Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

Sir Cumference and the Viking’s Map
by Cindy Neuschwander (Author) and Wayne Geehan (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Xaxon Yellowbearyd was the fiercest Viking warrior of his time. Now a map to his hidden treasure lies in Radius’s and Per’s hands. Together the cousins must decode the strange numbered grid on the map-and figure out the secret of the Viking’s X and Y axes. As bungling bandits pursue them, Radius and Per use coordinate geometry in their quest for “treasure of the greatest measure.”

Snippet: “We’re well and truly lost,” Per said to her cousin, Radius. “How I wish we had a map.”
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Come share your link!

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Chapter Book of the Day

Self-Portrait With Seven Fingers
by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen (Authors) and Marc Chagall (Illustrator)
40 pages

Booktalk: A biography in free verse, penned by J. Patrick Lewis, the 2011 Children’s Poet Laureate, and Jane Yolen, “the Hans Christian Andersen of America,” with paintings by Marc Chagall on every spread, this collection of fourteen poems is aptly named, as to do something “with seven fingers” is a Yiddish expression meaning to do something well or adroitly. Notes for each painting explain the vocabulary as well as Chagall’s art and personal history.

Snippet:
Paris Through the Window (J. Patrick Lewis)
My window opens to you, Paris!
Inhabit my brushes, dine on my canvas.
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Wild Rose Reader.

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Nonfiction Monday on May 7, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on May 7, 2012

is at The Swimmer Writer.

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Read and Write Sports: Readers Theatre and Writing Activities for Grades 3-8

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

A Leaf Can Be . . .
by Laura Purdie Salas (Author) and Violeta Dabija (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Find out about the many roles leaves play in this poetic exploration of leaves throughout the year.

Snippet:
A leaf can be a …
Soft cradle
Water ladle

**Laura is one of my former students!**

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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by The Opposite of Indifference.

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Chapter Book of the Day

Explore Simple Machines! With 25 Great Projects
by Anita Yasuda (Author)
96 pages

Booktalk: Investigating the common contraptions that make so much possible—from zippers and rolling pins to catapults and the pyramids—this book encourages kids to look differently at the numerous objects in everyday life. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the six straightforward implements that are at the core of daily activity: levers, inclined planes, pulleys, screws, wedges, and wheels and axles. Using only discarded items from the recycling bin, this guide harnesses kid-power by inviting young readers to build gadgets of their own design, including a working crane, a drawbridge, a car made of fruit peels, and an actual whirligig.

Snippet: Simple machines are all around you. They are in your home, your school, and your park. They are used in sports. They are used in games you play, even in board games. Simple machines can even be found in your body!

**Anita is one of my former students!**

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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

come share your link or a STEM haiku of your own!

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STEM Haiku

simple machines
pulley, screw, wedge and
wheel, planes and axles too
simple, but mighty
© 2012 Anastasia Suen
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Literary Link

Bank Street/SLJ Unveil Children’s Choice Award for Best STEM Picture Book

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Nonfiction Monday on April 30, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on April 30, 2012

is at GatheringBooks.

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Read and Write Sports: Readers Theatre and Writing Activities for Grades 3-8

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings
by Douglas Florian (Author, Illustrator)

Booktalk: Come inside the honeycomb—a busy, buzzy, bee-filled home—and learn about the unexpected wonders of these tiny insects’ lifestyles, families, and communities.

Snippet:
Bee-coming
From egg I hatch in just three days,
Bee-ginning my new larval phase.
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

come share your link or a STEM haiku of your own!

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Chapter Book of the Day

Under the Mesquite
by Guadalupe Garcia Mccall (Author)
224 pages

Booktalk: When Lupita learns Mami has cancer, she is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit family. Suddenly, being a high school student, starring in a play, and dealing with friends who don’t always understand, become less important than doing whatever she can to save Mami’s life.

Snippet:
But lately Mami’s changed.
A thorny mesquite has sprouted
in the middle of her rose garden.
Even after she has pulled it out
by its roots repeatedly,
pricking herself on its thorns each time,
it keeps growing back.
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Random Noodling.

