www.hmhbooks.com/middlegrademania

BOOKS FOR READERS in grades 3-6 play such a crucial role in helping kids

bridge from early chapter books to YA. It’s vital to nurture that love of

reading through these critical years to help kids develop ever more sophisti-

cated language skills and to blossom into lifelong readers.

Use the materials in this kit to celebrate reading and encourage your reading maniacs

to stay crazy for books!

ACTIVITY KIT

MiddleGradeMania

Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Smackdown!In the spirit of WrestleMania, host a Reading Smackdown! Challenge another group to a reading contest. How many books can your kids read and report on in a month versus the other group? When the month is over, have each group vote to select one title from all the books reported on for the entire group to read. Each group then presents their book through skits, artwork, videos, and the like to an impartial judge—perhaps the school principal or librarian. The judge, who has already read both books, selects the best presentation as the winner.

Word of MouthCreate a “This Reader Recommends” display on a bulletin board in your meeting room or library. Whenever a student loves a book, have him/her fill out a recommendation card you can post in a public space to encourage other kids to give the book a try.

Jacket GalleryAs kids finish books, have them create their own cover illustration depicting a particular character or scene. Be sure to have them include the title and the author’s name within the new cover design. Display the new book covers on a bulletin board or in a reading corner.

Book MobileHave kids create a mobile for a favorite book. Use two pencils as the mobile framework—position them in an X, with one pencil on top of the other, and tape them in place. Wrap a string or piece of yarn from which to hang the mobile around the intersection of the two pencils, with a long length extending from the top. Create two-sided illustrations of characters and events and key elements from the story on card stock and hang them from the pencil frame. Be sure to include the book’s title and author on one hanging element. Display the mobiles around the classroom or library.

Opening LinesBooks often begin with provocative, compelling openings to hook the reader from the very first page:

The last day of summer break before the start of my seventh grade year was the first time I ever got punched in the face. —The Trap

Genuine Sweet. That’s me. And since everyone always asks how I came by such an unlikely name, I might as well tell you now. —Genuine Sweet

I’m back. Or should I say, He vuelto. Because I’m in Mexico. In prison. Next to a guy named Raúl with weird body hair and a bad habit of picking his teeth with a large knife. —Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery in Mayan Mexico

Encourage your kids to keep a journal of first lines from books to inspire them in their own creative writing endeavors.

Character QuiltPass an 8.5-by-8.5-inch square piece of construction paper to each student. Have each child draw a portrait of a favorite book character on his/her square using crayons, markers, or paint. Be sure to include the character’s name and the book title on each square. Arrange the squares in a quilt pattern on a bulletin board or wall.

All the activities on this page can be modified and used in bookstores for applicable reading clubs!

Activities MiddleGradeMania

MiddleGradeMania

MiddleGradeMania

This reader recommends . . . BOOK TITLE

AUTHOR

RECOMMENDED BY GRADE

Plot summary/characters:

What I liked about the book:

This reader recommends . . . BOOK TITLE

AUTHOR

RECOMMENDED BY GRADE

Plot summary/characters:

What I liked about the book:

Illustration © 2013 by M. Sarah Klise from Hollywood, Dead Ahead. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Use this handy log sheet to keep track of the books you read. How many books can you read in a month? In a year? Challenge your friends!

Reading Log Title Author Date finished

Flower illustrations © 2013 by Cara Llewellyn; face illustration © 2013 by Matt Smith. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.MiddleGradeMania

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Bookmarks

This page may be photocopied for free distribution.MiddleGradeMania

for time to

read!

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good book!

Make a wish

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Connie Gabbert. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

The TrapBY

Steven Arntson978-0-547-82408-6 hardcover 978-0-547-82412-3 eBook

Twins Henry and Helen and their best friends, Alan and Nicki, find a mysterious book, Subtle Travel and the Subtle Self, when Alan’s brother, Carl, disappears. The book is an instruction guide to teach the art of subtle travel, a kind of out-of-body experience. In order to enter the subtle world, would-be travelers like Henry and his friends must recite a series of numbers as they lie in bed. This series of numbers, called the Fibonacci sequence, is a mathematical pattern. Look at the numbers below. Can you discover the pattern and fill in the next five numbers in the sequence?

Number Pattern

GradeMiddle

Describe the pattern:

Answer key follows, or can be found at hmhbooks.com/middlegrademania/resources.html.

