Five Reading Series...for Boys! (Hopefully!)

Boys.  I always have the hardest time finding fiction books for my reluctant boys, especially ones who are struggling readers. They love to read non-fiction and would read animal books and sports books and hurricane books all day every day. But when it comes to fiction, it seems like the books geared for boys go from super easy to too hard and there’s hardly anything in between.

Last year, several of my boys loved mysteries so they read A-Z Mysteries and other similar series like crazy. But for my other boys, I wasn’t quite so lucky. Some of them religiously carried around a copy of whatever Diary of a Wimpy Kid book they could get their hands on and pretend to read and understand it, while others would just shut down altogether after spending several minutes browsing the shelves only to find nothing they even wanted to try to read. I realized that my classroom library had lots of variety for girls, but not much for boys. 

Last week while I was browsing the shelves at the local public library, I came across five reading series that I was mostly unfamiliar with. Some I had seen before but never read and some I had never even heard of. I read a book from each series and I'm kicking myself for not knowing about these sooner. The following five series offer a little bit of everything in contexts I know some of my boys (and girls!) would have enjoyed. 

**Warning- At this point I am only speculating and have not recommended or given these books to any of my students (it's summer!). When I do, I will update this post!** :)

1. Rotten School by R.L. Stine

Of course I know about Goosebumps and Fear Street, but I have never heard about R.L. Stine's Rotten School series. I must have been living under a rock!! In this 16-book series, the main character, Bernie Bridges, takes part in lots of crazy antics. This series doesn’t have the horror themes of Goosebumps, but still has lots of disgusting descriptions that made me cringe! I mean, the first book is called The Big Blueberry Barf-Off, so just use your imagination! Here is the series description from KidReads:

Welcome to Rotten School! A place where Chef Baloney serves chicken with the feathers still on, where an armpit is a musical instrument, where the winning prize for art goes to the student with the best tattoo. But on this campus of losers, there's one winner who really stands out: Bernie Bridges. The king of schemers, Bernie can figure out a creative solution to any problem. Whether it's finding a way to steal --- er, win --- his hated enemy's new watch, or turning the tables on a bully by turning his dorm into a haunted house, Bernie always has a brilliant idea. Of course, things don't always turn out exactly as Bernie plans...but then, what would be the fun in that?

I highly enjoyed reading this book and I am looking forward to reading more of them.



2. My Weird School by Dan Gutman

I have seen these books before and even have a couple in my classroom library, but because I had never read them I was hesitant to suggest these to my boys. After reading one, Ms. Todd is Odd, in particular, I wish I would have been more familiar with these and I'm mad at myself for not reading them sooner! 

In this hilarious series, the main character is second-grader Arlo Jervis, known to his friends as A.J., who attends Ella Mentry School with his friends. A.J. thinks school is boring and pointless, but at Ella Mentry School, the school is crazy and the staff is even weirder! I know my boys would enjoy the bizzare things that happen. This series offers tons of books to keep readers engaged and each book features a new crazy grown-up. With three additional series, My Weird School Daze, My Weirder School, and My Weirdest School, readers can follow A.J. and his friends to the third grade where things just keep getting crazier!! 

The series also has a great website where kids can read about Dan Gutman and even see him describing his series! I have to admit that I am excited to read them all! I was cracking up!! These books range in level from 3.3 to 4.4.




3. The Secrets of Droon by Tony Abbott

In this 44-book fantasy series written by Tony Abbott, three kids, Eric, Neal, and Julie, discover a hidden rainbow staircase in Eric's basement. This stairway leads to the troubled city of Droon, a magical place full of adventure. They meet Princess Keeah and discover flying lizards and magical furry creatures. With the help of a wizard named Galen, and a furry red-headed spider troll named Max, they fight to help save Droon from the evil Lord Sparr. This series would be good for my boys (or girls, of course!) who enjoy magic and fantasy but need a fast-paced book with a less complicated plot structure that still provides engaging illustrations. The books range in reading level from 3.0 to 4.3.

