Harry

=Book Log=
 * # || =Book Title= || =Author= || =E, JR, C= || =Date Completed= ||
 * == 1 == || **Fortunately The Milk** || Neil Gaiman || E || Summer ||
 * == 2 == || **Flora & Ulysses** || Kate DiCamillo || E-JR || Summer ||
 * == 3 == || **Jack Gets a Clue The Case of the Loose-Toothed Shark** || Nancy Krulik || E || Summer ||
 * == 4 == || **Twice Upon a Time** || James Riley || JR || Summer ||
 * == 5 == || **The One And Only Ivan** || Katherine Applegate || E || 10\11\15 ||
 * = 6 = || **Once Upon The End** || James Riley || JR || 12/8/15 ||
 * = 7 = || **Charlie Bumpers vs Teacher of the Year** || Bill Harley || E || 11/2/15 ||
 * == 8 == || **Astrotwins** || Mark Kelly || JR-C || Pg 60 out of 201 ||
 * = 9 = || **Diary of a Wimpy kid Old school** || Actually autographed by Jeff Kinney || E || 12/3/15 ||
 * = 10 = || **Story Thieves** || James Riley [My favorite Author] || JR-C || 1/23/16 ||
 * = 11 = || **Athlete V.S Mathlete** || W.C.Mack || E || 1/12/16 ||
 * =** 12 **= || **It's Good To Be Gronk/An Adult Book about Gronk** || Rob Gronkowski || C || Reading ||
 * = 13 = || **The Ghost Of Fossil Glen** || Cynthia Defelice || E-JR || 2/20/16 ||
 * = 14 = || **Hiding Out at Pancake Palace** || Nan Marino || E-JR || 2/12/16 ||
 * = 15 = || **Just Jake #2 Dog Eat Dog** || Jake Marcionette || JR || 3/2/16 ||
 * = 16 = || **Josh Baxter Levels Up** ||  || E-JR || Half Way Done ||

Mrs. Palmieri recommends...

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January 25, 2016

Hi Harry,

I wish I had more time to read at home, but it was funny over this weekend I found myself thinking about __Hiding Out at Pancake Palace__. I was thinking about what would happen next and I'm getting really excited to finish it! This is what happens when I get hooked into a book! I wasn't sure I loved this book at first. At first, I thought Cecilia seemed strange (alright, she IS strange) and I wasn't sure if I would like her as a character. I have found that if you don't like the characters in a book, it can make it very hard to want to keep reading the book.

This happened to me last year when I read aloud my class the MCBA, __The Lost Treasure of Tuckernuck__. Did you read that one last year? The female main character of that book was Laurie, and she was quite unlikable! She was snobby, kind of nasty, and altogether kind of tough to tolerate. It took a little while but class and I really go into the story and soon I better "understood" why Laurie acted the way she did. We liked the book so much, we decided to immediately read the sequel, __The Magician's Bird__. Reading that was easy because we already knew and understood the characters. Do you find that you like to read sequels or books in a series because she kind of already know a lot about the characters?


 * Feel free to tell me about a character in the book that you just read/or are currently reading

Back to Cecilia- so at the beginning she seemed strange, but now I find myself feeling sorry for her. She is lonely and kind of an outcast. I'm sure it's not easy to be her- and it definitely feels like she really wishes she had friends. On page 125 it says, "It wasn't like Cecilia wanted to be friends with Natalie. All she wanted was to wave and have them wave back." It's such a simple thing- you don't realize how much it might mean to someone just to be friendly towards them.

What are your thoughts on our read aloud?

Your friend, Mrs. P

Jan. 11, 2016 Hello Mrs P

I am reading 3 books at this time 2 at home and 1 at school. I haven't been reading AstroTwins because I have to keep up with the reading tasks. Story Thieves the book I am reading at home is very interesting and i am reading a lot of it. It is about Owen a normal kid who loves reading a series of books called Kneil Ghomefoot a adventurous character who has a lot of adventures. Then he meets Bethany a girl who can go into literally go into books.[That was not a typo] Owen takes that as a advantage to force her to let him into his favorite book series or else he will tell every one she has ability to go through books. Bethany go's through books to find her missing dad with Owen. I wish I could tell you more but it is soooooooo complicated but I get it.

Your student, Harry

January 3, 2016 Hello Team 7-

Welcome back from vacation!

I found myself thinking about our new read aloud during this break. I always get excited when I'm reading a new book out loud to my students that I also haven't read.

Several of you were talking to me about your book talks before we left for vacation. I know specifically people were wondering about how to figure out a book's "theme" or "author's message". This sometimes feels like it will be hard, but might not be as tricky as you think. Think about what the author is trying to teach you, the reader, through the story; what big life lesson do they want you to know. One of the themes in __Silverwing__ is teamwork, or believing in yourself.

What do we think might be the message in __Hiding Out at Pancake Palace__? Let's think about what we know so far. Elvis is cutting off and coloring his hair- something he is famous for and he has to hide away from the world because of this embarrassing thing. I wonder if the message might be something about "being true to oneself" like don't be pretend to be something else, be who you want to be. I'm also wondering if Elvis really wants to be this famous star- or is this something his dad really wants? Again, since I'm reading this with you guys I'm just guessing (speculating)

I don't think we know as much about Cecilia yet- but I predict she and Evis (Aaron) are going to help each other in some way. She wants to find out if the trees sing- he likes to sing.

