Have you ever wondered what a beastologist does? This and other provocative points are pondered in a down-loadable Nathaniel Fludd: Beastologist Teacher Activity guide accessible by clicking HERE.
Along with insightful discussion questions, this guide is filled with social studies, science, and reading comprehension activities.
Best of all, it includes instructions for making your very own compass – a must-have for every red-blooded American beastologist!
Kids from age 6 to 8 will enjoy activities such as resumé writing, letter writing, and a Bingo game in down-loadable Teacher Activity Guide accessible by clicking HERE. It is filled with insightful questions for discussion suitable for 1st through 3rd graders and the grown up in-between.
Mirroring Frannie’s preciously precocious voice the guide states that “…scientific fact that Frankly Frannie is a magnificent series for classrooms.”
And if Frannie says it…believe it.
Historical fiction may sound stuffy, but THE AMERICAN GIRL series is anything but. This series, as well as the DEAR AMERICA books, have brought both history and diversity to a new level of authenticity, and plain good story-telling to readers plunging into “long” chapter books.
Take a look at the adventures of ADDY from the Civil War era or JOSEFINA, who brings to the pages the hopes, dreams, and 
adventures of a young Mexican girl living on a rancho in 1824 Santa Fe. My own granddaughter has read and re-read the books about FELICITY and in doing so has learned about Colonial America – the clothing, food, and restrictions put on women, as well as the political questions of the era. The series presents the best of the times but also the issues faced by all girls of every time. At the end of each book are “Look Back” pages that give “A Peek into the Past.” Historical information plus a variety of images – photos, art, posters, even postcards – show an interesting, in-depth view of the historical period. The publishers, Pleasant Company, offer almost every type of activity and “accessory” imaginable.
The SASSY series by Sharon M. Draper is full of strong, delightful, and believable characters, especially Sassy. School Library Journal’s words of praise include “…Draper hits her middle grade target…Filled with energy and opinion, Sassy more than lives up to her name.”
SASSY is a perfect choice for readers comfortable with early chapter books and ready for longer challenges.
In THE DAZZLE DISASTER DINNER PARTY, Sassy wants to cook a fancy meal and, of course, it turns out to be a disaster. The apron is pink and perfect but nothing else is. Sassy’s cooking is a mess – who will eat it? At least the dog eats the cake. But Sassy’s overstuffed backpack is the “dish of the evening.” Who knew stuff in a pack could save a party! With Sassy Simone Sanford, her sparkle and ingenuity “take the cake.”
Simple and perhaps disaster-proof recipes are described in the back of the book. Readers are encouraged to put on an apron and whip up a Sassy dish!
Readers can start with Sassy’s dinner party disaster or the first book of the series, LITTLE SISTER IS NOT MY NAME.
Another older, but popular chapter-book series is ZIGGY AND THE BLACK DINOSAURS. The books are full of adventures, such as: Stars and Sparks on Stage.
Look for this series in its new, repackaged form, as The Buried Bones Mystery (Clubhouse Mysteries), scheduled for release in July.
Sharon M. Draper is the author of many award-winning books, including recent ones for older readers: OUT OF MY MIND, COPPER SUN, and WE BEAT THE STREET. Draper has not only been honored with several prestigious awards (Coretta Scott King), but was also the 1997 National Teacher of the Year.
ReaderKidZ is pleased to welcome Tony Abbott, author of the wildly popular and long-running (11 year!) Droon series. THE FINAL QUEST, the most recent and last book in THE SECRETS OF DROON, brings Eric, Keaah, Neal, and Julie together in a final standoff to defeat Gethwing and save the Kingdom of Droon.
These books have gained a following in every age range, kids to adults, and were voted by the American Booksellers Association among the “Top Ten List of Books to Read While Waiting for the Next Harry Potter.” Can there be a greater compliment to the power of series and the epic nature of this *particular* series than this?
Reviewer and librarian, Betsy Bird, describes Abbot’s work this way: “Maybe that’s Abbott’s super-power. It doesn’t matter if he’s writing about three kids and a staircase of rainbows (THE SECRETS OF DROON) or a tale of a boy and a girl at a Catholic school (FIREGIRL). Whatever he writes is infinitely readable. And that’s a power more than one author would kill to get their hands on.”
