Family Fiddling Camp and Galaxy Zack

We are at a family fiddling camp in the mountains of North Carolina where it hasn't stopped raining for three days.

Fiddling camp is awesome for the kids, exhausting for the mom who is here by herself until tonight.

But still, reading is happening, because because music, there is nothing else to do here. There aren't even any TVs in the rooms! (awesome!!!)

I'll share my observations on fiddling camp later—plus pictures and videos. But for now, I thought I'd share Shaemus's newest Chapter Book discovery—he wants to get them all:



Galaxy Zack by Ray O'Ryan

Get to know Galaxy Zack—and his new home planet!—in this start to an out-of-this-world illustrated chapter book series.

In Hello, Nebulon!, Zack makes the big move from Earth. He is already nervous about starting school and making new friends, but it only gets worse when he dreams that his classmates are slimy aliens with tentacles, pizza comes covered in gross bugs, and he can never communicate with his Earth friends again! Fortunately, when Zack arrives at Sprockets Academy for his first day of school, he meets and befriends Drake Tucker, a Nebulite boy who also loves to explore and learn about the planets. Nebulon isn’t as awful as Zack’s dream, but there are a lot of differences between Nebulon and Earth, and they make Zack miss his home in Dubbsville, Texas, even more. But things start to look up when he receives a mysterious surprise. What could it possibly be?

Help!

I intended to do a big post today on music. We have had some awesome musical experiences lately that I wanted to share.

But that will have to wait.

Because I need some help.

My lovely little garden is being eaten by voles.

Voles.

How do I know we have voles?

Because we have holes and that rhymes with both voles and moles. An interesting coincidence. How do I know the tiny holes all over the yard are from voles, not moles? Because our cat has killed two and left the corpses for our examination.

Moles are okay. You don't want them, because tunnels in your yard are never good things for your plants, and they eat worms, and worms are good. But moles do not eat plants.

Voles are evil. Voles are the second worse plague for gardeners after mosquitoes (which perhaps don't affect gardeners, but they affect me). They eat the roots of pretty much any plant, and they love perennials. (I know, I know, they aren't deer, but at least deer are cute.)

Obviously, I've been obsessively researching voles ever since the corpses were discovered, but information on getting rid of voles is sketchy at best. The most attractive option right now is to get another cat, and I don't say that lightly because I don't really like cats. At all.

If anyone out there in cyber space has any get-rid-of-voles suggestions, I will put up a thank-you shrine to this person in my yard. You will be memorialized for generations to come (unless you don't want to be).

Now because this is supposed to be a blog about books, not voles, I am going to share a book suggestion that has nothing to do with pests. I shared it just the other day, but I shared it in a grouping of other books, and I've decided this series deserves a post all its own (okay, shared with voles), because Shaemus and I were reading it out loud yesterday and he was laughing and exclaiming and his eyes were wide and he begged and begged me to read the next chapter and the next and the next. Then he sneakily stayed up reading after I told him to go to bed.


Star Jumper: Journal of a Cardboard Genius by Frank Asch

Just even thinking about how great this was last night almost erases the stress about the voles. 

Almost. But not quite.

The Sharing of the Books

I have a new idea for a Battle of the Books with novels/chapter books.

Rather than hold a competition like we're doing for picture books, I think I'm going to have each of the kids pick their favorite novel of all time and a recent favorite. We'll write them up on the board and everyone will need to read (or have read to them) each others' books. At the end of the summer, we'll have a book celebration where we meet together and talk about what we liked about the books. And there will be treats. And possibly awards.

We'll be putting our lists together this week.

Summer is always a time to celebrate books—what are your ideas?

Shaemus and I have happened upon a new winner. This one is gripping me so much, I am eagerly awaiting our read aloud time, where sometimes I have to hide books I am getting bored of and we are continually starting new.

The Sasquatch Escape: (The Imaginary Veterinary Book 1) by Suzanne Selfors

This is shaping up to be a great series for boys and girls ages 7 and up. (There's a nice mix of illustration and text.)

Shaemus's Birthday Books

Shaemus is not my best reader. He is the least interested in reading in every way, but as we began opening presents yesterday, I witnessed something that made me very, very happy. 

The first thing he did when he was through opening his new ipod shuffle (holy cow, those things are teeny) and his cordless drill and miter saw (he loves to build things), was grab ahold of his new books and run away where no one could steal them or bother him as he read them. 

And he proceeded to pour over all four. 

Okay, he didn't exactly read them. He skimmed them. Quickly. Like a voracious animal who is afraid if he doesn't eat quickly enough, all the meat will be gone. 

But still, it was the books he ended up being the most excited about. Which for Shaemus is AWESOME!

So here's what he got, all chosen by him a few weeks earlier (which may have something to do with his enthusiasm):

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale

Captain Awesome and the Ultimate Spelling Bee by Stan Kirby

Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked by Jarrett Krosoczka

Trick 'em

Sometimes you have to trick six to nine-year-olds. You have to make them forget they are reading. You have to do things to draw them away from the number of pages in a book (not too fat!) or the number of words on a page (whoa, way too many!). 

