https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd Post your speaking notes here. en-us 2019-02-25 20:11:35 UTC 2026-03-21 19:53:04 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335574379 Ella is basically cursed with obedience. After her mom dies, she meets a prince and some mean girls at school start bossing her around, using her curse to their advantage and become her step sisters. Runs away to find the person who cursed her, eventually gets ordered to kill the prince. She makes up a story about she married someone else, he convinces her he still wants to marry her and then she doesn't have to listen to orders anymore and they're happy yay. Main characters is Ella, Charmont, Lucinda,  Hattie, and Olive
Themes: Power, how nice it is to be in control of your own life. People gain (or lose) power through magic, heredity, money, duty, and love.
Author: wrote a script for a musical, passionate about writing for children
Sub-Genre: Imaginary Realms; imaginary society that is believable, clearly ogres, giants, etc. don't exist but the story is set up in a way that it's believable
Teaching possibilities: modern version of a classic like cinderella
Common Sense: 9+ or 11+, positive message, rather violent, positive reviews, modern cinderella, Ella is a good role model and powerful message to girls,]]> 2019-02-26 18:52:47 UTC https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335574379 https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335574540 - this is a series book is about little people, that are dying, that live under the floorboards (4 different sequels)
- written in 2003 by Mary Norton who lived Portugal 
- theme: freedom, learning about the world, the supernatural
- teaching idea: interactive role play on the characters within the book, have them pretend that they are going on the mission as if they were a borrower, ask them questions that will help them imagine that they are in the setting "someone's coming, hide"
- common sense media: 4 star rating by parents, 5 star rating by kids,  7 and up for age, a few violent scenes]]> 2019-02-26 18:53:05 UTC https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335574540 https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335575167 What parents need to know -  (there is a fight/death scene that is not described) others are nothing to worry about. 
Strong ethical values, including values of respect and education
About Author-  literary depth and wrote about feminism and her characters tend to not be too masculine and she writes about cultures. Scenes are more self sacrifice and about cultures. She just passed as well
 
What is book about - themes- focuses and adolescence and coming of age. main character is depicted of being strong. he learns to control magical powers. He faces terrible mistake and then tries to fix it with his magic and has success. 

Teaching aspects- focus is biography, focus on fantasy tradition, narrative and point of view, focus on characterization, figurative language, symbolize, character development, plot unfolding, themes of novel, what makes a book great. 

]]> 2019-02-26 18:54:05 UTC https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335575167 https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335575398 The main characters in the book, "The Giver", are Jonas, Asher, Lily and Gabriel. The book is about a society that first looks like a utopian society but turns out to be a dystopian society. The government wants to make everyone equal and take away creativity thinking that it will advance their society. 
The author is Louis Lowry. She was originally born in Hawaii, but moved around to different parts of the world, including Tokyo. Her dad was a military officer which played a major role in moving around all the time. She got married at the age of 19 and proceeded to have 4 children. She graduated from the University of Southern Maine and then began to write professionally. She writes books with the general theme of importance of human connections. 
"The Giver" has an overall rating of four out of five stars. ]]> 2019-02-26 18:54:29 UTC https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335575398 https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335575847 About the author- Ellen Oh was the founder of we need diverse books, and she has a curiosity for ancient asian history. She has written about prophesies in the past. She loves mystery and horror. She's liked horror since she was a child. 

Spirit Hunters- Harper moves into a new house and there is rumors that it is haunted. When her little brother starts acting out she realizes there might actually be ghosts in the house. She feels like she has a memory that might help make the situation make sense. Harper survived both a fire and a traumatizing illness and that's why she blocked out all of the memories. 

Main characters: Harper, Michael, Dayo 

Teaching opportunities: Korean culture, ancient cultural traditions ]]> 2019-02-26 18:55:16 UTC https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335575847 https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335577611 E.B White got a lot of his ideas from the farm he owned. He wrote the book Charlotte's Web which is about a girl, a spider, and a pig all on a farm where the girl "Fern" lives. The common sense website recommends age 6-7+ rated 5 star overall ]]> 2019-02-26 18:57:58 UTC https://padlet.com/DrKSmith/jfjnclaqhrcd/wish/335577611