From Tony Abbott:
Dear Reader . . .
It’s a funny thing. I didn’t read a lot of fantasy books when I was young. I loved stories like Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows and Treasure Island, but I didn’t find the stories of wizards and magic all that interesting. Until . . . in high school when I was thirteen, fourteen years old, I discovered the stories of The Thousand and One Arabian Nights. These are the stories about Sinbad the Sailor and Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, where the enchanted cave of riches opens when you say, “Open, Sesame!” In those stories I fell in love with deserts and caravans, with flying carpets and cities of gold, and with that strange, mysterious sort of magic of genies. This stayed with me from then on. Then, about fifteen years ago, 
I was asked to think about writing a fantasy series. And all the great stories of the Arabian Nights came back to me. At this time also the word “Droon” spoke itself to me. And I knew instantly that this was the name of a huge world of enchanted cities and deserts and seas. That’s really how Droon was born. I went into my workshop, got out lots of sheets of blank paper, and began to sketch out ideas for characters and places and magic and . . . trouble. Droon was to be a world in trouble. Out of all these thoughts came the first book, The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet — which tells of Eric, Julie, and Neal finding the stairway to the magical world of Droon.
Coming Soon…Tony’s Newest Series:
My new series is called UNDERWORLDS, and the first volume, “The Battle Begins,” will appear from Scholastic in its book fairs and book clubs this September, and in bookstores in the spring of 2012. It’s about four friends — Owen, Jon, Dana, and Sydney (the last two are girls), and it begins with one of them vanishing at school. The others discover that maybe the ancient Underworlds of gods and monsters and heroes and magic are behind the vanishing. They band together to find their friend, and discover that there is something going very wrong in the ancient places. There is unrest in the Underworlds — all the different ones, Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Indian. And a battle is beginning that will spill up to our world. It’s exciting to be at the very beginning of a series like this. There are so many stories from the ancient myths and legends to draw from, but it is happening now, which changes things quite a bit. And the kids are just like us. The first story starts out like any typical morning at any typical school. Then . . . things change quickly, and the adventure begins. I am having a lot of fun crafting these first few stories. I hope my loyal Droon readers find these new stories fun and exciting, too!
Read “What’s Your Story, Tony?” HERE.
For more about Tony, visit his website HERE.
To begin with, I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in a small house on a hill (everyone else had small houses, too). I’ve just written about those early days in a new book for older readers to come out later this year, but one of the most important things I carry with me from those years, is the Bookmobile that used to come to my neighborhood, park down the street, and open its doors to
my brother and me. That was my first real introduction to books of my own (well, my own until they were due!). Before that, I had seen lots of books, in our house, because both of my parents were teachers. My mother began reading stories to me at a very early age and, though I was not a very quick or early reader, I guess I learned to love stories. The kind I loved best were adventure stories. My favorite of all was a book called The Wind in the Willows, about four characters: Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad. I always talk about this story when I visit schools, because it was so important for me. Because I loved that book so much, I was tempted to try to write my own stories. First, I started out writing stories with the same four characters from that book, but most of all Ratty and Moley, who I thought were the best of friends and would be nice friends of mine. After a while, I started writing little things about new characters, ones I made up myself. I drew pictures, too, but I was never very good at that. My father could actually draw pretty well, but I don’t think I picked up anything of his talent. When I was eight years old, we moved from Ohio to Connecticut. I have lived in the same part of Connecticut, in three different towns, since then. In fact, I own my mother’s house now, and one of my daughters lives there now. But that’s another story.
Thanks to my mom, who saved everything, I have some of my old report cards. I was not especially good in reading, though I was all right in spelling. I liked history (maybe because my father was a history teacher). I was just an okay student. I’m sure no one would remember me. I was pretty shy and didn’t make myself known too much.
I liked to bike around and play baseball. I was a slow reader, but my mom always helped me find things to read, so I did that, too. When I was about ten, I started playing guitar, and that was a good thing. It turned into a life-long interest of mine, and I now have four guitars and a ukulele that I strum from time to time.
