MAPLE ELEMENTARY
ONE SCHOOL, ONE BOOK
Dear Maple Parents/Guardians:
Today our school will be embarking on a special project,
an all school book club called One, School, One Book. Thanks
to a generous gift from PTO and Chardon Schools Foundation
Remembrance Fund for Michele Peace, each student
has received a copy of the same book, Betty G. Birney’s The
World According to Humphrey, and will be asked to read it at
home during the next 14 school days. I am personally asking
you to make the time so your family can participate in this
special activity.
Reading aloud at home is valuable because it better prepares your child
to be an effective reader. It is also a fun and worthwhile family activity.
With the One School, One Book program, we aim to further build a community of
readers at our school. Everyone- students, parents, teachers, office, cafeteria and
custodial staff will be participating so we can all reap the many benefits of the
program.
One School, One Book is a unique program in that children at all grade levels will be
listening to the same book. Reading professionals recommend reading material out
loud that is beyond your child’s reading level. Reading chapter books with your
children, even when they are able to read by themselves, is also beneficial. We have
selected a title that can be followed, understood and enjoyed by younger students,
but that will still captivate and interest older children.
Your child received his/her copy of The World According to Humphrey following a
special school-wide assembly where we introduced the program and the book.
Attached to this letter you will find the reading schedule along with tips for reading
aloud with your child. Generally you will be asked to read a chapter a night which
will take no longer than 15 minutes. Additionally, if you would like to hear staff
members reading the various chapters, you may visit the Maple home page where
you will find a link to the One School, One Book page.
In school, your child will be invited to answer daily trivia questions to encourage
and reward attentive and active listening. You will soon find out that your child will
take pride in knowing and anticipating the details of the story. Throughout the
building there will be various activities which will further enrich the reading
experience. You will want to make sure that your family stays current with the
reading so your child will fully appreciate all that we have planned.
With your help, we hope to make the next fourteen days a time where everyone is
talking about the adventures of Humphrey, Ms. Mac, Mrs. Brisbane, and Aldo Amato.
Happy Reading!
Sincerely,
Scott C. May, Principal
SCHEDULE
March 25, 2014 Read Chapter 1
March 26, 2014 Read Chapter 2
March 27, 2014 Read Chapter 3
March 28, 2014 Read Chapter 4
March 31, 2014 Read Chapter 5
April 1, 2014 Read Chapters 6 & 7
April 2, 2014 Read Chapter 8
April 3, 2014 Read Chapter 9
April 4, 2014 Read Chapter 10
April 7, 2014 Read Chapter 11
April 8, 2014 Read Chapter 12
April 9, 2014 Read Chapters 13 & 14
April 10, 2014 Read Chapter 15
April 11, 2014 Raffle off Humphrey to One Lucky Family’s Home.
Read aloud staff recordings of each chapter are available on the
Maple Website.
_ _ _ _ _ _Cut and detach the bottom portion if you want a chance to win Humphrey_ _ _ _ _ _ __
My child_____________ has my permission to win Humphrey as our new
family pet. I understand that he comes with one bag of food, one bag
of bedding, one cage, and one hamster’s ball. I will make
arrangement to pick Humphrey up at the school on April 11, 2014.
__________________________________
March 26, 2014
Dear Readers of Maple Elementary School,
I am thrilled to hear that you are reading THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY for your
One School, One Book event. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY was my first middle grade novel. It was inspired
when I was in my son’s science classroom where the walls were lined with cages and tanks
for all kinds of animals. They even had a boa constrictor! I remember thinking, “I wonder
what these animals see and hear in the classroom?” I thought it would be fun to write a
book looking at a classroom through the eyes of an animal. That’s how Humphrey was born.
The best part of being a writer is the chance to see the world through other people’s eyes,
or, in Humphrey’s case, through the eyes of a hamster! We may be different species, but
Humphrey is quite a bit like me: easily excitable, longing to be helpful, (though I’m not
nearly as successful at it as he is), and VERY-VERY-VERY curious!
There are ten books now following Humphrey through his first year in Room 26 and
beyond: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, FRIENDSHIP ACCORDING TO
HUMPHREY, TROUBLE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, SURPRISES ACCORDING TO
HUMPHREY, ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, SUMMER ACCORDING TO
HUMPHREY, SCHOOL DAYS ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, MYSTERIES ACCORDING TO
HUMPHREY, WINTER ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY and SECRETS ACCORDING TO
HUMPHREY. There’s also an activity book, HUMPHREY’S BOOK OF FUN-FUN-FUN and a pet
care guide called HUMPHREY’S WORLD OF PETS.
I’m sorry I can’t get to Ohio and meet you in person, but we are still connected through the
pages of a book – and that’s the real reward of writing for me.
HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY reading!
Ten Tips for Reading Aloud
1. How to Choose a Book - Make sure you marry the right reading style with each book: Roddy Doyle's The
Giggler Treatment (about dog poop) asks for a wry, arch, playful style - lots of enthusiasm; Scott O'Dell's Island
of the Blue Dolphins suggests a quieter, deadpan style - it's a story about Nature, so let the prose do the work.
1 ISSUE
1
2. How to Make the Time - If reading aloud is important, you must prioritize: SometimesVOL
this means
doing
something else (the dishes, say) later; sometimes it means not doing something else (Monday Night Football
isn't that good this week); and sometimes it means making something boring - say, waiting at the doctor's
office - interesting.
3. Punch Vocabulary - Make the language in a story more interesting for both you and your listener by
choosing the most interesting word in each sentence, and doing something more with it: emphasize it, italicize
it, underline it, enunciate it, whisper it, elongate it - bring it out to some (subtle) place of prominence and
enliven the prose.
4. Pause - One of three tips that help reset your child's attention span and can be used to heighten drama or
suspense or emotional impact; in this case, pay special attention to every mark of punctuation: every comma
and period, hyphen and parentheses. One word sentences are written that way for a reason.
5. Slow Down - Also resets attention span; and heightens drama, suspense, and emotion; but not the same as
pausing; slowing down means adjusting the pace of a sentence; or a paragraph; your listener will notice
immediately.
6. Whisper - Everyone knows the whisper effect, when you want to make someone pay even closer attention;
so this one also resets the attention span; heightens drama and suspense and - especially can make the most
malevolent characters even more malevolent.
• Together, these three tips - Pause, Slow Down, Whisper· represent the pure heart of effective reading
aloud.
7. Accents arid Voices - Borrow indiscriminately and shamelessly from everywhere to mimic different
voices; you kids don't care how perfect they are, only that the voices in a dialogue are different and distinct,
bringing the characters alive. Also: give each character who talks a lot some identifying trait or mannerism to
make it easier for you to trigger the voice (e.g. Draco Malfoy lords it over everyone - perhaps he drawls or
sneers; Hermione Granger is a goody-goody - perhaps her voice is a little prissy.)
8. Ask Questions - Use the opportunity and pace reading a book give you to ask questions before, during, and
after a reading; to serve multiple purposes: rehearse or remember characters or plot developments; explore
moral or ethical questions; make associations with other books and media - film and otherwise.
9. Give 'em a Quiz - Not to make reading like school, but as a memory cue; kids love showing off their
knowledge, having a reason to pay even closer attention, owning a book or story thoroughly and in detail.
Pretty soon, they'll be asking you questions.
10. Permit an auxiliary activity - Kids will get distracted - for a good reason: because they've made an
association and are pursuing it. When pausing and whispering and slowing down aren't enough, it's OK to let
'em color or draw or doodle - or braid their hair or wash the dishes - to let their restless minds refocus on your
story.