Golden bookshelf and books about reading

In my classroom, we have lots of books. We use them for Daily 5 and we use them for read alouds. The books are on shelves built into the wall. But on the counter, we have one small but very special shelf called our "Golden Bookshelf". (This idea came from Steven Layne's book Igniting a Passion for Reading: Successful Strategies for Building Lifetime Readers). Each week, I put some wonderful books on the golden bookshelf.

Our school uses Storytown for language arts. So I try to tie the books on the golden bookshelf to that week's main selection...either thematically or by doing an author study or topically.

Last week, our main selection was Arthur's Reading Race by Marc Brown. Arthur doesn't think D.W. can read and says if she can read ten words while they are taking a walk, he will buy her an ice cream cone. We talked about how reading helped her (kept her safe, helped her prove she can read, allowed her to help Arthur) and how reading can help us (be smart, learn new things, have fun, get good jobs, help others, keep us safe).

So for the golden bookshelf, our books were all about reading. Here are the titles that I chose to spotlight this time:

Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco is one of my all time favorite books. Polacco had a hard time learning to read, but a special fifth grade teacher helped her to learn. This is her story of learning to read.

How to Teach a Slug to Read by Susan Pearson gives the mama slug step-by-step directions on how to teach her little slug to read. Many of the steps are true for young children, but some are especially for slugs. Cute.

Miss Dorothy and her Bookmobile by Gloria Houston is a sweet, true story of a woman who wants to be a librarian in a beautiful, big library. But she and her husband move to a rural area where there isn't a library. So this innovative woman helps the town buy a bookmobile which she drives all over so that people can check out books. Gorgeous illustrations and sweet ending.

Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail...One night while Edward is reading, the pirates in his book come to life and think his book will tell them where their treasure is hidden. If you've ever felt a story come to life in your mind...or wished that it would REALLY come to life, this is the book for you!

No T. Rex in the Library by Toni Buzzeo is the story of what would happen if there were a dinosaur trampling all the books in the library. Fun vocabulary in this rhyming book.

Wild about Books by Judy Sierra The library bookmobile comes to the zoo and the animals fall in love with books. Great illustrations and fun story.

Hooray for Reading Day by Judy Sierra In this story, Jessica is nervous about reading aloud to her class. But her dad helps her to know that she can do it and after practicing with her dog, she does a great job. Great for kids that find reading difficult or find reading aloud in front of their peers to be scary.

How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills is the story of a cute dog that is taught how to read by a bird.