Chapter Book of the Day – Page 5

Strike!: The Farm Workers’ Fight for Their Rights

Strike!: The Farm Workers’ Fight for Their Rights
by Larry Dane Brimner (Author)

Booktalk: In 1965, as the grapes in California’s Coachella Valley were ready to harvest, migrant Filipino American workers—who picked and readied the crop for shipping—negotiated a wage of $1.40 per hour, the same wage growers had agreed to pay guest workers from Mexico. But when the Filipino grape pickers moved north to Delano, in the Central Valley, and again asked for $1.40 an hour, the growers refused. The ensuing conflict set off one of the longest and most successful strikes in American history.

Snippet: The Delano grape workers wanted better wages. Growers only paid them 90 cents an hour, plus 10 cents a log, or box, of grapes picked. At the end of the day, the average picker earned about $1.20 per hour, while some other farm workers were earning more.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Bombs over Bikini: The World’s First Nuclear Disaster

Bombs over Bikini: The World’s First Nuclear Disaster
by Connie Goldsmith (Author)

Booktalk: In 1946, as part of the Cold War arms race, the US military launched a program to test nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. From 1946 until 1958, the military detonated sixty-seven nuclear bombs over the region’s Bikini and Enewetak Atolls. The twelfth bomb, called Bravo, became the world’s first nuclear disaster. It sent a toxic cloud of radiation over Rongelap Atoll and other nearby inhabited islands.

Snippet: “I began to feel a fine powder falling all over my body and into my eyes. The coconuts changed color. By now all the trees were white, as well as my entire body. I didn’t believe this was dangerous. The powder fell all day and night over the entire atoll of Rongelap,” Moyor John Anjain later recalled.

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

Sequoyah and His Talking Leaves: A Play About the Cherokee Syllabary

Sequoyah and His Talking Leaves: A Play About the Cherokee Syllabary
by Wim Coleman (Author), Pat Perrin (Author), and Siri Weber Feeney (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Doing what no one had ever done before, Sequoyah set about creating a written Cherokee language – helping preserve the tribe’s history and culture even today.

Snippet:
Sequoyah: Why, many words use the same sounds! There are far fewer sounds then there are words! I need to discover every sound used in the Cherokee speech. Then I’ll be able to create marks for all of the sounds.

Historian 2: Many people call Sequoyah’s writing system and alphabet. Actually, it was based on the individual sounds of words, or syllables–so it was really a syllabary.

Learn to Program with Scratch: A Visual Introduction to Programming with Games, Art, Science, and Math

Learn to Program with Scratch: A Visual Introduction to Programming with Games, Art, Science, and Math
by Majed Marji (Author)

Booktalk: Rather than type countless lines of code in a cryptic programming language, why not use colorful command blocks and cartoon sprites to create powerful scripts? Scratch is a fun, free, beginner-friendly programming environment where you connect blocks of code to build programs. While most famously used to introduce kids to programming, Scratch can make computer science approachable for people of any age. Hands-on projects will challenge you to create an Ohm’s law simulator, draw intricate patterns, program sprites to mimic line-following robots, create arcade-style games, and more!

Snippet: In Scratch, you won’t type any complicated commands. Instead, you’ll connect graphical blocks together to create programs.

This book covers Scratch 2, which was released in May 2013. This version allows you to create projects directly in your web browser so you don’t have to install any software in your computer…

To start Scratch, go to the Scratch website and click the TRY IT OUT link.

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

Stronger Than You Know

Stronger Than You Know
by Jolene Perry (Author)

Booktalk: After police intervention, fifteen-year-old Joy has finally escaped the trailer where she once lived with her mother and survived years of confinement and abuse. Now living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in a comfortable house, she’s sure she’ll never belong. Wracked by panic attacks, afraid to talk to anyone at her new school, Joy’s got a whole list of reasons why she’s crazy.

Snippet: I reach for the front door to start my walk to school. I’m not going in the car because after yesterday and last night I’d rather not ride with Trent.

“Joy, wait. Trent wants to talk to you,” Aunt Nicole says from the kitchen.

