VVMBookBlog

First of all, here are the Division II (grades 6-8) winners from the 2007 Maud Hart Lovelace list from the whole state of Minnesota:

1st place
Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

2nd place
Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech

3rd place
Last Dog on Earth by Daniel Ehrenhaft

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Now here below is the new list for 2008. Lots of good ones here! Start now and be ready to talk about them when school starts.

Mirror’s Tale by P. W. Catanese

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

Jackie’s Wild Seattle by Will Hobbs

* Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes

Day of Tears by Julius Lester

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar

Heat by Mike Lupica

Shackleton’s Stowaway by Victoria McKernan

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins

Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

* So B. It by Sarah Weeks

[*Titles for mature readers]

Last weekend the winning titles of the 2005-2006 MYRA–Minnesota Youth Reading Association–book awards were announced. Votes from students in schools all over Minnesota were counted to determine this year’s winners.

The winning title for Division 2, grades 6-8, was Hoot by Carl Hiassen.

Following close behind were City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman, and House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. Be sure to watch for the movie version of Hoot coming out soon in May.
And the winner for Division 1, grades 3-5, was Runt by Marion Dane Bauer.

Runt was one of the four books for younger readers that was also included on our middle school list. It’s a great book for learning how wolves live in the wild.

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And here are the books on next year’s Division 2 reading list:

Hawksong – by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Things Not Seen – by Andrew Clements
Gregor the Overlander – by Suzanne Collins
**Buddha Boy – by Kathe Koja
Blizzard’s Wake – by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Airborn – by Kenneth Oppel
Rising Water – P.J. Peterson
The Boy Who Saved Baseball – by John Ritter
Becoming Naomi Léon – by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Heir Apparent – by Vivian Vande Velde
**Soldier X – by Don Wulffson

**Titles marked with asterisks have mature themes or language that may not be appropriate for all Division 2 readers.

We have a few copies of most of these, so you could get started on the list now. Or check the public libraries this summer, or wait until fall when we’ll be ready with LOTS of copies!

The results are in for VVMS!

Here are our winning books for the 2005-2006 Maud Hart Lovelace Minnesota Young Readers’ Award:

1. Fill Tilt by Neal Shusterman
2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. (Tie) – City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau & House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Our results will be added to all the other schools and public libraries in Minnesota and we’ll find out the statewide winner at the end of April. At that time we’ll also find out what books will be on next year’s reading list.

Here’s the website with more information: http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/lovelace/lovelace.html

Thanks to everyone’s support of this year’s bookfair, we are able to add these books to our shelves:
Double Identity (2) – Haddix
Lion Boy: The Chase – Corder
Flush – Hiassen
Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul (2)
World Plagues – Book 1 & 2
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (2) (Sequel to Gregor the Overlander)
Small Steps (2) – Sachar
That’s so Raven: Psyched
Best Friends for Never (2) -Harrison
Invasion of the Boy Snatchers (2) – Harrison
Series of Unfortunate Events – (2 each of #11 & #12)
Silverfin: A James Bond Adventure (3)
Private Peaceful (2) – Morpurgo
Secret Language of Girls (2) – Dowell
Disappearance: A Premonitions Mystery (2) – Watson
Becoming Naomi Léon (4) – Ryan
Airborn (4) – Oppel
Skybreaker (2) – Oppel
Camp Confidential TTYL
Code Orange (2) – Cooney
Sweet Miss Honeywell’s Revenge (2) – Reiss
Inkspell – Funke
Simpsons Books – (2 each of 3 different books)
Cool Stuff and How it Works

Give us a day or so to process these and then come and check them out!

Before I get to today’s book, here’s the Sudoku website mentioned on our news last Friday:
http://www.websudoku.com/

You can choose from Easy, Medium, Hard or Evil puzzles. The site will keep track of your times and show you how your time compared to the thousands of other people who did that puzzle. Lots of fun!
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This weekend I was at the Mall of America and saw the new book by Kate DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I bought one copy to read and bring to school, never expecting to even read it this weekend and REALLY not expecting to like it. How could anything be better than Because of Winn-Dixie, and how could Kate DiCamillo shine again after her Newbery-award winning, Tale of Despereaux? Well, I read it and Ms. DiCamillo is definitely shining again!

Edward Tulane is a very FINE china rabbit, dressed in the very best clothes, and cared for and loved by 10-year-old Abilene Tulane. As it often happens when we are in a good situation, we don’t always appreciate how good we have things, and Edward definitely didn’t appreciate the life he was living. Then it happened…Abilene and her family was on an ocean journey and Edward was accidently tossed over the side of the ship! Edward spent the next 297 days on the bottom of the ocean, where for the first time Edward felt something, and that was FEAR!

Fortunately that wasn’t the end of Edward, but I don’t want to mess it up for you and tell you the rest. As the title says, the rest of Edward’s journey is quite “miraculous” and takes him to a variety of places–some rather funny and all very touching. And his journey takes Edward, and us as the readers, on a big journey of emotions–all in a little book about a rabbit.

You can read it at “story level” and just enjoy a fairytale-like story, or go deeper and see what Edward had to do in order to really get involved in life. Lots of lessons for all of us!