Interestingly enough, while my kids were always worried about too many pages and too many words, I never noticed them measuring the length of the words themselves. 

So how do you trick kids this age into reading hard stuff that expands their vocabularies and their minds and seriously develops their reading skills? 

You give them books with a TON of pictures. You make the words seem incidental. You let them pour over the pictures, then read the words aloud with them until they want to grab the book from you and read the words themselves. 

Here are a few books that are great for that:

Desk Stories by Kevin O'Malley 

Basically a series of hilarious short stories. Lots of great text. But lots of pictures and lots of humor. If your kids like this, try Backpack Stories too!

Sidekicks by Dan Santant

So fun. So very fun.

Bake Sale by Sara Varon

The main characters are a cupcake and an eggplant, and yet, it is a bit dreamy, this book.

Giants Beware by Jorge Aguirre

Watch out, all you fairytale, Disney stereotypes!

That horrible age between six and nine...

...where too much of what's out there is way too easy, but the leap up to novels without pictures is too far for most kids to jump.

I constantly hear people bemoan the lack of good chapter books for kids ages 6-9. They wonder what they will do when their child finally finishes A-Z mysteries and Magic Tree House.

The good news is, there is plenty for them to do. Truly. Not that there isn't room for more and better literature for this age group, there definitely is, there always will be, but there are lots of choices out there already.

And for girls there are TONS! Granted, these books definitely fall into patterns and they are very repetitious, and many of them are too similar to one another (spunky white girl that has adventures—seriously, look at this list! They are all spunky white girls having adventures.) But get them for your daughter anyway. Stick them around the house, at the kitchen table, in the bathroom, in her bedroom, and see what sticks.

Here are some of our favorites, and I'll continue this next week with some that are not our favorites, but that are probably just as good.

Lucy and Mary really liked these series:

Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows


Only Emmy by Sally Warner (there are now six or seven in the series)


Katie Kazoo by Nancy Krulik



The Mallory Series by Laura Friedman


The Cupcake Diaries by Coco Simon


And of course, Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Some new, promising series now a little too young for my girls, but might be great for yours...

Princess Posey by Stephanie Greene (this is for younger readers, 5-7)

Sophie the Awesome (and so forth) by Lara Bergen


Penelope Crumb by Shawn Stout (This one is for older readers—Penelope is in 4th grade)


I'd love to hear any suggestions from anyone else for this genre—thinner novels with lots of pictures for younger middle grade readers. Hands down, this is the area I get the most requests for suggestions! We all need help in this area—I certainly do for Shaemus!

Two Winning Toads

In deep hopper space,
long ships fly
from star to shining star.
One ship is slim,
one ship is green,
a lean green space machine.
The captain of this ship is brave and bright,
bright and brave.
His name is
Commander Toad.

That is the beginning to Commander Toad and the Voyage Home by Jane Yolen. Doesn't it have a great Star Trekkie feel to it? Commander Toad is an amphibian version of that classic TV show, which most kids today wouldn't get, but the adult reading it aloud to their child will. There are clever puns and nuances in these stories that make this series a pleasure for everyone to read. Another thing that makes Commander Toad stand out is the language used:

The ship is called Star Warts. 
Its mission:
to find new worlds,
to explore old galaxies,
to bring a little bit of Earth
out to the alien stars.
Commander Toad is not alone
on his lean green space machine.
Mr. Hop
is the copilot.
Lieutenant Lily
is the master of machinery.
Young Jake Skyjumper
keeps an eye on the dials.
And old Doc Peeper,
in his green grass wig,
keeps everybody healthy and hoppy.

This book falls in the early reader category—books for kids five to seven years old. Early readers  generally have very controlled (sometimes even dumbed down) language. But not in Commander Toad. Galaxies. Machinery. Dials. Mission. Lieutenant. These are not words in most early readers. But Yolen manages to pull off a great story with fantastic language that young children can enjoy!




And Calvin has been LOVING Return to the Willows by Jacqueline Kelly (author of Calpurnia Tate). The illustrations, alone, are worth checking out, and if you loved Wind in the Willows, or even if your kids just love the movie, get them this book! No one is more adventurous than Mr. Toad, and this is a rip-roaring adventure to say the least. Good for kids ages eight and up.


Hop thyself down to the library or click onto Amazon and get these books for your boys! (And girls, of course).

Have your boys read...

Masterpiece by Elise Broach?

Isn't that a cute picture? It's a mystery with a cockroach. Seriously, doesn't that make you want to run out and read it right now? Elise Broach also wrote Shakespeare's Secret:

Both are good mysteries. Both are well-written. They are really just fun. And they are slightly educational, one about Shakespeare, one about fine art.

And we also have a new animal book we love:

The Adventures of a South Pole Pig by Chris Kurtz

Great pictures. Good story. Funny. Worth a look!