In my limited experience, if Trent wanted to talk to me, Trent would be the one talking right now, not his mom.

The Elevator Ghost

The Elevator Ghost
by Glen Huser (Author)

Booktalk: When Carolina Giddle moves into the Blatchford Arms, no one knows what to make of her sequin-sprinkled sneakers and her trinket-crusted car. But the parents are happy there’s a new babysitter around, and Carolina seems to have an uncanny ability to calm the most rambunctious child with her ghostly stories. Armed with unusual snacks, candles to set the mood, and her trusty sidekick — a tarantula named Chiquita — Carolina entertains the children with some good old-fashioned storytelling…

Snippet: He went sprawling headfirst into a hollow and he felt a terrible pain as that skeleton twisted away at his foot. Jimmy Joe cried out, and the candlelight seemed to go dancing away in that couple of seconds before everything went black for him.

“Heavens to Betsy,” Carolina Giddle said, yawning and stretching her arms. “It’s about time you two were in bed.”

“You can’t quit there!” the boys called out. “Tell us what happened. Did the skeleton get Jimmy Joe’s foot?”

A Halloween Drawing Spooktacular!

A Halloween Drawing Spooktacular!
by Jennifer M. Besel (Author) and Lucy Makuc (Illustrator),

Booktalk: What’s more fun than celebrating Halloween? Try drawing Halloween! Become an artist, and learn to sketch the sights and symbols that make this holiday special. It just takes a pencil and a spooktacular attitude!

Tip 1: Draw lightly. You will need to erase some lines as you go, so draw them light.

Tip 2: Add details. Little details, such as cobwebs or eyes, make your drawings super scary.

Tip 3: Color your drawings. Color can make a creepy drawing even scarier!

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

The Next Wave: The Quest to Harness the Power of the Oceans

The Next Wave: The Quest to Harness the Power of the Oceans (Scientists in the Field Series)
by Elizabeth Rusch (Author)

Booktalk: Journey to the wave-battered coast of the Pacific Northwest to meet some of the engineers and scientists working to harness the punishing force of our oceans, one of the nature’s powerful and renewable energy sources. With an array of amazing devices that cling to the bottom of the sea floor and surf on the crests of waves, these explorers are using a combination of science, imagination, and innovation to try to capture wave energy in the hopes of someday powering our lives in a cleaner, more sustainable way.

Snippet:
POWER NEAR THE PEOPLE
A great deal of energy generated around the world is lost from resistance in wires when transported long distances. One of the benefits of ocean energy is that electricity can be generated–and used–near where people live. More than half the U.S. population lives near the coast and more than half the world’s population lives within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of the ocean.

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

While We Run

While We Run
by Karen Healey (Author)

Booktalk: Abdi Taalib thought he was moving to Australia for a music scholarship. But after meeting the beautiful and brazen Tegan Oglietti, his world was turned upside down. Tegan’s no ordinary girl – she died in 2027, only to be frozen and brought back to life in Abdi’s time, 100 years later.

Now, all they want is for things to return to normal (or as normal as they can be), but the government has other ideas. Especially since the two just spilled the secrets behind Australia’s cryonics project to the world. On the run, Abdi and Tegan have no idea who they can trust – and, when they uncover startling new details about the program, they realize that thousands of lives may be in their hands.

Snippet: Diane leaned in, close enough that I could feel her breath on my check. “Of course, you can Abdi. You’re very good at being convincing. Why do you think we sent you to the camps? Why do you think you’re here?

Because I’m African, I thought. Because I’m thirdie. You want me to tell these people that the refugees want this, that what the Australian government is doing to people who come here out of fear and desperation is just and noble. And you want me to persuade the refugees that they should file into their cryopods as docilely as sheep into a pen.

Explorer: The Lost Islands

Explorer: The Lost Islands
Edited by Kazu Kibuishi

Booktalk: This second volume of the critically acclaimed Explorer graphic novel series is a collection of seven all-new stories written and illustrated by an award-winning roster of comics artists, with each story centered around the theme of hidden places.

Snippet: From the Raina Telgemeier’s blog
Desert Island Playlist