Arkansas Reading Association

Suggested Summer 2017 Reading List

Plan now. Read now. Prepare now. All authors listed here will attend ARA’s 45th Annual Literacy Conference!

#ARAbkclub All book descriptors may be found at amazon.com.

1. Teamwork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching by

Monique Wild and Amanda Mayeaux

If you joined ARA’s first ever book club, this one you may check off your to-read list! TeamWork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades 5-9 is full of captivating stories and insightful conversations. 'The teamers' provide an honest and richly detailed explanation of collaborative teaching in action. They deliver the straight scoop on teaming, offering insights on key topics. This insider's guide to teaming reveals the conversations, the conflicts, and the collegial sharing that enables teachers to collaborate so that every member of the team can meet the highest standards of professional practice. For new teachers and seasoned veterans alike, TeamWork provides a powerful foundation for achievement

2. Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Again, if you are a part of the ARA book club, this book is already on your list, as it is June’s book.

From award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes, a powerful novel set fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks. When her fifth-grade teacher hints that a series of lessons about home and community will culminate with one big answer about two tall towers once visible outside their classroom window, Deja can't help but feel confused. She sets off on a journey of discovery, with new friends Ben and Sabeen by her side. But just as she gets closer to answering big questions about who she is, what America means, and how communities can grow (and heal), she uncovers new questions, too. Like, why does Pop get so angry when she brings up anything about the towers? Award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes tells a powerful story about young people who weren't alive to witness this defining moment in history, but begin to realize how much it colors their every day.

3. Jerk, California

by Jonathan Friesen

ARA’s July book club pick! This Schneider Family Book Award winner changed the face of Tourette's Syndrome for modern teens. Wrought with tension, romance, and hope, Jerk, California tells the story of Sam, who sets out on a cross-country quest to learn the truth about his family and his inherited Tourette's Syndrome, along the way finding both love and acceptance.

4. The Reading Makeover by Danny Brassell

Make over your reading routine with fun activities that will engage even the most reluctant readers. This action plan offers techniques to ignite a passion for readers of all levels, bringing the joy of reading with classroom-tested activities that build confidence with struggling readers. Based on current research and real-life observations, this resource helps students working with fiction and nonfiction texts, strengthen their vocabulary skills, and foster a lifelong love of reading.

5. Every Child a Super Reader by Pam Allyn

Literacy experts Pam Allyn and Ernest Morrell maintain that when we build on children's key strengths and immerse them in an intellectually invigorating, emotionally nurturing, literature-rich community, we grow "super readers"—avid readers who consume texts with passion, understanding, and a critical eye. Organized around the 7 Strengths inherent in super readers (belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope), this powerful resource helps children: • Develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills • Learn comprehension strategies • Build a robust vocabulary • Deepen analytical prowess and an ability to talk and write about text • Develop empathy, a strong identity as a reader, and an expanded understanding of the world Featuring stirring reading and writing lessons, robust assessment tools, ready-to-share Family Guides, and embedded videos that illuminate the 7 strengths and more, Every Child a Super Reader shows teachers, parents, caregivers, and out-of-school providers why reading is the ultimate super power, opening a world of possible for every student.

6. Student Engagement Is FUNdamental by Jane Feber

Building a classroom community of students who are engaged and ready to learn takes time and effort. So why not use hands-on activities to build academic skills―and student trust and rapport―at the same time. Jane Feber’s award-winning, hands-on approach to learning gives you ready-to-go activities that engage all learners and add academic muscle to your curriculum. These classroom-proven activities are fun, and they are all aligned to Common Core Standards. Flexible and easy to do, the projects are ready to go and fit easily into any teaching day and curriculum. Feber’s practical approach transforms inexpensive, commonly found supplies into powerful learning tools that build rapport and academic skills across the curriculum.

7. Murphy's Ticket: The Goofy Start and Glorious End of the Chicago Cubs Billy Goat Curse by Brad Herzog

Releasing July 15, 2017!

For 108 years, fans of Chicago Cubs baseball suffered every playoff season, with mishap after mishap each being traced back to 1945 when a friendly goat was kicked out of a World Series game. But the 2016 season felt different. Would this finally be the year that the Billy Goat Curse was reversed? Author Brad Herzog tells the story of the curse's origin and follows the Cubs right through that fateful November night in 2016 when the Cubbies could finally fly the "W."

8. The Enemy by Sara Holbrook

Released March 7, 2017 Set in 1954, this compelling historical novel tells the story of a young girl’s struggles and triumphs in the aftermath of World War II. The war is over, but the threat of communism and the Cold War loom over the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell struggles with the ups and downs of family life, dealing with her veteran father’s unpredictable outbursts, keeping her mother’s stash of banned library books a secret, and getting along with her new older “brother,” the teenager her family took in after his veteran father’s death. When a new girl from Germany transfers to Marjorie’s class, Marjorie finds herself torn between befriending Inga and pleasing her best friend, Bernadette, by writing in a slam book that spreads rumors about Inga. Marjorie seems to be confronting enemies everywhere—at school, at the library, in her neighborhood, and even in the news. In all this turmoil, Marjorie tries to find her own voice and figure out what is right and who the real enemies actually are. Includes an author’s note and bibliography.

