Book-a-Day Challenge

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For the 4th year in a row, Donalyn Miller has issued her summertime Book-a-Day Challenge. It’s as simple as it sounds – catch up on all the reading you meant to do during the school year by reading (an average of) one book every single day throughout the summer! Read more about it here and follow me on Twitter (@literatelife) to see what books I’m reading! Today’s choice: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

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Katherine Applegate stole my heart with The Home of the Brave, and my expectations were sky-high for this book. I can tell you – she did not disappoint! Here’s the blurb:

Ivan is an easy-going gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home – and his own art – through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.


2 thoughts on “Book-a-Day Challenge

    • Hi Linda,

      I don’t, simply because I know that charts are really only effective if the kids have some ownership in making them. Don’t worry about how they look – it’s just important that they provide tracks of your teaching! 🙂

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