Monday, October 25, 2010

Martha Jones 5th Grade Book Report


ADVENTURE BOOKS!
What is an adventure?
-an exciting or very unusual experience.
-a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
Adventure books usually have some of the attributes described above, they are filled with action and exciting/dangerous happenings. Some adventure stories can also be a mystery, or filled with horror, or even a love story. Some adventure stories are set in the past and are called an historical fiction, while others are true stories. Check below to look at some titles of adventure stories. If you have any questions or have a specific request for a kind of adventure story you are interested please leave me a comment! Come to the library with any other questions you may have.


  • J Graphic
  • O’Donnell -Wild Ride
  • Wood -Into the Volcano
  • Authors with lots of Adventure titles: Aiken, Alexander, Avi, George, Gutman, Hobbs, Jacques, Korman, Oppel, Paulsen, Strasser, Voigt
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Sheehan School: 5th Grade Mass Book Awards Report

Check Below to find the master list of the Massachusetts Children's Book Award 2011. Click on the title to bring you to the catalog and/or click on the author's name for information on the author.

The Mass Book Awards program is designed for kids in grades 4-6 who read five books from the Master List and then vote for their favorite book. Participating teachers, librarians, and interested publishers nominate titles for the program. A selection committee works with the nominations and chooses 25 titles to appear on the Master List. Criteria for the Master List include literary quality, variety of genres, representation of diverse cultural groups, and reader appeal. Books published within a five-year period before the award year are eligible. The author of the winning book receives a plaque to commemorate the award.The award, established in 1975, is sponsored by Salem State College. Students in the Westwood schools can participate by reading the books and then voting for their favorites in March.

Click here for information about the Massachusetts Children's Book Award from Salem State University.

Come to the library to choose one of these books for your book report or to ask for any other reading suggestions. We look forward to helping you find everything you need for the report.

Anderson, L. H. (2008). Chains.
After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.

Appelt, K. (2008). The Underneath.
An old hound that has been chained up at his hateful owner's run-down shack, and two kittens born underneath the house, endure separation, danger, and many other tribulations in their quest to be reunited and free.

Applegate, K. (2007). Home of the Brave.
Kek, an African refugee, is confronted by many strange things at the Minneapolis home of his aunt and cousin, as well as in his fifth grade classroom, and longs for his missing mother, but finds comfort in the company of a cow and her owner.

Avi. (2007). Iron Thunder.
Tom's job as an assistant to Captain John Ericsson, the inventor of the Monitor, makes him a target of Confederate spies.

Balliett, B. (2008). The Calder Game.
When seventh-grader Calder Pillay disappears from a remote English village--along with an Alexander Calder sculpture to which he has felt strangely drawn--his friends Petra and Tommy fly from Chicago to help his father find him.

Barrows, A. (2007). The Magic Half.
Eleven-year-old Miri Gill feels left out in her family, which has two sets of twins and her, until she travels back in time to 1935 and discovers Molly, her own lost twin, and brings her to the present day.

Baskin, N. (2009). Anything but Typical.
Jason, a twelve-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer, relates what his life is like as he tries to make sense of his world.

Berlin, E. (2009). The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen.
Winston and his friends enter an all-day puzzle contest to win fifty-thousand dollars for their school, but they must also figure out who is trying to keep them from winning. Puzzles for the reader to solve are included throughout the text.

Blume, J. (2008). Cool Zone with the Pain and the Great One.
More adventures at school and at home with Jake, a first-grader, and his older sister Abigail, known to each other as the Pain and the Great One.

Clements, A. (2007). No Talking!
The noisy fifth grade boys of Laketon Elementary School challenge the equally loud fifth grade girls to a "no talking" contest.

Goodman, A. (2008). The Other Side of the Island.
Born in the eighteenth year of Enclosure, ten-year-old Honor lives in a highly regulated colony with her defiant parents, but when they have an illegal second child and are taken away, it is up to Honor and her friend Helix, another "unpredictable", to uncover a terrible secret about their island and the corporation that runs everything.

