A grade 6 book review!

The book that I read recently "Trading Faces" is wonderful a book that I think that most of the junior people will enjoy. The book is about two girls (they are twins) who are starting Middle School and trying to fit in. One of the girls is the smart one and the other one is a fashion type. Then one of the girls embarrasses herself and that’s where the excitement comes!
Debbie

Get ready to read

I have just read my first few books in the Silver Birch and Blue Spruce programs for this year. There is an interesting range of reading available for those of you who wish to participate.
Here is a brief review of 2 of those books.

Mattland by Hazel Hutchins is in the Blue Spruce category (for grades Kindergarten to 3). This is a beautifully put together story of few words. Matt is a young boy whose parents have moved around often. In their latest home, they are surrounded by a bleak, muddy wasteland. Matt sets about creating his own world and in the process builds himself a community of friends. The illustrations are beautifully done and I highly recommend that you take a look at this book.

Silver Birch fiction (grades 4-6) - The Moon Children by Beverley Brenna deals with the sensitive issue of a boy born with many different learning and behaviour issues. He is a very likable but lonely character who becomes friends with a young Romanian girl who never speaks. This young girl also has a troubled past and spends all her time writing in a notebook and tracking the phases of the moon. The friendship that develops between the 2 is very touching. This is not a light-hearted story at all but it is a worthwhile read and the characters are very well written. This is my favourite so far!
Let me know what you think when you have read it.

Silver Birch is starting!

Make sure you come visit the library this week to sign up for Silver Birch. It is open for grades 4,5 and 6. There are 3 different groups of books:

• Silver Birch Express - including both fiction and non-fiction - which is more suitable for grade 4 readers (you can still read them in grades 5 and 6 though and there are some fantastic books this year!)
• Fiction - 10 fabulous books by some authors you will know and others that may be new to you
• Non-fiction - 10 more amazing books on a range of subjects including

To vote at the end of the program in April, you must have read at least 5 books from the group you wish to vote for.
I have already started reading as have many of the teachers (we need a head start after all!) and the books will be available to you starting December 8th.

Everyone's a winner at Wilky!

4 students won themselves a new book this week. Ayshah, Zoe, Yameen and Shahla all came to tell me about books they have read recently. Congratulations to you all.
Watch out for other contests happening throughout the year!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: A book review by Ms. Sterioff

Edward Tulane was a china rabbit who lived with a very wealthy family. He was rather shallow and not a nice individual to be around. One day he got separated from his family and went on a journey. The journey took him from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman. Then he went from the top of a garbage heap to a hoboes' camp. Along the way, he learned how to love, to lose, and to love again. I truly recommend this book which teaches us a life lesson.
Ms. Sterioff

Storyteller Cheryl Thornton

Last week, Cheryl came to our school to tell stories with our kindergarten and grade one classes. As Cheryl began her first story, many of the grade ones suddenly realized that they knew the story from Cheryl's Storyvalue web site. Seeing the excitement on their faces was one of the happiest moments of the year for this teacher librarian. Cheryl keeps up a lively and interesting pace with her telling. Some stories were just to listen to, others needed a little assistance from some little tellers and the grand finale was a beautiful telling of Stone Soup with all the students participating.
Today, Cheryl came back to visit with the grade 2 and 3 students.
The stories today were all around the theme "celebration and heritage". Once again the students were highly involved in the telling and many students had the opportunity to try out their own storytelling skills on their classmates.
We all enjoyed Cheryl's stories very much and can't wait to retell some of these wonderful stories!

A quick contest anyone?

Here is a chance to win a quick prize this week.
The first 5 students to come and tell me about a favourite recent book they have read, will win a new book. Simple eh?

Some questions that may help you with this:

Who is/are the main characters in this book?

What is the main idea of the book?

What does the book remind you of? (another book, an event in your life etc)

I like to hear what you are reading so be the first to visit!

Still reading!

A perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson

This book is the tale of a young family struggling to hold themselves together following the death of their mother. Their father has retreated into his work and the children become absorbed in role playing the knights of the round table.
Kit Pearson develops the delicate relationships between the children with compassion as each individual goes through changes as they meet new friends and become less involved in the game. The oldest brother, Sebastian is unable to cope with the changes and retreats further into the role of a Knight. His sister Corrie, the main character in this story, goes through many trials and tribulations as she struggles to cope with supporting her brother.
This book is definitely not an easy read but in my opinion is a very worthwhile one.
The book will be available in our library soon...I wonder who will be the first student to read it?

StoryTelling at Wilkinson

This year, we will be holding a Telling Bee at Wilkinson. A Telling Bee is a celebration of storytelling involving everyone in the school community. You can find out more at http://www.tellery.com/Telling_Bee.html All of the students and staff will be talking to their families to discover stories which have special significance to them.

To start our year of storytelling, we have invited 3 storytellers to visit with the students. This week, the grade 4, 5 and 6 students enjoyed a visit from storyteller Anna Kerz.

Anna is a member of Storytelling Toronto which is a non-profit organization. You can look at the work they do to promote and celebrate storytelling at http://www.storytellingtoronto.org/

Anna shared a variety of multi-cultural stories with us, including family stories from her own childhood experiences.