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STEM Haiku

sunrise, sunset
sunrise, sunset, and
the world turns around and
does it again…sunrise…
© 2012 Anastasia Suen
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Nonfiction Monday on April 23, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on April 23, 2012

is at Books 4 Learning.

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Read and Write Sports: Readers Theatre and Writing Activities for Grades 3-8

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Poetry Friday Reads

STEM Haiku

Kidlitosphere
Cyberspace is a
lovely place to meet with friends
and talk about books!
© 2012 Anastasia Suen
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is here!

Add your post to the round-up by clicking on the link below. Please write the title of your poem or book (in parentheses) after your name so Mr. Linky makes a hotlink for it. I’ll post the links on this page as the day goes on. Thanks!

Here’s what the kidlitosphere is reading and writing this week…

1.Kate Coombs’ Mud at 30 Poets/30 Days
2. Gathering Books (A Love Poem from Marguerite Burnat- Provins)
3. Children’s Poem “The Daffodil Dance” by Deborah Diesen
4. No Water River “Hydrophobiac” by Laura Purdie Salas
5. Julie Larios (Seamus Heaney’s Birthday!)
6. Tabatha (Progressive Poem and Fictional Faves)
7.Alice@ Supratentorial (Mathematickles)
8. Mary Lee (CAKE- KU–a cake pop haiku)
9. Liz Steinglass (Chippy Chap)
10. Tara@ ATeaching Life
11. Robyn Hood Black’s “Haiku Mind” at Author Amok
12.Laura Salas (crab haiku)
13. Laura Salas (15 Words or Less poems)
14. Robyn Hood Black (- Laura Purdie Salas and BOOKSPEAK)
15. Charlotte’s Library (A Little Bitty Man)
16. Shannon @ Mountaineer Country
17. Hope Is the Word (Laura Ingalls Wilder fairy poems)
18. Linda (an inspirational poem)
19. jama (Adele Kenny’s “Chosen Ghosts”)
20. A mathematical septina and an original sestina at Write. Sketch. Repeat.
21. Diane Mayr (“Sometimes in Spring”)
22. Kids of the Homefront Army (“ The Train”)
23. Kurious Kitty (Renga)
24. KK’s Kwotes (Robert Frost)
25. Linda Baie (original poem)
26. Ruth (original poem)
27. Heidi Mordhorst (Ken Slesarik’s Poetry Rocks! e-book)
28. Teaching Authors guest post by Helen Frost featuring her poem “ Friend”
29. Dori Reads (Don’t Be Flip)
30. Charles Ghigna (“ Over Herd”)
31. violet (“V is for…”)
32. Sara Lewis Holmes (Book with Wings)
33. Amy LV (LBH Birthday Party!)
34. Karen Edmisten (John Updike)
35. Reader KidZ (Kate Coombs Author- In- Residence)
36. Sylvia Vardell (Hoyte & Roemer Interview)
37. Wild Rose Reader (MOLE: An Original Animal Mask Poem)
38. Jone (Renee LaTulipe poem)
39. Jone (zombie poems)
40. Jeannine Atkins (The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists by Syliva Vardell)
41. Books 4 Learning (Science Verse)
42. david e (twitku roundup wk 2)
43. Lynn Plourde (Reading and Writing Ear Candy)
44. Thinking in Rhyme (Spot the Superstitions)
45.Kristie Hamilton (The Adventures of Babadooga: Back to Big)
46. On Point (Twenty- Seven Years)
47. readertotz (Water Sings Blue)
48. Jennie from Biblio File (Under the Mesquite)
49. Carlie from Twinkling Along (an original spring poem)
50. Betsy (Morning Greeting)
51. Janet (Lemonade and other poems squeezed from a single word)
52. Mainely Write (L is for Leaf)
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Picture Book of the Day

T is for Titanic: A Titanic Alphabet
by Debbie & Michael Shoulders (Authors) and Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen (Illustrator)

Booktalk: At 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, the fate of the world’s most famous ship was sealed when the lookout on the luxury liner, RMS Titanic, spotted an iceberg in the ship’s path in the North Atlantic. By 2 am, the ship had started its slide into the frigid waters, carrying close to 1,500 people to a watery grave.

