Hi Everyone,

How’s your summer going?  I am hoping that it is fun and relaxing, busy and creative.  When vacation started I thought I would write 3 posts a week:  once for reading, once for math and once for fun.  That’s been challenging – my fun isn’t 4^th grade exciting.  It’s calm and mostly related to nature, some to art.  This summer I’ve seen a pair of red-eyed vireos in our yard.  For two weeks they chased and terrorized any blue jay that flew into the open.  They chittered up behind the jay, snapping their wings like whips and swooping in around their heads until the jays fled back into the woods.  Now both types of birds can be in the yard together.  I am guessing that means the vireo babies have fledged.

I saw a red-bellied woodpecker for the first time Friday.  Wow, do they have red heads and black and white checkerboard backs.  I didn’t see its belly so I don’t know what color that is, but what an amazingly beautiful bird.  When I was little a story in one of my mom’s books told of a lady making poppy seeds cakes.  She didn’t want to share them with hungry travelers.  Each time someone asked for one, she would make it even smaller than the cake before.  Eventually her stingy nature caused her to turn into a woodpecker dressed in the colors of the clothes she had worn – a red cap, a white shawl, a black skirt and white apron.  The final picture showed the woodpecker.  That picture always bothered me I because it wasn’t real.   It didn’t look like the woodpeckers I had seen  – that is until Friday.  Finally after all these years I understand. ( I copied both of the bird pictures from www.allaboutbirds.org from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.)

I have begun a mini-inquiry about dragonflies.  I am trying to keep track of the types I see and I am hoping to discover if there will be more of them now that there are less bats since they both eat mosquitos.  I’ll let you know what I discover.  So you can see my “fun” is not very exciting, but it’s just right for me.

 Reading though – of course I can share some of what I am reading.  Here’s my stack so far.  The new ones that I think you all might like are at the top:  The Sasquatch Escape by Suzanne Selfors and The Truth of Me by Patricia MacLachlan.   I bet you can imagine what encouraged me to buy The Sasquatch Escape!  It is the first in The Imaginary Veterinary series.  It takes place in Buttonville.  There is nothing much happening there since the factory closed.  Ben is staying the summer with his grandfather and he can’t think of anything worse.  On the way from the airport Ben looks up and sees a bird (?) as big as a helicopter (?) with a tail (?) and suddenly Buttonville doesn’t seem too dull.  Pearl, from the Dollar Store, saw it too and she thinks it landed at the abandoned factory.  Before they can go to check it out, Barnaby, Grandpa Abe’s cat drops a bat on Ben’s bed.  “Grreeaaatt,” he thinks, except it’s not a bat.  It’s a baby dragon.  And that’s when the adventure begins where the Imaginary World and the Real World meet.  Yes, there is a Sasquatch along with the dragon – well, rightly called a wyvern -which makes this a perfect book for lots of readers from our class.  You’ll have fun with it.

The Truth of Me is a gentle story.  I was thinking about how all Patricia MacLachlan books make me feel calm.  I like how they just make me stop and think.  Robert is going to stay with his grandmother while his musician parents are on tour.  That’s great with Robert because it means he’ll be spending each day with his two summer best friends; Ellie, his dog and Maddy, his grandma.  She is special.

Maddy has powers all her own.  Powers that other people don’t have.

Jack and Lizzie (Robert’s school time best friends) know this, too.  They have met Maddy.

“Maddy had gifts,” says Lizzie.

“Do you mean magic?” I ask.

“No. Gifts,” says Lizzie.  “That’s different.  Remember when she was here and the birds came down from the trees to see her?”

“And a fox came?” says Jack.  “It came right up to her?  The animals seem to know that she is safe.”

“They want to be close to her,” says Lizzie.  “That’s her gift.  They trust her.”

During the summer, Robbie (what Maddy calls him) discovers a bit about his gifts and a bit about the truths that make him who he is.  It’s nice to know what makes you a special person in the world.  I wonder what your small truths are.

I hope every thing is great – I’m thinking about you and hoping you are doing everything that’s fun.

