The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I use read alouds daily in my classroom. One of the books that I read every year to my students is Brian Selznick's "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". Brian Selznick told the story of Hugo using both text and pictures. The pictures and text alternate in telling the tale. I have a lot of English Language Learners in my room and the use of pictures and text draws in my class. Even the students with very limited English can access the story. I use the pictures to discuss what is happening, which gives the students the opportunity to use their oral language. Besides the usefulness of this book in my classroom, ultimately, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" is a great story. The students care about the characters. They become excited about Georges Melies, an early film maker in France. It is a beautifully illustrated book and I highly recommend it in every teacher's library. ** Comments are actually not from me! I am at a blog training and my neighbors are posting on my account. :)

How To Go About This

Hmm, one of the reasons that I haven't posted anything so far is because I think I'm in need of a format as I approach each book. I'm not interested in writing formal reviews. Really, what I would like to do is to log the books that I've read, write about what I'm thinking and note the parts of the book that might cause controversy/make kids squeamish (for example, Our Only May Amelia has a portion of the book that is very descriptive about a woman being murdered). I want to make this a place where I can react to books and be able to go back to these posts as needed.

Things I can talk about in each post:
Synopsis
Multicultural note (if any)
Thoughts and musings
Red flags

I think with these categories, I'll be better able to keep track of what I've read. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Introduction

Hello!

I am a fourth grade teacher in Shelton, Washington and part of my job is staying on top of what's out there in Children's Literature. I'm constantly reading new books and I thought it might be helpful to write my thoughts and observations about what I'm reading. I'm not a professional critic, nor was I an English major. I am a teacher who loves sharing new books with my students and I thought I'd do the same here. :)

Rachael