Hit - read-alouds Mid

[Joan Chase <jchase@INTERACCESS.COM>]

Thank you for all the responses to my request for readings for a
"celebrity" read-aloud. I have copied most of the ones that I received
and tried to weed the dups.


<fontfamily><param>Helvetica</param><bigger><bigger>Joan, have you seen
Graham Salisbury's Blue Skin of the Sea?  It claims to be a novel in
short stories andit is.  Each chapter is a storyin its self but
altogether it covers several years in a boy's life.


Joan,  How about a set of letters like in P.S. Longer Letter Later by

Danziger and Martin? Phantom Tollbooth?  How to Eat Fried Worms?


Natalie Babbitt's _Devil's Storybook_

Dave Barry's hilarious essays

maybe Lewis Grizzard?


Anna Quindlen's book How Reading Changed My Life. ISBN 0-345-42278-3.

Ballantine book. Web site a www.randomhouse.com/BB/LOCT. This is a
woman who

ate, lived and breathed reading as a child. There are some powerful
pages in

the beginning which would work just fine for your readaloud!


How about some of the short stories by Judith Gorog?  She has several

collections.  I especially like her story Emily Alice.

    Cynthia Rylant's book of short stories is called Every Living
Thing.

Most of them would work.

    I'm enjoying Michael Rosen's new short story book, The Heart is
Big

Enough.  The first story about a handicapped boy who swims with
dolphins

might be too long for one period, but, boy, is it good.


What about some readings from Shel Silverstein's poetry books--I think
middle

schoolers still love his poetry.  What about some selections from the
Chicken

Soup series?  Another series might be the one by Paul
Jennings--Unbelievable,

Unmentionable, Uncanny, etc.


Hi - try "Duffy's Jacket" from Bruce Coville's "Oddly Enough".  The

ending gets 'em every time!


Don't know if you could use this or not, but Natalie Babbitt's "The
Devil's

Storybook" is a hoot. Each chapter is a single tale about the Devil, in
the

tradition of folklore, in which the Devil tries hard to trick people or
do

bad things to them and is consistently frustrated in this by the
actions of

mere humans


You could try the Paul Jennings'short stories from Unreal,
Unmentionable,

etc.  Not all are good but there's usually at least one or two really
good

stories in each book.  Quite weird with surprise endings; my kids love
them.


I would look at the Chicken soup short stories.


Perhaps you might use *The Midnight Chess Game* by Wolfgang Ecke,

illustrated by Rolf Rettich, trans from the German by Stella and
Vernon

Humphries, Prentice-Hall, l985.


It might be called "And Now The Rest of the Story" that the

students really liked.  I would guess each chapter is a synopsis of
some

famous person.


A "chapter" book I think is great is Spinelli's Library Card - each

chapter stands alone, and it is about great uses of the library.


Manic Magee by Jerry Spinelli is a great read aloud for this type of
activity.

Also, The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson is good.  Almost
Starring

Skinnybones by Barbara Park.  These are good read alouds.


</bigger></bigger></fontfamily>
Joan Chase

2700 Marl Oak Dr.

Highland Park, IL 60035

jchase@interaccess.com

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