In Cleveland, I shared a bedroom with my brother. It had narrow windows high in the wall that you could only see out of if you stood on a bed and looked out. I was always afraid of giant toads coming into my room from those high windows. I don’t know why it was toads, but that’s what frightened me most. Also, getting lost. I still fear getting lost.
Yes. My brother and I were never supposed to make noise while my father was working, but sometimes we did. Also, I wrote in a library book. This was a bad thing.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Oh, I loved that book, and I still do.
My grandmother called me Bobchicka. It’s a Hungarian nickname, I think.
A fireman or a farmer. This was because of very nice plastic trucks that I had, a firetruck and a farmer’s pickup truck with a chicken coop on the back. Fireman. Farmer. I was working through the Fs, I think.
Maybe an archaeologist. The idea of brushing the sand away from a legendary artifact is very cool. It goes back to the Arabian Nights, I think. Plus Indiana Jones. Also, I would like the job of professional reader. Just read all day long.
Read everything you can get your hands on. Do everything, all different kinds of things (but nothing risky, of course), because readers like to be told a story from someone who knows a thing or two. Ask questions of everyone. Listen to everyone. Walk by yourself. Find a place that is very quiet, so you can think alone there. You will have ideas that you want to write down. And your reading will show you how the best writers have done that.
Everywhere. I read a lot: newspapers, magazines, books. Ideas come to me from all of these places, but they need to collide, one idea joining with another and another, before I begin to see a story that might work. It takes time. Often ideas for characters and stories come from voices. I either hear a voice in real life or imagine one in my mind, and the look and feel and shape of the character forms in my imagination, and I begin to sketch out a story. It grows from there.
Oh, yes. Most of my days are long, from 8am to about 5pm. Other days, like on weekends, I don’t have as much time to spend. But whenever I have a free moment, I am in my room (where I am right now), and all my work is here, so there is always something to push ahead on.
Absolute silence. I cannot listen to anything while I write. I do find much inspiration in music, but then I have to shut it off to be able to form my thoughts and words.
The ending. At the beginning, it is a very free time for me. I envision the story as being enormous with all kinds of ideas 
working through it. By the end, I am not as free, for everything about the story has to make sense. And I have, obviously, to find the absolutely correct words and phrases to tell me story. So this is where the hard mind work comes in. It’s wonderful to finish a story, a kind of relief. But before that is the very hardest part of writing . . . for me.
I love revision. All of my best work comes out when I revise, and I revise many, many times. For my Droon stories, there are at least five or six drafts before the story goes to the editor. After there, there are another three or four. Again, the idea is that you end up with the best book you can possibly write, so revisions are very important for me. I don’t — I never — write a good story the first time through.
One of the novels, I think. Firegirl. Or The Postcard. I also like the one that’s coming out later this year, called Lunch-Box Dream. That’s the story about the road trip when I was young.
I have two daughters and used to have two dogs, one of whom, Comet, became the character called Batamogi in the Droon stories. But he passed away, and we have one dog left. His name is Kip.
Quick Picks:
Click HERE to access an amazing Teacher’s Guide supporting Tony Abbott’s incredible series, The Secrets of Droon.
Guide creator Donna F. Skolnick passionately believes that encouraging kids to connect with series books is the key to sparking the life-long love of reading. She states on page 3 of her well-written, content-packed guide, “Series books entice young readers to keep reading and that is exactly what the Droon series does. Children love knowing that there is another exciting adventure with Eric, Julie, Neal, and Keeah as soon as they finish the book they are presently reading.”
Donna suggests that an educator view her guide as a sort of ‘menu’ from which to choose what is needed to enhance the child’s reading experience. Be it concepts such as comprehension strategies, author study, word study, Reader’s Theater, or a quality focus on literary elements of craft, this guide is the perfect compliment for any child reading Abbott’s The Secrets of Droon.
Kids love books in a series and one of the most wonderful things about that, is that once children have gotten HOOKED, they’re guaranteed more delightful reads.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of series for the K-5 reader. We’ve included a few recent favorites here, some, perhaps, more familiar than others.
