My friend, Wendy at Read with Me ABC wrote up a blog post for Each Kindness. Naturally, I had picked up the book and perused it the day or two before and thought the message was quite powerful and important to read to my students. I'll be using the book, Bully by Patricia Polacco in the coming weeks, and this one is a great book to compare/contrast with it.
Another book that made me say wow was this one by Kathleen Applegate. When I went to grab the thumbnail from Amazon, I saw it had earned 5 stars which I seldom see. This is what the description said:
Hallie isn't afraid of anything--that is, anything but storms, which she braves along with her grandmother, huddled beneath a special quilt. When her family decides to join a wagon train and go west, leaving her grandmother--and everything Hallie has ever known--behind, Hallie knows she will have to be braver than she's ever been before. Then one day on the trail she witnesses the wildest, most glorious storm imaginable. How can she be afraid of anything after that?I loved the lead in this book, and I loved the price even more...$2.99! Total price for 8 books... >$25.00 with 4 hardbacks...Wow Wow!
Lyrical text from an exceptional writer is paired with gorgeous, jewel-like paintings in this evocative story of westward expansion.
Another wow for today was having our first snow. I'm not sure it was wow worthy, but my youngest had fun with her neighborhood buddy sledding for a while. Seriously...not wow worthy aside from the fun (and the day out of school). 
The time allowed me to do something I'd been trying to do...revise my Patricia Polacco bundle. I've done several new units that I hadn't included, so I threw them all into a zipped file, and now the bundle includes 12 books. Now, can I get a wow on that?? She is one of the most talented picture book authors for the upper grades. I find they work very well for writing mini lessons, comprehension skill modeling, and guided reading. Here's the link to check it out if you're interested.
I hope you had a few wows today, and if you did, I'd love for you to share them. Good news is awesome!
Have a happy humpday, and until next time, happy reading!
