Review: No Bears

No Bears

Written by Meg McKinlay

Illustrated by Leila Rudge

Publication Date: 2011
Publisher: Walker Books
ISBN: 978-1-921529-92-4

Summary/Back cover:
Ruby is in charge of this book. And she’ll tell you something right now. There are NO BEARS in it. NOT EVEN ONE.

Review:
Ok, first of all I need to clarify. Ruby is mistaken. There is very definitely a bear in this book. I am not sure if she ignores the bear deliberately or if she is honestly ignorant to the fact she has guardian-angel-type bear lurking around. Either way, there is a bear in this book, despite Ruby going to great pains to point out otherwise.

The book is a story within a story. Ruby narrates as she creates her ideal story ie. one that has NO BEARS in it. The pictures at times tell a slightly different scenario than the one Ruby presents the audience with. The story Ruby makes-up is based on the fairy-tale genre, beginning with “Once upon a time” and ending with “happily ever after” with a princess thrown in for good measure. In the illustrations you’ll also see a few familiar fairy-tale characters.

The fairy-tale element potentially makes this a story more popular with females. I, for example, love this book. I’m pretty sure I love it more than my pre-school boys do, although they do seem to have warmed to it since discovering there is a monster in it.

The illustrations (created digitally) are modern and gorgeous. The pages abound with beautiful patterns in delicious sorbet colours.

My rating: 5 out of 5

Review written by team_s

Book Review: Miss Fox's Class Goes Green

Author: Eileen Spinelli
Illustrated by Anne Kennedy
Interest Level: Ages 5-8

From the Book Jacket: When Miss Fox shows up at school riding her bicycle, Mouse asks, "Does your car have a flat tire?" "No," Miss Fox tells her students. "I am going green!"

Soon everyone in the class is working to keep the earth healthy. Mouse takes shorter showers; Bunny brings a cloth bag to the supermarket; and Possum turns the lights off when he goes out. And Miss Fox's simple act has ripples even beyond her own students. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Earth day is April 22nd! Last year I read Arthur Turns Green to students. This year I discovered the newly published and awesome Miss Fox's Class Goes Green. It's PERFECT for Earth Day. By the end of the story kids were yelling out, "I am going green, Mrs. D!" Our school really gets into Earth Day and each class participates in some sort of green activity. This was an excellent opportunity for me to use this as a counseling lesson. Lots of kids had never heard of the phrase 'going green.' Let me tell you, students get passionate about this stuff. I love it! And I love this cute new book!

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:

Chrissa Stands Strong Movie

About the Movie

Chrissa Maxwell and her family have just moved to snowy Minnesota, and Chrissa has to start at a new school mid-year. Will she fit in? Can she find new friends?

On her very first day, Chrissa is seated with three girls who greet her with teasing and tricks. The "Mean Bees" really know how to sting—they bully Chrissa and the other kids in class, on the bus, online, and even at swim club. Chrissa can’t seem to make any new friends—not even with the girl who seems to need a friend the most. When the biggest bully becomes Chrissa’s swimming rival, the taunting finally goes too far.

Can Chrissa find a way to stand strong and stop the bullying?

Movie Trailer


I absolutely love this movie and have been showing it the past couple of years to students. If you are a parent, teacher, or counselor I really encourage you to watch this movie with your kids. There are so many great lessons in it about bullying.

There are also great curriculum materials that go with the movie for parents and teachers to use as a guide. Oh, and it's FREE. Double score on that one!

PS. This is not a movie for JUST girls. The boys in my school loved this movie just as much and were not scared away because it is from American Girl. They don't even notice that. In fact, I had a few boys come up to me in the hallway and excitedly ask, "When are we going to finish the Chrissa movie?"

Calling All School Counselors (with a blog)

Are you a school counselor with a blog? Then I'd like to know about it. I've been working on putting together a blog post listing all the school counselor blogs I have come across. There are LOTS of teacher blogs out there but not too many school counselor sites. So it's time to give a shout out to my fellow school counselors who are trying to make a difference out there on the web. I don't do a lot of 'school counseling talk' here because I'm all about the books. But today I was thinking other counselors would love to have access to more information and resources. 

Please leave a comment below with your blog address and I'll add it to my upcoming post. Lets link up peeps!

Wouldn't This Be A Great Children's Book?

Book Review: How Do You Feel?

From the Book Jacket: Feelings. There are a lot of them in this book! You might feel confident or shy, bored, curious, worried - even silly! Or maybe you feel sad or lonely one day, and happy the next! There are many ways to answer the question, How do you feel?

