Maria's Mélange

Favorite Graphic Novels from 2014 My first was actually from late 2013 (October), but I wanted to be sure to give it some love. Nonfiction in the graphic novel format is such a great idea. This title is the ideal companion for novels set in the Dust Bowl (like Esperanza Rising) Great American Dust Bowl I reviewed this one in April! http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/04/great-american-dust-bowl-nonfiction.html This is probably my favorite that I read so far this year The Stratford Zoo Presents: Macbeth Come on - a group of animals at a ZOO puts on Shakespearean drama? What's not to love about that? Full review: http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/11/stratford-zoo-presents-macbeth-graphic.html It's a memoir - it's nonfiction - it's filled with bunnies.... it's El Deafo My students already adore it. I can't keep it on the shelf! It's so nice to see them enjoying a graphic novel that can also help them learn to be more compa

Well, it seems I did a TERRIBLE job reading Must Read books in the last quarter of this year.  First Quarter? I completed SEVENTEEN of my 36 chosen titles. Many of those books ended up being favorite reads for this year. http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/04/must-read-in-2014-first-quarter-update.html Second Quarter? I ADDED 8 more titles to give myself a total of 44 on my list, since I had done so well for the first half of the year. I read ELEVEN more books on my list. http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/07/must-read-in-2014-second-quarter-update.html Third Quarter? Starting to slow. I completed just NINE books (on my must read list, anyway) this quarter. http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/10/must-read-in-2014-third-quarter-update.html Fourth Quarter? Umm.... I'm almost afraid to admit it. I only completed ONE title on my list in the past three months. Honestly, I think all of my reading slowed down. I even had to cut my overall Goodreads goal down from 300 to 250 to ke

Middle Grade Love We're getting the theme down now, right? Lots of awesome books - not enough time to read them all. I can't claim these books are the best books out there of all, because I certainly can't read everything. What I CAN claim is that these are books you should try to get into your library. It's a good time to be a reader. REALISTIC FICTION Rain Reign It's been a great year for books that give kids a window into other people's lives. Rain Reign was a compassionate peek into the life of a girl with Asperger's (even though the DSM doesn't use that term any longer) and other issues. She's fascinated with homonyms and adores her dog. Kids will be able to connect with her, even while learning about the pieces of her life that are completely different from their own. I liked the way her classroom aide is presented - maybe this will also help kids understand some of the reasons kids they know may need a little extra assistance in th

Continuing to share my favorite reads from 2014.... this time I'm focusing on picture books. It was another amazing year for picture books. I did a Mock Caldecott with a group of 5th graders this year. They were passionate about three main titles: Sam and Dave Dig a Hole The Adventures of BEEKLE & Extraordinary Jane Here are my favorite picture books from this year: NONFICTION: How to Make a Planet (reviewed earlier this year  http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/09/how-to-make-planet-nfpb-review.html ) Star Stuff (also reviewed this year -  http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/11/star-stuff-carl-sagan-biography-nfpb.html ) My Country 'Tis of Thee (Wow! I reviewed this one, too!  http://www.mariaselke.com/2014/07/my-country-tis-of-thee-nfpb2014-review.html  )  FICTION Sam and Dave Dig a Hole The winner of my 5th grade Mock Caldecott. The Adventures of Beekle Runner up for our Mock Caldecott. I had one ki

It's time to reflect on my year of reading. Since I had at least 40 books on my "favorites" shelf this year, I decided to split it up a bit. First post up is a set of books that were NOT published in 2014. Follow the links to the Goodreads description and to add them to your reading list! Middle Grades: Counting by 7s   Green Glass Sea With huge thanks to Shannon Houghton for making sure I didn't miss this historical fiction gem. Young Adult Cinder Want to take a guess what is going to show up on the 2014 published young adult list? Yes, Cress also made the cut. Scarlet The Archived Kathy and I did this one for Batty About Books . We both ended up with red Converse high tops. Read the book to figure out why :) Broke My Heart (and also young adult) Wintergirls Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass (I listened to this one as an audiobook. Very well done!)

My son and I love our Converse. Do they help us walk faster? It's no secret I have short legs. It kind of goes along with the short all-of-the-rest-of-me. I didn't realize just how quickly I tend to walk to compensate for this shortness, however, until I went to a conference with some colleagues in November. Even though all of them are at least a few inches taller than me, my normal walking pace had me constantly looking over my shoulder to see how far ahead I had gotten. I suppose one of the reasons I always kick up the pace is that I'm married to a man who towers a full twelves inches above me. We've been together since high school (which was... *cough*... a lot of years ago). I never wanted to ask anyone to slow down for me, literally or metaphorically, so I just sped up. To be fair, there's another reason why I walk so fast. You see, I am almost pathologically incapable of being late. This caused me no small amount of stress during my formative years.

It's Monday - and I'm sharing my reading again this week. Don't forget to check out the #IMWAYR tag on Twitter and to visit Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for their weekly reading and links to other posts. More Mock Caldecott. I'm down to just one of the books in my stack that I haven't read yet. My students have started choosing their topic pick and writing opinions pieces on why it should win! Here's my full list:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4878838-maria?shelf=mock-caldecott-2014 Sweet, but definitely won't take my top spot! This one is beautiful! I love the illustrations and the message of the tale. Wow. Just wow. This one tore me up. I think counselors and parents and teachers in middle and high school need to read this one. Some interesting facts, but more I think the writing fell flat. I'm not usually a huge poetry reader, but this was fabulous. Not EVERY poem did it for me - but the ones t