Fantasy is not my favorite genre, but for a kids' series, I enjoyed reading the story. I read book 13, The Mask of Maliban. I must admit that I am a little curious to see what happens to Lord Sparr....

4. The Doodles of Sam Dibble by J. Press

This four-book series featuring third grader Sam Dibble is perfect for those students who aren't quite ready for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and other similar series. The text looks hand-written and is full of doodles that add an additional layer of humor. Sam is a typical boy who loves doing boyish things like competing in burping contests and eating live worms. He also has a rival, Max, who Sam and the other students call “Wax" due to his annoying habit of tattle telling. Max's dad also happens to be dating Sam's mom, which only adds to Sam's annoyance. Grandpa Dibble is a hilarious minor character that adds a unique element of comedy. The books follow Sam through his school-day adventures and are quick reads. The books range in level from 3.6 to 4.1. 

I read book two, Double Trouble. I enjoyed the light-hearted nature of this book and the familiarity of the typical elementary school classroom including the class pet, a hamster named Fluffernutter. I didn't think I would like them, but I actually enjoyed looking at the doodles. :)




5. Vampire School by Peter Bently and Chris Harrison 

In this six-book fantasy series, Lee Price and his other young vampire friends attend St. Orlok's Elementary School where they learn and perfect their vampire skills. Their teacher, Ms. Gargoyle, teaches them everything they need to know, even how to blend in among the “fangless folk.” This series would be great for a struggling or reluctant reader who enjoys monsters, vampires, mummies, etc., but not the gore and violence that comes without traditional monster stories. I read book two, Ghoul Trip, and enjoyed it! The students worked together to solve a crime and even I couldn't predict the ending! I know some of my boys would have enjoyed these books and felt successful after completing them. The text is a larger print and has lots of supplementary illustrations to enhance the story. The books range in level from 3.2 to 3.7.


Well, there you have it! Jeff will probably kill me when he sees how much the Amazon bill is this month, but hey! A teacher’s gotta have books! I’m anxious to try these books out with my boys (and girls) next year and see how they feel about them. I’ll get back to you when I do! 

I realize that there was not a single book about sports. Surprisingly, my boys this past year weren't very interested in sports. I'm still on the lookout for great sports books for struggling readers, though, so if you have any suggestions, I'll take 'em! 


Do you have any experience with any of these series?? Thoughts? Recommendations? 

I’d love to hear!

Fabulous Finds!

Happy Easter!!

I am so excited to be sharing with you some of the amazing things I found this weekend.

My family and I go every 6 months to an antique fair in Warrenton, Texas, a small town just past Round Top. People come from all over the country to sell their treasures from the past and present. I gear up with a giant bag of delicious freshly-popped kettle corn and a sweet tea snow cone, put on my most comfortable tennis shoes and hit the gravel for three days of junk huntin'! Imagine row after row of this:

... that basically sums up the experience!

I love this place so much because you never know quite what you will find. People sell furniture, food, clothes, these creepy baby doll heads... I know, I had no words either.

But no matter where I go, I am always drawn to the same thing- school books from the past- or anything to do with education for that matter. I am highly intrigued by the kinds of things kids from different periods in time learned, how they learned it, in what kind of setting it was learned, how it was practiced, tested, you get the picture. I love to study which educational trends have come and gone and why, and just how the nature of 'school' itself has evolved over the years. I collect old school books, teacher's guides, practice books, all of it. As you can tell, I'm kind of a nerd. :)

So, one morning as I was meandering through booths of random stuff, I found these amazing treasures to add to my collection-  and I wanted to share them with you!

First up, I found these super cool (and super old) math problem cards. The title on the box read "A Thousand Regents' Questions in Arithmetic."

 I was immediately curious and upon looking inside, I found that it contained 1,000 math problems, each color coded by topic. The box said they were made for the University of the State of New York in 1880- yes- 1880!!! I was so excited to find this! I have never seen anything even remotely similar to this. Gold!

The problems inside were very complex. Here is a sample of two of them:

I was amazed at the level of difficulty- and this stuff had to be done without a calculator! I would not even want to attempt to do some of the problems in this box.

