Read This Book! Recommended Reading for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders 

Yeay! Yeay! Yah-ye-yah-yah Yeay!!! Jack Gantos won the Newbery Medal for his brilliant story, Dead End in Norvelt.

So well deserved

If I told you that you would love a story about a boy who who gets grounded for his entire summer and has to make amends by helping a local senior citizen write obituaries while the story goes on to explore the many facets of death, you’d say, “No way! That story doesn’t sound interesting at all.”

You said the same thing when I tried to explain the story line of Holes by Louis Sachar to you, too, and that story was phenomenal when you finally read it.

So, listen to me this time. Watch the book trailer. Watch the author interview. But read this book!

In 2008, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, written and illustrated by Brian Selznick, won the Caldecott Medal for best illustrations. But wait! you say, “Isn’t that a chapter book?” Yes. Yes, it is. And it is awesome. On November 23, 2011, the companion movie, Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese, is opening nationwide. Will it be just as amazing as the book? Who knows? But I can’t wait to find out!

“ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together…in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.”--from the official The Invention of Hugo Cabret web site.

Here’s a great (and quick) interview with Brian Selznick about making The Invention of Hugo Cabret:

I love listening to NPR in the car. So, I was thrilled to hear that NPR is starting The Back-Seat Book Club hosted by All Things Considered for children ages 9-14 as a way to get children listening and participating in the conversation.

Every month will be a new book to read or listen to and children can email their questions to the author who will be interviewed at the end of the month.

The first Back-Seat Book Club book is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. A fantastic choice for October! You can listen to the details of the book club below.

You can send your questions to Neil Gaiman here.

You can watch Neil Gaiman read the entire story here.

Don’t miss the interview with Neil Gaiman on October 31.

Here is where you can find out what time of day All Things Considered is broadcasted in your state.

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass

Well, I finally read it over summer break and I loved it (as expected)!

After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.–library catalog

It was the winner of last year’s Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards (yeay!).  Read more about it here where you can also read what some fourth and fifth graders had to say about it.

Wendy Mass is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! You should also read Every Soul a Star and The Candymakers. But don’t forget to read the companion stories Finally, and 13 Gifts.

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Newbery Medal, 2011

I finished reading this book two nights ago and it is still haunting me (in a good way.) Abilene Tucker is quite an extraordinary girl who is looking for stories about her Daddy and trying to find “home” in Manifest, Kansas. What she finds will change her deeply . . . as it did me.

Incredibly beautiful writing combined with complex characters and soulful storytelling. I just might have to read it again

Heart of a Samurai: Based on the True Story of Nakahama Manjiro by Margi Preus

Newbery Honor Book of 2011

If you like books about Samurais, then this book isn’t for you. However, if you do like stories full of adventure on the high seas, heroes and villains, a clash of cultures, and a dose of history, then you will love Heart of a Samurai. Manjiro was such a likable and honorable character from the first chapter that I just had to see where his desire to explore the world would take him.

In 1841, rescued by an American whaler after a terrible shipwreck leaves him and his four companions castaways on a remote island, fourteen-year-old Manjiro, who dreams of becoming a samurai, learns new laws and customs as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot in the United States.–library catalog

If you would like to know more about the real Manjiro and how he changed America and Japan, watch the video below:

Nominated for the 2011 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award

At the start of the Revolutionary War, Isabel is sold to a cruel loyalist family, even though she has been promised freedom by her former owner. Soon faced with the choice of working for or against the British, Isabel chooses to work with anyone who can help her.