Summer Book Club: The Sisters Grimm (Book 1): The Fairy Tale Detectives

Oops! Blogger was set to automatically post this entry, but I set it to post in August 2012! Glad I caught the mistake!

This week, we begin The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy Tale Detectives, Book 1 in the exciting Sisters Grimm series! This week, we read Chapters 1 through 3. Enjoy! I can't wait to hear all your thoughts!

The Grimm Fairy Tales: All throughout The Fairy Tale Detectives, different fairy tales are alluded to. Although I was familiar with many of the fairy tales, there were some I had never heard of (and some I just wanted to read again because I had loved them so much the first time!). Here are some useful sites I visited that helped me learn more about the fairy tales. If you find any other sites that are helpful, please post them in the comments so we can all visit them!

• Here's a cool National Geographic website all about the Brothers Grimm. They've got all kinds of tales you can read. Just like the story of Hansel and Gretel that we discussed in class this year, all the fairy tales listed here do not end happily. 
• This site has a really extensive collection of tales, 219 to be exact!
• If you want to see some animated versions of the tales or play some fairy tale games, visit here!

Learn More about Sabrina and Daphne's Relatives: The Brothers Grimm are Sabrina and Daphne's relatives. They've got a unique history you can read up on. 

• Here's one article about the Brothers Grimm.
• Here's another biography of the two men. 
• Here's a painting of what the Brothers Grimm probably looked like and here's a statue of them!

Questions to Ponder/Respond to: 

1. Sabrina and Daphne have both been affected by their parents' disappearance. However, it seems to have affected the girls very differently. How has Sabrina responded? Daphne? What do their different responses help you understand about the girls? 

2. Sabrina seems to judge her grandmother and Mr. Canis right away, but by the end of this section, her opinion of them seems to be changing. How is the relationship between these characters changing? What's causing it to change? 

3. We know that Ferryport Landing is the kind of place that sells bagels (because every place, except the Moon, does!). But let's think more about Ferryport Landing. What kind of place is it? You might say, "It's the kind of place where...." and then try to write long about what it's like. Try to go beyond what it looks like. What kind of people live there? What is the mood of the place? How does the place affect the characters? 

4. As a reader, you're doing a ton of thinking work as you read. What has been most helpful for you as a reader as you're reading The Fairy Tale Detectives? Share what's worked for you so that you can help the other readers in our club!

5. If you've got a theory you're growing, please share it so we can all begin thinking about it as we read on!

As always, remember to check back often to see your comments and the comments of your classmates. Ask each other questions, and really get a conversation going on here! This is a book where there is a TON to talk about!

City of Ember: Week Three

This week, we come to the end of The City of Ember. We read from Chapter 15: A Desperate Run to the end of the book! 

Questions to Ponder/Answer:
1. The City of Ember is filled with symbols! Consider one symbol that seems incredibly important to the story. Maybe you'll choose to look at the Moth? The bean sprouts? The letter? The pineapple? Choose one and try to write long about it. What does it mean? Does it mean the same thing each time it appears? Why do you think Jeanne DuPrau chose to include this symbol in the book?

2. The three songs the citizens of Ember sing in Chapter 16: The Singing are all quite different from each other. Think about The Song of the City, The Song of the River and the Song of Darkness. Why do you think the citizens sing the three different song? What might each song symbolize? Do you think the order of the songs is important? 

3. The ending of The City of Ember just filled me with wonder. What are you wondering about at the end of the book? Why? Do you think the ending is hopeful? Why do you think Jeanne DuPrau would have chosen to end her book at this point!

4. Think deeply about the theory you've been following over the book. How has your theory changed? How has your theory helped you understand the book more deeply? 


If you enjoyed The City of Ember, be sure to check out the other books in the Ember series. You can find information about all the books here. 


If you have a question for Jeanne DuPrau after reading the book, you can EMAIL HER! This page has her contact information. She said she will try to get back to everyone, but it might take her a while. If you email her and get a response, post it here so that we can all read it!


