Students' Favorite Book Picks

As our school year came to an end, our students in Grades 3, 4 and 5 selected their favorite books of the year. The students created collages of their book superlatives - all time favorites, funniest, saddest, most memorable, most dramatic, most mysterious, as well as titles they would like to pick up this summer.

It's nearly time for some wonderful summer reading! As you are making your summer reading lists, and hopefully planning for your READO Summer Challenge, take a browse through some of these fantastic selections from our very own ASD Elementary students:

That's just a sample of some of our students' favorite books. To see all the Grade 3, 4 and 5 Book Picks, visit the ES Library website! Happy summer reading!

One School, One Book: A Long Walk to Water

We see a great opportunity to use Linda Sue Park’s New York Times Best seller, A Long Walk to Water for a school-wide reading event, One School, One Book.

According to Read To Them, an American organization that promotes children's literacy, One School, One Book is a program designed to create a shared reading experience within a school community. Each grade level across the school will participate in voluntary activities to promote and enrich the shared reading experience.

The goals for ASD's One School, One Book event are to celebrate literacy, build community, promote our Visiting Author Program, and foster global awareness.

ASD students in Grades 3 through 12, staff and parents are encouraged to read this book in anticipation of Linda Sue Park’s visit. We plan to offer a range of opportunities to allow community members to engage in discussion about this powerful story.

A summary of the book from our library catalog: Set in 1985, the Sudanese civil war reaches the village of eleven-year-old Salva who becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.

The libraries will have multiple copies of A Long Walk to Water for check out and for sale next school year. Alternatively, community members can pick up their own copy over the summer. Stayed tuned for more information on how to participate in our One Book, One School event.

Click here to watch Linda Sue Park’s book trailer about A Long Walk to Water.

Visiting Authors Program 2014-15: Linda Sue Park and John Coy

ASD Libraries are thrilled to host awarding-winning authors Linda Sue Park and John Coy from March 8-18, 2015. During their 10-day visit, Park and Coy will engage our students from K1 through Grade 12, our staff and our parents in a series of workshops and presentations.

Linda Sue Park has published 20 books for young people ranging from pictures books to young adult novels. Her book A Single Shard was awarded the 2002 Newbery Medal. 

John Coy is the author of nonfiction, poetry and sports fiction books including the popular true story, Hoop Genius. Both are renowned speakers and workshop presenters. We look forward to working with these two talented authors next year.

The libraries have multiple copies of Park and Coy's books available for check out. More details about the authors' schedules and opportunities to purchase books for signing will be shared after the summer.

Summer Reading Talk Tuesday

A group of parents joined us in the ES Library for a great discussion about motivating students to read over the summer. We want kids to be excited about reading and to experience a variety of materials.

We encourage students to mix up their reading with a selection of print books, eBooks, magazines, audiobooks, comic books and graphic novels, online reading and book apps. The ES Library website offers a selection of book lists and electronic resources to help support students. As previously posted, the READO Summer Reading Challenge allows students to keep track of their varied reading over the summer.

According to the National Summer Learning Association, it is important to remember the ABC's of summer reading:

• A - Access to a wide variety of books and reading materials
• B - Books that match readers' ability levels and interests
• C - Comprehension: Adult guidance to help kids better understand what they are reading

One of our popular resources, Big Universe, offers some wonderful suggestions to avoid a slip in reading skills over the summer months:

For more information, here is the presentation that was shared at the Talk Tuesday:

READO: Join the Summer Reading Challenge

The Elementary Library invites our students to participate in READO, a summer reading challenge! 

READO is a book bingo game that challenges students to engage in a variety of different reading experiences with all kinds of books. We want families to have fun with reading this summer! 

Click here to get a copy of the READO board or stop by the ES Library to pick one up.

Students are asked to keep track of the books they read either across a row, down a column, diagonal, or a total blackout. Turn in your READO board to the ES Library by Aug. 28th. Students will receive a certificate and special recognition by Mr. Advento at the first ES Assembly of the new school year.

• Bronze Winner: Read two rows (10 books)
• Silver Winner: Read three rows (15 books)
• Gold Winner: Total Black-Out (25 books)

Explore the following links for a collection of recommended reading lists and book apps for all ages.

• Summer Reading Lists
• Recommended Reading
• Recommended Book Apps
• Summer Reading K1-2
• Summer Reading Grades 3-5

Don't forget, you can access the ES Library and all our Electronic Resources over the holidays. Which means you could read books from Big Universe, BookFlix, TrueFlix, TumbleBooks, TumbleBook Cloud Jr., StarWalk Kids and Capstone Interactive Library. You can also explore PebbleGo, Culture Grams, PowerKnowledge Science and World Book.