Altara

School: Altara

Month/Year: February 2008

Recommended Read-a-loud or Book-talk books:

Title: “Mrs. Crump’s Cat

Author: Linda Smith

Topic: Beehive Nominee

Grades: 3-6

Comments: A stray cat shows up at Mrs. Crump’s doorstep. She thinks she has no need for a cat, but little by little the cat makes its way into her heart and she ends up keeping the cat. Great story with awesome pictures.

Title: “Wind Flyers”

Author: Angela Johnson

Topic: Tuskegee Wind Flyers

Grades: 4-6

Comments: Great book which tells how a boy’s love of flight takes him on a journey from Alabama to the war-torn skies of Europe and how the Tuskegee Airmen played a huge role in the outcome of World War ll and of the history of America.

Pair and Share Topic: The Holocaust

Titles/Authors used: “Yellow Star” by Jennifer Roy, “ Luba, the Angel of Bergen- Belsen” by Michelle R. McCann and “Anne Frank Beyond the Diary” by Ruud Van der Rol.

Comments: “Yellow Star” is a Beehive Nominee for this year. We read several parts of the book aloud and talked about how Syvia was one of twelve children who survived the Lodz Concentration Camp in Poland. What an amazing book! The kids were so amazed at the things Syvia had to go through, such as hiding all night in a grave her father dug up to escape the Nazis. We paired this book with “Luba” and “Anne Frank” and talked about some of the experiences that these two young women also had during the Holocaust.