5/5 - A magical love story that rests in your heart long after Addie's tale has been told.
... I was very happy that this was my first read of 2021. After reading the Darker Shades series throughout 2019 and 2020, I was gifted this book and jumped at the chance to read another of V.E. Schwab's stories - "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" did not disappoint. As someone who grew up on fantasy fiction, Schwab's books have a just the right touch of magic that I feel is either lost or too heavy-handed in stories written for young adults/adults. Magic is simply woven into a world that it feels I've known all my life, and that is what keeps drawing me back to her writing. Strong-willed and wild, Addie unwittingly makes too large a sacrifice in order to maintain her freedoms. She becomes bound to a endless life in which nobody can remember her, and she cannot even speak her own name, until... A boy with a broken heart makes a similar deal. One destined to drive them together and change everything for them both. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue gave me the chance to believe, once again, that magic is all around us... even if we just can't see it.
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This year, my school district adopted a slew of new reading programs that encompass everything from directed word work and vocabulary, to structured reading and writing instruction. Alongside these, my school implements an additional (also mandatory) 90-minute core reading block. With my literacy time being pulled in so many directions I felt like I was starting to lose myself as a reading teacher. I'd fallen - or was maybe pulled into - a complacency built upon scripted literacy and boring texts. I needed a better kind of change. A self-guided journey back into what made me fall in love with teaching in the first place: reading books about books, reading books about teachers, and finding time to get my students reading with me and reading together. But I was out of practice and needed a reminder of what my ideal reading block would even look like. Between my first and second years of teaching I read "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller. That book paired with my personal teaching goals molded how I view literacy as an educator and how I wanted my literacy blocks to reflect these beliefs. I decided that the best way to get myself on track to was to crack open her second book "Reading in the Wild" and get back to doing what was best for me and for my students. More and more, educators and parents agree that students must not only develop the ability to comprehend what they read, but also develop an orientation to literacy that leads to lifelong reading and learning. (Reading in the Wild, page xix) Last year, a few ladies in my graduate school cohort and myself chose to read Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst for a book club assignment. After reading and falling in love with the book, I was excited to take part in an additional Notice and Note book club at work. While our group was small, the impact was definitely felt school-wide. All throughout the year, I have noticed the theory and terminology behind Notice and Note seeping through our school and into the ears of the kids roaming our halls. If you haven't already read Notice and Note, I highly recommend it! The success of last year's book choice was the inspiration for another book club this school year. Who's Doing the Work? by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris was the perfect follow-up to the conversation that began in our school last year. I'm pleased to say that our book club group has grown in size, and has even expanded to teachers outside of the ELA circle! After finishing the book, I knew Who's Doing the Work? would be the perfect start to my "Teacher Book Talk" series!
Throughout the book Yaris and Burkins say that we should teach our students to face reading challenges head on. Rather than shying away from a tough mental task, we should always teach our students to take on the productive struggle. Who's Doing the Work? is broken down into six powerful chapters in which the authors break down how to give the work back to the students during read alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading. Even if you are a mean, lean, productive struggle machine in your classroom, this book was a great refresher on why each piece of the balanced literacy block is vital to student learning and should be utilized evenly.
Pax and Peter are quite a remarkable duo. A boy and his fox... a fox and his boy. When a war breaks out, nothing - not injury, pain, death, or distance - will keep these two from finding one another, and inevitably, themselves. Pax, by Sarah Pennypacker, is a dual-edged coming of age tale that pulled at even the most taught of heartstrings in my classroom. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary FriendWords by Dan Santat Every Wednesday afternoon I have after-school care. Generally we play outside but recently daylight savings time has had other plans. Last Wednesday was SO dark, SO early that we called it quits on recess time a lot sooner than usual and made our way to the library for books and computer time. As the kids learned to type, played math games, read books, colored, and giggled, I wandered the media center waiting for a cover to catch my eye. Low and behold, a little pudgy, crowned fellow waved a hand at me. I pulled the book from the shelf and in that moment I knew something magical was in my hands - picture Harry finally getting a hand on his phoenix-feather wand at Ollivander's. From my first solo read to my first and subsequent read alouds, Beekle has found his way into my classroom, my students' hands, and into our hearts. What undoubtedly sets this book apart as a great read aloud - aside from the story of friendship and patience - are the pictures. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend was a 2015 Caldecott Award Winner and rightfully so. My mom (henceforth known as Mama Mondelli) bought my classroom a copy of Beekle, and it has yet to find a place on the classroom bookshelf because our new favorite imaginary friend is constantly in someone's hands. Below is a slideshow of a handful of pictures from the story that draw the reader in and truly make Beekle come alive. The world began to feel a little less strange and together they did the unimaginable. |
About MeI'm a fourth grade reading teacher, as well as a lover of coffee, Game of Thrones, and books by the dozen. Archives
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