It was lights out this afternoon at Highland. The power suddenly went out and stayed out until there were just five minutes left of the school day.
Thank goodness the library has some windows and emergency lights. We were still able to host classes for reading, although the two classes signed up to use the computer lab were out of luck.
After working for a while on non-computerized things, I decided to take advantage of the time and read along with the students in the library. I picked up a book from next year's Caudill list,
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. It was such a cute, touching story. I really liked it, and it was a super quick read. Emma-Jean is a quirky protagonist who finds it a great complement to be called strange after she looks up the definition in the dictionary. She is the kind of kid who stands apart and likes to observe. However, she decides to try to help a couple people out with problems which leads her into problems of her own. Her brand of help, although clever, usually involves some level of forgery. I really liked Emma-Jean. I think this will prove a popular Caudill book, particularly with the sixth graders.
Works Cited
"Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree Cover." Online image. LibraryThing. 25 Feb, 2009 http://www.librarything.com/work/1826591
Home of the Brave is one of the 2010 Caudill nominees. Although the cover of the book doesn't look particularly appealing, I really hope that students will look past the cover and check out this book. I thought it was a pretty amazing read.
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban really reminded me about how the little things can be wonderful. Zoe Elias learns this when she realizes she wants to learn how to play piano and go onto Carnegie Hall. When she asks for a big, white, shiny, new grand piano, all she gets is the Perfectone D-60..an old, wheezy, organ. Throughout the book, Zoe learns that the Perfectone really isn't that bad and discovers that her family and friends love her. She faces many challenges but succeeds in the end. One challange is the annual Perform-O-Rama. Will Zoe take home the gold, or fall flat on her face with the Perfectone D-60? Read A Crooked Kind of Perfect to find out!
