#firstchapterfriday

First Chapter Fridays has moved to the front page of Leading the Follower!  Check it out today!  

Jewell Parker Rhodes

Our first First Chapter Friday for the 2020-2021 school year was from Bernice Buttman, Model Citizen. It’s always great when students ask if you can read another chapter! 

So we didn’t have a #firstchapterfriday today because I’m feeling the pressure of having only a week before fall break and the need to do a lot before then. BUT there was a very special book-related thing that happened today. Every year, during the Scholastic Book Fair, I fill out little slips of books that I would like so if someone like a parent or kid would like to donate, they can. Up until this year, I had only received one book from a parent and that’s it. Well, the two books and the bookmark pictured here were books brought for me this year by TWO STUDENTS. Two of my 8th grade girls used their money to buy me books. I almost cried. They are so sweet. I’ve very excited to read the new Alan Gratz book and learn about the Freedom Summer murders. https://www.instagram.com/p/B27X7rQBOZU9H_Jw_Wh8tevlZlpMKscMgZDPEc0/?igshid=1cgdhec1kww2j

Today’s #firstchapterfriday was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time! Man, do I love this book. The protagonist (and narrator) is Christopher, a 15-year-old boy on the Autism spectrum. One night he finds his neighbor’s dog murdered on the front lawn and he starts off on a journey to figure out who did it. Today we talked about the autism spectrum and read a little more than the first chapter (because the chapters are uniquely labeled). The kids didn’t want me to stop and were shocked when class was almost over because time flew by! 📕🐕🌌 #cpcscreads https://www.instagram.com/p/B2pe6Bkhe7dqk0OKEp3xSCGv211MBg9mjzg8780/?igshid=1idi39kkw9a7w

I wanted to do a different #firstchapterfriday today and picked a nonfiction book! “Surviving the Angel of Death” is written by Eva Mozes Kor, a woman who, when she was 10, was taken to Auschwitz with her whole family. Her and her twin sister Miriam were chosen out of the crowd by Dr. Josef Mengele so he could perform sick and twisted human experiments on them just because they were twins. The sisters survived and Eva just recently passed away this summer at 85. She lived in Terra Haute, IN so she’s an Indiana author too! I also tried something different today and let them quietly colored while I read to them. It was magic. All of these pages were done by 8th grade boys and then given to me at the end of the period. The one on the left is titled “A Beautiful Coloring of Awesomeness.” https://www.instagram.com/p/B2XZS49BUaAUTRZ5aj-DReOqNOeKRcp0xM9Cyw0/?igshid=8eycjdz5jb

I forgot to post my #firstchapterfriday book last week! We read the first chapter of Need by Joelle Charbonneau by recommendation of @staceyrkern! I have not read this book (YET) so I will post the little blurb here: THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WANT AND A NEED. WHAT DO YOU NEED? One by one, the teens in Nottawa, Wisconsin join the newest, hottest networking site and answer one question: What do you need? A new iPhone? Backstage tickets to a concert? In exchange for a seemingly minor task, the NEED site will fulfill your request. Everyone is doing it. So why shouldn't you? Kaylee Dunham knows what she needs --a kidney for her sick brother. She doesn’t believe a social networking site can help, but it couldn’t hurt to try. Or could it? After making her request, Kaylee starts to realize the price that will have to be paid for her need to be met. The demands the site makes on users in exchange for their desires are escalating and so is the body count. Will Kaylee be able to unravel the mystery of who created the NEED network—and pull the plug before it destroys them all? https://www.instagram.com/p/B19jYdtgFU2Cf5V0MMOH-8VUBpDWqQUOCQodhE0/?igshid=1ktwhxpylk3zd

Today’s #firstchapterfriday is Ashfall by @mikemullinauthor! Mike Mullin is an Indiana author and he visited CPMS in Spring of 2018 when my current kids were in 6th grade. They didn’t get to see Mike Mullin’s presentation but they seemed to like the book today! Also, if you’re interested in hearing the 1st chapter, I recorded myself reading to my kids. I’ll add the video to this post on Facebook if you’re interested! 😊📚🌋 https://www.instagram.com/p/B1hPQGJhX3zGhpy9a3ntcZ4-_IN8AQsM72Rql40/?igshid=lmotci4jud15