Looking for book recommendations that boys will devour? Suggest book titles that are a hybrid of the diary book format and a graphic novel.

What features will these books have?

1. The book is written in 1st person, and the speaker has a conversational "kid-speak" voice (very casual).
2. The main character is usually not a popular kid at school and has social dilemmas.
3. Most books have a graphic element to them. They include doodles and cartoon drawings in the margins and/or images that make the page look like a piece of notebook paper. They often have fun fonts.
4. The main character is usually a reluctant reader or a struggling student in some way.
5. There is a lot of white space on the page, and it is easy to finish the book quickly.
6. And here is my final little observation. The majority of the books have a male main character-- especially the ones targeted at 3rd+ grade levels.

• The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger
• The Great Hamster Massacre series by Katie Davies
• I Funny: a Middle School Story series by James Patterson
• What the Dog Said by Randi Reisfeld
• The Creature From My Closet series by Obert Skye
• My Life as a Book series by Janet Tashjian
• Justin Case series by Rachel Vail
• Stick Dog series by Tom Watson
• Timmy Failure series by Stephen Pastis
• Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (click for novel unit)
• Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech (click for novel unit)
• Diary of a Worm series by Doreen Cronin (picture book)

Here are a few additional book recommendations that are in a letter style rather than a journal or diary format.

• Dying to Meet You series by Kate Klise (click for novel unit)
• Regarding The Fountain series by Kate Klise
• Letters from Camp by Kate Klise
• The Naked Mole-Rat Letters by Mary Amato
• Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (click for novel unit)
• Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
• The Gardener by Sarah Stewart (picture book, click for activities)

After reading a book that has a letter/diary component to them, review parts of a letter and write to the author of the book. My students and I write one author as a group at the beginning of the year. We research the author's contact information together and send a batch of letters. After that, I use the project as an early finisher activity. If students need an independent activity, they hunt down an author's e-mail address, physical address, or publisher's address and create a letter to the author. We send and receive AUTHOR LETTERS all year and post the letters in the classroom. It is a great way to motivate reading.

Another easy classroom activity is to have students write from the point of view of a main character and prepare an additional diary entry or letter that could be in the story. The students can choose to add their entry to the beginning, middle, or end of the story. The additional writing should address a question or problem that the story left unanswered, so the students have an opportunity to draw conclusions based on the text.

Happy Reading!
TheRoomMom

Man's Best Friend

I have a student this year who is on the hunt for all chapter books with a dog. As luck would have it, I happen to teach a few books that have a dog as a central character. Books with dogs are great books to share with your class because it is usually easy to get both boys and girls interested in the story.

The dog and main human character rely on each other and develop a deep friendship, and the human (usually a child about the same age as our students) has to take responsibility for the animal. These themes of companionship, trust, responsibility, and independence can be found in many animal books and are reasons I think kids love to read books with animal characters.

One drawback to the dog books is often an animal dies, so be aware if you have a particularly tender-hearted teacher student in your class who might start crying in front of others at the end of the story. 

Below is a list of dog-centered chapter books that I like to use in the classroom as a read aloud or novel study: 

• Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (click for novel unit)
• A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean
• A Dog Called Kitty by Bill Wallace
• The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford (click for novel unit)
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (click for novel unit)
• Julie of the Wolves series by Jean Craighead George
• Kavik the Wolf Dog by Walt Morey
• Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (click for novel unit)
• My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen (middle school+)
• Ribsy by Beverly Cleary
• Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Sounder by William H. Armstrong
• Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner (click for novel unit)
• What the Dog Said by Randi Reisfeld
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

A few favorite activities I use with the dog books I teach could easily be adapted for other novel studies:

One activity I have been using for a long time is to have students write point of view journals as we read a novel. It is an activity that works well for different novels, but it is particularly successful with The Incredible Journey.

Students pick one animal after reading the first few chapters of the book. After we complete each chapter, the students retell the chapter from the point of view of their chosen animal. We share one journal from each animal every day and compare the different versions of the story depending on which animal's journal we hear. Students love comparing and contrasting the scenes in the story based on Luath, Bodger, or Tao's viewpoint. Students also love making the foldable burrito books that they use to write their incredible journals!

Another great assignment to help with citing textual evidence is to have students draw a "map" of a specific character's journey based on details in the text. With the novel, Stone Fox, students draw and label the race course based on clues in the story. There are many novels that involve a journey of some kind, and drawing and labeling the character's route using details from the story is an activity that requires close reading.

Do you read any animal books to your students? Are they successful?

Caitlin

TheRoomMom

Characters with Differences

Reading a story is one way to travel by imagination to a new location or try an activity that a child might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Reading stories can also be an avenue for understanding another's person situation and developing empathy. I will never know what it is like to be blind or deaf or struggle with a reading disability, but I can read a book with characters who do have these differences and gain an appreciation for their challenges. I can also recognize similarities between my life and these characters and develop a connection to them.

Sharing books in class that have characters with physical disabilities or learning differences give students an opportunity to see a diverse range of people. This topic is as important as sharing information about different cultures and backgrounds.

It is harder to locate books that include characters with disabilities. Until recent years, there were not that many choices. Look for books that have been given the Schneider Family Book Award. This is an award given to juvenile literature that incorporates a disability experience in some way.

Below is my starter list of books that have a character with a difference. It is not always a main character, and it is not always revealed at the beginning of the story. Are there other books that work well for upper elementary and middle school students that I should add to the list?

Character with Physical Differences

• The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
• Deenie by Judy Blume
• A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean
• Gathering Blue (and any Giver companions) by Lois Lowry
• Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech
• Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby
• The Million Dollar Putt by Dan Gutman
• The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
• A View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Characters with Learning Differences

• Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
• Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
• Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
• Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler
• Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
• Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool
• Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
• Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Many of the titles on my list make me cry, but they are so good, I read them anyway-- even if it means shedding a tear in front of my students. I have found one humorous realistic fiction book that works well for reluctant upper elementary readers and is tissue free. The Million Dollar Putt by Gutman is about a blind kid who is a natural at golf. He attends his local school and is in regular ed classes. This is a great book to share with students and offers many opportunities to discuss differences in friends, classmates, or any people we encounter in our daily lives.

If you use one of these books in your classroom this year, follow up with this Characters with Differences Activity Page, which asks students to think about how daily activities change when you live with a challenge. To purchase materials related to The Million Dollar Putt, Click Here.

Caitlin Tobin

TheRoomMom