Shredderman; Secret Identity

Shredderman is a super hero. He fights bullies through the Internet. The boys will read this humorous story by Wendelin Van Draanen and answer a quiz from the Shredderman website. As Nolan spies on the bully, Bubba Bixby, the boys will spy using a periscope that they will make out of cardboard and mirrors. Can't wait to hear what they think of the book.

Take the mummy and run : the Riot Brothers are on a roll by Mary Amato

The Guys and Books club has resumed for the 2009/2010 school year. The boys are very excited to begin discussing great books for boys. The first book that they read is Take the Mummy and Run; The Riot Brothers are on a Roll by Mary Amato. The boys will post to the blog their opinion of the book and activity. I am sure you will enjoy their comments.

Guys and Books Video

Check out the video created by Cuyahoga County Public Library. It highlights last year's Guys and Books meetings.

http://librarytv.cuyahogalibrary.org/media2/guysandbooks/guysandbooksupdatedmovie_768k.wmv

Guys and Books Finale

Sadly, yesterday was the last Guys and Books meeting for this school year. The boys walked over to the public library to play a game of bookopoly with the high school leaders. A large board game was created on the floor based on monopoly. Before you could roll the dice, you had to answer or meet a challenge based on each of the books read. Teams were created and they decided whether to take a question or challenge. The team to move completely around the board first, won. The boys had a great time. Each team had at least one high school leader. Even though the high school leaders did not read every book, they played a significant role in answering or meeting the challenge.
The relationships built between the high schoolers and younger students was very obvious. But even better, books are definitly loved by the boys. For when they were offered as give aways, they rushed to the books and anxiously picked the best ones. Books rule for Guys and Books.

Chess Rumble by Greg Neri

Chess Rumble by Greg Neri was enjoyed by the boys. Even though the children's librarian thought it was scary. It wasn't too scary for the boys. We only had one leader for this discussion but the boys were kept entertained by playing chess. Some of the boys knew how to play and helped those that didn't. As they played chess, they discussed the book. This discussion was the easiest to prepare. The book was a very quick read for the teens and the activity did not require alot of work. Simple and effective makes a great discussion title.

Knucklehead

This was a great book to use with Guys and Books. The boys loved it! They found each of Scieszka's stories to be hilarious and loved to share stories of their own. For anyone around young boys knows.....they have many humorous stories to share.

Activity
We provided a worksheet with questions to prompt their personal stories, such as:

Tell a story about the time you did something and someone else was blamed.

Do you have brothers or sisters? tell a funny story about them.

What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?

The boys then shared their stories with each other. Of course a bit of ebellishment was allowed.

Viking It & Liking It by Jon Scieszka

Joe, Fred, and Sam want to play Vikings Football Smashfest, but instead find themselves in A.D. 1001 with a bunch of real Vikings! It's one wild ride with Leif Ericson as they sail on his voyage of discovery to North America.

Activity:
The boys relived the lifestyle of a Viking by making Viking helmets, competing in Viking challenges, and outwitting each other in Viking word plays. The boys created helmets with newspaper. They also competed in team challenges such as a snowshoe race across the room. Each group was dared to stand on a newspaper ice floe and to turn around in the same order without falling off the floe. Since a Viking Warrior was not considered to be up to much unless his word skill was as good as his weapon skills, each team took turns telling riddles to see which group could outsmart the other.
Active, was the main theme of this book discussion.