Harper, C. (2007). Just Grace.
Misnamed by her teacher, seven-year-old Just Grace prides herself on being empathetic, but when she tries to help a neighbor feel better, her good intentions backfire.

Key, W. (2006). Alabama Moon.
After the death of his father, ten-year-old Moon leaves their forest shelter home and is sent to an Alabama institution, becoming entangled in the outside world he has never known and making good friends, a relentless enemy, and finally a new life.

Law, I. (2008). Savvy.
Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family--just as her father is injured in a terrible accident.

Lowery, L. (2006). Truth and Salsa.
Having moved temporarily from Michigan to live with her grandmother in Mexico, twelve-year-old Hayley tries to sort out her feelings about her parents' separation while also helping some townsmen who have run into trouble while working in the United States.

Lowry, L. (2008). The Willoughbys.
In this tongue-in-cheek take on classic themes in children's literature, the four Willoughby children set about to become "deserving orphans" after their neglectful parents embark on a treacherous around-the-world adventure, leaving them in the care of an odious nanny.

MacLachlan, P. (2007). Edward's Eyes.
Edward is one of a large and close family that loves baseball, music, books, and each other, and when he unexpectedly dies and his parents donate his organs, his wonderful eyes go to a perfect recipient.

Mass, W. (2009). 11 Birthdays.
After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.

Mortenson, G., & Relin, D. (2009). Three Cups of Tea (Young Edition).
An adaptation of the bestselling book about the American Greg Mortenson's building of over 60 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Reilly Giff, P. (2008). Eleven.
When Sam, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth memories from his past, and, with the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for a school project, his questions are eventually answered.

Scaletta, K. (2009). Mudville.
For twenty-two years, since a fateful baseball game against their rival town, it has rained in Moundville, so when the rain finally stops, twelve-year-old Roy, his friends, and foster brother Sturgis dare to face the curse and form a team.

Stead, R. (2007). First Light.
When twelve-year-old Peter and his family arrive in Greenland for his father's research, he stumbles upon a secret his mother has been hiding from him all his life, and begins an adventure he never imagines possible.

St. John, L. (2007). The White Giraffe.
After a fire kills her parents, eleven-year-old Martine must leave England to live with her grandmother on a wildlife game reserve in South Africa, where she befriends a mythical white giraffe.

Stuchner, J. (2008). Honey Cake.
David and his family live in Denmark during the Nazi occupation, until September 1943 when their neighbors help smuggle them to Sweden to escape Hitler's orders to send the Danish Jews to concentration camps. Includes a recipe for honey cake, typically made to celebrate the Jewish New Year.

Wilson, N. D. (2007). 100 Cupboards: Book 1.
After his parents are kidnapped, timid twelve-year-old Henry York leaves his sheltered Boston life and moves to small-town Kansas, where he and his cousin Henrietta discover and explore hidden doors in his attic room that seem to open onto other worlds.
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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

3rd Grade Hanlon School- THE VIKINGS!

Vikings were Scandinavian warriors who raided the coasts of Europe and the British Isles from the 9th cent. to the 11th cent. In their versatile LONGSHIPS, the Vikings sailed vast distances. Their golden age of trade, exploration, and colonization lasted until AD 1100. There are many interesting facts you can learn about the vikings in books and online. Check out the below links on Vikings for fast facts, time-line, and even some games.

Here are a few interesting facts about Vikings:

-The Vikings were the best shipbuilders and sailors of their time.

- If the direction of land was unknown, Viking sailors would release a raven into the air and follow its course.

- Viking warriors were buried with their weapons, but not their armor.

Viking Links:

Walk Through Time

FactMonster-Vikings

Time Tangled Island: Viking Explorers

Fast Facts about Viking

Come into the library with any questions you may have or for information on books.
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