Unleashing Readers Blog Hop

 

I was so excited to get a tweet from Kellee Moye at Unleashing Readers asking if I would like to participate in their launch week's blog hop!  Of course I would!  I've had fun reading their posts throughout the week - introductions of Kellee and Ricki, navigation tips for their new blog, and today a post of their favorite books in various categories.  Now, it's my turn to share my favorites in those categories!  It's not easy to narrow each choice to only one (I cheated in one category - sorry), but I did the best I could.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a hard decision to decide between Wonder and Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan!  I loved both because they create community, empathy, and strong emotions!  They're both testimonies to the power of friendship and kindness.

 

 

 

 

We read this book during a unit on empathy and realistic fiction, and I met with a group of seven students. We had so much to talk about!  It also happens to be the book for this year's Global Read Aloud.

 

 

 

Kate DiCamillo's books are packed with symbolism, allusions, amazing characters, and figurative language.  They are lyrical and magical.  I think an author study of all her books would make for fabulous close reading! I wrote a blog post for Nerdy Book Club about using Edward Tulane for analysis after I read How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster.

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/?s=Edward+Tulane&submit=Search

 

 

 

 

I just love this book, and so do all my students!  Make sure you have the whole series because your kids will want to read all of them! 

 

 

Favorite Book

 

I know this is kind of cheating, but I have to choose an entire series for this category! If you want to hear my whole rational for why this is my favorite series of all time, read the post I wrote about it:

 

http://hollymueller.blogspot.com/2012/07/happy-birthday-harry-potter.html

I'm going to add one more category. ;-) 

Favorite 2013 Book So Far



I just loved it, and it's my pick so far for the 2014 Newbery!  I know more books will be coming out, and I know there are some other major contenders, but this one stole my heart.

 

Thank you, Kellee and Ricki, for giving me the opportunity to participate in your launch week and blog hop.  Best of luck to you and your new blog, Unleashing Readers!