How I Came To Be a Writer

Fifth Grade students are currently reading a book written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and will be writing several original stories. This book is very interesting if you like biographies, and is perfect for all ages. She talks about her childhood of writing and making up stories. She says that at first she didn't understand how to read and she thought all of the kids were just making up a story that went with a picture. She also talks about eating her sister's chocolate bunny and having to wear awful boy's clothes! She later on discussed the steps she took to become the marvelous writer she is.Hopefully this book will inspire some students to not only become better writers, but enjoy writing!

The Green book

Third grade students have begun reading a novel by Jill Paton Walsh.
The Green book.
"Three kids (Joe, Sarah and Pattie) leave Earth in a space ship with their Dad, just before the planet is destroyed by a natural disaster. Each person on the ship is allowed to bring just one book. It is a four-year voyage, which the passengers mostly spend sleeping and reading. After a few weeks, people start trading books. Everyone makes fun of Pattie, the youngest child aboard, when they discover she brought an empty book as her choice.

Finally the refugees arrive at their new home. The air and water are good, but the vegetation is all very strange and crystalline. Pattie is given the honor of naming their new village. She calls it Shine.

By various experiments, the humans figure out ways to build houses and make lamps to light them. However, all their animals die after eating the local grass. Their earth plants won't grow, either, except for wheat, but even that has a weird look to it. Nobody is sure if they will have enough to eat, and their ship has no fuel to take them anywhere else.

Luckily, Pattie and the other kids, discover that there are "candy trees" with a sweet, edible sap. They also discover that the humans are not alone. A strange moth-people hatch out and hover around, curious but totally unable to communicate.

The wheat harvest comes in. All the grains look like glass beads. Sarah, Pattie's sister, steals a bunch of the grain and makes pancakes with it. The kids all eat them. Everyone is afraid they will die, but they suffer no ill effects. At last, they know they will be able to survive!

The grown-ups need a way to keep track of who gets how much wheat. They want Pattie to give them her blank book, but she protests. In the end, her father takes it and finds it is not blank. Pattie used the book as a diary and wrote down all their experiences in settling Shine."

Crispin The Cross of Lead

Fourth grade students are beginning a novel based in the 14th century. The novel is written by Avi.
Asta's son, a poor peasant in 14th Century England, was only 13 when his mother died and his whole world crumbled. His mourning was soon replaced by inexplicable terror when, it seemed, the whole world was suddenly determined to see him dead! On the advice of his priest, Crispin escaped from the only home he had ever known and ran into a world he had never known. With him, he carried his only possession, a cross of lead. Having no skills, no friends, no family, and no experience in finding food, Crispin's problems began to multiply.

Why was Crispin being pursued?

Who was the mysterious stranger he met in a deserted village?

What was the secret held in the cross of lead?

these are just some of the questions to be answered as we read,

Crispin The Cross of Lead.