Tag Archive for sixth grade

September 17

Written by Amanda West Lewis

War, as seen from the eyes of 10, 13 and 15 year olds is quite different from that of adults. In this carefully researched historical fiction we find that many children being sent away to Canada from England on a large cruise ship see it as an adventure.

This startling tale is about a time when England was so sure it would fall to the Nazis that a plan was established to send away a whole generation of children. Some would be sent, supposedly, to Canada. Others would go to Australia or New Zealand.

The alarming rate of bombing in London caused parents to make very fast decisions under duress. Children were sent away with only a change of clothes and, if lucky, one packed lunch.

Unfortunately, the title of the book is the date that one such ship carrying a group of over 90 children was torpedoed and sunk by the Nazi U-boat. There were survivors, but very few. Perhaps the most breathtaking part of the story is the several days that one group of children spent in a tiny lifeboat dreaming of survival. One of the things that still kept the children going was their thought of having an adventure at sea with real sailors.

Core curriculum standards for history, geography and literacy skills can be met for grade 6 readers and beyond whether the book is used in a classroom, library or book club setting. It is history we have not read before and it is provided in a fascinating narrative style that puts the reader right in that scary frigid water.

Buy on Amazon

  • September 17Title: September 17
  • Author: Amanda West Lewis
  • Publisher: Red Deer Press, 2014
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Paperback, 313 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-88995-507-3
  • Genre: Historical Fiction
  • Grade level: 6 and up
  • Extras: Afterward, Recommended Reading, Interview and Photograph of the Author

The Boy on the Wooden Box

Written by Leon Leyson

Leon Leyson was one of the boys on Schindler’s list. As explained in this memoir, he was so small at the time that he had to stand on a box to reach the buttons and dials of the machine he was operating. This sad, but not graphic depiction of the Holocaust, is important for fifth grade readers, sixth grade readers and beyond,

It is important that the world not forget what happened in our recent history. But it is also important that it be told in such a way that will not cause nightmares or fear of exploring the world. Lesson does an excellent job of separating the German people from those in the Nazi party. He trusted Germans before the war and returned to Germany after the war.

A remarkable thing about this memoir is the strength of hope exhibited and the resiliency of this young man. Again and again it seemed he would never see his family again. Over and over he was put in a line that would lead to his death. But still he survived. Thanks to Oscar Schindler. Most people were unaware of the heroic deeds of that one man until a movie was made. However, students in grades five an up might not be aware of the film.

As students, teachers and librarians continue to read and teach The Diary of Anne Frank, they should also be reading and teaching this memoir. This story continued on past the ghetto, the camps, and the death. Perhaps because of his age, young Leon was able to pick up his hopes and dreams and immigrate into the United States. He continued on to live a happy and productive life. For decades, his own children did not know the story of his being a Schindler’s boy in his teens.

How thrilled Leon was, though, in the fall of 1965 in Los Angeles, to have Oscar Schindler recognize and remember him.

This book will fulfill multiple literacy skills as well as history and social studies requirements in the core curriculum and should be part of every school library collection.

  • Boy on Wooden BoxTitle: The Boy on the Wooden Box
  • Author: Leon Leyson
  • Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
  • ISBN:  978-1-4424-9781-8
  • Genre: Memoir
  • Grade Level: 6
  • Extras: Photographs, additional resources for learning about the Holocaust

Better Nate than Ever

Written by Tim Federle

Lovable, adorable thirteen-year-old Nate sets off for his first Broadway audition, taking the reader along on a great and hilarious adventure. He and his best friend, Libby, think they’ve thoroughly prepared him for the trip and for the audition, but few things go the way they expected. Strangely enough, their preparations really do help, though. For example, they write a speech for the bus ticket agent. He uses it as a well-received monologue in his audition. His special talent turns out to be bottle walking, as they rehearsed in Fiddler on the Roof. Nate’s daydreaming and obsession with Applebee’s add to the fun. Throughout the story, it’s unclear whether Nate is moving toward something, such as a career as a singer/actor, or away from something, such as all the bullying he endures due to his small stature and love of musical theater. What is clear is that Nate finds himself somewhere along the way. And he’s a better Nate for it.

Recommended for sixth grade or mature fifth graders, mainly due to content. Nate is questioning his sexuality and is constantly reminded that he appears to be a little different from the norm. He encounters several examples of homosexuality and remarks on each. Also, he does take a bus into New York by himself and even remarks on the dangers of such a trip. His mother is a recovering alcoholic, and he learns other tragic items about his family.

