Melissa is waiting for the "new life" that her mother Sharlene has promised her since a fire devastated their family. But nothing ever seems to change. Melissa has difficulty making friends at school, they never have enough money and her little brother Cody is a brat. When Sharlene announces that they will be spending the month of August at a remote cabin on a wilderness lake, Melissa is less than thrilled. But there is more to do at the lake than she expected, and she is surprised to learn that her mother knows how to paddle a canoe, fish and make bannock and s'mores. On an island in the middle of the lake, Melissa meets Alice, a strange girl who is writing a fantasy novel. Alice shares her tree fort on the island with Melissa, and while at first Melissa is attracted to Alice's strong personality and her stories of her "perfect family," she becomes increasingly uneasy around Alice. As Melissa's relationship with her mother improves and her confidence increases, she is able to hold her own with Alice and start to appreciate her own imperfect family.
Realistic fiction is a defined as a story that is not true, but could happen in real life. This exciting title encourages budding young writers to draw inspiration from the world around them to develop characters and plot. Engaging writing activities provide guidelines for readers to create their own realistic fiction stories.
Adventure stories are exciting stories that take readers on a journey out of the ordinary and into the dangerous unknown. This action-packed book introduces young writers to the elements of an adventure story and provides fun ideas for writing a daring tale of ones own!
Science fiction stories incorporate science and technology that take readers into new worlds where anything can happen. In this fun title, key elements of science fiction are explored using sample texts. Step-by-step instructions help readers compose science fiction stories that are out-of-this-world!
A drama is a story that is experienced by an audience as a performance. In this engaging title, readers will explore acts, dialogue, stage direction, and other elements that define this genre. Mentor texts and writing prompts guide readers as they compose their own show-stopping dramas.
A myth is a story that attempts to explain a natural phenomena - such as how the world was created. Myths often include supernatural characters who have extraordinary powers. How To Tell a Myth is an engaging title that introduces readers to myths from around the world and highlights the common elements that make up this genre. Step-by-step instructions help readers create their own myths.
This exciting title introduces readers to the folktale genre. Readers will learn that folktales are often passed down and retold from generation to generation. Readers will discover the similarities and differences between folktales from around the world. The title also includes guided writing activities to help readers write their own folktales.
A fable is a short story that teaches the reader a lesson. The characters in a fable are often animals that speak and act like humans. How To Tell a Fable is an engaging title that uses fables from around the world to help readers identify the conventions of this genre. Readers are guided through a series of writing tasks to learn how to incorporate these same conventions in their own writing.
A legend is a story about a hero, a people, or a natural phenomena. Popular legends include King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Blackbeard, and Robin Hood. This exciting new title teaches readers about the common characteristics found in legends from around the world. Engaging writing activities guide readers as they use these characteristics to create their own legends.
How To Write a Fantasy Story is an engaging title that identifies the common features that make this genre so imaginative and distinctive. Step-by-step writing prompts guide readers through the writing process as they create their own fantasy stories.
In this informative book, readers will focus on figurative language and using all the senses to create vivid details. Students will also use brainstorming techniques to choose exciting topics and write their own free verse poems.
This easy-to-understand book introduces young readers to poems that tell stories. Students will explore story elements in poem form. They will also learn how to break poetry into lines and stanzas to write their own narrative poems.
Ten beautifully illustrated stories tell classic tales from different cultures of powerful gods and goddesses in mythology clashing with each other and with humans. Myths include: Pandora opening the box that releases the evils of humanity, and King Midas whose touch turned everything to gold, from Greek mythology; Ganesha, the god with the elephant head, from Indian mythology; Thor's Hammer, from Norse mythology; mighty Glooscap and the baby Wasis from Native American mythology; and the god Horus taking back the throne of Egypt, from Egyptian mythology. Feature boxes add additional details to help readers better understand concepts in the story as well as the time period in which the story was written.
Ten wonderfully illustrated stories tell folktales and legends from different cultures about ghosts and spirits, and their interaction with the human world. Feature boxes add additional details to help readers better understand concepts in the story as well as the time period in which the story was written.
Designed to introduce readers to how graphs tell stories. Readers will see bar, line, pie, and pictographs, as well as tally charts, and be encouraged to read the stories graphs tell and create their own stories. Activities build on the material presented.
Readers will enjoy exploring hidden aspects of their personality as they discover what creature they are most like in this engaging quiz book. Written in the high-low format, this book has a HIGH interest level to appeal to a more mature audience but maintains a LOW level of complexity and clear visuals to help struggling readers along. Best Quiz Ever: What Creature Are You Most Like? includes fun questions to share with friends as well as trivia throughout the book. A perfect read for the classroom, library, sleepovers, or reading resource rooms. A table of contents, glossary with simplified pronunciations, and index all enhance comprehension.
This book introduces readers to Greek mythology, presents legendary characters and stories, and shows how Greek myths have influenced our culture. Readers are engaged with historical content while sharpening their skills at analyzing images and identifying evidence.
The ability to recognize and correctly use the different parts of speech is key to demonstrating command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. In this book readers will learn about the role adjectives play in sentences by following the story of Tom and his sister, Kate, who visit the zoo with their Uncle Mike. The story and activity sidebars help teach concepts such using adjectives to provide description and detail, understanding word relationships, identifying common types of adjectives, and making comparisons using comparative and superlative adjectives.
The ability to recognize and correctly use the different parts of speech is key to demonstrating command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. In this book, readers will learn about the function interjections have in sentences by following the story of Will and Lauren, who visit a museum to see dinosaur skeletons. The story and activity sidebars help teach concepts such as correct punctuation, capitalization, and how words or phrases can have particular effects.
The ability to recognize and correctly use the different parts of speech is key to demonstrating command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. In this book, readers will learn about the function nouns have in sentences by following the story of Steve and Judy, who join their father on a trip to the grocery store. The story and activity sidebars help introduce concepts such as abstract nouns, subject-verb agreement, and singular and plural nouns.
The ability to recognize and correctly use the different parts of speech is key to demonstrating command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. In this book, readers will learn about the function adverbs have in sentences by following the story of Lucy and Jon, teammates on a soccer team competing for the local championship. The story and activity sidebars help introduce concepts such as how to use adverbs for description or explanation and how to tell the difference between adjectives and adverbs.
The ability to recognize and correctly use the different parts of speech is key to demonstrating command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. In this book, readers will learn about the role conjunctions play in sentences by following the story of Nancy, a girl who brings her family to see her work on display at an art show. The story and activity sidebars help introduce concepts such as correct punctuation and the use of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
The ability to recognize and correctly use the different parts of speech is key to demonstrating command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. In this book, readers will learn about the function pronouns have in sentences by following the story of Sam and his visiting cousins, Jim and Anna. The story and supplemental activity sidebars help teach concepts such as tense, correct punctuation, relative pronouns, and pronoun-antecedent agreement.
In this innovative title, young readers learn what it means to be a citizen of the global community. From water wells in Africa to global disaster relief, children will learn about different needs around the world and discover their own abilities to make the world a better place.
Action, humor, and creative characters fill the mind of Rick Riordan. He is best known for The Lightning Thief, which follows Percy Jacksons journey in a world based on Greek mythology. Learn more about Riordan and his inspiring characters in this book for young and adventurous readers!