I also found a grammar book called Fun with Words: Step by Step in English. The inside cover said it was used by the state of Texas in 1940- neat!

I love how the book is written directly to the student, just like a teacher would be talking. I found this page about asking questions and it cracked me up! It talked about how there is a difference between asking a good question and a bad question. A good question is one that is polite and a bad question is one that could potentially hurt someone's feelings. Check out this excerpt- love it!

My favorite book find, though, was this book called Rural School Management from 1924. I stood in the booth flipping through the pages debating whether or not to buy it, working up my courage to negotiate the price- which I never do too well- and I decided that I just had to have it- and I was willing to pay full price! No need to haggle for this gem!

The book is written with the intended audience to be the teacher- that ONE woman who would be running the one room school house and teaching children from rural areas ALL the subjects in ALL the grades 1-8 in the state of Iowa. I cannot wait to read it. The women who were able to do this were simply amazing.

Knowing that this book was in the hands of the real women who tackled this feat gives me chills.

While reading the first few pages, I came across this paragraph in a section that was describing the characteristics of a great teacher of rural children, but it so perfectly describes what every teacher does that I just had to share it.

Is that not the most eloquent description of teaching you have ever read? I am hooked. I will be snuggling up with my blanket and this book tonight and inhaling that wonderful musty smell that can only come from an aged book :) No Kindle for this girl!  I told you I was a nerd!

Besides old books, I also found another fabulous item and I cannot wait to share it with my kiddos!

Apart from being a book nerd, I am also a rock lover! I love rocks- geology in general. I love that our small little planet can produce such amazing formations and transform the landscape in such spectacular ways. For a day or so I actually thought about changing my degree from education to geology because I am so fascinated by it all. Anyway, I digress...

In the middle of two booths selling massive architectural pieces, I found... an intact geode!! I have been wanting one of these since I was a little girl. I have collected several small pieces of geodes over the years, but I have never owned an entire rock that has yet to be cracked open! I found a guy that was selling all kinds of interesting rocks. He had the already cracked open geodes, but I was only interested in this baby: my very own geode!!

He had a big crate full of them and I got to pick out my very own! He even gave me a discount when he found out I was a teacher and my mom gave him the "it's for the kids" speech. Love it! I'm tellin' ya, sometimes we just have to pull the teacher card!  I felt like a kid in a candy store! Inside this baby will be thousands of tiny sparking quartz crystals! Hopefully it will look something like this..

I'm wanting to crack it open with the kiddos, so I should have a good time figuring out how to make that happen without a kid getting an eye knocked out by pieces of rock.  I'm seeing a full science lab with little scientists decked out with their gear in the near future! If I'm able to pull it off, I'll post pictures for sure!!

I did manage to take my mind off of school for a while! I picked up some cute things for the house, ate some amazingly delicious food, and spent lots of quality time with the people I love. It was a great weekend!

Now on to something that YOU can actually use-

I was blog-browsing, catching up on all of my reading after three days with no internet, and found these two great resources that AMC at Looking From Third to Fourth shared in her post about writing workshop last Wednesday. The link above will take you to her post where you can read about how she organizes her writing workshop materials- great stuff!

First: A personal thesaurus for kids to use when they write. This booklet contains synonyms for those all-too-commonly-used words like 'said,' 'walk,' 'talk,' you get the idea. You can print it free from
this website. The teacher who originally posted this - Mrs. Saunders- also shares some other great resources on her website.

Second: My Quick Word Dictionary- a booklet with pages for each letter of the alphabet (some pages have more than one letter) with frequently misspelled words and blanks to add words of your own. You can print it here from Lee's Summit School District Resources Website. This site also has some other good stuff for reading and writing that's worth looking through.

I'll be putting these two resources to use this week! Thanks again for sharing, AMC!

Well, it's nice and dark and the rain is pouring. I'm headed to my chair with my book and blanket. If I come across anything else in Rural School Management that's interesting, I'll be sure to share!!

Have a great rest of your Sunday!