Hunter Moran Saves the Universe by Patricia Riley Giff ended up being pretty funny.  Hunter is a twin.  He and Zack are the middle kids with two older and two younger sisters and brothers.  They pretty much do everything together and while they don’t mean it, pretty much everything goes wrong.  There are a lot of mishaps along the way to a happy ending.

When I read White Fur Flying by Patricia MacLachlan I immediately thought of Caroline.  It’s a perfect story for a dog lover.  At the opening of the book Zoe and her family watch a family moving into the house next door. Zoe’s dad is a vet and her mom rescues Great Pyrenees and finds new home for them.  Animals are a big part of their life.  They always have a least one that is coming and one that is going.  The new family next door doesn’t seem to be an animal kind of family.   There is an aunt and uncle and Philip – who has chosen not to talk.  The families are very different – but the dogs don’t care and of course make all the difference in the world.  White Fur Flying feels good to read.

And because I was on a dog roll, I read Because of Shoe, a collection of short stories by different authors all about dogs.  My favorite is about a science fair project where a boy becomes a dog.  Read it and let us know what your favorite story is.

If you want to read something longer try In Search of Goliathus Hercules reviewed here or Vengekeep Prophecies.  It’s one of this year’s Great Stone Face books and I’ll be reviewing it on Kids’ Books 101 next.  Hope you’re finding some great things to read – let us know what they are.  Happy Reading!

I can tell that I am getting into the vacation groove because I have lots of books to tell you about.

I did finish N.E.R.D.S by Michael Buckley and, yes, the members of the team can save Earth from the evil villian – although not all the loose ends are tied up so there is more for them to do.  I loved the gadgets, the thinking and the way everything is not always what it seems.  Having a little mystery around is a good thing.  I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series.

I read Gone Fishing  – reviewed here.  It made me think of Naish and his interest in fishing and fly tying.  I read Hero on a Bicycle, – reviewed here and thought of Daniel and his interest in the millitary and WWII.  I think you’d both really like these books.

Trevor told me I would like Rainforest Rescue by Jan Burchett  and I did.  It is an exciting adventure about twins your age who are part of a secret group traveling the world to make sure wildlife preservation is successful.  This story takes place in Borneo and involves keeping the orangoutangs of the rainforest there safe and free.  I read two books from the Galaxy Zack series, Hello Nebulon and Journey to Juno.  In them Zack, a kid from Earth, moves to Nebulon and just like we might have to if we moved to a new town, Zack has to learn the ways of a new school and culture on a totally different planet.  Pretty early on he joins the Explorers Club, goes to Juno and makes a great discovery.  This is a fun, quick reading series.  The ideas are fun to imagine.

I just started Hunter Moran Saves the Universe by Patricia Reilly Giff.

I’ll let you know what I think next week.  Right now I am not sure.  Hunter is a bit sneaky in a way that I’m not sure I care for.  He could pull it around.  I usually really like books by this author so I am going to keep reading.

Do you have any great book suggestions for us.  Make sure you leave them in your comments.  Happy reading!

I just started reading N.E.R.D.S. ( National Espionage, Rescue and Defense Society).  Ellie clued me into this series that happens to be written by Michael Buckley who is also the author of The Sisters Grimm series.  Can misfits save the world?  I’m pretty sure they will.  Check in next week, and I’ll let you know.

I just finished reading Independence Hall in the  I.Q. series by Roland Smith.  What a thrilling adventure!   Angela and Quest are thrust into the middle of a complex scheme to keep the world safe from terrorists while on a cross country tour with their famous musician parents.   It looks like there are three books in the series and I know that I’ll be reading all of them before the summer over.

I also finished reading  In Harm’s Way.  It’s the fourth in the Keepers of the School series by Andrew Clement.  I reviewed it  here on Kid’s Books 101.  I like this series.  It has mystery and adventure and smart kids who keep doing the right things regardless of what some adults are telling them.  Life isn’t just about money and riches.

What are you reading?  Leave a comment. We’d like to know!