"If That Breathes Fire, We're Toast!"

"Some kids need fairy godmothers. Others need dragons." Or so says Madame Yang when she arrives on the doorstep of Rick's new house in the middle of Arizona. When Rick and his Mother order a new "Dragon" furnace they had no clue a real dragon would show up but it's a great thing for Rick! With his new friend Natalie by his side Rick does his best to keep the dragon a secret from his mother and learns how to "see" things most people can't see. With the help of the dragon Rick gets to time travel, meets another dragon, and shrinks down to fit inside a lego castle. This is a fun story about a boy in a new town who needs a friend and finds one in an unlikely place.

If That Breathes Fire, We're Toast! by Jennifer J. Stewart

This book was chosen by a few of my students at the library last week and I'm so glad I took their advice. I really enjoyed reading it, and I think everyone would love it. It is only 119 pages long, but is full of fun adventures and has a really surprising ending!

I'm excited to see what book we pick out this week at the library. See you guys soon!

Tuesday Library Day!

Hey you guys! I hope you are getting lots of reading done this summer! I will be back out at the Mechanicsville Library this Tuesday (6/26) from 5-7 hanging out and would love to have you join. Last week I had a lot of fun friends show up it was a "class reunion!"

So come cool off at the library Tuesday night! See you all then!


P.S. I will post more books soon!

The Magician's Elephant and The Tale of Despereaux

Hey Friends! Happy Summer!

This past weekend to kick off summer I went to the beach with a few friends. It was a great trip and I did a lot of reading. I picked out two books on my iKndle and didn't even realize they were by the same author Kate DiCamillo.

I read The Magician's Elephant first, it was a beautiful story about an orphan boy who pays a fortune teller to learn whatever happened to his little sister. He finds out that an Elephant will lead him to his sister, which is a crazy idea since he lives in the middle of a city with no elephants anywhere. The story of how Peter  the finds his sister with an Elephant is really fun to read, and the book is filled with lots of interesting characters. This book isn't about the ending, it's about the journey to the end.

I also read The Tale of Despereaux, I've never seen the movie so I was looking forward to reading the story.  If you have seen the movie then you should still read the book, books are always better than the movies and we learned from reading Percy Jackson that movies are often a lot different!

This story is about a mouse who is different from everyone else in his mouse family. He has big ears, he is always sick, and instead of eating books he likes to read them. He is enthralled with music and falls in love with a princess. After he befriends a human he is banished to the dungeon only to learn that an evil rat has a plan to hurt the princess. Kate DiCamillo does a great job pulling the reader into the story and making you feel connected to all of the characters. 

I can't wait to watch the movie to see how it compares to the book!

I will write again soon after I read some of the books you all helped me pick out at the library last night.

Happy reading!

The Last Day of School

Hey guys! It may be the last day of school but it hopefully won't be the last time we see each other. If you are already missing me and our class....

Come to the Mechanicsville Library (part of the Pamunkey Regional Library) on Tuesday June 19th from 5-7 in the evening.

I will be hanging out, reading books, doing cartwheels, causing mischief...just kidding. But really, come hang out with me at the library.

Happy last day!

The Mysterious Benedict Society

I wanted to jump right in and share a book series that I fell in love with a few years ago. Trenton Lee Stewart is the author of The Mysterious Benedict Society and, to my great pleasure, has recently released a new book (which I promptly read in 3 days!).

This book series is about a group of kids who don't quite fit in and the challenging adventures they go on. Each kid is unique and brilliant in his/her own way and together they make up a club of sorts that works to stop an evil villain (Mr. Curtain). The first book does a great job of introducing the main characters (Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance) as well as their super cool house they live in with Mr. Benedict. They work together to stop Mr. Curtain from brain-washing kids at his special school The Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. I won't tell you if they succeed in their mission, but I will say that as soon as I finished the first book I went directly to the store and bought the second and the third books.

The latest book in the serious tells us all about the mysterious Mr. Benedict and his interesting childhood at an orphanage where he searches for a secret treasure.

I loved these books and I think you guys will love them as well. I know I have already mentioned them to a few of you, and I'm mentioning them again because they are so fun to read! These books are great to read with parents because there are some challenging words, but for the most part (as long as you are patient, they are long books!) you guys should have no problem reading them on your own.

Now that you have a book series to get started on, GET GOING!!! And don't forget....reading these books, writing to me, and coming to visit me at the library will earn you points for next school year.

Happy Reading!

**Check out the website here The Mysterious Benedict Society

What is this?

What is this? What is a blog and why are you writing one? 


Let me be the first to say I've never loved the idea of blogging. I never believed I had anything worth sharing with the world until this year. After spending one incredible year with an outrageous group of students I realized I did have something worth sharing with others: my love of reading. 


It's a shame to think that I have to say good-bye to my class in one week after spending so much time with them, so I refuse to do it. I want a way to stay in touch with the class, and a way to encourage them to continue to read books over the summer. I learned two things this year that inspired the creation of this blog:


1. Students love to read what their teacher is reading.
2. Any student can become a book worm if you get them hooked on the right book.


So this summer my mission is to read books and post about them on this blog. I want to read books that I think  my students would love to read in the hopes that they will be inspired to keep reading even though school is out. 


There are thousands of great books out there that were written specifically for older kids and young adults which makes it difficult to find the very best ones. That being said, if you have a suggestion for a book I should read and post about please leave me a comment and let me know.


Students, you can leave comments and let me know if you have read a book and what you think! 


The sole purpose of this blog is to share books that I have enjoyed reading, to give my students ideas of what to read this summer. My concern is posting meaningful things about books, not spelling and grammar. 


That's all I have for now. School gets out in a week and I plan on posting books soon. Enjoy the last few days of the school year!