I used several suggested books from this forum for my fall read alouds, and now I'm looking for some suggestions for our next book. We started off with Frindle (Realistic Fiction), then Mysterious Matter of I.M. Fine (Mystery), Chew on This (Nonfiction text about the history of fast food), and just finished My Brother Sam is Dead (Historical Fiction about the Am. Revolution). I love that all of our read alouds were tied into students' writing or social studies, and I'd like to continue that if possible... and I'd also like to try a new genre to continue exposing them to literature they may not choose on their own. A student suggested The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan... I've only glanced at it, but it seems very Harry Potter-esque. My students also just did a Newbury Award-winner book report so I'm hoping for something a bit more obscure. I've also heard that the City of Ember and Coraline are interesting, but I've not read them myself.
I teach 4th grade, but every year one of my read alouds is a book called Titanic Crossing. It's a fictional story about a brother and sister on the Titanic. My students really seem to enjoy it. Right now I'm reading The Kid Who Ran for President. My kids are enjoying it a lot.
My kids LOVED hatchet! That was one of their summer assignment books. When we came back to school in September, we all read Brian's Winter which is sort of an alternate ending to Hatchet like what if this happened instead of how Hatchet ended. Very good book. My class also just finished reading Bud, Not Buddy which was very good. They enjoyed it. It was pretty funny. It's a story about finding your "home."
Science Fiction At the beginning of the year, I read My Teacher is an Alien (Science Fiction) and my fifth grade students loved it. There is also My Teacher Glows in the Dark, etc. It's great to introduce the genre and as a follow-up activity have them write a science fiction short story or a script for a play.
What about The Watsons go to Birmingham I also love the classic Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry I'm going to to use this book for a literature circle.
Coraline is a fantastic book - and it isn't too long of a read. Right now we are reading some short stories (I teach 6th grade)... We read CRASH, The Watsons go to Birmingham, and Hidden Talents (By David Lubar... GREAT book... kids LOVE it)
I am currently using The Lightning Theif as a read aloud in the class I am STing in. OMG my kids LOVE it! They beg me to read even when it is "not time". I do it at the end of the day and have had to tell my kids to leave and go home. You should really look at it.
We usually discuss the references. I have found pictures of the creatures and shown them to the students. They are REALLY interested in the beings and the gods and goddesses. They are not that far into the book, but scholastic has the series in an upcoming order, and several students have said their parents will let them order them. I even have a few that have checked out the book from the library to read along or to read ahead. The students doing this are sworn to secrecy! They really enjoy the mythology, and it is a great book.
This was a total fluke... As I'm still trying to decide on a book to do when we get back from Spring Break, I picked up The Phantom Tollbooth to read today (it was Read Across America day or something?) and my kids loved it! So I guess we're doing weird fantasy/math all of a sudden, but I'll definitely be reading through all these suggestions over the break. Thanks for all the recommendations!
I am reading City of Ember to my class currently and they love it. They like the mystery and they also like trying to figure out the "instructions." I recommend this book. Another fun read a loud is I Freddy. The kids loved it last year and its the first in a series and a lot of my students last year read the rest of the series after we read I Freddy in class.
I thought of something else. I do not know what Texas grade level standards are, but in NC we teach genre. You could do an introductory unit or lesson on Mythology. Then you could read the Lightning Thief. You could begin reading then do the Myths unit if it would be more helpful. I don't know if this would work for you or not, just a thought! :reading:
I saw a Greek Mini-Books resource in the March Scholastic book order. I was thinking about buying that to supplement The Lightning Thief... has anyone used/seen this?
I love reading classics to my students, such as The Witches by Roald Dahl, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. the imagery is awesome with those books. I have read Harry Potter in the past, but it gets really long. I have literature circles in my class and i have given those students books to read that are related to the theme we are working on in Open Court: The Devil's Arithmetic, Number the Stars, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry...etc.
We study the life of Roald Dahl and read a lot of his books - James & the Giant Peach, The BFG, George's Marvellous Medicine, Fantastic Mr Fox. Last year my class loved Treasure Island. I found a great version that was more kid friendly.
We just finished the book "No Talking" by Andrew clements and then my students had a no talking competition for a day. Boy, was it quiet! We also read Becoming Naomi Leon and then did soap carvings in class. It was not geared toward any subject we were learning but it was the last book of the year and the kids loved the carvings.
