Thursday, June 25, 2015

Good summer reads, available on Learning Ally - and in the library too!

Summer is my time to read up on children's books, and I've found some good ones already!

Under the Egg (Benchmark library orange section, Learning Ally VoiceText):  I loved  From the Mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler as a kid, and this book brought it to mind - a New York City setting, an art mystery, and a spunky heroine.  Lots of fun twists and clever history tie-ins.

Image result for under the egg        Image result for escape from mr. lemoncello's library         Image result for moxy maxwell does not love stuart little
Speaking of twists and tie-ins, Trina and students inspired me to read Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library.  (Benchmark library orange section, Learning Ally VoiceText) Mr. Lemoncello is a very Willy Wonka-esque character, but who loves books and board games instead of candy.  I appreciated the inside jokes about children's books, but I also found myself caught up in rooting for Kyle and team as they tried to win the game of escaping from the library.

Finally Moxy Maxwell does not love Stuart Little (Benchmark library brown section, Learning Ally Classic Audio) is a hilarious study of the last day of summer vacation as procrastinator Moxy does everything she can to avoid reading her assigned summer reading book, Stuart Little.  Author Peggy Gifford creates such a vivid and familiar character in Moxy that I found myself wondering if Gifford had spent time at Benchmark interviewing some of our students in preparation for writing this book!

So what good children's books have you run across?  I definitely added Moxy Maxwell to my book order for the 2015-16 school year.  I'd love your thoughts on ordering Under the Egg - I enjoyed it, but at 250 pages, is it too long for a curriculum book?  Would the Learning Ally support help students move along more quickly?  Lemoncello weighs in at 350 pages, so probably too long for an assigned reading, even with learning ally support.

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