PRINCESS POSEY AND THE PERFECT PRESENT by Stephanie Greene, illustrated by Stephanie Roth Sisson
Princess Posey is absolutely one of the best new transitional series to publish in the last year. This second in the series is as charming as the first and brought smiles from the very first pages. It’s that wonderful!
In Book 2, (coming in early March) Posey wants to give the perfect gift to her teacher, Miss Lee. Best friends, Nikki and Eva have each decided on very, very special presents. Posey has, too, and she’s certain that when her teacher, Miss Lee, sees what she’s chosen, she’ll “smile and smile.” Not surprisingly, “In her secret heart, Posey hoped Miss Lee would like her more than anyone.”
Of course, things don’t turn out quite as she’d hoped and the way Posey ultimately solves her problem will endear her all the more to readers’ hearts.
* Learn more about author, Stephanie Greene, in a ReaderKidZ Author-In-Residence post HERE.
AGGIE THE BRAVE by Lori Ries, illustrated by Frank W. Dormer
Aggie has an appointment at the vet’s and both she and Ben must be brave. Ben has all sorts of worries. “Will Aggie get hurt? What if she gets hungry?” Poor Ben’s none too happy when he learns that Aggie will have her very first sleepover without him. Ben will have to watch tv with an empty lap and go to sleep in an empty bed…
When Ben picks Aggie up the next day, he learns she must walk around with a lampshade on her head. That’s when Ben decides to turn Aggie the Lamp Head into Aggie the Lion!
This series was completely off my radar until a friend led me to it and I’m so glad she did. Three short chapters, marvelously illustrated by Frank Dormer (Socksquatch), make this the perfect book for beginning readers.
BAD KITTY VS. UNCLE MURRY: The Uproar at the Front Door by Nick Bruel
I remember reading the first BAD KITTY picture book when it was released over 5 years ago. Students loved that alphabet book, as well as its follow-up POOR PUPPY. More recently, Bad Kitty has found an equally enthusiastic audience for its new chapter book format.
The most recent of these, BAD KITTY VS. UNCLE MURRAY, was a delight to read and Bruel has clearly found a format with the room he needed to fully develop KITTY’s character. In each chapter, not only does Bad Kitty give Uncle Murray a run for his money but, sandwiched between, informational “Uncle Murray’s Fun Facts,” give the reader something extra. Look for next book, BAD KITTY MEETS THE BABY, in June.
DRAGON BREATH: Curse of the Were-Wiener by Ursula Vernon
A book about a dragon named Danny and an iguana named Wendell who are best friends is wild enough. But in this latest adventure, when a weird-looking, candy-apple red, school cafeteria hot dog bites mild-mannered Wendell, things begin to turn wilder still! Could Wendell be morphing into a were-wiener?
Strange things are happening and with a full moon on the rise, there’s no telling what Wendell might be capable of! Fortunately, Danny Dragonbreath’s on the job, and with any luck, he’ll have the Curse of the Were-Wiener solved before you know it. Look for the newest book in the series, DRAGONBREATH: LAIR OF THE BAT MONSTER, in March.
BIG NATE IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF by Lincoln Peirce
Big Nate is like Diary of a Wimpy Kid for a slightly younger audience. Text is broken up with comic panels and spot illustrations in a way that is sure to draw in even the most reluctant reader.
This first in the series follows Nate through an ordinary day at school, which, for Nate, usually means trouble. Except, this day, Nate’s fortune cookie fortune reads: “Today you will surpass all others.” And true to form – and fortune – by the end of the day, Nate does manage to set a new school record. He won’t get one of those display case trophies, but he does leave his mark for all posterity. Look for BIG NATE BOREDOM BUSTER in April
BROWNIE AND PEARL GET DOLLED UP by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Brian Biggs
Brownie and Pearl are dressing up and they’ve got all the fixings to sparkle and shine. This short (24 page) text by one of my personal favorite authors, Cynthia Rylant, is a series the youngest child will enjoy reading over and over. Look for the newest, BROWNIE AND PEARL TAKE A DIP, in April.
