Author Profile

Testing Miss Malarkey

Judy Finchler

ISBN: 082787371

This book pokes fun at standardized testing. It reminds me about all the hype that goes around the TAKS testing. It is about the students having to take a new test for the school year call the Instructional Performance Through Understanding Test. All of the staff and teachers at the school prepare the students all year long for THE TEST. In art they are practicing filling in bubbles for THE TEST and in the cafeteria they are feeding them brain food to better prepare them. The teachers stress that THE TEST is not important but their actions and nervous attitudes say differently. Even when the author talks about THE TEST she makes sure to have it in all capital letters so the reader knows its importance.

I also found some neat author websites:

http://www.booksbyomalley.com/

http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/

www.eric-carle.com/home.html

http://www.seussville.com/

Presentations

I learned a lot of new information from todays presentation. I dislike spiders because they are scary creatures but I learned they do serve a purpose because they do eat a lot of bugs and that keeps the bug population in check so they don't get higher in numbers. Making a spider out of clay was fun and I can see myself doing that craft with a group of elementary students. It would be good for spiders or even Halloween.
The Snow White project was different because it talked about the early stories from the tale that we haven't heard before. Some of the tales were a little strange and definetaly for an older audience. I am not sure if I would read that book to even high school students. I think it is meant to be more for adults.

Author Profile

Captain Nobody

by Dean Pitchford

ISBN: 9780399250347

Newt Newman is a boy who has never felt extrordinary. Him and his friends are virtually invisible while his brother Chris is the star athlete. His brother gets hurt at a game and goes into acoma. To escape from what is going on Newt gets dressed up for Halloween as a made up superheroe called Captain Underpants. His costume gives him the confidence he never had before.

One Small Step

by P.B. Kerr

ISBN: 9781416942139
In 1968 Scott MacLeod's parents split up. He went to live with his dad in Texas who was a flight instructor and his dad passed onto Scott his love of flying. They got into a terrible plane accident and almost died until Scott saved them with his flying skills. His skills gave him attention from NASA and they hired him to take a top secret trip to the moon.

Heat

by Mike Lupica

ISBN: 0142407577

Michael Arroyo is a 13 year old Cuban American orphan growing up in the Bronx. He is a baseball star in his Little League team that has made it to the Little League World Series that is going to be at Yankee Stadium. He desperately wants to play but a coach on the other team questions whether Michael is really the appropraite age and he can't play until he gets his Cuban birth certificate without people finding out him and his older brother are without parents.

Genre Projects

The presentations today were pretty interesting. I liked how during the first presentation they had the illustratrions big on the projection screen so we could see them as the story was going on. The pot was also a neat idea to get an understanding of what the students consider to be integrity,
I also really liked the book Pink and Say. I am going to put that on my list of books to buy. It was interesting and really sad. Both of them were really good friends and loyal to each other. The book was about the Civil War but focused more on the story of the two friends and the fear they had during that time. I can definetaly see myself reading it to middle school students.

Author Profile

Because of Twilight and the popularity of vampires at the moment I decided to do my author profile on some vampire books for teens. All of these books are the first in a series and can be used to grab the attention of older readers.

Vampire Kisses

By Ellen Schreiber

ISBN: 9780061778940

When a new hansome and mysterious neighbor moves to town everyone is curious about him. He becomes friends with a vampire obsessed outsider named Raven who discovers there is some unusual things about him including him being a vampire.

Bloodline
By Kate Cary

ISNB: 1595140786

This book takes place during about WWI. It tells the story of Mary who was a nurse reading to her patient John Saw from his journal while he was in the hospital. His journal entries tell about his sister Lily meeting and falling in love with his captain Quincy Harker and they return to Harker's home in Romania to be married. It is there that strange secrets start coming out and Lily is faced with the choice to die or live forever as a vampire.

Marked

By P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
ISBN: 9780312360269

This book is about a world where vampires exist and are accepted by humans. If a human is "marked" by a vampire they have to enter a special school called House of Night. During this time their body decides if it is going to accept the change or not. It it doesn't accept the change than they die. Zoey Redbird is an outsider with big dreams and is excited to have been marked. The story follows her going to a new school and seeeing it isn't much different than her previous one. It also follows her romantic life and whether she should be with Erik the popular boy or her exboyfriend Heath all while dealing with the development of her new vampire powers. Be careful recommending this book for younger readers because it does have curse words and sexual references.

Author Profile

Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar is a children's author who has previously won the newbery medal. He bases his characters on himself and the people he know's. Some of the books he has written are Holes, Small Steps, and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom.

http://www.louissachar.com/

Sideways Stories from Wayside School
by Louis Sachar

ISBN: 0380731487

This book contains thirty short tales about the student's and faculty at Wayside School. Wayside school is a school that was built sideways. Instead of being a one story building with thirty classrooms the builder made it thirty stories high with one class on each story. These stories are silly and appeal to a child's sense of humor. For example, in the story of the mean teacher Mrs. Gorf she wiggles her ears and turns her students into apples. In an ironic turn of events she ends up turning herself into an apple and gets eaten by one of the other teachers.

Wayside School is Falling Down
By Louis Sachar

ISBN: 0688078680

Thirty silly stories from Wayside School. I used to read these stories as a kid and I loved them. They are goofy and imaginative. In one of th stories a student named Sherie bring a homeless person to school for show and tell. In another tale it tells about the yard man Louis carrying a computer up thirty stories to get to Mrs. Jewis' class just so she can throw it out the window to teach about gravity.

Presentations

Today my group and another group did our genre presentations. I thought our presentation on the sun and the moon went well. I was both happy and sad to have presented. I was happy to have finished the project and now I get time to concentrate on my other schoolwork however, I am sad to be done with it because my group and I spent so much time preparing for it and while I was stressed out I did have a blast doing it. I am happy with the way it come out and have recieved positive feedback from my classmates in the audience.
I also thought the other presentation went really well. I like the book on recycling they used. The format of presenting the book on dvd with music was really neat and grabbed my attention. It hooked the reader much more than if it was a simple book reading. I can also see a teacher having the students doing some of the sorting activities they showed us with the recycling products.