We all thoroughly enjoyed Anna's visit and came away ready to find out some of our own family stories. Everyone was starting to think about their own past, trips they have made, countries they have visited or emigrated from. It was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm coming from the audience after hearing one of Anna's stories.

Do you have a story you would like to tell?

Forest of Reading 2009

The titles for this year's contest have been announced. There is an amazing selection available this year and I can't wait to get started reading!
The books will be available in school in December but in the meantime, if you would like to preview the titles, visit the Forest of reading site at http://www.accessola.com/forest2009/

Are you ready?

The nominees for this year's Forest of Reading will be announced next Monday October 27th. Visit the library next week if you would like a sneak preview of our Silver Birch titles! Our Silver Birch Club will be starting before the winter break this year to give you lots of opportunities to read the books.

The end of a contest

Ailie from grade 6 is the final winner for our 1st contest. Well done to Ailie and keep watching the blog for future contests!

What are you reading today?

I took advantage of the long weekend to catch up on some reading. I finally read the "Giver" which reminded me very much of the Ray Bradbury books I read as a child such as "Farenheit 451".

I also read a book by Eric Walters called "We all fall down".

This story is based around 9/11. A boy goes to work with his father that day, and the father just so happens to work in the World Trade building. Mr Walters build great depth to the emotions of these characters and the story relates events of that day in such a way that you feel that you are walking every step of the way with them.

Both books are well worth the read in my opinion.

Only one prize left...!

Abdullah found a card in the 2002 World book series. The only prize left is in a book in the character education display. Remember that the crane holds the clue...

Don't forget...

...to vote on our poll. I am really interested to know which part of our library you like best!

More winners!

Ayshah and Shahla both from grade 6 just collected 2 more of our book prizes! Clue 2 was the book "Falling Up" by Shel Silverstein and clue 3 was "The abominable snowman" from the "choose your own adventure series".
Congratulations girls!
There are only 2 more book prizes to find! Come visit soon.

And the winner is...

Caillie from grade 6 won the first of the book prizes for our Find the Clue Contest. She chose a graphic novel called "Warriors" for her prize. Congratulations Caillie!

The clue that she solved was number 1. The nervouse mouse is Chrysanthemum!

4 more clues to go so put your thinking caps on everyone!

Ready for a contest?

There are 5 cards hidden in the library inside books.
Your mission (if you wish to accept it) is to find one of those cards and bring it to Mrs Found.
These are the clues that will help you find the cards - please remember to only bring me one card:
1. There is a book about a mouse who is very nervous. Her name is the name of a flower. This book is a picture book.
2. This author writes poetry. His books can be found in the 800's section of the dewey system (non-fiction). This book is the opposite of falling down.
3. These books are about building your own story. They are in a basket on a coffee table in the library. Look for the book about a snowman.
4. This is a world reference book. Look for the numbers 19 and 2002. This book is blue. It is in the reference section.
5. This month's character trait is responsibility. Look for the cart near the character education display. The crane holds the clue.

Welcome back!

Welcome back to school everyone! I am looking forward to having lots of visitors in the library next week. See you all soon!

Blue Spruce Nominated Author, Kari Lynn Winters

On Tuesday May 20th, Kari came to visit our Kindergarten and Primary grades. She not only told stories to the students (including Jeffrey and Sloth - her nominated book in the 2008 Blue Spruce Award) but used the students as characters within her stories. She encouraged everyone to make connections, predictions and to visualize stories as well as telling jokes and singing songs.
Kari is a true entertainer and we were all happy to have had her visit with us.
Check out her website at http://kariwinters.com/

A Poem for today

Sometimes
taken from If I had a million onions - Sheree Fitch

Sometimes I'm selfish.
Sometimes I'm not.
Sometimes I'd give away
All that I've got.

Sometimes I'm kind.
Sometimes I'm cruel.
Sometimes I'm clever.
Sometimes a fool.

Sometimes I know.
Sometimes I don't.
Sometimes I answer.
Sometimes I won't.

Sometimes I try.
Sometimes I'm lazy
Sometimes I'm sometimes
A little bit crazy.

Sometimes I'm quiet.
Sometimes I'm loud.
Sometimes I'm guilty.
Sometimes I'm proud.

Sometimes I'm frightened.
Sometimes courageous.
Sometimes I'm healthy.
Sometimes contagious.

Sometimes I'm dirty.
Sometimes I'm clean.
Sometimes I'm living
Somewhere in between.

These are my sometimes.
But most times? I'm me!
All the times wondering
Who will I be?

StoryFest 2008

On Friday May 2nd, six grade 3 students accompanied Ms F to storyfest 2008. Storyfest is a celebration of telling stories and about 20 schools were taking part in the festival ranging from grade 3 to grade 8. They told stories and listened to many other stories being told over the course of the morning. During the afternoon, Itah Sadu, storyteller and author, performed a lively and inspiring presentation for the students. Itah is the author of Christopher changes his name, Christopher please clean your room!, A touch of the zebras and Name calling, all of which can be found in our library. The students did an amazing job of bringing their stories to life and all had a great time at this event.
Here's looking forward to next year's festival!

Welcome to the Wilky Way!

Welcome to the "Wilky Way", a new place to share ideas, reading and thoughts in general about events in our school, community and the world at large.
I hope that many of you will choose to visit frequently and add your comments to the postings you find here!