Author Visit - Mr. James Deem

Yesterday, the 6th graders were treated to a presentation by award winning author Mr. James Deem. He spoke to all the students about how he became an author, the process of writing non-fiction vs. fiction, his research process and the ancient civilizations he has studied. He had many great stories and interesting pictures that included many dead people! COOL!

After the presentations, 26 6th graders were treated lunch with him. They asked a lot of great questions and had their books autographed.

We have copies of his books in the LRC...so come up and check them out!!

Spring Break

Have a great SPRING BREAK everyone! Enjoy, relax and read a good book!

BOOK FAIR!!!

Everyone is getting excited around the Woodland LRC because next week is our Scholastic Book Fair! We are so excited because there are many great books to buy and these books would be perfect reading for your upcoming spring break.

All students will have the opportunity to visit the book fair with their language arts classes. Students can also come down during advisory or after school to make purchases. Our LRC gets a percentage of the book fair profits and I use that money to buy even more books for our collection!!

Congratulations to the 2011 Woodland Green Battle of the Books Team. This past Tuesday evening, they took 1st place at this year's competition. Awesome job!!

Mrs. Perrin is very proud of ALL of this year's team members and the dedication they gave to their teams. She is already looking forward to next year!

And the winner is...

Thank you to the 144 voters who helped chose the 2011 Rebecca Caudill winner for Woodland Middle School. Here are the results:

1st - Hunger Games
2nd - Fablehaven
3rd - Found
4th - 11 Birthdays
5th - Notes from a Midnight Driver

As schools around the state send in their results, the votes will be tallied and we will soon know which book was voted #1 by students across Illinois!!

Blizzard Reading!!

Just before the snow started falling last week, I thought it would be a good idea to grab a few books in case I was stuck in my house for a few days. On the top of my list was a brand new book to our LRC and one that has recently won many national awards. I read and loved One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.

Here is the review from School Library Journal (3/1/10):

It is 1968, and three black sisters from Brooklyn have been put on a California-bound plane by their father to spend a month with their mother, a poet who ran off years before and is living in Oakland. It's the summer after Black Panther founder Huey Newton was jailed and member Bobby Hutton was gunned down trying to surrender to the Oakland police, and there are men in berets shouting "Black Power" on the news. Delphine, 11, remembers her mother, but after years of separation she's more apt to believe what her grandmother has said about her, that Cecile is a selfish, crazy woman who sleeps on the street. At least Cecile lives in a real house, but she reacts to her daughters' arrival without warmth or even curiosity. Instead, she sends the girls to eat breakfast at a center run by the Black Panther Party and tells them to stay out as long as they can so that she can work on her poetry. Over the course of the next four weeks, Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, spend a lot of time learning about revolution and staying out of their mother's way. Emotionally challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility. With memorable characters (all three girls have engaging, strong voices) and a powerful story, this is a book well worth reading and rereading.

Rebecca Caudill Voting Begins Monday

On Monday, January 31st, students will begin voting for their favorite Rebecca Caudill book from the list of this year's 20 nominees. All 6th, 7th and 8th grade students who have read three or more nominated books will be eligible to vote. Voting will take place during each LA class's regularly scheduled LRC time. If you read all 20 books, be prepared for a special sweet treat when you vote!

Good luck to all the nominated authors. May the BEST book win!!