Students in grade 1 and 2 have read all the books for this year's Florida Reading Association's Children Book Award Contest. There are 8 books on the list and children in grades Alpha-2nd vote on their favorite after they have listened to all of them.They heard the eighth book in the media center and were amazed at the ending.
Christian, the Hugging Lion by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell is the true story of an unusual family whose emotional reunion became a world wide Internet sensation.
Christian was born to a long line of zoo lions in 1969 at a zoo in England. He was three months old when John Rendall and Ace Bourke purchased him from Harrods' exotic pet department for abot $4,500 in today's money. From the moment that Ace and John brought him home, they knew they had created a special family. But Christian soon grew too big to live with the in their small apartment, so Ace and John flew Christian to Africa to live with other lions. A year later, they went to visit. Would Christian remember them? Here is the link to this true story:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiGKWoJi5qM
Students in Alpha had fun making predictions as they listened to the story Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun. It's winter and Mouse is snuggled under the covers in her tiny, cozy home. Then-CRACK!-a fallen tree branch ruins her house, and Mouse must find another place to live. The warm text and bright illustrations delighted our readers both young and old.
In Jr. K students also made predictions as they listened to the story of Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett. When Annie's cat disappears, she attempts friendship with a variety of unsuitable woodland animals, but with the emergence of Spring, everything comes right.
Third graders enjoyed reading and singing the words to The Twelve Days of Christmas in Florida by Frank Remkiewicz. This author visited our school last year so they remembered his visit. He wrote and illustrated this book and he is the illustrator for more than 60 books for young readers. His most popular characters are Froggy in the Froggy series and other books by Jonathan London as well as Horrible Harry in the series by Susy Kline. Frank lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida, where he enjoys hiking through swamps, fishing offshore, and eating Key lime pie.
A big thank you goes out to Andi Mullins for chairing the library volunteers this year. Her hard work and precious time has paid off for all of us. She has been giving hands on training sessions since school started. We have many parents who are helping us in the media center this month and they are so appreciated. They are checking out books, helping students locate books and explore the many treasures found in our beautiful media center. Some are also helping with the book displays and decorations. Thank you so much to all of our wonderful parent volunteers who are helping the students "Go Wild for Books" this year.
