Thanks Tom Angleberger!

Last night many students joined me at the local library to meet other students who are hard of hearing or deaf and to Skype with Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back. Kids took their picture with Darth Paper Strikes Back and then found a place to sit for the chat with Mr. Angleberger. Everyone got to ask Mr. Angleberger a question and then he helped teach us how to fold origami Yodas! They turned out great.

It was fun to see students outside of school and to be able to talk about books they are reading! Mr. Angleberger is coming to a bookstore near us in November and many families were talking about going to meet him in real life.

I love that Tom includes Caroline, a girl who is deaf, in his books. It brings awareness to readers that there are young kids who are deaf or hard of hearing and who wear hearing aids. In Darth Paper Strikes Back, Caroline talks about how people treat her differently because of her hearing aids and sometimes try to yell when they talk to her. Origami Yoda gives her some advice to help her get kids to treat her like any other kid.

Here are some pictures from the event! 

Thanks for everyone who came! Go Team Read!

The individual pictures will be posted on Friday with the Team Read slideshow. Check back to see what books we're reading this week!

Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Visit!

I am so excited that several of my students are going to be able to Skype with Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back tonight! I'm wearing my "Read You Should" Yoda t-shirt today for this special event!

I know students sometimes giggle at my excitement for reading but as a teacher I truly believe it's important for me to be the biggest cheerleader for reading that I can be. I hope that parents catch some of my enthusiasm and read with their children, talk to their children about what they are reading at home and make lots of trips to the library. Reading is not only extremely good for you but also fun. If you don't believe me, believe Yoda. Wise he is! Read you should!

Are you a Star Wars fan? I love Star Wars and we have been watching a lot of it now that my son has been watching the movie. We also check out the Star Wars early readers and I have learned so much more about what the story is all about after reading the books. Did you know they have Star Wars encyclopedias? All the characters you see actually have names. It made me realize how much goes into writing - whether it's writing for a movie or a book - because the author has to imagine a world and know everything about it in order to write about it. I never realized how amazing Star Wars really is! If you like the movies, I definitely recommend checking out some of the books to learn more!

Author Spotlight - Tim Green

This weekend I was so excited to go to a Children's Literature Breakfast hosted by Anderson's Bookshop.  Anderson's is an independent bookstore in Naperville, Illinois.  I met Suzanne Collins, who wrote The Hunger Games, there in the fall.

On Saturday, they had four keynote speakers who are authors or illustrators.  I was lucky enough to meet Trent Reedy who wrote Words In The Dust, Kathryn Lansky who wrote The Capture (Guardians of Ga'hoole, Book 1), Weird Al Yankovic who wrote When I Grow Up, and Tim Green who wrote Football Genius.  I get so excited to meet authors because I love the books they have written.  I love the characters and their stories and it's so interesting to me to learn about the author who wrote them.

Meeting Tim Green was probably the highlight of the day for me.  He sat at our table for breakfast so we were able to ask him questions about his book and about football.  He was so nice and ready to talk about books and sports.  He played for the Atlanta Falcons but is now a lawyer and is writing some great kids' books about sports.   I recently read Football Genius and absolutely loved it.  We love football in our house, so I loved reading about a boy who gets to meet and help one of his favorite football players win games.  I'm excited to read the rest of the series and also read his more recent baseball series.

Tim Green told me this about being an athlete in the NFL and now writing books for kids:

"I feel like I’m able to shine a light on a world that is incredibly interesting and violent and fightening and heart-warming.  I think it is such a rich, rich backdrop and I’m the only one who’s doing this...I think that’s the thing that I am most proud of about my own work, that I am able to shine a light on a place that no one else is so that it’s sports but it digs so much deeper than any sports books that are out there."  

I'm always curious about where readers like to read, so I asked him about his ideal reading spot and this is what he had to say:

"In the summertime down on my dock, at the end of the dock on a chair.  I love sitting in the sun and be out right on the water and just reading a book."

Here's a picture of me with Tim Green!

The next book in the Baseball Great series comes out on March 22, 2011.  I'm excited to be able to recommend these fun football and baseball books to any kiddo who loves sports - whether they play sports or not.  

If you can come to school and tell me the title of Tim Green's book that is coming out in March, then you will earn one sticker towards a reading reward.

Author Spotlight - John Scieska

District U-46 will be welcoming Jon Scieszka in December!  Schools will be entered into a raffle to win a visit from the author Jon Scieszka.  He will also be appearing at Elgin High School on Wednesday, December 8th at 4:00 p.m.  That event will be open to the public so everyone has a chance to meet him!

I have been able to meet some of my favorite authors in the last few years.  It is interesting to see what they are like in person and to hear him or her talk about writing.  Jon Scieszka has written some great books that you might recognize:

The entire Trucktown series is a hit at my house!  I read Robot Zot! with one of my students this year and we loved it.  If you would like to learn more about Jon Scieszka you can visit his website at jsworldwide.  There is an audio clip that you can listen to to learn how to say his last name!  He also has a site on his publisher's website and he also started a website called Guys Read.  I just bought a collection of short stories called Guys Read: Funny Business and it's awesome so far!

Here is a fun fact about Jon Scieszka: He is one of SIX brothers!  (I can't imagine what it would be like to have five brothers...or to be a mom of six boys!)  You can read lots more about him at the websites above.  He seems like a really funny guy!

If your child comes to school and can tell me which author will be coming to visit U-46, he or she will earn one sticker towards a reading reward!

Author Spotlight - Gordon Korman

I just saw Gordon Korman present at one of my middle schools. I have to tell you, it is so fun for me to meet authors. I love reading books and to get to meet an author is a great experience because you really get to hear where a story comes from and how he or she goes about writing.

Gordon Korman wrote his first book when he was in 7th grade! He explained that his teacher gave an assignment asking students, basically, just to write...and he did. When he finished his book, he mailed it off to Scholastic, and by luck, they published his book. From there, he just kept on writing and has now written a lot of books.

The entire 7th grade read his book, Schooled. It was interesting to hear him talk about books he has published and how he came up with the idea for Schooled. He explained that some of his stories come from experience, and others come from his imagination. He was doing a presentation at a school when he noticed some students who were home-schooled. He noticed that they seemed out of place amongst the other students and that is where he came up with the idea of a character like Capricorn Anderson, for Schooled.

This picture turned out kind of dark, but you can see him on the stage if you look closely.  

Here I am with Gordon Korman! You can see I am wearing my tie-dye t-shirt in honor of the 60's theme of the book.

Gordon Korman also talked about his newest book that will be released in December. The book is called One False Note. This new book is the 2nd book in series, The 39 Clues. There will be ten books in the series, and each book is going to be written by a different author. Rick Riordan wrote the first book, and Gordan Korman wrote the second. I am really anxious to check this series out.

S.E. Hinton

Today a went to a huge book fair in downtown Chicago.  There were lots of booths to buy books and lots of fun free stuff.  They had presentations going on all day.     

I went to go see S.E. Hinton.  She is a famous author and she wrote The Outsiders.  She wrote The Outsiders when she was a teenager.  The Outsiders is about two different cliques: the socs and the greasers.  Cliques are groups of people who are friends.  Sometimes, if you are part of one clique then you cannot be friends with someone from another clique.  It can be sad because everyone should be able to get along and we should get to know people for who they are not who they hang out with.  S.E. Hinton wrote this book about 40 years ago, but the social problems she wrote about then are still going on today.  I think this is a great book for teenage readers.  I was able to get my copy of The Outsiders signed by S.E. Hinton and to take a picture with her.  

Here is her website if you want to learn more about her and other book she has written: www.sehinton.com.