Allie is a nine-year-old girl in the fourth grade. Her life is turned upside down when her parents want to buy an older Victorian home on the other side of town. That means Allie will leave her nice suburban home with pink carpeting in her bedroom. Most of all, it means Allie will attend a new school and leave behind her best friend. Allie will become the worst thing: the new kid! She makes some rules to help her cope with big life changes. One of her rules is "don't put your cat in a suitcase." Read this book and laugh at Allie's other rules which do make sense, if you are in the fourth grade.
This is a humorous but real look at the life of fourth grade girls. The story captures the feeling of conflict with issues common to all nine-year-olds. This book is most suitable reading for those in grades 3-5.
This is an excellent companion book for readers who have enjoyed recent art mystery books like Chasing Vermeer. Marvin is a beetle that lives behind the kitchen cupboard in the Pompadays' kitchen. 11-year-old James Pompaday and Marvin become unlikely friends after James receives a pen and ink drawing set for his birthday, in which Marvin, the beetle, one night draws the scene outside James' bedroom window in miniature. Because the drawing is so small and the lines so delicate, it is compared to the drawings of the artist Albrecht Durer. Naturally, it is thought that James has made the drawing and his work is called to attention. James and Marvin become involved in a planned art robbery in which the FBI hope to catch the art thieves who stole other Durer miniatures, using a counterfeit that James (but really Marvin) has drawn. This is a clever mystery where human and beetle find a way to communicate and become caring friends. Despite the farfetched characters, the plot is believable and yes, even realistic. Recommended for mystery lovers in grades 4-6.
Young Armando must work every day with his father in the mounds to pick through trash and discover valuable recyclables. This is how they support the family. Senor David comes in the summertime and places a blue tarp down on the ground in the middle of the mounds. The children who are allowed come to the tarp and are instructed in learning to read, write, mathematics and drawing. Children beg to be allowed to go to the tarp. As though life is not hard enough for this village, a fire destroys the homes where many of the children live. Armando draws a picture of the fire. It is published in a newspaper. A lady from the city saw the picture and read what happened. She donated money for a school to be built where the blue tarp once stood.
This inspiring story is based on true events. Senor David is David Lynch, a special education teacher from New York. He traveled to Mexico in the summers and actually was the teacher on the blue tarp. This book is a wonderful multicultural book most suitable for students in grades 1-4.
