Tag Archive for reading activities

The Mage of Trelian

Written by Michelle Knudsen

The third book in the Mage trilogy is fun, exciting, and a quick read. Highly recommended for summer reading.

The story opens on Calen, an apprentice mage or wizard, who has been coerced into living and working with the evil Mage Krelig. Krelig has foreseen that Calen will be more powerful than he realizes and will make a valuable tool. Calen’s goal, other than survival, is returning to his former home and friends in Trelian. Krelig is insane and unpredictable, punishing those around him harshly and for seemingly minor infractions.

Chapters featuring Calen are alternated with those featuring Princess Meg, otherwise known as the Dragon Princess. She is the princess-heir of Trelian and has been linked telepathically with a dragon, Jakl. The citizens of Trelian no longer fear Jakl, but have only just begun to discover his usefulness. Together with Calen’s former master and with Calen himself, Meg devises a plan to release Calen from Krelig’s clutches while also fighting a rival kingdom.

Naturally, everything works out in the end, but the path is often unexpected and painful.

Readers can learn a lot about the value of cooperation and the ways that friendship evolves over time and distance. Because the world of Trelian is skillfully constructed, readers can also practice literacy skills without distraction. And they may also want to learn more about medieval times or attempt to create their own worlds as extra reading activities.

Buy on Amazon

  • Mage of TrelianTitle: The Mage of Trelian
  • Author: Michelle Knudsen
  • Published: Candlewick Press, 2016
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
  • Grade Level: 5 up
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-7436-6

 

 

Nick and Tesla’s Solar-Powered Showdown: A Mystery with Sun-Powered Gadgets You Can Build Yourself

Written by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith
Illustrated by Scott Garrett

With a better-than-MacGyver talent, Nick and Tesla build gadgets that get them into and out of trouble with regularity. In this newest installment in the series, the twins face evil mastermind Bob and his group of flunkies, including two ninja-style grannies. The parents of twelve-year-old Nikola Copernicus and Tesla Nightingale Holt have been kidnapped, and they’re staying with their absentminded Uncle Newt. Government agents have told the kids nothing other than lies about their parents. So they set out to find out what’s really going on. Along the way, they build Uncle Newt’s Guaranteed-Not-to-Explode Frankfurter Heater-Upper, which they use to accidentally fry the pendants meant to keep track of them; Nick and Tesla and Uncle Newt’s Ping-Pong Ball Signal Cannon; Tesla’s (and Nick and Uncle Newt’s but mostly Tesla’s) Solar Spy Birdhouse; and Nick and Tesla’s Solar-Powered Long-Range Rover. Bob wants to use the Holts’ research into solar power to kill the President and take over the world, but the kids have other plans.

The gadgets in the book require adult supervision and some special equipment, so it’s best to read this with a teacher or parent. But the directions and diagrams are explicit and easy to follow. Kids and adults will learn a lot.

Order on Amazon

  • Nick and TeslaTitle: Nick and Tesla’s Solar-Powered Showdown: A Mystery with Sun-Powered Gadgets You Can Build Yourself
  • Author: Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith
  • Illustrator: by Scott Garrett
  • Published: Quirk Productions, May 10, 2016
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 264 pages
  • Grade Level: 4 to 7
  • Genre: Fiction, science, humor
  • ISBN: 978-1-59474-866-0

Henry David Thoreau for Kids: His Life and Ideas, with 21 Activities

Written by Corinne Hosfeld Smith

Chicago Review Press continues to produce quality biographies with a purpose for children with this informative volume about the nineteenth century essayist, teacher, botanist, and political activist. With tons of pictures and maps, his story unfolds to reveal the many reasons he endures as an influential force throughout the world. Among the people whose life he affected, in addition to his friends Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ellery Channing, were Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. His surveys and collections are still studied today, 150 years after his death. He was not the recluse that people seem to think he was, which the author quickly points out, but he did have specific ideas on how to live and did not worry about whether others would join him in every activity. He lived in a time when many diseases were known but not well-understood, so died at age 44 of tuberculosis, a disease that’s much more treatable today.

Thoreau’s methods and approaches were so straightforward that they lend themselves easily to adaption for children. Fifth graders can keep a daily journal, record animal behavior, measure the depth of water, or do one of 18 other activities carefully outlined. This is a great resource.

