Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A Fairy Tale to remember . . .







Oh, PLEASE pick this book up and read it. It is a new fairy tale and you will wonder why it wasn't there for you when you were young.

Have you seen Stardust? Did you love it? You will love this.


Mr. Garber, Carly's 2nd grade teacher at North Pole Elementary spent some time exposing his students to many different Cinderella stories. There were all kinds, from everywhere. I thought it was such an excellent idea that Carly and I continued the search. She chose to search for Cinderella movies and it snowballed into any modern fairy tale movies (her favorite is Sydney White). I chose books. I started with the author of Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine. If you are a sucker for a fairy tale, or simply that feeling of being a little girl again and discovering a new enchanted world, read Levine's Fairest, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, and Ever.



On your way, definitely read The Amaranth Enchantment! Imagine the movie in your mind . . . it won't be hard. You'll see colors in your head you wouldn't have thought imaginable from letters on a page.





I suppose I get a bit obsessed and protective about the books I read. Five years of studying literature in college will do that to a person. I love raising little readers in search of a great story! Grab If I Built A Car when you get the chance!


Jason is an amazing reader and always has been. His stories of choice center around WWII or sports for the most part, but he's got a few with a touch of enchantment in them as well. Ask him about MAY*BIRD and you'll get an earful!

Caden has just finished his first chapter book, he's 7. He finishes almost 10 books a week on a first and second grade reading level - for fun - while he is laying in bed trying to fall asleep. Every night I have to remove between 3-5 books from his bed and pry one out of his hands. Lately, he has decided to move onto the READY FREDDY series. He was so excited when he finished the first one tonight that he yelled "I finished it" while he ran down the hall and scared Carly so bad she screamed.

Carly has been our challenging reader, excited at first, then giving up. Recently she was observed as having what seems to be eye fatigue, struggling with reading after only 4 paragraphs. We'll find out more next week when she visits her eye doctor. I picked her up a pair of reading glasses in the mean time and she is almost finished with a GERONIMO book, reading for 20-30 minutes at a time uninterrupted. She also has Ella Enchanted in book form and audio for her Ipod. We will continue to work with her and soon she will be reading The Amaranth Enchantment, loving every minute of it (if I don't read it to her first).

2 comments:

patty said...

I love the movie Sydney White! Plus I know a real life 12 year old girl named Sydney White! Has she seen "She's the man?" Its not a cinderella story per say, but it stars Amanda Bynnes as well....it is one of my favorites. She poses as a boy to be on the boy soccer team, since they coach won't let girls play, and of course in the process she falls in love with one of the guys on the team.

an.Alaskan.mom said...

I'll have to ask her if she's seen it. I know Jason and I have - He LOVES Amanda or rather "Manda Manda Manda" as he used to call her.