AMS Battle of the Books reading list

Title	Author
Bluefish	Pat Schmatz
Bomb:  The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon	Steve Sheinkin
Boom	Mark Haddon
The Boy on Cinnamon Street	Phoebe Stone
Brain Jack	Brian Falkner
Breathing Room	Marsha Hayles
Chains	Laurie Halse Anderson
Cinder	Marissa Meyer
Cloudy with a Chance of Boys	Megan McDonald
Dark Eden	Patrick Carman
The Dark Unwinding	Sharon Cameron
The Dead Gentleman	Matthew Cody
Dogtag Summer	Elizabeth Partridge
The Eleventh Plague	Jeff Hirsch
Farhenheit 451	Ray Bradbury
Flygirl	Sherri L. Smith
Frankenstein	Mary Shelley
Far North	Will Hobbs
Ghost Knight	Cornelia Funke
Jump Into the Sky	Shelley Pearsall
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever	Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
Kimchi and Calamari	Rose Kent
Lord of the Flies	William Golding
Michael Vey:  Prisoner of Cell 25	Richard Paul Evans
Miracle on 49th Street	Mike Lupica
Nerd Girls: The Rise of the Dorkasaurus	Alan Lawrence Sitomer
No Ordinary Day	Deborah Ellis
The Peculiar	Stefan Bachman
The Project	Brian Falkner
Ruby Redford:  Look Into My Eyes	Lauren Child
Shift	Jennifer Bradbury
Sophia's War:  A Tale of Revolution	Avi
Splendors and Glooms	Laura Amy Schlitz
Super Human	Michael Carroll
Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate	Richard Bowers
Temple Grandin:  How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World	Sy Montgomery & Temple Grandin
This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein	Kenneth Oppel
Trackers: Book 1	Patrick Carman
Ungifted	Gordon Korman
Unstoppable	Tim Green

No Ordinary Day by Deborah Ellis

This is such a sweet, short book written about an orphan in India who lives on the street, learns to survive on her own, and finds out that she has leprosy.  It’s a quick read and worth your time.

A book is magic...

(Courtesy of Salt Lake Comic Con)

New bulletin board at HS

6 Free online resources for primary resources

The Common Core Learning Standards describe the importance of teaching students how to comprehend informational text. They are asked to read closely, make inferences, cite evidence, analyze arguments and interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text. Primary source documents are artifacts created by individuals during a particular period in history. This could be a letter, speech, photograph or journal entry. If you're looking to integrate social studies into your literacy block, try out one of these resources for primary source documents.

1. National Archives

The National Archives is a fantastic resource. Their website is easy to navigate and includes lots of teacher resources. They feature a daily historical document relating to an event from that day in history. The online catalog can be searched using keywords, and 100 "milestone" documents are identified as significant to American history.

2. DocsTeach

Also run by the National Archives, DocsTeach is full of activities for educators. The documents are organized by different periods in American history. If you're teaching "Civil War and Reconstruction" or "Revolution and the New Nation," just click on the topic to find hundreds of primary source documents. DocsTeach provides audio, video, charts, graphs, maps and more.

3. Spartacus Educational

Spartacus Educational is a great resource for global history. It contains free encyclopedia entries that directly connect to primary source documents, making it a perfect tool for educators looking to give students a starting point in their research. It can even be used for a historical figure scavenger hunt!

4. Fordham University

Fordham University is another good resource for global history. Similar to how DocsTeach organizes primary sources into periods of American history, this site categorizes documents as well. From the "Reformation" to "Post-World War II Religious Thought," teachers can find full texts available from Fordham or similar institutions. These sources are appropriate for the middle school and high school classroom.

5. The Avalon Project

Broken down by time period then listed in alphabetical order, the Avalon Project at Yale University also has primary sources for global history teachers. This database starts with ancient and medieval documents and moves into present times. In addition to categories that address specific historical periods, the Avalon Project includes links to human rights documents as part of Project Diana.

6. Life Magazine Photo Archive

Google and Life Magazine have a wonderful search engine that lets users search millions of images from the Life Magazine Photo Archive. Not only can you type in key terms to guide your searches, you can also look through images organized by decade (1860s through 1970s) or significant people, places, events or sports topics.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/online-resources-primary-source-documents-monica-burns?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=blog-6-primary-edtech-burns-RSS

Jump into the Sky

What a beautiful book!!!  This story is based on the 555^th battalion (The Triple Nickels) during WWII.  They were the very 1^st black paratroopers and their story is incredible.  I am a huge history buff and was surprised that I have never heard of their story OR about the balloon bombs dropped by Japan.  I love that every time I read, I learn.  This book is SO well written and if you like historical fiction at all, I HIGHLY recommend this great book!

This is a DO NOT MISS!!!

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary people extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. Epics are no friends of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man, you must crush his will. Now, in what was once Chicago, an astonishingly powerful Epic named Steelheart has installed himself as emperor. Steelheart possesses the strength of ten men and can control the elements. It is said that no bullet can harm him, no sword can split his skin, and no fire can burn him. He is invincible. Nobody fights back . . . nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, the Reckoners spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. And David wants in. When Steelheart came to Chicago, he killed David’s father. For years, like the Reckoners, David has been studying, and planning, and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. He has seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Let the battle begin...

Winter display at the middle school

See the chain on the ceiling?

One for every book checked out this year at the high school!

New books earned from the middle school book fair!!

(All the ones on the top shelf!)

New books earned from the high school book fair!!

What I am currently reading...

What are YOU reading???

High School Book Fair is up and running!

Fun art display in the middle school library

Divergent Official Poster