Sheila's List

Reading has always been a favorite activity for me. As autumn is approaching I have found that I have a slew of books on my reading list. I am trying to be able to recommend books to kids in my Literature class, and I am somewhat out of touch with what they are reading now. So much new literature has been written since my older boys were in middle school. I have read a few, but not as many as I should. Right now I am reading the novel Fairest written by the author Gail Carson Levine who also wrote Ella Enchanted. I am also reading Hatchet with my students at school. I had read it about 15 years ago when Joe first hit middle school. I also have other Gary Paulsen titles in our collection including Brian's Hunt, Brian's Winter and his newer book The Voyage of the Frog. Naturally I have more experiences with novels boys enjoy, but I need to get in touch with some of the literature the girls are enjoying.

I know I am an expert in the preschool to intermediate age literature. In fact I have quite a collection, and get regular updates from Amazon and Scholastic on what is new.

Raymond is still finding plenty to read in our home collection. He has read most of the Magic Tree House series, and I am trying to get him to read some of the other classics (Encyclopedia Brown, Mouse and the Motor Cycle, etc.). He is reading Chocolate Fever to us this week. It is a newer title he ordered from Scholastic last spring, and he is just now reading it. He is very unimpressed by his school library and keeps bringing the same books home over and over. We also keep buying new titles he is interested in reading.

Daniel has adored Dr. Seuss since early last spring. We get a few titles by other authors read every day, but he keeps coming back to the Dr. Seuss titles. He has surprised himself lately by how much he can read. He will ask, "Does that say _____?" He then gets excited that it actually does more often than not. He is also "reading" pages of Hop on Pop and Go Dog, Go.