DID YOU KNOW The City of Ember was made into a MOVIE? Watch the trailer! Perhaps we can watch the movie together in the fall? 

REMEMBER to check back often! Read other responses. Ask other readers questions! Answer questions that are asked. The more you visit and comment, the more interesting our conversation will be!

Next week, we begin The Sisters' Grimm! Be prepared for more fairy tale allusions than you've ever encountered before! 

City of Ember: Week Two

This is our second week reading The City of Ember, the first Book of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau. This week, read from A Message Full of Holes (Page 93) through The Way Out (Page 192).

READING TIP: On page 94 of The City of Ember, Lina discovers something terribly important. Once I noticed this message, I got a post-it note (a second bookmark), and I left it on the page. That way, I could return to the message Lina found again and again. This helped me because then I didn't have to waste time searching for the message. 

Secret Message: Lina tries to decode the secret message that she finds, and she really struggles to make sense of it. Here's another secret message. Try it out! Can you decode the message? Click HERE to give it a go!

The Greenhouse: Clary has an incredibly important role in Ember as head of the greenhouse. I know you learned a lot about how plants grow when you worked with Patty this year. If you want to learn more, here are some sites you can visit. This site has a game you can play to determine the exact balance of resources a plant needs. Here's a visual from the Weather Channel that shows how greenhouses work on Earth (although perhaps not in Ember). If you want to try growing some of your own plants from materials you might have around your house, visit this site. 

Questions to Ponder/Respond to: 

1. Lina shares "The Instructions" with many different citizens of Ember. Study their reactions to "The Instructions" closely. What can you learn about the characters from studying their reactions? For example, how does Doon respond? The Mayor? Captain Fleery? Lizzie? 

2. Lina makes a major decision on page 153. What does that decision reveal about her character? What does it help you understand about the kind of place Ember is? 

3. What major symbols are you noticing that repeat again and again throughout the book? 

4. What questions do YOU have for the group? Post a question in the comments, and we can respond to your question with our own ideas. Think about the smart questions you would ask your book club! For example, last week Max wondered about why the residents of Ember don't recognize where they are. When he asked that question, I thought more deeply about that idea. 

Keep reading and responding to the comments other people post! Your fellow readers have some FASCINATING ideas that will really make you think. Ask them questions. Ask for their evidence. Add your own thoughts and opinions. 

City of Ember: Week One

This is our first week reading The City of Ember, the first Book of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau. This week, read from The Instructions (before page 1) through The Box in the Closet (Page 92).

Generators: Doon takes Lina's job down in Pipeworks because he wants to figure out how the generator works and try to solve Ember's problems. Read up to see if you can find any information that could help Doon. Here's a little bit about how generators work. Here's some information about how electricity works. The Power Kids is another fun site that will teach you more about electricity and energy.

City of Ember: Ember is a large city, and it's certainly an unfamiliar city to all of us. Here's a map to the City of Ember. You can access the map by putting the puzzle pieces together, and then you can get an up-close view of all the places Lina and Doon talk about. Here's the map.

Book Trailer: Often now on Youtube, there are "book trailers" for books that you read. These are kind of like movie trailers, and they give you a preview of what the book will be about. Here's one trailer:

Here's another trailer for the book. This one was made by two students. It really helps you get inside the main characters' minds.

Questions to Ponder/Respond to: 
1. Several events early on help us to understand Lina and Doon and the kinds of characters they are. Some key events that stand out to me are: the choosing of jobs, Lina and Doon switching jobs, Lina dancing on the roof, and Lina caring for her grandma and little sister. What do these events already reveal about our main characters? What kinds of people are they?

2. We're about one-third of the way through the book. What big theory are you already growing about the book? Make your theory go beyond the book so that it tells a big idea you are growing.

