Middle grade chapter books for kids ages 9 through 14 and including 3rd grade books, 4th grade books, 5th grade books, 6th grade books, and 7th grade books.
How am I defining a Willy Wonka-Like chapter book? You probably don’t need an explanation but here I go anyway: A wacky figure-head behind this adventure A competition between kids (though adults can be involved) OR A mystery that has to be solved through riddles and puzzles Yep. That’s why I came up with this…
10 Perfect Read Aloud Books for 3rd Grade is my top post for 2015! It all happened when I went to Anne Ursu’s The Real Boy dinner hosted by publisher Charlesbridge and met Colby Sharp, a co-founder of the Nerdy Book Club blog. I was already a huge fan of this group blog. Colby had just…
I spent more time in my kids’ 5th grade classroom because I was the parent coordinator for our PTO Creative Arts and Sciences. I know that there are always shifts in curriculum due to Common Core but leeway, as well, for teachers to cover what they typically have done in the past. My kids studied…
My 5th grade son is assigned more reading homework than my 8th grade daughter. He is supposed to read 30 minutes a day; my daughter just 2 hours a week. At my son’s Curriculum Night, his teacher explained that reading just 20 minutes a day dramatically increases a child’s vocabulary. Hence, she assigns them 30 minutes a…
PickyKidPix skipped her club soccer practice so we could see Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s author visit for Understanding Our Differences. Her sister, Grasshopper and Sensei, had the pleasure of hearing Lynda Mullaly Hunt speak to her middle school two years ago. She hadn’t even read her book but she raved about how Lynda was an inspiring and…
This is my third year judging for the Cybils and I don’t dare compare it to the Caldecott or Newbery awards but I wonder if there is the same dynamic that we have in deciding a winner. For the Cybils, we work off of a short list that is presented to us by first-round judges…
Censorship makes me angry (but many things do) and it tends to make me go on the offensive. Instead of my diatribe, I found some words of wisdom by authors on how to handle censorship. Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Most of the censorship I see is fear-driven. I…