The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson
Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby
Peak by Roland Smith
Eggs by Jerry Spinelli
Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey
You can check out books from your local public library, purchase online new and purchase online used. Remember, these are books that STUDENTS have voted as favorites! Get a HEAD START on your reading for BOOK BASH next year, read for enjoyment AND/OR read to improve your reading skills!
May 13, 2008 at 11:08 am
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
This is a book about a rabbit named Edward that thinks he’[s the best at everything. Then his owner takes Edward with him and some how Edward gets thrown overboard. Then he sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor and all the sudden a gigantic fish comes and eats him! Then a fishermen caught the huge fish and found Edward in his belly. Then the fishermen gave Edward to his little daughter. Well his daughter is not the best she was dressing him up making him look like a girl and even gave him a new girl name! Then the little girl didn’t want Edward and gave him ( or should i saw her ) to her aunt. Her Aunt had Edward to be a scarecrow. You will have to read the book to figure out what happens next.
May 13, 2008 at 11:41 am
I love the series, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”. It’s so suspenseful it’s about gods and mythical creatures. I hope you will read it too.
May 13, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Swindle
By: Gordon Korman
I read this great book that has a lot of action. This book is about a boy named Griffin finds this rare baseball card in an old abandoned house. The next day he takes it to a shop and sells it to the store’s employee because he said it was worth nothing. But a while later he finds it is worth a million dollars! So Griffin rounds up a team to steal the card back. So if you like books with action then this will be the book for you.
May 14, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I love a book called Stargirl! It is a very awkward book but in the same way it is very fun and good to read. I won’t say too much to give anything really big away but in the book there is a mysterious girl. She is really “weird” to everyone and doesn’t really have any friends. So one day a boy wanted to see what she was like and followed her home. He found out she was…opps cant tell you!!! If you want to know you can check out this book. (It is in the library)!!!! I am still in the process of reading the book but so far it has been really good!… if you happen to read the book I hope you like it and yes, I do recommend this book.
May 14, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Ripstick, isn’t that book one of the Sunshine State Award winners?
Madg. what about yours….it’s an award-winner too, isn’t it? Even if it isn’t, you have me very curious!
Quietone, your book sounds like the type of book they make movies out of! I wonder if he gets his card back…
May 15, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Stargirl is an award winner.
Another really good book I think is Zac Attack. It is a biography and is all about Zac Efron’s life and career. I love this book 1 because it is all about Zac Efron and I love him but also because it is very informative. This is a not easy but not too hard to read. This book is a flip over book (on the other side is a biography about Ashley Tisdale but I have not read that side yet). If you like to read biographies and like Zac Efron or Ashley Tisdale you will like this book I think.
May 15, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Yes it is and i know why, It is such a good book!
May 20, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Holes
By Luis Sachar
First, this book is a Newbery Award winning book. Holes is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats [You can spell his name forward and backward] who is apparently under a curse. One day he was walking home from school after he missed the bus, when all of a sudden, a pair of shoes falls on his head. But they were shoes he had wanted for a long
time. So he started to run home, but then a cop pulled up. He asked Stanley why he was running, but Stanley didn’t know the shoes were stolen. So he got sent to something like a boot camp.
May 20, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I’d suggest the BFG, by Roald Dahl. It is about a Big Friendly Giant (BFG) who spies a little girl looking at him through her little window. He grabs her, and her blanket, and takes her to Giant Country, where she thinks she will be eaten, but the BFG is a “nice and jumbly giant.” There are other giants, much bigger than the BFG, outside the BFG’s cave, that are the man-eating ones. There are 9 of them altogether. Sophie (that’s the one the BFG caught) and the BFG decide that the Giants MUST be stopped! To figure out how they stopped the Giants from eating people, you will have yo read the book. Now, as said in the book, Giants just apear out of nowhere. There is no school, so they say very odd things in the book. Sophie is very educated, and she is only 8 years old, so she talks just fine. The BFG dosn’t eat “human beans,” (as he calls them in the book) so what does he eat? A revolting vegetable called a snozzcumber. Now, every Giant is drinking frobscottle, which is kind of like a soda, but the bubbles fizz downward! When Sophie tries this odd soda, she absolutley loves it! As it is described in the book, it is sweet, with a taste of berries on the edge. The BFG has giant ears, each one as big around as his head! He can hear very well and swivel them in and out as he wished. There is a lot more to this story, but I can’t tell you. If you are interested in this book, then I’d suggest reading it over the summer.
May 23, 2008 at 11:37 am
Katie Kazoo
Switcheroo
On thin ice
Katie is invited to a ice skating birthday party on a Sunday…but Katie has a major problem: she does not know how to skate. Later on Katie’s friend Emily (who has the party) says not to worry, that she will teach Katie how to skate. If your itching for more, then get Katie Kazoo switcheroo on thin ice that is written by: Nancy Krulik.
May 23, 2008 at 11:41 am
SURFS UP
I think a good book for summer would be Mars.I t’s a really good book about a boy named Sean. He is an orphan who went to Marsport to live there with other orphans. Then Sean finds some new friends that go on some adventures with him. The book Mars was written by Brad Strickland and Thomas E. Fuller. I suggest this book for about 5th -7th graders. If you like adventurous, space books then this is the perfect book for you.
June 15, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Right now im reading Anne Frank, the diary of a young girl. So far i’ve only read one chapter so i’ll tell you about that. It talks about Anne Frank and how long she was in her house hiding from the Nazi’s for a coulple of years. The Jewish people back then couldn’t go to the same schools as the catholics! They were treated wrong just because they are Jewish!
June 15, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Ripstick, Anne Frank is an excellent book. It may be a bit tough reading for you in parts, but I hope you persevere! I am so glad to hear you are reading! I hope you will keep adding to this to let us know how the book is going.
June 15, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Ok i will. It is a little tough in some parts but so far it’s been a great book!