Order on Amazon

  • ThoreauTitle: Henry David Thoreau for Kids: His Life and Ideas, with 21 Activities
  • Author: Corinne Hosfeld Smith
  • Published: Chicago Review Press, February 1, 2016
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Paperback, 128 pages
  • Grade Level: 4 up
  • Genre: Biography, history, science
  • ISBN: 978-1-61373-146-8
  • Extras: Table of Contents, Time Line, Resources, Notes, Bibliography, Index, 21 Activities

Book: My Autobiography

Written by John Agard
Illustrated by Neil Parker

If a book could talk, what would it say about its past?

It would tell you about the farmers of Mesopotamia doodling with sticks on clay, but even before that type of writing, story was told with breath.

This fun look at the development of the book is entertaining as well as educational. Teachers and librarians will use it to fulfill core curriculum standards in areas of history and several literacy skills. Young readers will need to be prepared for how the author uses the inanimate book to tell the story in words normally used by people.

A fun activity to engage in while reading this book aloud to a class would be the creation of a time line illustrating each evolution of print. Students can discuss their opinions of digital versus print books when they come to the section in this text where we are assured that story will always be present.

The inclusion of poems, and quotes from around the world about the importance of books to the world add depth and beauty.

Students who become interested in the development of the book will want to research beyond this simple, but fun introduction.

Buy on Amazon

  • BookTitle: Book: My Autobiography
  • Author: John Agard
  • Illustrator: Neil Parker
  • Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2015
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Hardcover, 132 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-7236-2
  • Genre: Fiction
  • Grade level: 5 Up

A Bird on Water Street plus an interview and a GIVEAWAY!

When my friend Elizabeth Dulemba (aka e) asked if I wanted to read her novel, I jumped at the chance. I knew it would be worthwhile because of her dedication to quality children’s literature. I did not know how much I would enjoy reading it.

Elizabeth_Dulemba-web

Elizabeth Dulemba

These are the questions I had for her:

You mentioned this project occurred over ten years. Can you share why you never let it go?

I never let it go, partly because I never chose to write the story in the first place.

I was sitting in a meeting between miners and the Company about a potential scenic railway routed to go north from town around a rare switchback. They Company said it would fund the train by reopening the chemical plant and sending out one shipment of sulfuric acid per week. The miners stood up in denim and plaid flannel like old, gnarled oak trees. They told heart-wrenching stories about all their family and friends they’d lost to cancers they attributed to the mines. They made thinly veiled threats that the tracks would be sabotaged if the plans moved forward. I sat in shock, a recent transplant to the area, wondering what I’d stumbled into.

That was when the Muse took hold of me. I suppose it could have been any writer, but it happened to be me. I was needed to tell the story. It wasn’t about me, but it became my responsibility. After I interviewed dozens of townspeople about the history of growing up in the area, it became about them. I was the keeper of precious documentation. When I thought the book might never get published, my sense of failure was immense. I felt responsible to the citizens of the Copper Basin to get the story right and get it shared. Giving up was never a real option.

 

The emotions of Jack certainly ring true. How were you able to put yourself in his place?

I’m so glad you think so! I suppose I was a little like Jack. I was a nature lover, a reader, a curious kid reaching for things beyond my borders. I share his love of trees—the wonder and holy sensation he got from them, as if they were speaking to him. And I think everybody shares his feelings of connection and yet of not fitting in. They are universal emotions.

 

As I mention in my review, you are careful to show both sides of most issues. For example, Jack’s dad was proud to be a miner even though the mine was killing the land. Was this on purpose and how hard was it to find the good in some of the situations?

It was quite intentional. When I started researching the book, I thought everybody shared the negative reactions to the environmental destruction. But then I met people who preferred the Red Hills. They liked not having bugs and snakes and the less desirable aspects of nature. They resented the allergies they suffered when nature returned. I quickly realized that even the most seemingly obvious issues were riddles with ambiguous grey areas, which is where I love to swim as a creator anyhow. I also didn’t want to impress my views upon the reader. I wanted to present the issues and let the reader decide for him or herself. I’m sure my biases snuck through, but I tried to be nonjudgmental.

 

What one thing do you want kids to take away from this book?

