Category Archives: March Book Madness

As part of my ongoing feature called March Book Madness, I want to contrast the project created by a student of the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factor — Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl — and my own review, as I just finished reading this to my six year old.

This is the third or fourth time I have read the Great Glass Elevator and, I am sad to say, it just doesn’t hold a candle to the original. Sure, there are crazy ideas and mayhem all around as the elevator shoots into outer space and then back into the factory. What was missing for me is a real connection to the characters (I loved Charlie Bucket, but felt as if he were mostly sidelined here) and I got tired of the scenes with the President and his nutty staff worrying about the Space Hotel and more. To me, this book felt like a throwaway of sorts by Dahl, of whom I always expect more.

Even my son, who liked the book more than I did, kept asking, “Are they ever going to get back to the chocolate factory?”

My student, however, really seemed to enjoy the book.

Peace (in the factory),
Kevin

Here is a book I had not come across, but our school librarian recommended it to me as something to pass along to my students. Goose Chase by Patricia Kindl got rave reviews here from one of my students. This is part of my March Book Madness feature of various reviews and projects from my students and I around our independent books.

Here is a review and overview of Goose Chase.

Peace (in the chase),
Kevin

I see a lot of kids reading The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau these days, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Mostly, they give it a thumbs up. Here, one of my students presents her thoughts on the book, which she loved. She even gave it “10 light bulbs lit up” on her review scale. This is part of my March Book Madness feature going on here all month long as we celebrate the books we have read.

Peace (in the light),
Kevin

This is another student project in my March Book Madness series. Here, this avid reader was so inspired by a Kate Klise book that we read in class (Regarding the Fountain) that she read ALL of Klise’s books. (Oh, and this student is making her own book, inspired by Klise’s use of letter, memos, etc. It’s coming along quite nicely). Here, she reviews Dying to Meet You.

Peace (in the letters),
Kevin

I’ve been sharing a log of Glogster poster projects as part of my March Book Madness series of independent book reports from my students, but a handful of my kids decided that they did not like Glogster at all and wanted to go a more traditional route. That was fine with me. Here, the student read a version of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, and made connections with the book to various elements of popular culture and foods.

Peace (on the island),
Kevin

Today’s book project as part of my March Book Madness feature is from a very reluctant reader, who finally latched on to some books centered around the thing he talks about, dreams about and does outside of school. Dirt Bike Racer by Matt Christopher
excited this student like no other book, so much so that he had to lobby his mom to go out and get him more. I’m hoping that translates into more interest in other reading this year.

Peace (on the track),
Kevin

Here is another student Glog book project in my March Book Madness feature. It’s about The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan.

Peace (in the desert),
Kevin

I am trying to share out a student book project just about every day in March to celebrate reading and literature under the title of March Book Madness. (I think I need a cool icon!) Some will be glogs; Some will be photos of regular posters. This project is about one of the books in the Maximum Ride series, by James Patterson, which a whole lot of my students are devouring right now.

Peace (in the story),
Kevin

I was very impressed with the independent book projects that my students completed last month. So much so, I am going to try to feature their projects here (mostly on Glogster, but a few offline posters, too) as a way to celebrate reading this month. I am calling it March Book Madness (since basketball is about enter its own madness stage soon enough).

Today’s feature is a glog about the book The Underneath, by Kathi Apelt.

Peace (in the book collection),
Kevin