Beehive Book Club Kick Off

Race to Read

Beehive Books

Utah's most prestigious children's literature competition is in full swing with books nominated in four categories: Picture, Poetry, Informational and Children's Fiction. For a list of all the Beehive Nominees for 2011-12 visit the Children's Literature Association of Utah (CLAU) at http://www.clau.org

How to Become a Member of the Bella Vista Beehive Book Club:

Every student becomes a member of the Beehive Book Club by writing their name on a car and coloring it. Look for the students' vehicles on the "road" wrapping the walls around the library.

"Race to Read" as many Beehive Nominated books for 2011-12 as possible from now until March.

Students visit the library and vote on each Beehive book they read.

Students' votes will be tallied for Bella Vista's winners and turned in to CLAU to be included in the votes for the official Utah competition in the Spring.

Parties, Books and More!

In the Beehive Book Binder in the library, students write their names, teacher's name and grade under the books they have read to become eligible for two potential rewards:

1. Win a Beehive Book! Reading, voting and recording name in the Beehive Book Binder for reading Beehive books makes students eligible for the end of year drawings in each class for the Beehive Winning Book Give Away that will be announced at the Beehive Book Club Party (all students are invited) in the Spring.

2. Help your class win a pizza party. The class that reads the most Beehive books will win a pizza party.

A big THANK YOU goes out to the school administration and PTA for their generous support of our Beehive Book Club!

Parents Get Involved.

Read books with your child or read books before your child does. Discuss the books with your child as they read them to help improve comprehension. There are amazing books nominated this year in every category, but not all Beehive books may be suitable for all ages.

Visit Whitmore Library Often With Your Child.

Bella Vista's Library has one to two copies of each Beehive Nominated book for 2011-12. Whitmore Library has several more copies of each book in the Children's section. Mrs. Wilson and I encourage parents to visit Whitmore Library through the school year with your child to check out the Beehives and other children's books.

Halloween Fun!

Knowing there are students who love to be scared while others get spooked very easily, I decided to choose stories that are mostly fun but a tiny bit scary. Stories that all students can enjoy during this Halloween time.

3-6th Grades.
"The Widow's Broom" By Chris Van Allsburg
The author of "The Polar Express" wrote this Halloween story.
The Widow's Broom is filled with brownish, black illustrations which gives the book a haunting feeling. This is a picture book shelved in the more mature fiction section of the library. This book is about a broom that loses power while a witch is riding it! The witch and her broom fall to the ground landing in a widow's garden. The widow, Minna Shaw, though scared, takes the hurt witch to her home to care for her. The witch disappears after a good night's rest but the broom remains with a life of its own!

During Ms. Alvord's class visit to the library, she let her students know "The Widow's Broom" is one of her favorite Halloween books.

Before reading "The Widow's Broom" a few jokes were shared from "Dracula's De-Composition Book..." by Holly Kowitt. One of my favorite jokes in the book is: "How does a Cyclops listen to music?... On an eye pod."

K-2 Grades.
"Hansel and Gretel" By the Brothers Grimm
Kindergarten classes to second grade were told two stories. The first is the classic Grimm fairytale called "Hansel and Gretel."

I received the second story from Ms. Janelle at Whitmore Library. This story is about a little mouse who finds a house in a pumpkin patch. As the story unfolds, I cut out orange paper in the shape of a pumpkin and by the end of the story the paper cut out becomes a jack-o-lantern to wish everyone a "Happy Halloween!" Ms. Damjanovich's class went back to class after story time and made their own jack-o-lantern cut outs! They shared them with Mrs. Wilson and I. We were absolutely delighted to see every one of them, even the cyclops and four eyed "jacks"!

AUTUMN IS HERE

TWO FABULOUS PUMPKIN BOOKS

WERE SHARED DURING STORY TIME

K-3rd Grade

Too Many Pumpkins

by Linda White; Illustrated by Megan Floyd

3-6th Grade

Me and The Pumpkin Queen

By Marlane Kennedy

Happy Birthday!

For the week of September 12-16 we celebrated BIRTHDAYS in the Media Center.

For kindergarten - 3rd grade we read Birthday at the Panda Palace, by Stephanie Calmenson, illustrated by Doug Cushman .

"For monkeys like us, Bananas will please. But for you, birthday mouse, Here's a big chunk of . . ." Birthday cake? Mud pie? No, it's cheese!

Can you guess what the three pigs bring? Is it made of straw or wood or brick? How about Elephant? What is his present for Mouse? The students loved using the rhymes to figure out what gift they'll find when the page was turned. And the best surprise of all comes at the end when a special visitor arrives—because friendship is what this party is all about!

Complete with cake, candles, goody bags, and games, Stephanie Calmenson and Doug Cushman throw a party you won't want to leave!

For 4th - 6th grade we read 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.

It's Amanda's 11th birthday and she is super excited---after all, 11 is so different from 10. But from the start, everything goes wrong. The worst part of it all is that she and her best friend, Leo, with whom she's shared every birthday, are on the outs and this will be the first birthday they haven't shared together. When Amanda turns in for the night, glad to have her birthday behind her, she wakes up happy for a new day. Or is it? Her birthday seems to be repeating iself. What is going on?! And how can she fix it? Only time, friendship, and a little luck will tell. . .

Award Winning Books for 2011

The Caldecott and Newbery awards are the most prestigious awards given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, to American authors' books in the United States of America. Once the winning books are announced, book stores have a difficult time keeping their shelves stocked with these quality children books.

The Caldecott Medal for 2011 goes to A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead, Illustrated by Erin Stead.

This book is about friends and how they take care of each other. The story is unpredictable and the illustrations are delightful. My favorite picture is when the animals are riding the bus. I highly recommend this book for all elementary students and their parents to enjoy reading. Though in the Media Center, we read it to the students from Kindergarten through Third Grade.

