When the Harry Potter books first came onto the scene, I was in college (September 1997). By the time I had switched from a pharmacy major to education, they were a hit in the United States. I started reading the books around the time that I met TechyDad. When I used to go and visit him in Long Island, they would allow me to have an office with internet and desk to use. Since it was the summer, and I had no “school work”, I caught up on children’s literature.
Harry Potter books were on the menu and I managed to read several of them that summer and caught up to where J.K. Rowling was writing. When I started to teach, I was able to keep up with my middle school student that were into the Harry Potter craze. I still remember the day one of my homeroom kids came in and told me the amazing news. They had just announced a park in Orlando, FL was going to house a land with rides, shops, and more to visit. She had her trip planned and I secretly wished I could go. Hopefully, one day, I will.
Eventually, I’ll read the books with the boys. NHL has even expressed interest in them since the books, ads, and movies are all over the place now. Good thing I won the complete set not too long ago.
For now, I have amazing memories of reading/watching Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the group grow up and fight HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED. Of course, I have never seen any of the Harry Potter movies in the theater yet. Something always comes up. This past Friday, TechyDad and I finally caught up with the first part of Deathly Hallows. Since that day, I have been having odd dreams that include Voldemort in a different form.
Are you a fan of the Harry Potter books and movies? Which in the series is your favorite and why?
This weekend, I may head out to see the final Harry Potter movie, but there is a small issue. We promised our boys that we would also take them to see another famous character in a movie being released. Here are two fun teasers about that that you have to check out and will make you smile.
And the other short one is here:
What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Summer break is finally here. We try to spend a lot of time outdoors playing, running, biking, and so on. Of course, we also make sure to read. The summer is the perfect time to rest/cool off at the end of a busy day and read a book. We own a lot of books, but the boys adore going to our local libraries. A field trip to the air conditioned library means time to play, read, check things out, use computers, and catch up with friends.
As a child, I have so many memories from summers with my neighborhood friends. I remember when our local library started doing a summer reading program. Our parents would take us to the branch to sign up, and we would go back each week to write in what we had read. As we got older, we would often walk to the library, have lunch on the way, and make an afternoon of the experience.
For our first day of vacation, I took the boys to the library. I had already signed NHL up for the elementary aged program. Once he reads books, he can log in and record the titles that he has completed. For every five books that he read, he will receive some sort of prize. NHL is finally into chapter books. He has finished two of the A to Z Mysteries, read JSL several picture books, and started one of The Boxcar Children books. I am so proud of how he loves to read and is trying items out of his comfort zone.
JSL was able to sign up for the pre-reader program. You receive a calendar and mark each day that you read 15 minutes to your child. This is not hard for us to do and JSL seems very intrigued. When we got back from the library, he begged me to read him three of the books we took out. The boys are also excited about events that are taking place at many of the library throughout the summer.
So did you participate in a summer reading program as a child or are your children doing one this summer? I would love to know all about them.
What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Hi, TechyDad here. I’m guest-posting for today’s Tuesday Tales. And here’s one of the tales:
Once upon a time, there was an alien who took his pet bee on an airplane. They had received a post card from the alien’s good friend Bigfoot. They tried to find Bigfoot’s home but turned in the wrong direction and got lost. They looked all over and finally found the fountain in front of Bigfoot’s cave. They were just in time for his birthday party. The End.
No, this isn’t part of a great piece of literature. This is a story that I just made up. Don’t worry. I’m not reviewing my own stories. I’m reviewing *how* I made this story up. I used nine small dice called Rory’s Story Cubes.
Each die in the set has six sides like a normal die. Unlike normal die, though, there aren’t dots, but pictures. The goal is to make a story using the pictures that come up when you roll the die. You roll them all at once and try to come up with a story that fits. Alternatively, you can work with other people, rolling one die at a time and taking turns adding on to the story. Here is what I rolled that became the story above:
The genius here is that this prompts kids (and, let’s face it, grown ups) to exercise their imaginations. Each roll of the dice results in a different set of images. Since there are over 10 million possible combinations, you could play for years without repeating the same story twice. Even if you rolled the same images twice, a simple shift in the order you put them in or interpretation of the images can drastically change the story.