Just an update... I did the Lightning Thief a few weeks ago and my class became absolutely OBSESSED. I had them read stories from the Greek Myth mini-books I mentioned before for homework and was able to get reading quiz grades out of that and found an amazing online teacher's guide for the book. The fourth book in the series was released just as we were finishing the first book in class, and a local book store had a huge release party and the author was in attendance. It was a little surreal how well it all turned out. I'm doing The Watsons Go to Birmingham in lit circles this last week of school, but thanks for all the suggestions.. I'll be doing lots of reading this summer!
I am so happy it turned out so well. I picked up book four and read it in 9 hours! I have now read all four and was fortunate enough to get an autographed copy of the Lightning Theif when the author was at a local bookstore. I cant wait til next may when book five is released!
I have The Lightning Thief in my stack of books to read this summer. My boys were trading it like baseball cards this year. It seems to be about a boy who is a real trouble-maker at school getting accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt. Now the gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus are at war and out to get him, so he has to try and get the lightning bolt back to Zeus or deal with the consequences. City of Ember is great, and I'm not a big fan of science fiction. It's a futuristic story about a community of humans living underground. Their society is failing and two kids (age 12) are trying to save everyone. Kind of a mystery sci-fiction book. I think your kids would enjoy it. I think it should be pretty easy to read aloud. I just read The Teacher's Funeral to my student. It's hard to get used to the rural speech and unfamiliar wording, but the kids were rivetted. They were begging me to read more when we had to stop; it is a hilarious book.
Anything by Gordon Korman is a good choice. "No Coins Please" and/or "I Want to Go Home" are very funny; "Island", "Dive" and "Everest" are all adventure thrillers (Island is my favourite) but they're trilogies so they take some time as read alouds. Todd Strasser also has some good, quick-read-type books. "Grizzly Attack" is always popular with my kids. Haven't read it but "Molly Moons" got the thumbs-up from my two strongest readers this year.
Finished The Lightning Thief and loved it. It's about a boy who is the son of Posidon, but he doesn't know it. Things start happening at the beginning of the book that let you know something strange is going on. Then one thing leads to another (ie he figures out a few things) and he winds up on a quest to recover Zeus's stolen lightning bolt. I am going to purchase then next book in the series and read it too. We don't study Greek mythology at all, but if we did this would be the perfect introduction to the genre.
I LOVED "Coraline!" I'm not a classroom teacher yet, but I read it because I loved "Stardust" (adult book by Gaiman). I would read it as a read aloud. Sorry I don't have kid-input though.
When I taught fifth two years ago, I read The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards, Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan, Gossamer by Lois Lowry, and Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath Just to name a few! My students loved all of these books and enjoyed the time I spent reading to them.
For a read aloud try The Adventures of Edward Tulane. This book is by the same author who wrote Because of Winn Dixie, Kate DiCamillo. We had this as a read aloud during a Reading Project I attended early in June and it was great! I received a copy from the workshop and plan to read it as my first read aloud. I thought I would display other books by the author to jumpstart our reading for the year.
I haven't read this one. My kids loved her novel about the mouse, the rat, and the princess though-even the boys!
The mouse, the rat, and the princess one is The Tale of Desperaux (sp?) I'm going to read it first. It's supposed to come out as a movie in December. Just read it, and I loved it.
My students LOVE this book! I didn't know they're making a movie of it! My students always begged me to keep reading it. They always want to get a mouse after we finish it and they want to name it Despereaux. haha.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/cityofember/You can see the trailer for the movie here. It looks like they changed it too much.
I'm almost always disappointed in the movies - except for Because of Winn Dixie and Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. I'm going to read Desperaux first, too, so they hear it before it comes out. Sahara Special is a good one about a girl who wants to get out of special ed. It is written with a very clear voice. If you are going to do a class newspaper, The Landry News is very good. The teacher in it is nutty, but the student saves the day with her newspaper.
I was searching the boards looking for great read-alouds! I'm glad I stumbled onto this post. These are all great ideas!
I just finished reading Bloomability and just love it! That book is definately going on my read-aloud list for this coming year.
The cover made it seem like it was an edge-of-your-seat mystery -I love mysteries. The plot grabbed my attention in the middle because of the mysterious things he sees and sounds he hears but then it was really nothing. And it really had nothing to do with Room One. I was expecting to be scared.
I read Becoming Naomi Leon and then we do soap carvings from ivory soap. We read the book No Talking by Andrew Clements and have a boys against girls no talking competition for a few hours. Boy is that day peaceful and quiet! We usually do both of these books at the end of the year. We read Frindle at the beginning of the year. It is a great story.
