The Great Bike Rescue by Hazel Hutchins

I've been working through the Silver Birch Express nominees with my grade 3 to grade 6 classes.  This week most of my classes completed their fifth book!!  I'm so proud of all of them.

The Great Bike Rescue is full of action from page number one.  Levi goes into the corner store just for a few minutes but it was enough time for someone to steal his bike.  He didn't lock it, but still, it's not right!!  The next day Riley's bike gets stolen too but his bike was locked.  The boys have a mystery to solve.  

The Great Bike Rescue was an action packed story.  Every chapter left on a cliff hanger.  In fact, this week as our library period ended I had two different classes ask me to read to them while they ate their lunch because they wanted to know what happened next.

This was a great read aloud.  I thought it might be too simple for the grade 6's but everyone seemed to enjoy it.  But the question remains...what will they vote for???  Stay tuned!

My Name is Blessing by Eric Walters

It is a coincidence that I find myself reading three Eric Walters books in one week but really with the number of books that he has out it's not that surprising.  This week I read My Name is Blessing to the grade 3 to 7 classes.  The story is the true story about a little boy named Muthini, which means suffering.  His mother left him to be raised by his Grandmother.  His Grandmother loved him very much but for many reasons she was not able to provide for him.  She brought Muthini to an orphanage and asked if they had room for Muthini.  There is no room for suffering at the orphanage for suffering but there is room for a blessing.  It's such a beautiful story and told so well.  If you ever get a chance to hear Eric Walters speak you really should.  He's a wonderful story teller.

What really was amazing was seeing the response that the students had to the story.  The Forest of Reading is having a contest where students can write letters to Blessing.  Eric Walters will judge and select five letters to share with Blessing.  Blessing will then respond to the letters and Eric Walters will mail the winners autographed copies of his book.  The letters that the students at my school have written are so beautiful and touching.  I loved reading how the kids related to the story.

Every Day is Malala Day by Rosemary McCarney

Every Day is Malala Day is one of the Silver Birch Express nominees for 2015.  It's the first in the series that I read aloud at school.  This week I read it to grade's 3 to 7.  The Silver Birch Express is geared for grade's 3/4 but in an effort to get the majority of the school voting I try to read as many of the books as I can to the kids when they come for their weekly library period.

The book is written as an open letter to Malala.  Unfortunately I started the week off with the grade 3 class and that conversation got a bit derailed talking about getting shot in the head.  I think if I read with that class again I'd be better armed to sway the discussion but the other classes had some great discussion about Malala afterwards.