Winner of several awards: a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, and a Slate Favorite Book of the Year. The publisher’s website has a lot of content related to Nate: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Better-Nate-Than-Ever/Tim-Federle/9781442446915. The author’s website, http://timfederle.com/, is almost as fun as his books.

  • Better NateTitle: Better Nate than Ever
  • Author: Tim Federle
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 275 pages
  • Genre: Fiction, coming of age, humor
  • ISBN: 978-1-4424-4689-2

 

Curiosity

Written by Gary Blackwood

Buy on Amazon

If you have ever stopped while on vacation at an automated wax museum or one of those museums of oddities from the past, this book will fascinate you. It is Gary Blackwood’s newest historical fiction. It revolves around the story of a real automated chess playing device called The Turk. It was very a very popular attraction invented by the same man who invented the metronome. People were intrigued by this machine that could play chess against a real person and actually win. It was part of a traveling show between the years 1826 and 1838.

Rufus is the main character in this story. He is a young penniless lad who is curious about everything. When his father is thrown into debtor’s prison, Rufus gets sent to a terrible House of Refuge. The description of this place will make the reader think immediately of Dickens houses for orphans. But this young man has a most refined skill at the game of chess. It is something his father taught him, and because of a weak body and sickly childhood, Rufus spent hours entertaining himself with the game until he became a master in his own right.

For a time, Rufus played against grownups in one of Philadelphia’s Chess Clubs. Later, he got to work with the Turk and be the keeper of all of its secrets. He worked well, but was neither paid nor fed. Even though his only flaw is “asking too many questions,” which is a phrase that many grade five or grade six readers will find familiar. His story is intriguing and well told. Middle school students will enjoy the adventure and suspense.

Teachers, librarians and parents can use the book to meet core curriculum standards and teach literacy skills. This story provides excellent opportunities for students to distinguish between fact and fiction by researching unfamiliar terms like phrenology or hunchbacked. It also provides a great opportunity to discover the exciting development of mechanical devices during the 1800’s.

As with Gary Blackwood’s previous historical novels, this is well researched and smoothly told. Its title was particularly well chosen as curiosity completely envelopes the reader from the first page to the last.

 

  • CuriosityTitle: Curiosity
  • Author: Gary Blackwood
  • Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Hardcover, 313 pages
  • ISBN:  978-0-8037-3924-6
  • Genre: Historical fiction
  • Grade level: 4 to 7
  • Extras: Afterword on Historical Content

Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles

Written and illustrated by Douglas Florian

Buy on Amazon

Belly laughs and snickers will be heard from the fourth grade readers, fifth grade readers and sixth grade readers that carry this book on the bus or anywhere else they like to read. The poems are short, simple and catchy. They talk about the things kids enjoy: getting swallowed by an alligator, being hungry enough to eat the whole world or getting stuck in an overstuffed chair.

Douglas Florian clearly knows his readers and how to engage them with his words and his art.

Students will be using his sketches as models for learning how to make new drawings of their own.

Some of his poems start with the beginning lines of well-known nursery rhymes or often repeated poems, but he takes them off in a new, often humorous direction.

Teachers and librarians can use this fun example of poetry in meeting core curriculum goals and literacy skills. Art teachers can have students design their own sketches to go along with the poems. Students can use their favorite poems for their public speaking requirements and have fun doing them. Many of these will become often repeated verses learned by those pesky little brothers and sisters that we all love to make giggle.

  • Poem DepotTitle: Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles
  • Author/Illustrator: Douglas Florian
  • Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Hardcover, 154 pages
  • ISBN:  978-0-8037-4042-6
  • Genre: Poetry
  • Grade level: 4 to 6
  • Extras: Index of Titles/ Index of First Lines

Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure

Written by David Meissner and Kim Richardson

Buy on Amazon

Fast paced action and adventure accompanied with real photos, letters and maps make this an exciting read. Sixth grade readers and beyond will be amazed at how quickly people dropped everything, gathered supplies and headed to the Klondike for a chance at finding gold.

Readers will be shocked at how many people underestimated the difficulties that climate, geography and lack of supplies could cause. Wondering how people will survive and if they will get back home alive keeps the pacing of the story fast. This story illuminates just how desperate people were to get out of poverty. Or, was it the possibility of adventure that lured them out of the rut of boredom?

This well researched book tells the story of two young men, Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond who were college friends and business partners. Fortunately, they had parents who were willing and able to support their adventuresome dream of striking it rich. As soon as word reached California of the discovery in the Klondike, these young men booked passage and were among the very first explorers to reach the gold fields.

