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My son has recently enjoyed reading the "Flying Dutchmen" series by Brian Jacques and �The Alchemyst [The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel]� by Michael Scott.

�A Short History of Nearly Everything� looks great for my DS!

Another book my DS looks at often is �The Way Things Work� by David MaCaulay.

My students are getting ready to participate in a Battle of the Books so I have found myself reading over this spring break. The first (the kids rated it high) was The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs. It was about a very curious child who, upon reading about the Seven Wonders of the World, is given a challenge by his father to find seven wonders in their own SMALL community in seven days. The prize is a trip to visit a relative via train. (Historical fiction)

My favorite was a very easy read, but I am imagining what I can do with it in a classroom. It is called Punished and is all about words. (Pun----ished isn't the title just because the kid is in trouble. There are many other word challenges in the short book.)

The Homework Machine is the last one that I have read this week. It is also an easy read, but has a very highly gifted male fifth grader and one very bright girl as two of the main characters. I think this would offer a great discussion starter for the kids.

It will be interesting to hear the kids comments about the last two when we return to school, but I am pretty sure that they will be excited about them. I know they were the ones that got me to continue with the first one. I just could not get into it to start with.

Just Ducky - my DS10 read The Homework Machine over Christmas break and he loved it! I guess I should have read it too and we could have discussed it. He did tell me alot about it so I don't know why I didn't think to do that.

Anyone know anything about Diane Duane's Young Wizards series? My DS saw them in a book store and I was wondering if they were any good.

The recent reads were fresh in my mind, but as a teacher my absolute personal favorites are The View from the Cherry Tree and Christmas Spurs.

I am a fan of Willo Davis Roberts for kids. She seemed to have a way of pulling kids in that many authors miss. Don't Hurt Laurie was another in which she seemed to grip the subject of child abuse in a way that kids could relate to and make them want to reach out to help the main character, Laurie.

Bill Wallace is also great for a fun read (yet in Christmas Spurs very serious).

I have read these to my kids in the past. They can't wait for the next chapter. Christmas Spurs has a young brother who dies after a battle from cancer. (I cry every year when I read it to the kids.) It is so touching the way it is dealt with though. I passed on reading it to this class because I have a student whose brother is fighting a battle with lymphoma for the second time in the past year. I did recommend it to several students and they said it was one of the best books they have ever read.

These books are very emotional reads. They are definitely topics that exist, but that most of us would prefer to push under the rug. I just thought these books were well written and approached the subjects in tactful ways. They were encouraging in some ways, because I knew that one of two things was happening. The kids were either seeing a world that they were sheltered from and this gave them some compassion for others or it opened the door for someone hurting to talk realizing that if there was a book about the subject they were not the only ones experiencing such pain.

Did he mention that the character in Homework Machine was VERY gifted? I just wonder how much the gifted child will relate with the two bright main characters?
I would encourage you to go back and read it still. I think there is a lot of discussion that could go on just with the position that Brenton is placed in as the creator of the homework machine.

It also has some interesting topics that the kids are involved with. There is a particular series on war. One of the characters has a father in the military. Of course, the opinions of the kids on war is a part of their development. It is also very much a part of the plot when that father is killed while on duty overseas.

Probably the one that had me laughing was the fifth grader whose mother told her since her grades had improved she could get her belly button pierced and then it was too scary for her to go through with initially...... Wow how the character development has changed over the years!!!

Boy at War is the series you're talking about maybe? My DS read it last year and said the father got killed at Pearl Harbor I think. We found the other books in the series at scholastic and I just bought them for him. He really enjoyed this book too.

He did tell me about The Homework Machine but I don't remember exactly what he said. I will have to get it and discuss it with him.

I'm going to have to look into your other recommendations, they sound great too!

I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't clear in what I meant. The war issue is in Homework Machine. I was really surprised at the topics mentioned throughout the book. Definitely ones that make a person think about how they feel about certain topics.


I will have to check out the series that you mentioned though. We live near a former AF base that has a small museum. Several of the kids are very much into the military planes. This base still houses the refueling wing, so planes are often flying over and the kids understand that they are a definite part of the military involvement overseas.

Oh, I did misunderstand, sorry! My DS didn't mention the war issue at all in The Homework Machine. Interesting. He did mention the belly button piercing incident though. He thought it was hilarious! I am definitely going to have to read this book and discuss it with him.



I still have a tendency want to protect him from too much hurt in what he reads, but I enjoyed books that made me cry at this age so I try not to keep him from reading the sad stuff. It is part of life as you say.



And this right here is a great reason to let them read such things.

Thank you kcab! I have ordered the first one of the Young Wizards from the library. I will definitely have to give Diana Wynne Jones a look too.