This can also be used to help kids practice their writing. As you saw above, my story wasn’t long. Less than 70 words (and I purposefully lengthened it). At this length, it shouldn’t intimidate early writers at all. A child could think up their story and practice writing it out with no problem. In fact, children might be more motivated to write their own stories than to write answers to questions or copy printed texts.
Since the use of these story cubes seems to be limited only by imagination, here’s a quick imagination exercise for all you readers. Look at this Rory’s Story Cubes dice roll:
Now, what story can you make up using these pictures? Leave your story in the comments below. Let’s see how many different stories we can get from the same nine images.
Want to see and hear what NHL thought of Rory’s Story Cubes? Head on over to TechyDad.com to see his video review.
What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Disclosure: Our son picked out Rory’s Story Cubes while shopping at a local book store. He thought they looked like fun and used a gift card that he had received for Passover to purchase it. All opinions are our own and no compensation was given. One widget within the review is for my Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale should you opt to buy Rory’s Story Cubes. Note from TheAngelForever – as a teacher this would be a great classroom gift to send to your child’s teacher.
The summer is coming and school is almost out in our area. Thanks to this, I am looking ahead to items to read with NHL. Many of the local libraries are sponsoring fun summer reading programs. Two years ago, NHL was really into it. He loved trying to read as much as possible and getting prizes. Last year, we were not as motivated.
The reality is that NHL loves to read, BUT (and it is a big one) he is not a fan of trying chapter books on his own. I have tried numerous books that I have from my teaching days, we have bought countless others, and even tried audio with some. NHL was nervous about the number of pages, lack of pictures, and concept of chapters. As a certified reading teacher, I was more interested that NHL was reading and was not going to fight him. The reality is that many picture books have higher levels of vocabulary and concepts within them.
A while back, I had heard about the A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy. The books have three main characters that solve mysteries and each of the 26 books starts with letter of the alphabet. I really wanted to find something that would increase NHL’s independent reading confidence and that we could talk about when we read on our own. So, I bought the entire set from Scholastic Books. I was going to save them, but was too excited to show them to NHL.
More about the A to Z Mysteries:
Here is a great video of Ron Roy talking about the series from Random House Children’s Books. As you will see, the A to Z Mysteries have expanded to a new series called Calendar Mysteries:
My son decided to start with The Absent Author
About The Absent Author from Amazon: A is for author…. Dink writes to his favorite author, mystery writer Wallis Wallace, and invites him to visit Green Lawn. To Dink’s amazement, Wallace says he’ll come! But when the big day arrives, Wallace is nowhere to be found. The police think he just missed his plane, but Dink suspects foul play. It’s up to Dink and his two best friends, Josh and Ruth Rose, to find the famous writer–before it’s too late!
The Absent Author (A to Z Mysteries) – Written by Ron Roy – Illustrated by John Steven Gurney - Random House 1997 – $3.99 (paperback) – Ages 9-12 – 96 pages
What we think so far:
I think we have a winner! Yes, my second grader is reading a chapter book on his own. For the past few days, he asks to take The Absent Author to the couch, or does it on his own. While there, he will read a chapter or two. NHL smiles and laughs as he talks about reading the adventure of Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. While he was at school the other day, I pulled the book out to read the section that he was up to so NHL and I could chat about the books. The teacher in me drafted comprehension questions in my mind. I wanted to know about the characters, plot, and I also wanted to have him predict what would happen next.
After I picked NHL up from school, I told him I wanted to chat about The Absent Author. I think he was a bit surprised with my interest. He forgets from time to time that I am a teacher at heart. So we drove to our destination chatting about the book. I asked some pretty specific questions and he got them without flinching. Yes, my 7 year old son was really reading the books. I knew he was reading the books, but this involves more than just saying the words on the pages and flipping further along. NHL really got the point of the story. He recalled little items, figured out the game plan of the characters, and had his own theory on how the rest of the book would go. It was at this point that I told NHL I was so proud of him. He had overcome his fear of chapter books and was reading them!