That’s easy – hope. It’s so easy to see the environmental damage in Coppertown (framed on the very real Copperhill, Tennessee) as irreparable, too big for any one person to do anything about – certainly a young boy. And yet I’ve seen the reclamation first-hand. These days, it takes driving down abandoned dirt roads to find evidence of the once denuded landscape. Every person who planted a seed, a tree, or worked with the wetland efforts played a part in returning the land to its natural state. It’s taken years, decades, but it has happened. And in our world of climate change and global warming, I think the idea that one person can make a difference is an important lesson.

 

What are you reading?

Oh gosh. I have several books going on at any given time – hardcover, kindle, audio, etc. I help choose titles being considered for the Georgia Center for the Book’s “10 Books All Young Georgians Should Read” list, so I try to read books by regional (Georgia) writers. I read fantasy as my brain candy, hot new titles, and books by my talented friends. I also interview picture book creators on my blog each week, so I’m constantly reading picture books that publishers send. It would be lovely to have more time to read it all!

illo-birdsketch

Lightning round. For you, is it:

Macaroni and cheese or burgers?

I used to claim mac-n-cheese as the base to my food pyramid before I went gluten free. So Jack eats a lot of it because I can’t anymore. (Biscuits too.)

Fairy crosses or frogs?

Fairy crosses!

Barefoot or shoes?

Fuzzy slippers or barefoot.

Quilting or sketching?

Sketching for sure. I did make a quilt once. It was embarrassingly bad.

 

WINNER OF:

Southern Independent Book Sellers (SIBA) Okra Pick

Gold Mom’s Choice Award Winner

The 2014 National Book Festival (Washington DC) Featured Title for the state of Georgia

 

And now for my review:

Written by Elizabeth Dulemba

Buy on Amazon

With heartfelt passion, Dulemba takes the reader into a world few people knew. Set in 1986 in the Copper Basin, at the intersection of Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, the story follows a bright thirteen-year-old boy as his family and his town struggle to survive. Jack’s father is understandably proud to be a copper miner. He’s good at it and it provides a good living for his family. Plus, it’s a family tradition. But Jack sees the other side. Dad is always in danger, he’s always at risk for disease, and the chemicals from the mine have killed all the trees, animals, and birds. Dulemba’s approach isn’t completely balanced, but she does a great job of bringing in alternative issues. With each event, she is able to show the good and the bad. A cave in kills some miners, but not Jack’s dad. The union strikes. The family has tough times, but Jack’s dad is no longer underground. Christmas is sparse, but the family becomes closer. The area floods, but that allows frogs to hatch at a pond. The mine may close permanently, but a sparrow is spotted on Water Street. Is Mother Nature making a come back?

 

By taking the reader directly into the lives of the beautifully crafted characters, the author shows how the environment impacts everyone involved. Fifth graders, especially, will learn about life after copper mining and the resilience of nature, if given half a chance. Literacy skills and comprehension are furthered when the reader cares about Jack and his community. Many reading activities are suggested, including clean-up of a local area, establishment of a community garden or terrarium, and learning about trees, insects, and frogs. The publisher’s website, http://www.littlepicklepress.com/, provides support for the environmental message from the book’s pages. The author’s website, http://dulemba.blogspot.com, is also fantastic.

  • Bird on Water StreetTitle: A Bird on Water Street
  • Author: Elizabeth O. Dulemba
  • Publisher: Little Pickle Press, 2014
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Paperback, 270 pages
  • Genre: Historical fiction, nature, environment, mining
  • ISBN: 978-0545035330

 

 

Elizabeth will provide an autographed and dedicated copy of A Bird on Water Street to one lucky reader. Leave a comment, complete with your name and email address. I will pick a winner at random on Tuesday, May 27, 2014.

Women of the Frontier: 16 Tales of trailblazing Homesteaders, Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers

Written by Brandon Marie Miller

Buy on Amazon

It’s unusual for such a heavily researched and annotated work as this to be so exciting. The author chose the stories of women with a lot to tell, and she makes the reader care. The author also categorizes stories that defy category.

