by Christopher Paul Curtis
Genre: Realistic Fiction/AR 5.0
After suffering the loss of his mother and enduring abusive foster homes, ten year old Bud Caldwell goes in search of the father he's never met. A bag of rocks scrawled with dates and town names and some band flyers his mother kept put Bud on the trail of the famous jazz musician Herman Calloway. Set in the Great Depression, the story touches on issues of poverty, crime, and racism through a child's perspective. Armed with his Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself that cover every situation he might encounter on the journey, Bud is a character that the reader won't want to forget.
by Jez Alborough
Genre: Fantasy/AR 2.0
This is my favorite book to read aloud. The rhyming text conveys the range of emotions Sid experiences on the day he discovers he can fly, but has a hard time convincing his friends and teacher of the fact. The book is slightly larger than most picture books and each page is full of bright, colorful illustrations that bring the characters to life even if they are acting in completely unrealistic ways. I've never read it to a group of kids that didn't love it.
by Penny Holland
DDN 001.64 (1984)
This is the first book on our nonfiction shelves. The turtle is still around teaching kids basic computer programming commands. There's even an iPad app, which we've put on our school iPads. This book, however, is showing its age. While the programming exercises are essentially the same, the supporting text and pictures of 30 year old computers make this one a good candidate for weeding. Like my venerable predecessor, Ms. Carr, I'm finding it hard, however, to get rid of books.