112358 13 21 34

_______ _______

_______ _______

_______

Willy Maykit in SpaceBY

Greg Trine978-0-544-31351-4 hardcover 978-0-544-55690-4 eBook

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by James Burks. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Knock, Knock

GradeMiddle

Earth-dwelling fourth-grader Willy Maykit couldn’t be more excited about his school field trip to Planet Ed. Willy’s class will blast off for the afternoon, learn about outer space, and be home in time for dinner. On board the Starlight 3000, Willy tells knock-knock jokes to Max, the android pilot, but androids don’t have a humorous bone in their bodies—if they even have bones. But when Willy gets stranded on Planet Ed with classmate Cindy and an alien named Norp, it’s Max to the rescue, eager to save the boy who tried to make him laugh. Try Willy’s knock-knock jokes on your friends. Willy you maykit as a comedian?

Try writing your own knock-knock jokes:

KNOCK, KNOCK.

WHO’S THERE?

________________________

________________________ WHO?

_________________________________________

KNOCK, KNOCK.

WHO’S THERE?

________________________

________________________ WHO?

_________________________________________

KNOCK, KNOCK.

WHO’S THERE?OINK-OINK.OINK-OINK WHO?

MAKE UP YOUR MIND. ARE YOU A PIG OR AN OWL?

KNOCK, KNOCK.

WHO’S THERE?

BOO.

BOO WHO?

WHY ARE YOU CRYING?KNOCK, KNOCK.WHO’S THERE?DORIS.DORIS WHO?DOOR IS LOCKED. THAT’S WHY I’M KNOCKING.

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This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Wish Biscuits

GradeMiddle

Twelve-year-old Genuine Sweet is a fourth-generation wish fetcher. With her Ma gone (she died the day Genuine was born), Gram teaches her the gift that all the MacIntyre women have shared—the ability to whistle down starlight and use it to grant wishes. Genuine can grant any wish—except her own. Gram uses the starlight to water wish seeds, and her ma drank it and all the words she spoke for the next day turned true. Genuine bakes the starlight into wish biscuits, and with the help of her friends, she takes her gift global. Whip up a batch of Genuine’s wish biscuits and see if your wishes come true!

Genuine SweetBY

Faith Harkey978-0-544-28366-4 hardcover 978-0-544-28525-5 eBook

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

★

*

★

★

★

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★

INGREDIENTS4 cups baking mix 8 ounces sour cream¾ cup twinkling starlight (use sparkling water or juice, or club soda)1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter in a 9 x 13-inch pan. Mix baking mix, sour cream, and sparkling liquid together in a large bowl. The dough will be thick. Transfer the dough into the pan, on top of the melted butter. Score the top of the dough with a spatula, marking it into twelve squares for easier cutting after baking. Bake about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Cut into squares.

Makes 12 soft and crumbly biscuits.

MAKE A WISH!

★

★

The Ire of Iron ClawGadgets and

Gears, Book 2

BY

Kersten HamiltonILLUSTRATED BY

James Hamilton978-0-544-22502-2 hardcover 978-0-544-55684-3 eBook

Text copyright © 2015 by Kersten Hamilton. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by James Hamilton. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Vocabulary Match-Up

GradeMiddle

Someone is smuggling secrets out of the Kennewicketts’ lab and sabotaging their experiments, putting everyone at the Amazing Automated Inn at risk. Together with their robotic staff and the inventor Nikola Tesla, the Kennewicketts must face murderous sky pirates, cross the Alps in a giant mechanical spider, and defy the perilous pigeon Iron Claw and the malevolent magician Madini once more. Fortunately for Wally, the boy genius and target of Iron Claw’s wrath, his daring flying dachshund, Noodles, is keeping close watch and sniffing out clues. Noodles delights in using and defining words in his narration of the story. Match each vocabulary word below with the correct definition. To help you, each word is also given in a sentence from the novel.

_______ 1. mole “Calypso, Wally’s mother, believed there must be a mole at the Automated Inn.”

_______ 2. belvedere “It was at that exact moment that the guests inside the belvedere started screaming.”

_______ 3. inveigle “Wally wasn’t likely to inveigle a visit to the mechanical monstrosity.”

_______ 4. tableau “I had to admit it was a terrific tableau.”

_______ 5. apogee “At the apogee of her arc, she released the bar and did a somersault in the air before landing lightly on the platform.”

_______ 6. girth “She had recently expressed concern about my girth.”

_______ 7. prodigal “Melvin and Priss are the products of prodigal parents.”

_______ 8. doughty “The rat, wrapped in a monogrammed shroud and smelling of Henkel’s New Hair Pomade, was whisked away by the doughty Dusketeers.”