9. Fourth Down and Inches

by Carla McClafferty

When the 1905 football season ended, nineteen players were dead and countless others were critically injured. The public was outraged. The game had reached a make-or-break moment—fourth down and inches. Coaches, players, fans, and even the president of the United States had one last chance: change football or leave the field. Football's defenders managed to move the chains. Rule changes and reforms after 1905 saved the game and cleared the way for it to become America's most popular sport. But they didn't fix everything. Today, football faces a new injury crisis as dire as 1905's. With increased awareness about brain injury, reported concussions are on the rise among football players. But experts fear concussions may only be the tip of the iceberg. The injuries are almost invisible, but the stakes couldn't be higher: the brains of millions of young football players across the country. Award-winning author Carla Killough McClafferty takes readers on a bone-crunching journey from football's origins to the latest research on concussion and traumatic brain injuries in the sport. Fourth Down and Inches features exclusive photography and interviews with scientists, players, and the families of athletes who have literally given everything to the game.

10. Liberty by Darcy

Pattison

They had a simple dream - to sail the Seven Seas. Impossible! They were just pigs, after all. But Penelope and Santiago are determined to sail. They make a friend - Cricket, the mysterious map maker, who hoards certain maps. And find an enemy - the Ice King, Captain Kingsley, who seeks certain maps. A massive polar bear, he rules an empire built on ice. The tall ships, the fastest sailing vessels ever known, deliver New England ice to far flung places like Bombay, India. Come along for the adventure when the ice fleet sails. Feel the wind singing through the mainsails as Penelope and Santiago join the crew of the flagship---and come face to face with the Ice King's shocking secrets. From the fascinating world of tall ships comes this unlikely tale of humble pigs who follow their dream. Come and join the Talberts on their journey.

11. Fuzzy Mud by Lewis Sachar

Released March 21, 2017! They got lost. The world got scared. And the mud got fuzzy. Fifth grader Tamaya Dhilwaddi and seventh grader Marshall Walsh have been walking to and from Woodridge Academy together since elementary school. But their routine is disrupted when bully Chad Hilligas challenges Marshall to a fight. To avoid the conflict, Marshall takes a shortcut home through the off-limits woods. Tamaya, unaware of the reason for the detour, reluctantly follows. They soon get lost. And then they find trouble. Bigger trouble than anyone could ever have imagined. What they uncover might affect the future of the world. FUZZY MUD is an imaginative and suspenseful story of the great lengths we’ll go to for friendship and family, the mishaps and breakthroughs that are made in the name of science, and the wonders of mud . . . fuzzy mud.

12. Simple Starts: Making the Move to a Reader-Centered Classroom by Kari Yates

You don't become an amazing reading teacher all at once. Someone shows you where to begin. Someone who has taught every kind of reader and coached teachers just like you. Someone like Kari Yates. Simple Starts is Kari's getting-started guide to creating the reading classroom of your dreams-and your students'. Teacher to teacher, she distills research and best practice into essentials that help you.

Conversational, practical, and inspirational, Simple Starts is filled with teaching strategies, quick reflection charts, example anchor charts, and teacher know-how from thirty years in classrooms and schools.

13. Bayou Magic by

Jewell Parker Rhodes

A magical coming-of-age story from Coretta Scott King honor author Jewell Parker Rhodes, rich with Southern folklore, friendship, family, fireflies and mermaids, plus an environmental twist.

It's city-girl Maddy's first summer in the bayou, and she just falls in love with her new surroundings - the glimmering fireflies, the glorious landscape, and something else, deep within the water, that only she can see. Could it be a mermaid? As her grandmother shares wisdom about sayings and signs, Maddy realizes she may be the only sibling to carry on her family's magical legacy. And when a disastrous oil leak threatens the bayou, she knows she may also be the only one who can help. Does she have what it takes to be a hero? Jewell Parker Rhodes weaves a rich tale celebrating the magic within.

14. Unfolding

by Jonathan Friesen

Released January 2017!

Jonah wishes he could get the girl, but he’s an outcast and she’s the most perfect girl he knows.

And their futures seemed destined to fork apart: Jonah’s physical condition is debilitating, and epileptic seizures fill his life with frustration. Whereas Stormi is seemingly carefree, and navigates life by sensing things before they happen. And her most recent premonition is urging her to leave town.

When Stormi begs Jonah for help, he finds himself swept into a dark mystery his small town has been keeping for years. And the answers Stormi needs about her own past could possibly destroy everything Jonah has ever known—including his growing relationship with Stormi herself.

15. YOU choose! Select an author and from his/her list of books determine your next literary adventure!

Pam Allyn

Danny Brassell

Jane Feber

Jonathan Friesen

Brad Herzog

Sara Holbrook

Carla McClafferty

Darcy Pattison

Jewel Parker Rhodes

Louis Sachar

Kari Yates

REMINDER! Attend the 45th Annual Literacy Conference and hear and meet all these authors!