Snippet: A is for the Anatomy of the Titanic

The RMS Titanic
included ten decks in all.
it was the world’s largest
moving object at 175 feet tall!

BONUS! Download the teacher’s guide!
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Chapter Book of the Day

A Funeral in the Bathroom: and Other School Bathroom Poems
by Kalli Dakos (Author) and Mark Beech (Illustrator)
48 pages

Booktalk: The school bathrooom is a place where kids meet their friends, go to think when a pet has died, or just to take a break from it all.

Snippet:
Germs
It was about germs…that TV show.
The bathroom has a zillion, you know.
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

come share your link or a STEM haiku of your own!

_____________________________________________________________________

Nonfiction Monday on April 16, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on April 16, 2012

is at The Nonfiction Detectives.

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Read and Write Sports: Readers Theatre and Writing Activities for Grades 3-8

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

These Bees Count!
by Alison Formento (Author) and Sarah Snow (Illustrator)

Booktalk: As the children in Mr. Tate’s class listen, they use science and math to learn how bees work to produce honey and make food and flowers grow.

Snippet:
One by one, we zip up high,
buzzing through
the bright blue sky.
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Read, Write, Howl

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Chapter Book of the Day

Saving Animals from Oil Spills (Rescuing Animals from Disasters)
by Stephen Person (Author)
32 pages

Booktalk: When disaster strikes, people aren’t the only ones in danger. On April 20, 2010, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. See how the animals were affected…

Snippet: As much as two and a half million gallons (9.4 million liters) of oil flowed from the broken pipe into the Gulf of Mexico every day. Scientists knew that the Gulf’s wildlife was in serious danger.
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STEM Haiku

Night Sky
Venus, Jupiter
and Mars, I see you at dusk
shining on the moon.
© 2012 Anastasia Suen
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Come visit the new STEM Friday blog – and add YOUR link!

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Nonfiction Monday on April 9, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on April 9, 2012

is at Ana’s NonFiction Blog.

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My NEW chapter book is Just So, Brianna (All-Star Cheerleaders)

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

A Dress for Me!
by Sue Fliess (Author) and Mike Laughead (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Hippo is looking for a new dress. There are so many choices! Dresses with beads and fringe, dresses with shiny sequins, dresses with stripes and checkers, and more!

Snippet:
Rows of dresses,
wall to wall.
Watch me as I
try them all…
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by my juicy little universe

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Chapter Book of the Day

Shetland Ponies Are My Favorite!
by Elaine Landau (Author)
24 pages

Booktalk: Shetland ponies have small, broad heads and stocky bodies, and they’re known for being hard workers. Did you know that Shetlands hauled coal in England’s coal mines in the mid-1800s? Or that modern-day Shetlands sometimes help the blind by serving as guide ponies?

Snippet: Shetlands are the perfect size for kids to ride. They are usually about 44 inches (112 centimeters) tall. That’s just a little bit bigger than a very large dog.
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Come visit the new STEM Friday blog – and add YOUR link!

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Nonfiction Monday on April 2, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on April 2, 2012

is at Rasco From RIF.

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My NEW chapter book is Just So, Brianna (All-Star Cheerleaders)

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

Zero the Hero
by Joan Holub (Author) and Tom Lichtenheld (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. That’s what all the other numbers think of Zero. He doesn’t add anything in addition. He’s of no use in division. And don’t even ask what he does in multiplication. (Hint: Poof!) But Zero knows he’s worth a lot, and when the other numbers get into trouble, he swoops in to prove that his talents are innumerable.

Snippet: Unlike most numbers, Zero believed himself to be a hero. He just needed a chance to prove it.
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

The STEM Friday Round-up on March 9, 2012

is at Practically Paradise.