An amazing sense of discipline helped these young men to determine even before they left home that they would only try this gold rush thing for one year.  At the end of that time, they would return home. It was the deal they made with their fathers, but makes it more interesting to follow them through the months of struggle and small successes wondering if they really would pull up stakes and go back home. The families kept a bag of letters, photos and maps that were recently used to produce this excellent account of a short, but important time in American history.

This book will be fulfill many standards in the core curriculum dealing with the economic history of America as well as the study of adventurers and the importance of gold to the world.

Using research and learning how to writing non-fiction are among the multiple literacy skills that can be taught and/or enhanced through the usage of this book. It is a volume every librarian will want to have in the collection.

 

  • Call of the KlondikeTitle: Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure
  • Author: David Meissner and Kim Richardson
  • Publisher: Calkins Creek, 2014
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Hardcover, 167 pages
  • ISBN:  978-1-59078-823-3
  • Genre: nonfiction
  • Grade level 4 and up
  • Extras: Bibliography/ For More Information/ Websites

Rogue

Written by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Buy on Amazon

Most people have experienced that feeling of being unwanted at the “popular kids” table in the school lunch room. But some people are faced with difficult episodes like that daily. One such girl, Kiara, is the main character in this excellent newly released middle grade contemporary novel.

Kiara is afflicted with Asperger’s syndrome. She is confused by things she doesn’t understand, and turns to Mr. Internet for answers to all of her questions. The largest one being, how do people make friends?

She tries everything, but just is not accepted by the other students. Her father cares for her deeply, but is no help to her because of his loneliness and sorrow over his wife’s decision to go to work for several months in a distant state. So when a new family moves in down the street Kiara decides to try her new friend-making techniques on Chad and his little brother.

Things go pretty well as they play together and ride bikes around town until she learns the secret of what goes on in their home. It is a home she is not allowed to enter.

Amid adventures, dangers and rescues Kiara learns that everyone has a special gift or talent that makes them unique. Through the eyes of her new found friends, she is finally able to see her own unique gift.

This present day experience story is a fantastic read for a sixth grade student and beyond. They will find it full of issues they face every day. For the same reason, it would be a great read aloud in any literacy program by a teacher or librarian. It will strengthen all literacy skills while also introducing empathy and understanding for people with differing needs. A discussion about what to do when faced with illegal issues or worries about what friends might be experiencing at home could also grow out of reading this book in a book club situation.

  • RogueTitle: Rogue
  • Author: Lyn Miller-Lachmann
  • Publisher: Nancy Paulson Books/ Penguin Books, 2014
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
  • ISBN:  978-0-399-16225-1
  • Genre: Contemporary Fiction
  • Grade Level: 5 and above

Follow Your Money: Who Gets It, Who Spends It, Where Does It Go?

Written by Kevin Sylvester and Michael Hlinka
Illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

Buy on Amazon

The times they are a changing. In today’s world selling and buying has become as easy as turning on the computer and going to any of the hundreds of online merchants — Amazon being the largest and best known of them all. Although there are built-in safeguards, theoretically even young children can make purchases on the net (log into their parent’s account, for example.) This book’s purpose is to empower its readers with the knowledge to understand the whole money cycle.

In easily comprehensible language the authors explain the complex web that starts with the creation of a product and ends with its final dissemination. The book is a series of examples of everyday goods and produce, organized under headings that sixth graders, and up can relate to. The first study is an analysis of a breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, bread and juice, and the numbers are eye-opening.

On a $3.00 packet of bacon the farmer’s profit is just 10c. Of course all numbers are estimates, but the ratio of total cost to profit remains about the same. The authors start the journey by advising us that the “prices in the book are only estimates…so don’t go into your local store and say ‘Sylvester and Hlinka tell me this apple should only cost 10c.’”

And it is a journey of discovery as the readers learn of the various costs at each stage: creation, distribution, retail to the customer. Why does the price of gas affect the price of every other thing? What is the gold standard? These are interesting discussion points, leading easily into economic theory. For the younger readers teachers can build reading activities around the chapters dealing with things they are familiar with, like milk, and juice, and books and backpacks.

Worth and value, credit and debit cards, bank operations, the readers gets an overview of all elements of everyday life, and becomes a more informed consumer. Definitely a book for school and library reading lists.

