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.

No Talking by Andrew Clements

The boys at Laketon Elementary School challenge the girls in a no talking contest. Keeping track of the number of words that they speak, the group that speaks the least amount of words wins bragging rights. This is a great story that will appeal to those competitive boys.

Activity: Again we met with the school in California and held a virtual book discussion. This time the activity played a major role in prompting the book discussion. We used activities from Boredom Blasters; hours & miles of games & activities to make time fly by Susan Todd. Stare Down is a challenge for two people to stare at each other without laughing, smiling, blinking or looking away. The first that does loses. The second challenge is Giggle Game. In this players take turns trying to make each other laugh. The boys had a blast challenging the boys in California so much so that even the leaders got into the action. This book and the activities worked quite nicely in the virtual environment.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a novel in words and pictures by Brian Selznick

"Whoa! That’s a big book!" was the initial reaction when we asked the boys to read this title. But as you know, it is filled with illustrations that really exemplify the meaning of "extending the text".

Activity: With this book we experimented with the concept of a virtual book discussion. We worked with a school in California and used Skype. Skype is Internet Telephony software used mainly for making telephone calls over the Internet. It has a video call feature that transmits video and voice as long as one or more users have a Web Camera (WebCam) installed. Since the WebCam can only view a small area, the boys were forced to sit in a confined area. Normally, the boys are more active during the discussion. The activity seems to prompt the discussion rather than the boys sitting around talking about the book. Using the WebCam forced them to sit around and did not allow them to be active. We had some boys that were engaged in the technology rather than the discussion. Therefore, did not work as well as other discussions.

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

With encouragement from his teacher, Jack learns to find meaning in poetry. And soon discovers poetry can become very personal to him. Since this book is written in free verse, it meets the needs of many reluctant readers. Its rhythm, satisfies those that love music. Through its play of language it reaches those that love words. And best of all, this format along with other poetry can help those "not so good at reading" gain confidence. The flow of the language helps them read more smoothly, quickly and accurately.

Activity: We introduced the students to a new format of poetry called "Blackout Poetry". Instead of the traditional starting point of a blank page, poet, Austin Kleon starts with a newspaper and permanent marker. He blacks out words that he doesn’t want and leaves words that form his poem. Check out his website at http://www.austinkleon.com
We gave all of the boys the same newspaper article and asked them to create their own blackout poem.

Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

This was a great book that many of the boys seemed to really enjoy. What could be better for boys? It is a story filled with one adventure after another. Since Despereaux must rely on his senses in the dungeon, the boys were challenged to use their senses in a variety of activities.

Activity:
For touch, they felt the contents within a medical bag to determine what was in the bag. For hearing, they listened to audio recordings of environmental sounds to try to determine what was making it. For taste, they closed their eyes and pinched their nose and tasted three drinks. One was Coke, the other Pepsi, and the last 7 up. For sight, they had to determine if a penny would fit on the drawing of a table. For smell, they smell the contents of three different cups to determine what was in each.

Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

The Baudelaire children are forced to out wit their appointed guardian when they discover that he is trying to get control over their inheritance. This is a popular series that one of the Leaders requested. It is important to support not only the boys interest but the leaders as well.

Activity: Through out the book Snicket defines words for the reader. We used those words and their context to play hang man. Instead of spelling the words, the boys had to define the meaning of the word before the man was hung.

Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is the main character in this book and he is a demigod. Again, this story is filled with one adventure after another as Percy and his friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.

Activity: Since the book inadvertently teaches the boys a bit of Greek mythology, we thought it would be fun for them to create a poster using the Greek alphabet. We gave them poster board and markers and let them create posters advertising the Guys and Books club.

Amulet. Book 1, The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi

This graphic novel has a very powerful beginning that pulls the reader into the story immediately. Don’t let the fact that the main character is a girl keep you from using this title with boys. There is enough action and mystery in the story to keep them reading.

Activity: The book ends as the house morphs into a robot vehicle that travels on to the next adventure. So, using Legos we gave the boys the opportunity to create their own transforming machine. We gave them tons of Legos with many parts and pieces and let the boys go at it. Don't know who had more fun, the young guys or the teen guys?

Check out the photos and decide for yourself:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11618615@N08/sets/72157608340319587/

Swindle by Gordon Korman

When Griffin is swindled out of a valuable baseball card, he puts together a group of friends to help him steal his card back. This is one of those on the edge of your seat adventures.

Activity: We gave the boys baseball cards and they flipped cards. Instructions can be found on http://www.streetplay.com/thegames/baseballcards.shtml
The leaders decided to turn this activity into part of the discussion. So, they began by asking questions about the book and the boy that answered correctly got to flip. This is when we began to see the success of allowing the activity to prompt the discussion.

Measle and the Wrathmonk, by Ian Olgivy

Measle is an orphan that lives with his Uncle who turns out to be a Wrathmonk. What is a Wrathmonk? It is one that can turn people into teeny tiny people. When Measle gets into his Uncle’s way, he is made into one of those teeny tiny people and is set to live in a model train set. Measle soon learns that there are others also living in the train set and they soon learn that working together will help them survive.

Activity: This book was not a hit with the boys. The teen Leaders (one of whom chose the book because he remembered liking it when he was young) were very critical of the poor writing style. So we learned a lesson: use only well written books. Measle and the others need to rely on team work in order to survive, so the older guys led two team building activities. Apparently, the guys needed teamwork to survive this less-than-stellar book choice as well!

Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko

Living on Alcatraz Island at the same time as Al Capone is an adventure, all its own. But, try living there with your autistic sister. This is a humorous coming of age story that is sure to intrigue boys with "What would it be like to live on Alcatraz Island?".

Activity: We contacted the Federal Park on Alcatraz Island and asked if we could have a virtual tour of the Island. A Park Ranger guided the boys via conference call through significant areas of the park in which they visited via the Internet. Our teen guy leaders did an excellent job!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley’s Journal, by Jeff Kinney

In his journal, Greg records his daily trials and tribulations of being a wimpy kid just trying to survive sixth grade. This is a great book to begin a book discussion session. It is a quick read, full of cartoons that help tell the story. Add humor to the mix and the boys are sure to read it.

Activity: THIS IS OUR FIRST BOOK USING A NEW FORMAT, and we couldn't have picked a better title. We are now training local high school boys to lead the discussions for the younger boys. Discussions are held at the local elementary school in that building's awesome new library kiva. So...since this book is full of cartoons, we found a high school boy that was willing to come to the meeting and demonstrate cartooning techniques and gave tips while the boys tried their hand at cartooning. The guys loved the book (no surprise) and the activity and high school boys were a big hit.

Holes, by Louis Sachar

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

Activity: Guys were given all the tools necessary to make a homemade compass; water, plastic bottle lids, needles and magnets. Move over MacGyver!

Happy Holidays.

Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper

On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.

Activity: The guys held a going away party for Guy leader Matt, who brought in his dog Jethrow, or Gulliver or something like that. Boys, Matt and multi-named mutt all had fun despite the sad goodbye.