Guided Reading Book Recommendation for Workshop Wednesday

Hey there!  We are linking up with our friend J to the Ivey for:

Today's topic is to pick ONE book that we like to use in guided reading groups.  I think I sort of helped with this topic choice but now I don't want to take credit because once I started trying to think of just ONE book, I had a hard time narrowing it down.  So if you had a hard time too, it wasn't me...  ;O)

So, I'll try to stick with the rule, but I may bend it a little...

I really LOVE Kate DiCamillo books for guided reading groups.  But again, I couldn't just pick one of hers that I like, so I was at a loss.  Here are the ones I really like...and they are great read-alouds too!

These are definitely for upper grades...but they are all soooooo good!

Ok, back to the straight and narrow!!  ONE guided reading book that I really do think lends itself to small group is:

The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman.  This book is recommended for grades 4 and up!

The reason I think this is a great book for small group guided reading is because it is written from different points of view.  Each character gets to tell "their side" of what happens throughout the story.  It looks something like this:

The pages are divided by character "stories" all about the same scenario.  It could get confusing, BUT, when I read it with a small group, they decided that they wanted to take "parts" and read it like that.  They had a lot of fun "acting" as the characters.  I liked that they could see so many view points and really analyze so many different characters all at one time.  It was great for character analysis!!

Here's the summary from Amazon:  

Meet the D Squad, a foursome of fifth graders at the Grand Canyon School made up of a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet, and a slacker. They are bound together by one very big secret: the homework machine. Because the machine, code-named Belch, is doing their homework for them, they start spending a lot of time together, attracting a lot of attention. And attention is exactly what you don't want when you are keeping a secret.  Before long, things start to get out of control, and Belch becomes much more powerful than they ever imagined. Now the kids are in a race against their own creation, and the loser could end up in jail...or worse!

The group really loved this book, and they were really excited to hear about the sequel:

But I won't talk about that...because I'd really be breaking the rules and I think I did enough of that!  But I think Jivey will forgive me!!  (fingers crossed)

What are some guided reading books you feel are great for small groups?

Amanda