Read to 4th-6th Grade

The Newbery Medal for 2011 goes to Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.

Abilene Tucker is the 12 year old daughter of Gideon Tucker. She loves to hear his stories of a town he lived in 18 years before called, Manifest. Abilene describes her father's stories about Manifest like "...sucking on butterscotch. Smooth and sweet...." The students savored butterscotch drops while we read this flavorful metaphor in chapter one.

Continuing with an introduction to the story, Gideon gets a job in Iowa with the railroad and sends his Abilene to this town of Manifest. She arrives on a train scheduled to meet Pastor Howard whom Gideon arranged for her to stay with. "Abilene's Manifest" is much different than the smooth and sweet stories Gideon told her about. The pastor she meets is an interim pastor who has been waiting 14 years for the real pastor to show up. His name is Shady and, yes, he is a bit shady. She makes friends when she goes to her first day of school which is the last day of school before summer break.

She comes upon some old Manifest Herald newspapers and reads them in hopes of finding information about Gideon's time in Manifest, She also discovers an old cigar box hidden under a board on her bedroom floor that is filled with trinkets, a map, and letters about suspicions of spies in Manifest during World War I. As Abilene and her friends begin to investigate the past, someone warns them to stop their investigation by inconspicuously posting a note to their treehouse. The adventure of past(1918) and present (1936) becomes too irresistible for the girls to leave alone!

Welcome Back! Some Things Old and Some Things New

MMM...Many maneuvers are mingling in the minds of the Media Assistants to make each month in the Media Center magical, munchy, and monumental with Some Things Old and Some Things New.

Some Things Old that will continue to be incorporated into Story Time this year will be Meet the Author, holiday and seasonal books, the latest, cutting edge books, classics, award winning books, including Newberys, Caldecotts and Beehives. The Beehive Book Club is only one year old and we will continue it again this year with a new twist...

Some Things New include the Race to Read Beehive Books for members of the Beehive Book Club (all students are members) and the newly nominated Beehive books which are available to check out during class visits starting the second week of school. We will have a combination of fiction and non-fiction authors to spotlight for Meet the Author and much more!

Some Thing else New, well...not some thing but Some One New is our new Media Assistant, Mrs. Wilson. She will be working alongside Mrs. Allison in the Media Center. According to Mrs. Allison, she is the best part of something new in our library this year so please help her feel welcome!

A Fond Farewell--Mrs. Wadsworth Says Goodbye

As the school year winds up, we look back at all the wonderful times we've had, all the great things we've learned, and all of our progress. No matter what stage of life we are in, we learn and grow, stretch and explore. This is my last year working at Bella Vista, so I find myself looking back over the past four years, not just looking back over the last school year. Thank you to students and faculty for making these past four years great for me! I have learned a lot, had a ton of fun, and felt a great deal of love and acceptance within your friendship. This has been a fantastic place to work.

I am resigning my position for a couple of reasons. One of them is family. As many of you know, I have a daughter who struggles with autism and epilepsy. As her schedule and needs change, so must mine. If you are interested in learning more about autism, here are a few of my favorite books. Also look in the archives of this blog for "Waiting for Benjamin".

Rules by Cynthia Lord

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a great book to introduce kids to autism and what it is like to have an autistic sibling. I am often in awe of my own children and how they deal with their autistic sister. They have had their difficulties, much like the girl in this novel, but they have learned to love her and see beauty in her.



View all my reviews

Here's another one that I really liked, but it is not appropriate for elementary school students. Parents, give this one a read!
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novel is not appropriate for elementary school students, but for an adult with an autistic daughter--like myself--this book was a very good read. Given my experience, this novel awoke all kinds of thoughts in me. This was a very realistic portrayal of an autistic person. My daughter is much more severe than this character, but it did make me wonder more about the world in which she lives. The language is strong in places, and this author doesn't pull any punches on the emotional difficulties this character faces. The circumstances the character finds himself in are sadly common as well. Such a good glimpse into the autistic mind.



View all my reviews

Also, for my creative writing students and for those who are interested, I wrote a book about autism as well. This book is based on our experiences raising an autistic child.

Faraway Child by Amy Maida Wadsworth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Can I review my own book? :)

This book is very dear to my heart. It is based on true events, though the characters have been changed--several people were mushed together into one character, and I got creative with the characters who provided conflict. Many of the cruel things said to the main character were actually said to me and my family. This book is raw and honest and I published it with great trepidation because it exposed my weaknesses, fears, and flaws. By reading this book, you are--in a way--getting a small glimpse into a period of my life.

People often ask about our autistic daughter and how she is doing now. She is currently 18, still living at home, and is a great joy to us. She is still mostly non-verbal and will need care and assistance for the rest of her life, but her epilepsy causes more of a challenge for us than her autism.

I hope you enjoy this book.



View all my reviews

We have formed a team for the Walk Now for Autism Speaks 5k coming up in October of 2011. If you would like more information on this fundraiser, go to my team page.

I am also leaving to pursue my dream of being an author. As stated above, I have written books before. About 6 years ago, I left the publishing field to start working outside of my home. Now, it is time to return to publishing. If you would like to follow my writing career, check out my website occasionally. http://www.amymaidawadsworth.com/index.html I'm starting from scratch, though, so it may be a while before anything hits the shelves.

Thanks again, Bella Vista! I'll be back as a volunteer next year! Much love to you all!

The Year the Swallows Came Early

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

This book takes place in San Juan Capistrano when the swallows do their annual migration. The children in the book learn to deal with and forgive adults who make poor decisions that affect them. The book chapters are titled by foods which relates to the culinary goals of the main character and living in Southern California. The book was enjoyable to read.