Not surprisingly, the stories begin with the trek west. The reader learns about Margaret Reed, a member and survivor of the ill-fated Donner party. The ordeal is real without being overly graphic. Amelia Stewart Knight was another early settler who faced unbelievable hardship – along the Oregon Trail. The next three women – Narcissa Whitman, Miriam Davis Colt, and Frances Grummond – faced unusual challenges establishing households on the frontier. Narcissa set out to be a missionary to Native Americans in Oregon. She was killed without converting a single “heathen.” Miriam wrote a book about her failed colony in Kansas. Frances married an army office and found new meanings for isolation and deprivation.

Many women in the West learned to make their own way. Luzena Stanley Wilson went west with the Gold Rush and made a living feeding or housing the men. Clara Brown was a laundress/entrepreneur/philanthropist. Bethenia Owens-Adair was a healer and physician.

Not everyone spent all their time with mere survival. Martha Dartt Maxwell became a taxidermist and introduced western animals to the East. Charlotte “Lotta” Crabtree was a baby-faced, famous singer.

Many women considered the future of the West. Mary Elizabeth Lease immersed herself in the populist movement. Carry Nation fought for temperance and women’s suffrage.

In the category of culture clash, Rachel Parker Plummer and Cynthia Ann Parker are examples of white women held captive by Native Americans. Sarah Winnemucca and Susette La Flesche were Native Americans who fought for their native people.

This work is great as a referential beginning point for a fifth grade unit of the American West or Native Americans. Many of these women wrote about their lives, so reading activities naturally flow into learning more about them and the topics they wrote about. The author includes a table of contents, notes, resources, an index, and numerous photos.

  • Women of the FrontierTITLE: Women of the Frontier: 16 Tales of trailblazing Homesteaders, Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers
  • AUTHOR: Brandon Marie Miller
  • PUBLISHER: Chicago Review Press
  • REVIEWER: Sue Poduska
  • EDITION: 2013
  • ISBN: 978-1-883052-97-3
  • GENRE: Hard cover, Women, American West, History
  • LEXILE: NA

 

Hero on a Bicycle

Written by Shirley Hughes

Buy on Amazon

Thirteen year old Paolo is the hero on a bicycle, but the book is not just about him. The setting is the city of Florence, Italy (1943-1944), but the scope of the story is of life in war-torn Europe and the daily heroism of people trying to maintain a semblance of normality in very difficult times.

Rosemary is a Britisher married to Florentine Franco Crivelli, whose anti-Fascist leanings make it dangerous for him to stay at home. He disappears, nobody knows where. Rosemary is left to manage life in Nazi-occupied Florence: the daily food supplies, the sense of danger around every street corner, and the frustrations of her increasingly isolated teenagers.

Paolo is restless. Constanza is caught in a double bind: she knows Paolo rides out every night, understands his need for that freedom, and will not snitch to their mom. However, she has her own longings which she cannot share because Mom’s burden is heavy enough. Her outlet is playing old records over and over again. Rosemary, aware of their thoughts “reflected grimly on the old cliché that wartime, when not terrifying, was a combination of long stretches of boredom and grinding hardship.”

Into this mix is thrown the Partisan fervor and the foreboding German presence. The author says in an interview (http://www.heroonabicycle.co.uk/p/plot.html) that it is a “straightforward thriller”, but to today’s reader it is not just a thriller, but also a story about the essential goodness of all people. Rosemary performs dangerous work with the Partisans to give shelter to Allied soldiers. Helmut Grass, the German officer discovers that the Crivelli family is hiding an escaped Allied prisoner of war (he finds a part of a cigarette pack which shows the words Lucky Strike, an American brand), but does not disclose that information to his commanding officer. Constanza thinks, “It was difficult to think of him as The Enemy, someone against whom she and her family were about to pit all their courage and humanity.”  Hilaria’s family benefits from their Fascist sympathies, but she warns her friend Constanza that Rosemary was on some kind of Gestapo list. Il Volpe, the Partisan leader, stops for a brief moment to acknowledge Paolo’s presence, even as he escaping from the German firing squad. In big ways and small, people demonstrate their basic humanity.

Teachers and librarians should start with the “thriller” element of the story, and then create reading activities and discussions about that bygone era. There is much that can be learned from the book.

  • HeroTitle: Hero on a Bicycle
  • Author: Shirley Hughes
  • Publisher: Candlewick Press
  • Reviewer: Anjali Amit
  • Hardback:   213 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-6037-6
  • Genre: Novel