Michael Wade's And Then It Happened Series

Michael Wade writes high-interest books for readers in grades 3 - 6. He focus' on motivating students to becoming better readers and writers and also encourages reading for the fun of it. Wade’s books are comprised of short stories and will appeal to almost everyone, but perhaps more to boys and reluctant readers. They offer tons of adventure and tons of laughs! You can check out many samples of the books here.

This one is a particular favorite at some of my schools, so much so that it was even challenged for inspiring misbehaviour. (The book was pulled by a principal for review but without any followup I had no trouble keeping it in the library. Keeping it on the shelf, however, was next to impossible.)

from http://www.boysbookshelf.com/fart_chart.html

The series website, boysbookshelf.com, also contains a page with student activities, including many word scrambles, hidden messages, word searches, Fill-in-the-Blanks for each book.

Michael Wade is a favorite presenter, lively and engaging! He has a great ability to connect with students and there is a buzz for days after the presentations. He has been to 7 of my 8 schools, many of them several times over the years.  The And Then it Happened series is incredibly popular in all my schools.  Kids often try to get the same book as their friends so they can read and chat about the stories.  Trading books is also a popular pastime.  This is easily a solid go-to selection for my junior students.

That's not REAL reading!

Gripe of the Week…

“Children deprived of words become school dropouts; dropouts deprived of hope behave delinquently. Amateur censors blame delinquency on reading immoral books and magazines, when in fact, the inability to read anything is the basic trouble.” ― Peter S. Jennison 

Photo by welcometolearn (Flickr)

I get so defensive when I hear staff tell students that they can’t read a magazine or a comic, but rather need to sign out a "real" book.  Seriously, you stand in a library and forbid reading? Out loud.  In front of students.  My circulation stats have gone up across the board once magazines were made available for check out.  When we brought in Graphic Novels, students who had never ventured into the library were claiming corners to hunker down in.  The demands for sequels and more, please, more did not come from my fiction readers (they asked gently or perhaps wrote a note), they came from the excited faces of students who never thought they belonged in a library.  Finally, we had something for the "non-readers" in the class.  Something to, you know, read.

In my experience, magazines lead to books, you know, those fact books we complain are never used? Magazines are samplers, wonderful teases opening up the worlds of thought. And have they never picked up Marvel?  You can’t read just one.  Want students to learn about archetypes and character development and morality?  What exactly to they think comics are all about???  Possibly, it is they that only look at the pictures!