Jelly dreads the yearly speech competition at school but when this year's prize is revealed to be a gaming device he's extremely motivated. Problem is that when Jelly has to talk in front of a group he's speechless. Jelly's classmate Victoria wins every year. Victoria's the school co-president. She's every teacher's favourite. How can Jelly compete with her? What topic will win the votes from his classmates?
Speechless is a great read aloud. It's funny and has many great discussion points.
Last week my school had the great pleasure of hosting Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch for a visit with our students in grades 4 to 8. Many of the students had read Marsha's award winning novel Making Bombs for Hitler (don't let the title scare you off!). I am currently reading Underground Soldier aloud with many of the classes. We were quite fortunate to benefit from two grants that assisted us in having Marsha spend the day with us. One of those was a grant that Marsha had been given to help promote education on World War I internment. The kids were fascinated and full of questions. Of course, there was a handful of students who I didn't think were particularly engaged in her novels and I mentioned to Marsha that I was worried they would chat while she tried to talk. Marsha promised me all would be fine. Well those same kids I was worried about were the ones that gave up their recess to stay behind and talk to her further. She really was that good. Someone told me recently that they don't think kids are interested in reading about history but that is definitely not true. Many of my students love reading historical fiction; especially realistic historical fiction. If you ever get a chance to hear Marsha speak or perhaps bring her to your school I highly recommend her. I heard so much fantastic feedback from students, teachers and parents during teacher interviews. We're still talking about it.
Ultra by David Carroll is a nominee in this year's Forest of Reading Silver Birch fiction category. I read this aloud to a grade 5 class. Ultra is the story is of13 year old Quinn, who is running an ultra marathon. As he runs he remembers things from his past, specifically about his dad. There are many unknowns about Quinn's father and that is something we puzzled over until almost the very end. There were many humorous parts of the story that had the students laughing out loud. Specifically a chapter about playing urinal hockey which happened to be the chapter that all the mom's from parent council were in the room for - of all chapters! The students really enjoyed the book and even asked me to read to them while they ate their lunch because they were eager to hear more. I haven't read enough books in the Silver Birch fiction category to vote yet but I would be confident saying that Ultra will get some votes at my school.
The Secret of the Village Fool is written by Canadian author Rebecca Upjohn. It is a nominee for this year's Forest of Reading Silver Birch Express category. I read The Secret of the Village Fool yesterday to a grade 4/5 class. They were all quite captivated by the story. The story is about a 'village fool', Anton, who takes care of all the living things around him. When war breaks out Anton hides a Jewish family because a life is a life and they are all worth saving. When the story was over the kids were fascinated by the final few pages that revealed this was in fact a true story. I was very happy to see that a few kids asked to borrow it and read again on their own. This is quite possibly a winner in the Silver Birch Express category.