Here is a look inside the book.
The use of note from Wallis Wallace takes away from the fact that the entire page is full of text. This is a subtle trick that kids never get, but works well. They love seeing an item that belongs to the characters and want to learn more. There are also illustrations from time to time that connect with the story. This is huge when you are trying to get a reluctant chapter book reader to become independent and try things on their own. While browsing Ron Roy’s website, I found his letter to parents. It really hit home with me. Roy not only wants to engage children in his books, but teach them to use their brains to solve problems with their friends. As a parent and teacher, I respect his philosophy and it makes me even more confident in my kids reading this series and others by Ron Roy.
Yes, I do believe that we have a reading project for the summer. NHL and I will be reading and doing projects as we move along with the A to Z Mysteries. I have a feeling we may also move onto the Capital Mysteries as well as the Calendar Mysteries.
Do you have something that you or your children plan to read this summer? I would love to know.
What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Disclosure: I purchased these books from a Scholastic Book order form that my son had sent home recently. One widget within the review is for my Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale of the books should you opt to buy the book mentioned.
As a child, I have many memories of going to camp during the summer. I went to a JCC camp, Girl Scout Camp, a local nature/crafting camp, and some others over the years. These days, the options of camps are even more extensive if you know where to look. Summer vacation in our area does not begin until the end of June. I have been so busy with other items, that I have not secured camp for the boys yet. I know; I need to get cracking on that.
While reading Picnic at Camp Shalom, a new book out from Kar-Ben Publishing, it made me think back on my camp experiences. I remember being in a summer play that was a spoof of The Wizard of Oz with a Purim theme. I dressed up and recall singing “Follow the Hamantaschen Road” with my friends. I need to dig around to find the photos to show my boys as I investigate camps for them.
More about Picnic at Camp Shalom:
When Carly makes fun of Sara’s last name at mail call, her bunkmate at Camp Shalom thinks she’s just being mean and refuses to be consoled. Little does Sara know that Carly had a reason for her outburst. When their mutual love of music brings harmony to Shabbat dinner as well as to their friendship, Carly finally gets the chance to reveal her secret.
Here is a trailer from the author about the book:
Picnic at Camp Shalom – Written by Jacqueline Jules – Illustrated by Deborah Melmon - Kar-Ben Publishing – March 2011 – ISBN 978-0-7613-6662-1 – $7.95 (paperback) – Ages 5-9
What I Thought:
Summer camp is a milestone that most children will eventually participate in. Making new friends and getting to know them is part of the excitement of the experience. Of course, when you do not know someone well, you could easily hurt their feelings. Jacqueline Jules shows us how Carly makes an honest mistake that results in Sara pulling away from her new friend. We watch as Carly learns from her mistake and explains to Sara that she is sorry for upsetting her. The beautiful illustrations from Deborah Melmon take us into the world of Camp Shalom and let us go on the flag hunt and join in Shabbat dinner with the campers. Traditions of summers at camp, being Jewish, and making new friends are strong themes in the book.
As a teacher and parent, I really like another aspect of Picnic at Camp Shalom. Children often act in an impulsive fashion. Without even thinking, they can say words that sting and hurt their friends and others in their lives. This book would be great to use with children to show them why it is so important to stop and think before saying something too quickly. Take time to discuss what happened to Carly as a result of what she said to Sara. How could she have done things differently? What would you do if you were in that situation? Do you think your feeling would be hurt if someone did that to you? As you can see there are a lot of questions you could generate from this. I can not wait to share this book with my almost eight year old son. Lots of lessons to be learned from it.
What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Kar-Ben Publishing in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own. One widget within the review is for my Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale of the books should you opt to buy the book mentioned.
