November
27
Books My Students Are Reading | Thanksgiving Break Edition by Colby Sharp
I had a lovely two day week with my students. One of the highlights was a field trip to a bowling alley that we took to celebrate the end of their bowling unit in physical education. In class, we focused a lot of making reading plans for our five day break.
In the video below, I share the books that my students are reading first during break. Please let me know in the comments below what books you are hoping to read during break.
Happy reading!
Colby Sharp is a husband and father of five. He teaches fifth grade in Parma, Michigan. Colby is the co-founder of Nerdy Book Club, and he serves on the Nerd Camp Michigan team. He co-hosts The Yarn podcast with Travis Jonker. Colby currently serves as the president-elect of the Michigan Reading Association. He co-authored Game Changer! Book Access for All Kid with Donalyn Miller, and he is the editor of The Creativity Project: An Awesometastic Story Collection.
Nerdy Book Club 
wow, that’s quite a collection! the next one I’ll be reading is David Sedaris’ – Calypso.
David is so talented! Happy reading!
Love your videos as I get so many ideas here! I’m a teacher librarian in a K-5 grade school where the majority of our kids are ESL/ELL and struggle to read English on grade level. However, thanks to book talks my fifth graders are hooked on Refugee, the Joey Pigza series, and Wings of Fire. My 5th grade reading group just finished up with Garvey’s Choice, which I can’t say enough about, and our next one is Save Me Seat. If you haven’t read either, give them a look! Thanks to you I’m going to reintroduce Origami Yoda and the My Life As a… series.
Your readers are lucky to have you. Keep up the great work!
Garvey’s Choice….for such a small book, it has a lot of punch. My kids loved it!!!!!
For the kiddo who is reading Wonder, have him/her follow with Auggie and Me, and then conclude with the new graphic novel, White Bird….read them in that order! Kids will gain a new appreciation for Julián. 😁. Happy Reading!!! 📚
I just read Harbor Me by Jaqueline Woodson which is now one of my most favorite books ever! The writing is so moving and engaging that I couldn’t put it down. Woodson has brilliantly captured how different people tick and shares so many important lessons that are most needed today in our world as well as in our classrooms. We all have a story… and more importantly, we all need someone to listen. I highly recommend this book to anyone!
Hi Colby,
I love your book talk videos. Thank you for doing them. I think it’s so important that kids read and your videos are so informative and energizing you can’t help but grab a book and read. Keep up the splendid work. I look forward to seeing more. I saw a picture of you and Dawn Zahorik (Penguin Young Readers) at NCTE. She’ a big fan (as am I). Also, on behalf of Penguin Young Readers, thank you for the shout outs for our books. Keep up the great work!
All My Best,
John
If you haven’t read Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood, I highly recommend it. My 10 year old son and I are reading it for the parent/child book club in his classroom. Told in verse, it is the true story of 13 year old Ken Sparks and other children whose parents secured them passage on a ship out of England when Germany began attacking during WW2. He survives a harrowing experience after the ship is hit by a torpedo and he escapes in a lifeboat. This book pairs nicely with Torpedoed by Deborah Heiligman which provides even more information about the other passengers aboard the ship.
Lots of great choices here! I just finished GREETINGS FROM WITNESS PROTECTION by Jake Burt and am starting ORPHAN ISLAND by Laurel Snyder. Thanks for sharing!
Great collection. Keep up the great work.
Thanks for your videos. I’m a rural public librarian and have gotten lots of ideas for our Juvenile section from you!
This makes me happy.
Thank you so much for these recommendations! I LOVED “maybe he just likes you” and bought it for my daughter!’s 5th grade teacher. I would’ve missed it if not for you! (Also loved “next great pauly fink” such a great springboard for talking about how our narratives shape our lives!)
Glad you are finding great new books to read.
Great list! There are a few new ones to me that I now will order for our library! I love when you do this(and I have time to listen to it)! Thank you thank you!
I’m glad the videos are helpful.
My TBR pile is going to topple over as I add a whole bunch of these books!
Thank you for sharing! Love finding out your students are reading!
Can you recommend any 5th grade non fiction book club books???
Way to go, Colby!
They all look wonderful….now choosing! Thanks for the ideas 😊
Thanks to you for all you do for kids and the entire professional community. On Friday during silent reading, I finished Girl, Stolen by April Henry, and immediately handed it off to a student who wanted to read it. Next up for me is War Storm (finally). Happy Reading!
Recently finished Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff, such a great book. Would definitely share this book with all readers, but especially my male reluctant readers. Main character is struggling with something he did and is quite the outcast and passive aggressive kid at school. Currently reading Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh – really enjoying it as well. Correlates wonderfully with real world issues that immigrants face. Both of the books have male main characters and are realistic fiction.