Guess we will read more and find out!

Your friend, Mrs. P

Dec. 16, 2015 Aloha Mrs. P

I am reading this new book by James Riley called Story Thieves. James Riley is one of my favorite authors and writes lots of fantasy books. I just started reading the book and I already know that the two main characters are Owen and Bethany. Owen is a normal kid whose mom owns a library and thinks Math is very boring. Bethany is from a book and is half fictional and half real. She is trying to find her lost father by having the ability to go through books. Bethany tells Owen to keep a secret that she is from the fictional world. Owen agrees to keep the secret with Bethany only if she lets him go through his favorite book which is Kiel Gnomenfoot's series of books. They both set off to find out where her father is. By the way I think I read one of the The Little House on the Prairie series. I hope you have a Wonderful Christmas. See you soon Harrison Konrad Tapscott

December 6, 2015 Guttentag Harry-

As Christmas approaches, I often like to reread some favorite holiday themed books from my own childhood. When I was your age and a little younger, I loved to read __The Little House on the Prairie__ series. These wonderful stories are from the childhood of the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, as she grew up in the late 1800s in places like Wisconsin, Kansas, and eventually the Dakota Territory (today South Dakota). This time of year can be so busy and crazy and I always enjoy seeing how simple this pioneer family made their holidays. Sometimes we get so caught up in "buy, buy, buy" or " I want" that I really like reading these descriptions of the simple food and presents that they had and the happy holiday they created as a result. Here is a quote from fifth book in the series called, By the Shores of Silver Lake. Chapter 19 "Christmas Eve"-

"It had snowed all day and soft, large flakes were still falling. The winds were quiet so that snow lay deep on the ground, and Pa took the shovel with him when he went do the evening chores. "Well, it's a white Christmas," he said  "Yes, and we're all here and all well, so it's a merry one," said Ma  The surveyors' house was full of secret. Mary had knitted new, warm socks for Pa's Christmas present. Laura had made him a necktie from a piece of silk that she found in Ma's scrap bag. Together in the attic, she and Carrie had made an apron for Ma from on of the calico curtains that had hung in the shanty. In the scrap bag they found a piece of fine, white muslin; Laura had cut a small square from it, and secretly Mary had hemmed the square with her fine stitches and made a handkerchief for Ma. They put it in the apron pocket. Then they wrapped the apron in tissue paper and hidden it under the quilt blocks in Mary's box."

Descriptions like these really help me imagine what it would have been like to make gifts like Laura and her sisters did. Life was very different then. ***But when you read the descriptions of the family making and eating their meals and celebrating, it makes you as teh reader feel like maybe life isn't that different after all.**


 * When I want to read these books, I usually pull out my little paperback set of all the books that I bought in book order when I was a student teacher. I was recently excited to discover __A Little House Christmas Treasury: Festive Holiday Stories__ was published. This is one book that contains all of the holiday stories from the author's different books. Perfect!**


 * I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family.**


 * Your friend,**
 * Mrs. P**


 * October 14; 2015**
 * Gutenberg Mrs P**


 * Stella is a elephant who is very wise and tells Ivan stories. Bob is a stray dog who's sister and brother's are dead ]=. Ruby is a baby elephant that changes Ivan's thoughts about his home his cage human's and paintings. Right before Stella dies she tells Ivan Keep Ruby safe . at the end Ivan and Ruby get transported to a zoo and Ivan meet other silver backs.**


 * Talk to you later**


 * Harrison Konrad Tapscott**


 * October 13, 2015**
 * Hi Harry-**


 * Thanks so much for your first letter. I have not read The One and Only Ivan. I know that it has won many awards but the topic of the gorilla living in a cage at the mall seems so sad to me I can't seem to get myself to pick up the book. Since i don't know the book, I don't know about the characters you were mentioning; Bob, Ruby and Stella. Maybe you could tell me a little more about them?**


 * At home, I'm still reading Elvis and the Underdogs. I've had a harder time getting in to this book and found it a little boring. I actually haven't even got to the part where Elvis the dog is introduced. I HATE to abandon books, so I'm hoping if I pick this up now that I might be ready to give it another shot.** We could compare the main character, Benji, to Shade from Silvering. Benji is small and sickly and his mother kind of smothers him like Ariel does to Shade . I wonder if Benji will kind of break away from his mom and have an adventure like Shade?

Talk to you soon, Mrs. P

PS- I would love to find some books to recommend to you, especially some that might be "challenging". Let's chat**

September 30 2015

Dear Mrs Palmeri

I am reading The One And Only Ivan. I predict that Ruby will talk where she came from then Ivan will think about going home. Also Think Bob will find his family and Stella's cut will heal. But most importantly I hope Mack's whole circus will be a success and earn lots of money.

Your lovely student,

Harry

September 10, 2015 Dear Harry,

I am so excited to be sharing __Silverwing__ with you this year as a read aloud. This is definitely one of my all time favorite books, which is probably why I can’t imagine starting a school year without sharing it with my class. *The genre of this book is definitely fantasy since I don’t believe that bats and owls have wars or detailed adventures together. I also consider this to be a genre of my own invention- called Animal Adventure. I love the character Shade; he’s one of my all time favorites. *If I could talk to Shade, I would ask him if he thinks it was worth it to break the law and see the sun, especially after what happens to his colony as a result. What do you think of __Silverwing__ so far?

Your friend in reading,

Mrs. Palmieri J