Edinger House » Books

When You Reach Me

edinger — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:17:42 +0000

I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

As you know, that is from the mysterious first note found by Miranda in Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, the amazing book I just finished reading to you. It was very cool to sneak peaks at your faces yesterday as I read aloud the last part — you were absolutely riveted as all the different threads were tied up. And so today it is your turn — to write your own letters about this remarkable book — on your blogs. My hope is that you will all write thoughtful and interesting ones that I can mention on my blog so that others interested in how children respond to the book will come to see and read them (and, hopefully, comment as well).

First of all, a fun tidbit. The book takes place, as you know, in 1979 and the television show, $20,000 Pyramid plays a major part in the story. Go here to see a clip of the original show and then come back….

Back? Good. Now here are a few ideas of things to consider for your blog post —we’ll add a few more today as well.

The title — what do you think of it? Would there be a better one? (One person I know suggested The Laughing Man —what do you think of that?)
The cover — some don’t like it. Do you? Do you want to draw a better one and post it on your blog? Explain why it is what it is.
Chapter titles are mostly “Things that…” which is the way to do your answer for The $20,000 Pyramid.
How did you feel about it being SO mysterious? Were you able to wait until all became clear?
Veil metaphor — when was it lifted for you?
Wrinkle in Time
For kids who are comfortable with many different threads and things going on all at once.

Honoring Ashley Bryan

edinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:32:32 +0000

On Tuesday after school the Dalton School will be celebrating Ashley Bryan. A former teacher at Dalton, Ashley is a remarkable artist, writer, performer, and person. Our party tomorrow is to celebrate the publication of Ashley’s autobiography, Words to My Life Song. And to honor him, at today’s Literary Salon, Edinger House did a reading of one of his most beautiful books, Beautiful Blackbird.

So give a listen!

Commenting on Historical Fiction

admin — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:28:04 +0000

Today Ms. Nickles and I will show you how it is possible to develop a conversational thread in the comment section of a blog post. Some of you have done this already, but most of you have not. To give you an idea of how it works go here. As you will see, I made some mistakes! It is just as important to check your comments (for sense, punctuation, spelling, and capitals) as you do with all your other writing. If you make mistakes people won’t want to come visit again. And remember, we want to make your blogs public very very soon!

Once we have gone over this with you, please visit the blogs of classmates who read the same book as you did and write comments. (That will be two or three blogs depending on the book.) Try to think about some questions that will get a conversation going! And then don’t forget to go back to visit and add another comment. It can be fun!

Ms. Edinger

Our Amazon Reviews

admin — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:32:53 +0000

In December, Elizabeth Bird, a New York City librarian, reviewer, and blogger (better know in the children’s literature blogging world as Fuse#8) visited our classroom and gave us a fantastic overview of amazon.com reviewing. (She is currently one of their top 100 reviewers.) At the end, she helped us polish and post a review for Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, a book I’d recently finished reading aloud. (In case you want to read it, our review, “The Unknown Flat” was posted on December 15th.)Tremendously inspired by Ms. Fuse’s presentation, we have been following her lead by first drafting reviews in MSWord and, after revising and polishing them, posting them on amazon.com. If you want to check them out (and leave comments) here are the links and review dates:
X’s review of Framed, dated December 18th, is titled “Art and Crime.”

H’s review of Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism, posted on December 19th, is titled, “The Molly Moon Adventure.”

L’s review of Molly Moon Stops the World, posted on December 19th, is titled, “Stopping the World.”

A’s review of Alabama Moon, dated December 20th, is titled, “Alabama Moon.”

C’s review of Ella Enchanted, dated December 20th, is titled, “Eall Enchanted.” (The title typo is my fault — my apologies — it is a great review, please read it!)

M’s review of Pish Posh , dated December 19th, is titled, “Spoiled is all she is.”

J’s review of Airborn, dated December 19th, is titled, “Amazing and Exciting.”

A’s review of Eager, dated December 18th, is titled, “21st.”

B’s review of Shredderman, dated December 20th, is titled “Shredin Shredderman.”

O’s review of So B. It, dated December 20th, is titled, “Sad, yet Thrilling So B. It.”

E’s review of The Road to the Majors, dated December 20th, is titled, “The Big Road.”

M’s review of Drift House, dated December 22nd, is titled, “A Crooked House.”

S’s review of Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, dated January 9th, is titled, “Wayside School.”

O’s review of Eragon, dated January 9th, is titled, “From a Kid to a Rider.”

F’s review of The Sea of Monsters, dated January 9th, is titled “The Sea of Monsters.”

S’s review of Pippi Longstocking, dated January 9th, is titled, “The book Pippi Longstocking is a pretty funny book.”

Z’s review of Peter and the Starcatchers, dated January 9th, is titled, “The Mysterious Star Stuff.”