Author: Lorraine Brontë Magee

Books by the Fan brothers have long entertained elementary classrooms, inspiring wonder and curiosity. Their latest collaboration, It Fell From the Sky, was one of my first read alouds of the 2021-2022 school year. It immediately sparked authentic thinking and talking about reading as students discussed the text and the illustrations. (In fact, they were… Continue reading It Fell From The Sky by Terry Fan & Eric Fan

This summer, I had the opportunity to lead a book club for a group of six rising fifth-graders. The group’s current pick is Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles. When Wes finds out his neighborhood is at risk of demolition due to an offer from a development group, he enlists his friends to… Continue reading Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles

After last month's post on supporting students' summer reading, I wanted to share some of the texts in my own summer reading stack. While summer is a great time for beach reads and reading for fun, I am also planning to explore some newly-released professional texts. Here are a few that are on my radar.… Continue reading Professional Reads for Summer 2021

As the days get warmer, my third graders and I are celebrating a year of books read and stories shared. My colleagues and I are thinking about how to support readers in carrying their reading momentum through the summer and beyond. In today's post, I'll share some ideas for supporting summer reading. If you have… Continue reading Summer Reading 2021

Looking for a lovely read aloud for elementary students? The Ramble Shamble Children by Christina Soontornvat is a perfect fit. The five ramble shamble children live together in a ramble shamble house. When they see a proper house in a storybook, they ponder whether their home needs changes. The changes they make don’t turn out… Continue reading The Ramble Shamble Children by Christina Soontornvat

Are you looking to add more books that represent the disability experience to your classroom library? The Schneider Family Book Award from the American Library Association is a great place to start when looking for new titles. The 2021 winner in the Younger Children category is I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott. This… Continue reading I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott

As Black History Month continues, and as we strive to include the work of Black authors and illustrators in our curriculum year round, I encourage all teachers, families, and kids to find a moment to explore Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon. As readers navigate the first few pages of this beautiful book, a… Continue reading Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon

For me, 2021 is going to be the year of expanding my reading horizons. As a third grade teacher, matching students with books is part of my every day tasks. In order to meet the diverse needs and interests of my students, I need to be reading widely myself. After kicking my 2021 reading life… Continue reading Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey

Titles available from Libro.fm. I often talk to my students about having books on hand to read when they have a spare moment: in the line at the grocery store, while waiting at a doctor's office, anywhere they can find a spare minute to dive into a story. I try to model living a reading… Continue reading Growing Your Reading Life Through Audiobooks

For as long as I can remember, I have been a huge fan of biographies. As a young reader, I appreciated how they exposed me to history, and how their subjects provided examples of lives lived with purpose. As a teacher, I find them to be versatile teaching tools. Whether my aim is to build… Continue reading From History to Today: Exploring Biographies with Text Sets

One thing I have always loved about teaching the upper elementary grades is the love of series books that blossoms within a classroom. When third grade begins, students speak about the main characters of series books as if they are old friends; Pedro, Mercy Watson, Yasmin, and so many others are part of our classroom… Continue reading The Princess in Black and the Giant Problem

This Tuesday marks the book birthday of I Am One: A Book of Action, the latest collaboration between writer Susan Verde and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds. Their partnership of these two creators is legendary in my third-grade classroom. From The Water Princess and The Museum to the pair's I Am... collaborative series, each of their titles draws in readers. Elementary readers… Continue reading I Am One by Susan Verde

Jason Chin's Your Place in the Universe starts small, with a picture of four eight-year-old children looking through a telescope. With each page turn, the featured subjects grow larger, from an ostrich to a giraffe to the Mount Everest to the moon. Comparisons help readers make sense of the size of each featured object and start to… Continue reading Your Place in the Universe by Jason Chin

One thing that I have missed so much during COVID-19 closures is being a part of a community of readers. As a teacher, I typically talk with others about the books I'm reading multiple times a day. Whether it's a student who catches me adding a new book cover to my "Miss Magee is Reading"… Continue reading Finding Community in Reading

The closure of schools over the past few months means many students have missed out on author visits, book signings, and other connections with writers. In a time of social distance, how can we continue making meaningful connections between students and authors? Children’s book author/illustrator Grace Lin has stepped in with a new podcast: Kids Ask… Continue reading Online Resource: Kids Ask Authors Podcast

As students, teachers, and families navigate learning from home, many authors are stepping in to keep the book love going. Authors are offering livestreams of read alouds for the duration of school closures. Here are some of this week's offerings: Daily From April 13th to April 17th, Jason Reynolds will be reading Look Both Ways… Continue reading Online Resource: Live Read Alouds from Authors

This book is bee-utiful!- Third Grader One of my all-time favorite picture books is Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts. One of my all-time favorite chapter books is Stella Díaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez. When I found out that Maribeth Boelts and Angela Dominguez were partnering on a new picture book called Kaia… Continue reading Kaia and the Bees by Maribeth Boelts

The pictures are really detailed and beautiful! - Third GraderYou can do anything if you put your mind to it - with a friend. - Third GraderWoah, can you collect sunset?! - Third Grader Deborah Marcero's In a Jar celebrates how we collect memories with those we love. What if you could capture a perfect… Continue reading In a Jar by Deborah Marcero

What do you MEAN I'm not a PLANET anymore?Pluto Gets the call When some earth scientists decide Pluto isn't a planet anymore, the solar system's largest ice dwarf has a bit of an identity crisis. Pluto ventures out of the Kuiper Belt to visit his friends Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury, and… Continue reading Pluto Gets the Call by Adam Rex

As a reader, I love biographies. As a teacher, I see the power life stories have when shared with young readers. I have found that my third graders love reading about real people who pursued their passions to make a difference. Evelyn the Adventurous Entomologist tells the life story of Lucy Evelyn Cheesman, whose curiosity… Continue reading Evelyn the Adventurous Entomologist by Christine Evans

ExplorersBy Matthew Cordell My third graders are fascinated by wordless picture books. From Draw the Line by Kathryn Otoshi to I Walk With Vanessa by Kerascoët, wordless picture books captivate readers' interests and require deep thinking. When I saw Explorers by Matthew Cordell on a bookshelf in another teacher's classroom, I knew I wanted to… Continue reading Explorers by Matthew Cordell

When I first read Dreamers by Yuyi Morales, I knew it would be a hit in my fourth-grade classroom. When read it aloud to my students last spring, they shared so many insights about the book and its contributions to our world. Author/illustrator Yuyi Morales immigrated to the United States with her son in 1994.… Continue reading Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

New KidBy Jerry Craft One morning back in April, my fourth-grade students were frantically raising their hands to enter a raffle. The prize? The chance to read a copy of New Kid by Jerry Craft. After I book talked the graphic novel, one student had ordered his own personal copy. After he finished reading, he… Continue reading New Kid by Jerry Craft