3. The setting in the "City of Ember" is a lot different than the setting in an Amber Brown book. An Amber Brown book could take place in almost any school, and the setting doesn't matter so much. But in "City of Ember," the setting is terribly important. Ember isn't just any old place. What kind of place is Ember? You might say "Ember is the kind of place where...." and push yourself to write a few sentences about it.

Keep reading and responding to the comments other people post! Your fellow readers have some FASCINATING ideas that will really make you think. Ask them questions. Ask for their evidence. Add your own thoughts and opinions. 

Remember that whatever you post in the "Comment" section goes on the internet and other readers can read it. That means, you should try to use the best spelling, punctuation and capitalization that you can. 

My Side of the Mountain: Week Three

This week marks our final week reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. This week, we read from In Which I Learn About Birds and People through the end! Next week, we start The City of Ember!

The Great Horned Owl: Sam sees a Great Horned Owl nesting on his side of the mountain, and he's just delighted. Here's a National Geographic page that will give you more information about Great Horned Owls (with a really cool first picture). Here's a video from youtube about the Great Horned Owl that takes you up close and shows you what the owl looks like. It also gives you a good sense of the sounds the owl makes that Sam would have heard. 

What does the Great Horned Owl symbolize for Sam? What makes you think that? 

Winter and Spring in the Catskills: Can you imagine being outside in the woods all winter? This silent video gives you a little sense of what Sam might have seen when he peeked his head outside of his hemlock tree the first day of that major snow. 

Remember how delighted Sam was when the first greens of spring started to return? Here's a video that shows someone foraging for wild greens. Here, they've found wild onion!

Questions to Ponder/Answer:

1. Frightful finally joins in Sam's forum and contributes her own thoughts. She says, "You really want to be found, or you would not have told Matt all you did." Why does Frightful join in and say this? Why does Sam wish she would stay quiet? 

2. There are  many characters in books who run away, both literally (actually running away) and figuratively (avoiding problems, etc.). Think about Sam. What did he run away from? What other characters have you encountered who run away from their problems? Think about Hope from The Memory Bank. Think about Groovy from The Year The Swallows Came Early. Consider Harvey Swick from The Thief of Always. How are these characters similar to or different from Sam? 

3. Near the end of the book, Sam, Bando and Matt start building guest houses near Sam's hollowed out hemlock tree. Think about his quote: "I seem to have an address now." What do these guesthouses symbolize for Sam? 

4. What did you think about the ending of My Side of the Mountain? Did it seem realistic? Surprising? 

If you loved My Side of the Mountain, keep it alive! Here are some fun activities you could do and some other books in the series you could read!

Visit Jean Craighead George's website to learn about the other books in the My Side of the Mountain series and the hundreds of other books she's written. Here's a link to the other books in the trilogy. Let us know if you decided to read any of them! Maybe someone will want to form a book club with you and read the other books!

Go outside to somewhere natural. Really experience it. Take it in silently. What do you see? What do you hear? If you listen really closely, like Sam did, you might even hear the plip-plop of worms pushing up through the soil. 

Bando brings so many newspaper articles to share with Sam that were written about him. Try writing one of those articles out, imagining how the reporter might have captured the story. If you write one out, post it here or email it to me so I can post it!

Take a song Sam sung, like his Cold Water Song. How did the song go? Write the lyrics for it! Perform if for your family, friends or other members of our book club. Post the lyrics here so we can enjoy them!

My Side of the Mountain: Week Two

For Week Two of our Summer Online Book Club, we're continuing with My Side of the Mountain. This week, we're reading from Frightful Learns Her ABCs to I Pile Up Wood and Go On With Winter. Enjoy!

Peregrine Falcons and Frightful: Frightful quickly becomes a constant companion for Sam. She is a peregrine falcon. This National Geographic page gives you more information about the peregrine falcon. For example, did you know that peregrine falcons can live for around 17 years? On that page, there is an audio file you can click on to hear what the peregrine falcon sounds like!

There are so many videos on youtube.com about peregrine falcons. Here's one video of a falcon being trained to hunt, just like Sam had to train Frightful to hunt. What other interesting falcon videos can you find? If you find a video we should all watch, post a link to it in the comments!