Why It's On My Bookshelf: I got this book a couple of weeks ago and have been doing some thinking on how I want to turn it into a lesson plan. So last week I was teaching in a 3rd grade class when I saw (see picture below)......

This fabulous monkey!  It completely reminded me of How Do You Feel? because of the monkey theme in it. Hmmmm.....now how can I use this cute guy in my lesson with the book? Here is my genius idea for the lesson:

Don't MONKEY around with other people's feelings

In fact, wouldn't that be a great idea for a book!? Okay, well until I get around to taking on that kind of project I'm going to develop a fabulous lesson plan for now.  I'm going to read the story as an introduction to feelings then bring in my handsome monkey dude to talk about how important it is to not MONKEY around with somebody's emotions. I feel like it will really spark some discussion and get kids thinking. Really excited to do more feelings work with kids using this awesome book.

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful: 

Spring Book Giveaway!

Giveaway from Little Brown Books for Young Readers

The awesome folks from LB Kids are giving away THREE copies of Kaleidoscope. A super cool book!  

Book Description:

Salina Yoon invites readers on an unforgettable poetic journey filled with colorful surprises in Kaleidoscope. Combining an eye-catching rotating kaleidoscope lens with vibrant illustrations, she creates an unforgettable visual experience. Every die-cut page reveals surprising new scenes, from playing in a rainy puddle to smelling a yummy, freshly baked pie. Fun and engaging rhymes complement these joyous moments— it’s a visual feast for all ages!

Deceptively simple and thoughtfully layered, Kaleidoscope will encourage readers to see the world through a different lens. 

How do you enter?

Entry:
Go to the comments section below. Leave a comment on this post. Just tell me your favorite thing about Spring. That's it!

Make sure you leave an email address if your profile doesn’t have one or I won’t be able to notify you if you won. All entries will be assigned a number and the winner will be chosen by random.org. Giveaway closes at midnight PDT on Friday, April 13th, 2012. This is open to US residents. No PO Boxes. I will email the winners on Monday, April 16th, 2012.  

GOOD LUCK!

Book Review: Happy Like Soccer

Author: Maribeth Boelts
Illustrator: Lauren Castillo
Ages: Ages 5-9

A Note From the Publisher: Nothing makes Sierra happy like soccer. Her shoes have flames as she spins the ball down the spread-out sea of grass. But nothing makes her sad like soccer, too, because the restaurant where her auntie works is busy on game days and she can't take time off to watch Sierra play. On game days, her auntie helps Sierra get ready and tells her, "Play hard and have fun." And Sierra does, but she can't help wishing she had someone there to root for her by name, and not just by the number on her uniform. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: I'm a huge fan of Maribeth Boelts book Those Shoes.
So I was thrilled to see the newly published Happy Like Soccer. It is another gem! And don't you just love the name of it!? It provides a lot of validation for kids with similarities to the book's character Sierra. She does not live with her parents - she lives with her auntie. We have quite a few students who don't reside with their parents....they live with grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other guardians. This brought up a lot of discussion on how families look different and that's okay. Sierra is very happy living with her auntie. The story is also about the importance of having people in your life to cheer you on and how good it makes you feel. We talked about how important it is to cheer each other on. However, I'm using this story to validate children who might not be living with their parents and to teach other kids that all families have a different make up. What a great new book!

A Link to This Book And Others You Might Find Helpful: 

Book Review: The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

Authors: Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein
Interest Level: Ages 5 and Up

A Note From the Publisher: Meet Beatrice Bottomwell: a nine-year-old girl who has never (not once!) made a mistake. She never forgets her math homework, she never wears mismatched socks, and she ALWAYS wins the yearly talent show at school. In fact, Beatrice holds the record of perfection in her hometown, where she is known as The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes. Life for Beatrice is sailing along pretty smoothly until she does the unthinkable–she makes her first mistake. And in a very public way!  

Why It's On My Bookshelf: I teach lessons around the message that it's okay to make a mistake and we all make them. Most importantly - how to recover from a mistake! Kids are working hard everyday practicing and acquiring new skills in so many areas. Part of growing up is learning how to deal with making a mistake. This is a brand new book to my shelf so I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet. It's going to be a HIT. Kids need to hear it's absolutely OKAY to flub up because as we say in our school: Mistakes are opportunities for learning. Mistake DOES NOT mean failure or there is something wrong with you. Sometimes children get that stuck in their heads. You're going to appreciate this new one.

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful: