Billy 'Briks' Jewkes


The RAD committee sponsored a visit from the very talented artist who did the library mural.




We had an amazing two days with Briks last week and 
I wanted to post the time lapse video that he shared here. 
Enjoy! Mrs. Lang

Students enjoyed the demonstration portion of the presentation!



Summer Reading

Dear Friends,

I have collaborated with my colleagues on the Anderson vertical team to create the summer reading list included in this post. The books mentioned below are merely suggestions and the list is certainly not comprehensive. In most cases, the titles listed have been published within the last ten years and should be available through local libraries and bookstores. I have also included a list of additional resources that might be of use to you and your child as you browse for further titles. Also, be sure to look for additional links on the right side column of this blog and the "Book Lists" tab at the top of the page. Come back and check to see if new ones are added and feel free to let me know if you have a favorite that I have missed! You may already know about Tumble Book Library and Capstone Interactive Library. These websites have a great selection of interactive electronic books. Austin ISD pays for the TumbleBooks subscription and I have ordered over 200 interactive, electronic books for the Doss Owls to use on the Capstone Library. Your child should know the usernames and passwords, but feel free to contact me should you need them. You can email me at bonnie.lang@austinisd.org.

I highly recommend the Texas Bluebonnet Nominees for students in third through fifth grade. This list is compiled by the Texas librarians so you know it's going to be good! Though it is unlikely that all twenty titles will work for every intermediate level student, there should be something for everyone. For our primary readers in kindergarten through second grade, I suggest looking at the Texas 2x2 Book List and the Mockingbird Books. As always, it is recommended that parents preview all titles in order to ensure that the material is suitable.

There are many great summer reading programs all over town. I encourage you to participate in one or all of these programs. Go ahead and "double dip"- fill out booklists for APL, BookPeople, Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books, HEB, Pottery Barn, and Chuck E. Cheese's! These links will take you to the pages where you can find out about the different programs and download the reading logs. I hope that you have fun reading... set a goal and win some prizes!

It has been a fantastic year!!! I wish you a happy summer filled with lots of time to read!!!

Sincerely,
Bonnie Lang
Doss Elementary Library
Information Learning Specialist


Additional Resources:



ü  GuysRead



Summer Before Kindergarten:

ü  Brown, Peter. Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. (Fiction)
ü  Castellucci, Cecil. Odd Duck. (Fiction)
ü  Colato Lainez, Rene. Senor Pancho had a Rancho. (Fiction)
ü  Falwell, Cathryn. Rainbow Stew. (Nonfiction)
ü  Gall, Chris. Awesome Dawson. (Fiction)
ü  Himmelman, John. Noisy Bug Sing-Along. (Nonfiction)
ü  Jenkins, Emily. Water in the Park. (Nonfiction)
ü  Klausmeier, Jesse. Open This Little Book. (Fiction)
ü  Vaccaro Seeger, Laura. Bully. (Fiction)
ü  Viva, Frank. A Long Way Away. (Nonfiction)
ü  Wheeler, Lisa. Dino-Wrestling. (Fiction)
o   Dino-Soccer
o   Dino-Baseball
o   Dino-Football
ü  Wiesner, David. Mr. Wuffles. (Fiction)
ü  Willems, Mo. That is Not a Good Idea! (Fiction)
ü  Zietlow Miller, Pat. Sophie’s Squash. (Fiction)

Summer Before First Grade:

ü  Bailey, Linda. Stanley’s Party. (Fiction-Series)
o   Stanley’s Wild Ride
o   Stanley at Sea
o   Stanley’s Beauty Contest
o   Stanley’s Little Sister
ü  Barnett, Mac. Chloe and the Lion.  (Fiction)
ü  Barnett, Mac. Guess Again.  (Nonfiction-Poetry)
ü  Davies, Matt. Ben Rides On. (Fiction)
ü  George, Kallie. Spark. (Fiction)
ü  Gerstein, Mordicai. You Can’t Have too Many Friends. (Fiction)
ü  Howe, James. Houndsley and Catina. (Fiction-Series)
o   Houndsley and Catina and the Birthday Surprise
o   Houndsley and Catina and the Quiet Time
o   Houndsley and Catina: Pink and Plunk
ü  Kaplan, Michael. Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake. (Fiction-Series)
o   Betty Bunny Wants Everything
o   Betty Bunny Didn’t Do It
o   Betty Bunny Wants a Goal
ü  Ludwig, Trudy. The Invisible Boy.  (Fiction)
ü  Offill, Jenny. Sparky.  (Fiction)
ü  Rabe, Tish. My, Oh My-a Butterfly. (Nonfiction-Series)                                          
   (The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
o   There’s No Place Like Space
o   Would You Rather Be a Pollywog
o   Is a Camel a Mammal
o   Inside Your Outside

Summer Before Second Grade:

ü  Angleberger, Tom. Crankee Doodle. (Fiction)
ü  Broach, Elise. The Miniature World of Marvin and James. (Fiction)
ü  Bruel, Nick. Bad Kitty Drawn to Trouble. (Fiction-Series)
o   Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray
o   Happy Birthday Bad Kitty
o   Bad Kitty Gets a Bath
ü  Bunting, Eve. The Cart That Carried Martin.(Nonfiction)
ü  Griffiths, Andy. The 26-Story Treehouse. (Fiction-Series)
o   The 13-Story Treehouse
ü  Haas, Jessie. Bramble and Maggie: Give and Take. (Fiction)
ü  Kirby, Stan. Captain Awesome and the Ultimate Spelling Bee. (Fiction-Series)
o   Captain Awesome to the Rescue!
o   Captain Awesome vs. the Nacho Cheese Man
o   Captain Awesome, Soccer Star
ü  Ludwig, Trudy. The Invisible Boy. (Fiction)
ü  Martin, Jacqueline Briggs. Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table.          (Nonfiction)
ü  Montijo, Rhode. The Gumazing Gum Girl! (Fiction)
ü  Shubert, Leda. Monsieur Marceau. (Biography)

Summer Before Third Grade:

ü  Floca, Brian. Locomotive. (Nonfiction)
ü  Gauthier, Gail. A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat. (Fiction-Series)
o   A Girl, a Boy and Three Robbers.
ü  Goodman, Susan E. It’s a Dog’s Life: How Man’s Best Friend Sees, Hears, and Smells the World. (Nonfiction)
ü  Hale, Bruce. Prince of Underwhere. (Fiction-Series)
o   Pirates of Underwhere
o   Flyboy of Underwhere
o   Fat Cat of Underwhere
ü  Klise, Kate. 43 Old Cemetery Road: Dying to Meet You.  (Fiction-Series)
o   Over My Dead Body
o   Till Death do us Bark
o   The Phantom of the Post Office
o   Hollywood, Dead Ahead
ü  Labatt, Mary. A Sam and Friends Mystery: Dracula Madness. (Nonfiction-Graphic Novel-Series)
o   Lake Monster Mix-Up
o   Mummy Mayhem
o   Witches’ Brew
ü  Orr, Wendy. Rainbow Street Shelter: Stolen! A Pony Called Pebbles. (Fiction-Series)
o   Abandoned! A Lion Called Kitty
o   Missing! A Cat Called Buster
ü  Pastis, Stephan. Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. (Fiction)
o   Timmy Failure: Now Look What You’ve Done
ü  Vernick, Audrey. Brothers at Bat.  (Nonfiction)
ü  Worth, Valerie. Pug and Other Animal Poems. (Nonfiction-Poetry)

Summer Before Fourth Grade:
  • ü  Berne, Jennifer. On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein. (Nonfiction-Biography)
  • ü  Birdsall, Jeanne. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a        Very Interesting Boy. (Fiction-Series)
  • o   The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
  • o   The Penderwicks at Point Mouette
  • ü  Buyea, Rob. Because of Mr. Terupt. (Fiction)
  • ü  Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. (Fiction)
  • ü  Draper, Sharon M. Out of My Mind. (Fiction)
  • ü  Grabenstein, Chris. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. (Fiction)
  • ü  Henkes, Kevin. The Year of Billy Miller. (Fiction)
  • ü  Jenkins, Steve. The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest-- and most Surprising--- Animals of Earth. (Nonfiction)
  • ü  Peck, Richard. The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail. (Fiction)
  • ü  Pope, Paul & Hilary Sycamore. Battling Boy. (Fiction)
  • ü  Rose, Deborah Lee. Jimmy the Joey: The True Story of an Amazing Koala Rescue (Nonfiction)
  • ü  Wissinger, Tamera Will. Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse. (Fiction)