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Chapter Book of the Day

I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery
by Cynthia Grady (Author) and Michele Wood (Illustrator)
34 pages

Booktalk: Through imagery drawn from quilting and fiber arts each poem in this collection is spoken from a different perspective chronicling the various experiences of American slaves: a house slave, a mother losing her daughter to the auction block, a blacksmith, a slave fleeing on the Underground Railroad. Each poem is supplemented by a historical note.

Snippet:
North Star:
Age six saw me with a new master. He
was no slaver. Instead of tobacco
fields, I plowed the planes of Euclid. Instead
of flax, I spun my way through Homer’s verse.
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Gathering Books

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Nonfiction Monday on March 12, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on March 12, 2012

is at Rasco From RIF.

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My NEW chapter book is Just So, Brianna (All-Star Cheerleaders)

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

Down by the Station
by Jennifer Riggs Vetter (Author) and Frank Remkiewicz (Illustrator)

Booktalk: An expanded version of the classic rhyme with trucks and trains and boats and planes!

Snippet:
Down by the depot, early in the morning
See the yellow school buses all in a row
See the school bus driver warming up the engine
Vroom vroom beep beep! Off we go!
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Dori Reads

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Chapter Book of the Day

A Black Hole Is Not a Hole (Junior Library Guild Selection)
by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano (Author) and Michael Carroll (Illustrator)
80 pages

Booktalk: If a black hole is not a hole, then what is it? Find out what black holes are, what causes them, and how scientists first discovered them.

Snippet: Nothing can out-tug a black hole. No army of tow trucks, no convoy of supersized earth haulers, no fleet of giant rocket engines. Not all of them combined.
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

The STEM Friday Round-up on February 24, 2012

is at NC Teacher Stuff.

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Nonfiction Monday on March 5, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on March 5, 2012

is at 100 Scope Notes.

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My NEW chapter book is Save the Best for Last, Abby (All-Star Cheerleaders)

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku
by Lee Wardlaw (Author) and Eugene Yelchin (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A cat is adopted from the shelter and taken to a new home in this clever story told in haiku….

Snippet:
The Car Ride
Letmeoutletme
outletmeoutletmeout.
Wait–let me back in!

BONUS! Download a teaching guide

Winner of the 2012 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award!
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Check it Out

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Chapter Book of the Day

Snowmobile: Bombardier’s Dream Machine (Junior Library Guild Selection)
by Jules Older (Author)
64 pages

Booktalk: The true story of Joseph-Armand Bombardier’s journey to invent the snowmobile.

Snippet: “Ours is not the only child who cannot get to the hospital in winter. Now stop pacing and go invent something that will go on snow.”
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

The STEM Friday Round-up on February 24, 2012

is at Rourke Publishing.

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Nonfiction Monday on February 27, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on February 27, 2012

is at The Childrens War.

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My NEW chapter book is Save the Best for Last, Abby (All-Star Cheerleaders)

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Friday Reads

Picture Book of the Day

Mother Goose Picture Puzzles
by Will Hillenbrand (Author, Illustrator)

Booktalk: Twenty Mother Goose rhymes with {pictures} taking the place of some words. (Yes, it’s a rebus book!)

Snippet:
Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory, dickory, dock,
the {mouse} ran up the {clock}.
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Poetry Friday

This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Gathering Books

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Chapter Book of the Day

A Warmer World
by Caroline Arnold (Author) and Jamie Hogan (Illustrator)
32 pages

Booktalk: Over the past several decades, our world has been warming at a faster rate than ever before.

Snippet: Polar sea ice is shrinking and growing thinner, sea levels are rising, and patterns of rainfall are changing.
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STEM Friday

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

This week’s STEM Friday Round-up is hosted by Nomad Press.

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Nonfiction Monday on February 20, 2012

Nonfiction Monday is coming!

The Nonfiction Monday Round-up on February 20, 2012

is at Lori Calabrese Writes!.

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My NEW chapter book is Save the Best for Last, Abby (All-Star Cheerleaders)

Copyright © 2012 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.