Chapter Book of the Day – Page 3

My Heart Is Laughing

My Heart Is Laughing
by Rose Lagercrantz (Author) and Eva Eriksson (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Dani’s been trying her best to stay happy ever since her best friend Ella moved away. But some girls are cruel to her . . It would all be okay if only Ella would move back.

Snippet:
“Dani, Dani,” sighed the teacher, who had overheard the conversation. “Ella is not coming back.”
“You never know,” mumbled Dani.
She was not one to give up hope, even when everything seemed hopeless.

Rad American Women A-Z

Rad American Women A-Z
Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries Who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future!
by Kate Schatz (Author) and Miriam Klein Stahlby (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Like all A-Z books, this one illustrates the alphabet—but instead of “A is for Apple”, A is for Angela—as in Angela Davis, the iconic political activist. B is for Billie Jean King, who shattered the glass ceiling of sports; C is for Carol Burnett, who defied assumptions about women in comedy; D is for Dolores Huerta, who organized farmworkers; and E is for Ella Baker, who mentored Dr. Martin Luther King and helped shape the Civil Rights Movement.

Snippet:

B is for Billie Jean

Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King was 12 years old when she had her first tennis lesson, and she knew right away that she wanted to play tennis for the rest of her life.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Last-But-Not-Least Lola and the Wild Chicken

Last-But-Not-Least Lola and the Wild Chicken
by Christine Pakkala (Author) and Paul Hoppe (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Lola has patched things up with frenemy Amanda Anderson, but it’s not happily ever after for these two best friends, at least not yet. Lola doesn’t want to share Amanda, especially not with Jessie, who seems to be around . . . all the time. Can there be more than two best friends? And what does a wild chicken have to do with anything? (Hint: The answer involves a class trip to a farm.)

Snippet:
“I remember that field trip,” Jack says. “The teacher brings back a big bag of chicken poop to class.”
Grandma purses her red lips tight.
I shake my head. “I don’t believe you.”

Dance of the Banished

Dance of the Banished
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Author)

Booktalk: Ali and Zeynep are young and in love. But the Anatolian teenagers are caught in circumstances that threaten to separate them forever. While Ali has found passage to Canada, war breaks out in 1914; he is declared an enemy alien. Unable to convince his captors that he is a refugee from an oppressive regime, he is thrown in an internment camp, where he must count himself lucky to have a roof over his head and food to eat. Meanwhile, left behind in a country plunged into war and revolution, Zeynep is determined to stay alive—despite the impossible odds—and find a way to save her Christian Armenian neighbors from the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. But if she succeeds, will Zeynep still find a way to cross a continent and an ocean to find Ali again? And if she does, will he still be waiting for her?

Snippet: May 1, 1915
Soldiers went door-to-door today, searching Christian houses for weapons and any bit of paper that proves a person is a traitor. I was terrified that they would find this journal. I haven’t said anything against the government, but even talking about starving soldiers might be considered treason.

The Final Four: All about College Basketball’s Biggest Event

The Final Four: All about College Basketball’s Biggest Event
by Mary E. Schulte (Author)

Booktalk: Each year in March, college basketball teams hope to be part of one of the biggest sports events in the country. The NCAA tournament starts with 68 teams and is gradually reduced to the Final Four. But just one of them will become the national NCAA champion!

Snippet:
March Madness
Every year millions of basketball fans look forward to March Madness. Broadcaster Brent Musberger first used the phrase “March Madness” while covering the 1982 NCAA tournament, and the nickname stuck.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Searching the Sky

Searching the Sky
by Tamra Orr (Author)

Booktalk: Follow clues and use the scientific method to find out what happens when a meteor comes close to earth.

Snippet:
“Look!” Tomiko shouted, pointing at the ground where Samantha had stumbled. “That rock wasn’t there earlier.”
Samantha looked at her friend. “Do you think … ?
“It could be a meteorite!” Tomiko jumped up and down at the possibility.

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Rory’s Promise

Rory’s Promise
by Michaela MacColl and Rosemary Nichols (Authors)

Booktalk: Twelve-year-old Rory and her little sister, Violet are, at least, living together in the Catholic Foundling Hospital in New York City. But in 1904 the hospital begins to send orphans to the Arizona Territory to be adopted by devout Catholic families. Too old to be adopted, Rory is desperate to find a way to accompany Violet. With no other recourse, she stows away on the “orphan” train determined to make sure the family who adopts Violet is a good one. But Rory soon discovers that the families the Sisters have chosen for the white orphans are actually Mexican immigrant families, which deeply offends the local Anglo community. The trouble that ensues is much more complicated and dangerous than anything the resourceful Rory had bargained for.

Snippet: Suddenly, Mrs. Gatti pushed past them to grab ahold of Violet. Before Rory could stop here, she had snatched Violet away.

“Rory! Violet cried. “Help me!”

I’ve got you!” Mrs. Gatti cried, “First come, first served!”

“Give her back! Rory yelled, putting up her fists. A man’s hand closed over her shoulder, his fingers digging into her skin.

Starting From Scratch: What You Should Know about Food and Cooking

Starting From Scratch: What You Should Know about Food and Cooking
by Sarah Elton (Author) and Jeff Kulak (Illustrator)

Booktalk: This book is NOT a cookbook, it’s a book about the science of food–how it works, why it works, and what you need to know to make the kitchen your playground.

Snippet:
There are all sorts of incredible things that happen to food when we prepare it. We use chemical reactions to transition ingredients from one state to another, such a turning cream into ice cream. We even use little critters like bacteria and yeast to transform what nature has given us into the stuff we put into our mouths.

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Princess Pistachio

Princess Pistachio
by Marie-Louise Gay (Author, Illustrator)

Booktalk: Pistachio has always known she was a princess. When a mysterious gift turns up on her birthday, she’s sure it’s only a matter of time before her real parents, the king and queen of Papua, arrive to take her away. But in the meantime, she still has to eat her spinach and get up for school. Her school friends still laugh when she wears her new gold crown to class. And her annoying baby sister still makes endless trouble. What’s a princess to do?

Snippet: “Princess?” Gabriel sniggers. “Even an ugly old toad would want nothing to do with you!”

“To die for a mustachioed pistachi-toad! Ugh!” Jacob cries out.

They run away laughing like monkeys.

“Brutes! Peasants!” Pistachio screams. “I’ll feed you to the lions!”

Friendship Over (The Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine)

Friendship Over (The Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine)
by Julie Sternberg (Author) and Johanna Wright (Illustrator)

Booktalk: When ten-year-old Celie’s father gives her a journal and a punching bag for her birthday, he tells her they’ll help her work through her feelings, and wow—does she have feelings to work through. Her best friend Lula isn’t speaking to her, her sister Jo locks her out of their room to hang out with her new, cooler friend, and her Granny is suddenly behaving in the most perplexing manner.

Snippet: It was terrible.

I should have fake-fainted, so I wouldn’t have had to go.

It was so awkward, there in Miss Wilde’s dark office. Lulu sat as far from me as she possibly could on the leather couch. Plus I don’t think she looked at me once.