Summer Before Fifth Grade:

ü  Abbott, Toney. Copernicus Legacy:  The Forbidden Stone.  (Fiction)
ü  Appelt, Kathi. The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp.  (Fiction)
ü  Auxier, Jonathan.The Gardner. (Fiction)
ü  Bishop, Nic. Butterflies and Moths. (Nonfiction)
o   Chameleons
o   Frogs
o   Lizards
o   Snakes
o   Spiders
ü  Gifford, Clive. Think Again!  False Facts Attacked and Myths Busted.   (Nonfiction)
ü  Hale, Nathan. Donner Dinner Party.  (Nonfiction)
ü  Larson, Kirby. Duke.   (Fiction)
ü  Montgomery, Sy. Saving the Ghost of the Mountain:  An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia.  (Nonfiction)
ü  Rosenstock, Barb. Thomas Jefferson Builds A Library.  (Nonfiction)
ü  Sloan, Holly Goldberg. Counting by Sevens.  (Fiction)
ü  Sovern, Megan Jean. The Meaning of Maggie.  (Fiction)

ü  Trumbone, Cindy. Parrots Over Puerto Rico.   (Nonfiction)

KA Holt Visits Doss 3rd Graders


We had a terrific author visit with KA Holt today!
She spoke to all of the third grade classes and it was interesting and inspiring.
Thanks to our amazing Read Across Doss Chair, Virginia Jones, for all of her hard work this year!  

Ms. Frizzle loves the Doss Book Fair!

It was another fabulous day at the Doss Book Fair! We had 17 classes come to shop as well as many morning and afternoon shoppers. We are expecting another 16 classes tomorrow and will end the fair with 9 classes on Thursday. Wednesday's hours are 7:30-4:30 and Thursday's are 7:30-6:00. Our inventory still looks great and BookPeople sent over 2 more boxes of books including copies of The Adventures of Arnie the Doughnut: Bowling Alley Bandit and The Day the Crayons Quit. We are happy to take orders for any books that we may have run out of (i.e. Treasure Hunters), but still have many wonderful titles that you are going to want to take home. Seatbelts eveyone- see you at the book fair! ~Ms. Frizzle (aka Mrs. Lang)




Out of this World Night!

Wow! What an amazing opening to our sci-fi-tastic book fair! I had a great time visiting with all of the Doss owls and their wonderful families! BookPeople brought us an incredible selection of books and I think that there was something for everyone! I don't know what to read first, but it's a terrific problem to have! I hope that you are all tucked in bed with a good book! If you missed tonight, you still have time to shop... The book fair is open all day tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday. We'll be there after school until 4:30 for the next two days and until 6:00 on Thursday night. If we don't have a book that you want, we are happy to order it for you. We should have the special orders sometime after Thanksgiving break.

I appreciate those of you that brought books for our school library! I can't wait to get these news books barcoded and ready to circulate! I feel so fortunate to be a part of such a generous and kind community. I'm looking forward to seeing all 850 of you this week! It will be a busy and fun week!

Here's a joke... What do planets like to read?  (comet books)

Book Fair & Topher's Picks

Hi Gang- I am super excited about the book fair kick-off tomorrow after school from 3:00-7:00! I hope to see all of you there!!!! The books are almost out and teachers will be making their wish lists during the day. I think that this year's selection of books if the best we've ever had. There is definitely something for everyone! Take advantage of this great event and fundraiser and get ready to blast off to reading! You may not recognize your librarian this week, but here's a hint... "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" Do you know who I'll be dressed as for an out of the world Doss book fair? ~Mrs. Lang

Topher spent two days at Doss and had a chance to talk books with all kindergarten through fifth graders. The kids and teachers enjoyed his storytelling talent and are eager to start reading. Here's the list you've all been waiting for!

for older readers:
Twerp by Mark Goldblatt
Treasure Hunters by James Patterson
How to Catch a Bogle by Catherine Jinks
The Screaming Staircase: Lockwood & Co. #1 by Jonathan Stroud

for middle readers:
The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson
Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot by Anna Branford
Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jefferey Brown
The Odd Squad: Bully Bait by Michael Fry

picture books:
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el
The Pig on the Hill by John Kelly
The Adventures of Arnie the Doughnut: Bowling Alley Bandit by Laurie Keller

At the Owlery!