Thoreau: Bando calls Sam Thoreau. Here are some resources for you to investigate about Henry David Thoreau. Philosophy Slam has a biography of Thoreau. Here are some quotes by Thoreau.  Why is Thoreau a fitting name for Sam?

Questions to Ponder/Answer:
1. Sam faces many challenges living in the wilderness alone, far from civilization. If you were on Sam's journey, what do you think would be most challenging to you? Why? What would you most look forward to?

2. Why do you think Sam wants to tell Bando about the Baron and Jessie C. James so badly? Does this relate to Sam heading out on the road to town without even thinking about it (In Trouble Begins)?

3. When Frightful flies off and doesn't immediately return, Sam says to himself, "She was more than a bird." What do you think he means by that?

4. Look back on your earlier theory. How have you had to revise your theory or strengthen it, based on the new information you've learned? What big idea are you growing now about Sam and the book?

5. Bando says "Desdemona" when Sam reveals his feast. Desdemonda is a heroine from Shakespeare's "Othello." Desdemona takes things at their face value and trusts people. Why do you think Bando says this?

Remember to keep looking back on your classmates' thinking, reading and responding to ideas that other people share! Make this into a conversation, and come back often to read, add on to, and question what we have to say!

My Side of the Mountain: Week One

For Week One of our Summer Online Book Club, we're reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. We read from I Hole Up in a Snowstorm to How a Door Came to Me.

Every Monday, I'll post about the pages we are reading for the week. The post will always include some advice about reading the book, some videos you might want to watch or articles you might want to read related to the book, ideas about how you can bring the book to life, and questions to think about and respond to. Post your ideas about the book using the "comment" form. 

LOOK IT UP: My Side of the Mountain mentions a lot of terms and concepts that are unfamiliar to many readers who aren't living off the land in the Catskill Mountains. As smart readers, you can use books and the internet to help you make sense of those ideas. Google a word you aren't sure of. Search wikipedia to find out all you can about a plant Sam eats. Look at pictures of the plants and animals Sam mentions so you can really visualize them!

I googled "Catskill Mountains in May," and I found this beautiful picture that helped me imagine what the land might have looked like when Sam first arrived to the Gribley Farm. I can imagine him bent over this creek trying to catch a crayfish!

WELCOME TO THE CATSKILLS: Sam Gribley travels from our hometown to the Catskill Mountains. The Catskill Mountains are close by, and there is so much to learn about them! Visit this link to learn about what animals probably shared the mountain with Sam. Visit this site to learn about some of the edible plants found on the Catskills. The Catskill Mountains have a rich and diverse history. They were even involved in the Revolutionary War. Visit this site to learn all about the history of the Catskills. If you visit the Catskills Archives, they have an awesome slide show of pictures and paintings of life in the Catskills. It really shows you how life has changed in the Catskills over time!

This video transports you to the Catskill Mountains and shows you some of the most beautiful areas in the mountains today.

WALKING TOUR: Take a walking tour around your block, backyard, front stoop or neighborhood. Bring someone knowledgeable or a guidebook to plants with you. What do you find that's edible? Could you survive on what you find? If Sam stumbled upon this area, what meal would he make?

Questions to Ponder/Answer: 
1. Sam's way of thinking and acting changed dramatically from his first nights on the mountain to how he is thinking and acting at the end of this section. How did Sam's way of thinking and acting change? What does that tell you about Sam?

2. What do you think about the fact that all the adults in Sam's life seem alright with him running far away from New York City to live in the woods by himself?

3. How would you describe Sam? What kind of person is he? What big theories are you already growing about Sam and this story?

In order for our book club to be the most successful and exciting, our blog needs to be a place where we can have a conversation. Read other people's comments. Write back to people. Use their name so they know you are talking about them. Ask people questions you have about the book. Suggest answers to questions people post. Check back often and add your ideas!