My Weekend Read-a-Thon

I'm linking up with Teaching Maddeness for Must Read Monday.

So I have three boxes full of books for my classroom, which I either bought at Half Price Books or ordered from Scholastic.  For several reasons, I am trying to read all the books first before I actually take them in to my classroom.  I want to be able to recommend the books to certain students based on who I think will like the books after I read them.  I need to check to make sure some of the books are appropriate.  And, let's be honest, I just love reading children's literature and want to read them myself before they get lost in my classroom library students' backpacks and houses.

I'm trying to get through as many books as possible as quickly as possible because there are only 6 weeks left of school!  So I had myself a little read-a-thon this weekend!  Here's what I thought of each book.

This book has a pretty overused idea (the same day repeating itself), but the author does have a couple creative twists to the story.  The writing isn't the best, but it is still a story that my 4th grade kids would get into.  When I introduced it to the class, everyone was interested in reading it, so I pulled a random card and gave the boy who won a week to finish it so we can pass it on to someone else.  

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This isn't going to become a classic piece of literature, but it will reel in some of your reluctant readers with an interesting storyline.

This book is a fun-filled introduction to Greek Mythology.  It gives an overview of all the gods and goddesses, as well as information about the monsters, muses, and other figures in Greek Mythology.  I love how it gives Pop Culture facts about where we see influences from Greek Mythology today.  The illustrations are bright and eye-catching.  I know my students are extremely interested in learning about mythology, so I might consider reading parts of this as a reward throughout the day when my students are behaving.  

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This book is a great nonfiction choice for students to have fun while learning something new.  

This is a great book to integrate Math into your read aloud time.  The boys in the book become "numbed" by a robot, which means they forget how to do all math.  In order to gain their math skills back, they have to complete a series of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems.  Then they have to solve some stumper word problems.  Kids will enjoy trying to figure out the math in the book before the characters do.  The writing isn't that great, but the math conversations will be abundant.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I rate this book highly based on how excited I am to find a book that tells an interesting story and also incorporates a ton of opportunities for rich math discussions.  

Oh my goodness, this book has so much potential.  It is like a mixture between Aesop's Fables and the Wayside School books.  Each little chapter is based on one of Aesop's Fables, but it is adapted to be about the kids and teachers of Aesop Elementary School.  They are really humorous stories, and each chapter even ends with a moral.  The book takes you through one school year, from the first to the last day.  I could see myself using this book as a read aloud and also reading aloud the corresponding fable. We could discuss similarities and differences between the two.  In Writing, students could write their own spin-offs of fables.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This book is so clever and kids will definitely appreciate the humor the author weaves throughout every little story.  It has the potential to really turn kids on to reading!

Have you read any of these books before?  Do you agree with my ratings?  I can't wait to have another read-a-thon soon.  So many books, so little time!