Additional Resources:

http://kids.usa.gov/money

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/money/spendingsmarts/index.html

  • Follow Your MoneyTitle: Follow Your Money: Who Gets It, Who Spends It, Where Does It Go?
  • Author: Kevin Sylvester and Michael Hlinka
  • Illustrator: Kevin Sylvester
  • Publisher: Annick Press, 2013
  • Reviewer: Anjali Amit
  • Format: Paperback, 56 pages
  • ISBN: 978-1-55451-480-9
  • Genre: Nonfiction, Social Studies
  • Lexile Score: 1120

Gods and Goddesses in Greek Mythology Rock!

Written by Michelle M. Houle
Illustrated by William Sauts Bock

Buy on Amazon

A different take on the Greek myths.  This book supplements Greek myths with history, archaeology, and psychology for an interesting explanation of many common stories.  The well-known story of Prometheus bringing fire to humans is told with more detail.  The fire incident was not his only intervention between the gods and humans, thus making Zeus’s punishment a little more understandable.  Each chapter has a section of “Expert Commentary.”  In the chapter on Prometheus, the experts emphasize how much Prometheus has inspired people as humankind’s best and earliest benefactor.  The preface includes useful information about Greek culture and religion.  By showing how the myths played a part in a Greek’s everyday life, their approach to festivals and worship is clarified for modern-day readers.  Other stories include a creation story, the Titans, Pandora, Demeter and Persephone, Dionysus and his followers, Baucis and Philemon, Echo and Narcissus, and Helius and Phaethon.  Special features include a chart of the gods and goddesses, a map of the ancient Greek world, a question and answer section for each story, a glossary, chapter notes, further reading, internet sites and an index.

For students who can’t get enough mythology, this gives them more than simply a collection of stories.  The illustrations give it a graphic novel look.  Yet, it has a rather scholarly tone, so the recommended level of 6th grade and higher is accurate.  The publisher’s website provides a reading level of 7.8 so it could even appeal to high school students taking world history.  The question and answer section could provide a literacy activity but, since the answers are given, the questions would need to be used in a discussion or retyped into a reading worksheet.  With all the history that is included, a book trailer or PowerPoint would be a fun way to approach reports.

 

  • Greek MythologyTITLE: Gods and Goddesses in Greek Mythology Rock!
  • AUTHOR: Michelle M. Houle
  • ILLUSTRATOR: William Sauts Bock
  • PUBLISHER: Enslow, 2012
  • REVIEWER: Risa Brown
  • FORMAT: Paperback, 128 pages
  • ISBN: 978-1-59845-329-4
  • GENRE: Mythology, Classics, Ancient Greece
  • LEXILE: 1130, Reading level 7.8

Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought)

Written by Kathleen Krull
Illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt

Buy on Amazon

Who knew that Albert Einstein’s brain was carried around in a jar for forty-three years? Or that the system of medicine developed by one man, Iban Sina, was used for six hundred years? Or that Ivan Pavlov had to support his important scientific discoveries by selling 15,000 jars of gastric juice from dogs (claiming it would help ill people eat)? Sixth grade readers of Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought) will discover these intriguing facts and will be hooked by the science and history they learn along the way.

In Lives of the Scientists, Kathleen Krull presents eighteen scientists in chronological order. The scientists range from the well-known Charles Darwin and Galileo to the lesser-known Zhang Heng (who developed the world’s first seismometer) and Grace Murray Hopper (who wrote the first computer operations manual). Fun facts are incorporated into the historical presentations as well as in bulleted “extra credits” at the end of most chapters. Almost every spread includes a full-page illustration or spot art by Kathryn Hewitt. The art presents the scientists in caricature and highlights a key aspect of their work. The lighthearted illustrations brings the book to life.

Krull uses accessible, conversational language which will help young readers connect to these iconic men and women. She includes details of the scientists’ personal opinions such as the fact that Einstein couldn’t stand to wear socks because he didn’t like it when his toe poked out of a hole or that Marie Curie disapproved of high heels, feeling that women were never meant to walk on stilts. Details such as these personify the scientists, helping the reader relate to them.

Teachers hoping to cover the nature of science and scientific and engineering practices might add this to their reading lists as the Lives of Scientists interests students in the scientists themselves and showcases the dedication and determination required to make major discoveries.

  • Lives of ScientistsTITLE: Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought)
  • AUTHOR: Kathleen Krull
  • ILLUSTRATOR: Kathryn Hewitt
  • PUBLISHER: Harcourt Children’s Books, 2013
  • REVIEWER: Heather L. Montgomery
  • FORMAT: Hardcover, 96 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-15-205909-5
  • GENRE: Nonfiction, Science, History
  • LEXILE: 1040
« Older Entries Recent Entries »