Non-fiction Monday: Ralph Fletcher

Ralph Fletcher will be at our school in May to talk to students and work with teachers. Squee!

I am reading Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid, a memoir about his childhood.  Can you imagine being told by classmates that your mom was having another kid?  That happened to him.  I love how he describes learning about wild mushrooms: “Mom said to think of them as strangers–some are good, some are bad, and since you couldn’t tell the difference it was best to leave them alone.”

This is a book that kids will read and make connections.  It is a book that teachers can use as a mentor text.

Another book by Fletcher that I am sharing with students is  A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You.  It details ideas and suggestions for any young writer who wants to keep a notebook.  Last week I had a great discussion with third graders on how Fletcher  hooked you into reading by describing an interesting ditch and what he found in the ditch and then leaping into a comparison of the ditch to a writer’s notebook.  He has also included guest chapters about notebooks. One of them is one of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye.

I AM hosting the Nonfiction Monday.  If you have read other posts of mine you may be aware that my district wants to change my job significantly ( no more teaching but in two schools) so my brain has been on other things. Apologies.

Today at Lori Calabrese Writes!, there’s a review of She Sang Promise.

Shelf Employed features Argh! Check out Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. Fascinating. 

At  The Cat & The Fiddle, Michelle M. has an interview with Edward Einhorn, author of the math book A Very Improbable Story (a mixture of probability and magic)

Bookends is celebrating the last week of National Poetry Month with a post for Losing Season, an adult poetry collection/verse novel by Jack Ridl, which has teen appeal.

Simply Science has Dinosaurs Eye to Eye for all the dinosaur lovers.Jennie reviews  Heroes of the Environment.

Read about Global Warming, by Seymour Simon  at Charlotte’s Library .

Ooh, Becky has a favorite of mine,  a review of Wangari’s Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter.

Tricia at Miss Rumphius is sharing  a review of Smart-Opedia.

Roberta gushed on and on about The Field Guide to Insects: Explore the Cloud Forests by Paul Beck today at Wrapped in Foil .

Lost Between the Pages reviewed Julius Caesar by Ellen Galford.

Leave you link in the comments and I will work on updating throughout the day.

Happy Reading

MsMac