Encourage your students to join our book groups, where they’ll expand their reading list and discuss their favorite books with other students!
September Book Selections
Younger Students
Wildfires (National Geographic Kids)
by Kathy Furgang
Read by: September 11
Discussion: September 12 at 11:00 am
Older Students
Wildfire
by Rodman Philbrick
Read by: September 11
Discussion: September 12 at 1:00 pm
BOOK NOTES
WILDFIRES (National Geographic Kids nonfiction, younger group)
I chose this book to go along with the Facing the Inferno exhibit at the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville. The exhibit is suitable for elementary, middle, and high school students. (Field trip to the museum is on your own, but I’ll help families coordinate a date to go together, if you’d like.)
The publishers label this as a Level 3 reader for grades 1-3, but think the reading level may be too advanced for some students in this grade range. It may work better as a read-aloud or read-along.
WILDFIRE (different book than above – fiction for older group)
I chose this book to go along with the Facing the Inferno exhibit at the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville. The exhibit is suitable for elementary, middle, and high school students. (Field trip to the museum is on your own, but I’ll help families coordinate a date to go together, if you’d like.)
The reading and content level is grades 4 and up.
LISTENING AND READING LEVELS:
Children can listen and comprehend books at a younger age, so I try to include listening levels in addition to publisher-suggested reading levels. Regardless, students can read books themselves or listen to them as read-alouds from a parent, an older sibling, or in audiobook format. Reading is reading – regardless of the method.
Discussions are conducted via Zoom.
Books are selected based on interest/listening level (not just reading level) for these age groups. Some books may seem a little “young” to the older children in each group, but hopefully they’ll enjoy them anyway.
Students can listen to the audiobook version, if they prefer that format. (Check to see if your local library has OverDrive, CloudLibrary, or Hoopla – these services provide downloadable audiobooks free on loan to patrons.)
The goal for both groups is to encourage a love of reading. Our discussions will focus on the characters, story, and plot and the students’ thoughts about the book. I won’t try to sneak in a grammar lesson, or literary analysis, or promote any agendas. We’ll just read good books, chosen from a variety of genres. If students don’t like one book, hopefully they’ll like the next!