Reading: Literature Circles

Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by his hero (the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape.

It is the 1640s and Claesgen lives in Batavia with her stepmother, Jannetje, waiting weeks, and sometimes months, for her father, Abel Tasman, to come back from his sea voyages. When he returns, Tasman delights his young daughter with tales of treacherous oceans and relentless wild weather, hazards of unseen coral reefs and endless days of empty ocean, encountersboth friendly and hostilewith indigenous peoples, murder and theft, and the threat of smugglers and pirates. Inspired by a 1637 painting of the Tasman family by Jacob Cuyp and meticulously researched, My Fathers Islands is a fictional story told through the voice of Claesgen. Tasmans young daughters curiosity about her fathers life takes the reader on his voyage on the unchartered seas of the Pacific Ocean, in the search for unknown lands and new sources of riches for the powerful trading company, the Dutch East India Company. My FathersIslands opens up to children a significant, but little known, part of Australias historythe European discovery of parts of the Unknown South Land by the heroic explorer and navigator, Abel Janszoon Tasman

A map of the world? Why did the King need one of those? Besides, everyone knew that if you went too far in either direction you'd fall off the edge, and if that didn't kill you Genesi the dragon of death h would be waiting. The King is determined to discover what lies beyond the known world, and has promised a handsome prize to the ship's captain who can bring him a map of the whole globe. To do that, they'll need mapmakers - and 14-year-old Quinn is shocked to be one of the chosen. While his older brothers long for adventure, Quinn is content with a quiet life on the farm, but when word of his special talent gets out, he has no choice but to pack his bags and join the mismatched crew of slaves and stowaways on board the Libertas.The other competitors will do anything to win, but the greatest danger may come from the strange sea monster hot on their tail or the mysterious unchartered lands for which they are bound. Nobody knows what lies off the edge of the map, but Quinn is about to find out that it's more than anyone bargained for.

Bridget's family has been turned out of their home during the Irish potato famine and their only refuge is the workhouse where living conditions are hard and freezing and the food sparse. There is one chance for Bridget and her sister -- to take a ship to a new country and become Australians. But will they survive the journey, let alone the challenges that await them in a far away land?

Forced to flee his native Bangladesh, eight year-old chess prodigy Fahim Mohammad arrived in Paris with his father as illegal immigrants.There, under the tutelage of one of France's top chess coaches, Xavier Parmentier, Fahim's rise was rapid and remarkable.Told through the clear eyes of a child, Fahim's tale is at once deeply saddening and hugely uplifting.

ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together...in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you.