Girls of every sort

I do hate breaking these posts up for different genders, but I wanted to let people looking for books for their boys know they could check the blog on Wednesdays, and those looking for books for girls could check the blog on Thursdays.

But stereotypes stink (really, Lindsay? Yes, really). So we are breaking away from Emily of New Moon today (as wonderful as it is), and I'm going to tell you about a spooky book of short stories told in Graphic Novel form and a series of hysterical books from long ago, that are so, so, so funny. Boy-humor funny, but funny for everybody.

Explorer: the Mystery Boxes by Kazu Kibuishi

Seven stories with the same mystery at heart: What's in the box? One of my favorite graphic novel artists, Raina Telgemeier, who wrote Smile and Drama, has a story in here. A great, quick read.

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The funny series is called Soup by Robert Newton Peck. I'm not even going to put the covers on here. They are TERRIBLE. And old. And boring and you might as well rip off the cover before you give them to your daughter (or son, of course), but they are hysterical. Start with Soup in Love and they will be hooked.

Speaking of funny, give your daughter, Exiles in Love and she will be hooked on funny and Hilary McKay forever. (Again the old, American covers are sooooo bad. Here's a newer, UK cover. These books have stayed in print for a very long time because they are soooooooooo good. Note the amount of o's I used for emphasis...)

Rewards and Some serious survival

If you teach first grade (possibly in a school in Apex, North Carolina) and you want to reward your students for good behavior, you have some choices.

You can tell them that, because they've been so good, instead of regular morning work every Monday, they can have a special treat, such as doughnuts. Except you can't do that because of sugar. You can tell the kids they can do their homework early so they don't have to take it home, except you can't really do that because even in first grade kids are supposed to have homework every night. You can tell the kids they can go on the computer and play games. You can do that, because technology is educational. You can tell the kids they can watch PBS Kids for half an hour because TV is sort of technology, which is educational...

Or you could say, "You can read! You can read WHATEVER YOU WANT, no matter the level. You can wear pajamas to school. You can bring your favorite (fill in the blank). We can lie on the floor and have a miniature read-a-thon."

You can make reading a reward. What does that say when we make reading a treat, a treasure, a reward?

It says a whole lot about what the adults who are doing the rewarding consider a reward.

What are the rewards in your homes?

In ours, food is a huge reward. For example, right now, if the kids pick up after themselves, they can have cereal in the morning instead of oatmeal. There is probably something damaging in this—they will probably have cereal issues as adults—but it's working! They are picking up after themselves! So the end justifies the means. Right? Right?

Do I make reading a reward?

What about with the things we purchase? Do we say, if you earn this, you can download ten songs off Itunes? Or do we say, if you earn this, you can have three brand new books, straight off Amazon. Hardcover and everything.

If the family accomplishes something great, do you have a giant Friday night read-a-thon? Where everyone gets sleeping bags and pillows and popcorn and you read in groups or read on your own until ten o'clock at night?

We did that once. It was a disaster. There was fighting and very little reading. Everyone went to bed at eight o'clock. Including me and Sam.

This was over a year ago, and we haven't done it since, but I'm thinking we'll try again. Not because I think it will work now because they're older. I'm not sure it will ever "work." But they will get a message I can't give them any other way. That reading is a reward. One of the best rewards. And it's a family affair, worth popcorn and sleeping bags and mess.

If I don't do this, my children are going to think the best reward in the world is cereal or PBS Kids. And it's not. It's really, truly (really, truly!) not.

Onto some book recommendations...

If your middle grade boy (child) likes these:

And you want them to branch out to something just as exciting, just as full of adventure and the wild, but perhaps a little better written...

Give these a try—


Dogs of Winter by Debbie Pryon


Wild Life by Cynthia DeFelice (Calvin really loved this one—quick read, but so well done)


Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmell

And if you or your child has not read this,


Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner

Please fix that right now. Everyone should read this book. I envy the person who gets to read this book for the first time. Read Stone Fox this weekend during your giant family read-a-thon because the house is clean or they did a great job on the chores that week or just because. Just, just because.

Ottoline: a book about a girl that boys will love

We love the Ottoline books around here.



Love them.

All of us.

Shaemus asked if he could bring Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell to school today. A book about a girl. Shaemus likes scary, mystery books, by his own admission, and yet, this is the book he wanted to bring.




(I wish I could make that bigger, but the bigger Amazon picture messes up the format of the post)

Chris Riddell is pretty much awesome in our opinion. If you have older kids, maybe ten and up, especially boys, give them The Edge Chronicles which he wrote with Paul Stewart.



(They look creepier than they are, I promise.)

Then there's the Far Flung Adventures of Fergus Crane:



Plus there's Barnaby Grimes:



And A Knight's Story:



And our other favorite:

Muddle Earth



And Muddle Earth Too



All of these books are chock-full of adventure and chock-full of pen-and-ink illustrations. Get your boys hooked on Chris Riddell and they will be reading for a long, long time.