_______ 9. warren “The Inn is a warren of secret ways!”

_______ 10. eccentricity “Even the greatest of men have their occasional eccentricity.”

_______ 11. blackguard (pronounced “blaggard”) “The blackguard meant Wally!”

_______ 12. apprise “I believe we should apprise the president of the attack, as well as our travel plans, as soon as possible.”

a. a strange or unusual behavior

b. brave and persistent

c. someone with a rotten or evil heart

d. to entice or coax

e. the measurement around the middle of something

f. a building or room set on a high spot and situated to command an excellent view

g. someone who is wasteful or spends extravagantly

h. a picturesque arrangement of people or objects

i. to tell someone about something

j. the farthest or highest point of something

k. a person you know and trust who is betraying you

l. the underground home of rabbits, with burrows running in all directions

Answer key follows, or can be found at hmhbooks.com/middlegrademania/resources.html.

The Loch Ness Punster43 Old Cemetery

Road, Book 7

BY

Kate KliseILLUSTRATED BY

M. Sarah Klise978-0-544-31337-8 hardcover

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by M. Sarah Klise. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Borrow-a-Pet Program

GradeMiddle

Seymour Hope takes advantage of the Ghastly Public Library’s innovative Borrow-a-Pet Program by checking out a 198-year-old tortoise named Mr. Poe for the summer. Unbeknownst to his parents, Ignatius B. Grumply and Olive C. Spence, Seymour stows Mr. Poe in a steamer trunk and takes him along on a trip to Loch Ness in Scotland. If you could borrow a pet for the summer from your library, what animal would you borrow? Fill out the library card below and draw a picture of your borrowed pet.

Library CardGhastly Public Library

12 Scary St Ghastly, Illinois

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ______Print your name

___ ___ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ______Signature

M. BalmChief Librarian

My Borrowed Pet

Want to borrow a gerbil,snake, puppy, cat or Monkey?

You can with the Borrow-A-Pet Program!

Only at the Ghastly Public Library

Lots of BotsRobots Rule,

Book 2

BY

C. J. RichardsILLUSTRATED BY

Goro Fujita978-0-544-33954-7 hardcover 978-0-544-33823-4 eBook

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Goro Fujita. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Bot Design

GradeMiddle

My personal bot can _______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Boy robotics genius George Gearing is thrilled to have scored an elite internship at Tinker Tech Headquarters. But he and his best pal and personal robot, Jackbot, soon realize that something does not compute when a dangerous new invention threatens Terabyte Heights. Jackbot’s processor is so powerful that it only took him a day and a half to read every book ever published. His skill at defeating attacking giant robots is legendary as well. George’s nemesis, a classmate named Patricia Volt, has a personal bot too—Cookie, a meBot series three, who is a hairstylist, beauty expert, nutritionist, yoga instructor, and personal shop-per all in one. If you had a personal bot, what skills would you want him/her to have? Add attachments to the bot below to visually represent these skills. Write about them as well.

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Brian Lies. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Malcolm Under the StarsBY

W. H. BeckILLUSTRATED BY

Brian Lies978-0-544-39267-0 hardcover 978-0-544-55371-2 eBook

The classroom animals at McKenna School have their paws and claws full! Protecting nutters (students) and lankies (teachers) is an around-the-clock job. When a rare coin and a strange code are uncovered in the school, Malcolm the rat and his friends have a mystery to solve. To find answers, Malcolm ventures into the dangerous outside world full of shadowy characters. Can they save the school before it’s too late? Unscramble the letters in the clue words to reveal the names of several of the characters from the story. Then take the circled letters and unscramble them to solve the final question.

Character Jumble

GradeMiddle

Answer key follows, or can be found at hmhbooks.com/middlegrademania/resources.html.

What do the animals of McKenna School call themselves?

CAOMLML

MILEAA

TIRDPSE DAHWOS

TEBER

HYNOE BYUNN

NIPS

LISAVY

G

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¶Clue Words

Illustration copyright © 2014 by Mark Beech. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Dragons at Crumbling CastleAnd Other TalesBY

Terry PratchettILLUSTRATED BY

Mark Beech978-0-544-46659-3 hardcover 978-0-544-46661-6 eBook

Dragons at Crumbling Castle is a collection of fourteen funny and inventive tales by acclaimed British author Sir Terry Pratchett. Sir Terry is a multi-award-winning and best-selling novelist now, but when he originally wrote the stories in this never-before-published collection, he was just a teenager with dreams of being a writer. Do you like to write stories? Look at the illustration below and write your own tale about these characters and this scene. Continue your story on the back of this sheet, if necessary. Who knows, maybe someday your books for children and adults will have sold more than 85 million copies like Sir Terry’s, and a publisher will publish this story as an early glimpse at your illustrious career!

Short Story

GradeMiddle

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Marcos Calo. All rights reserved. This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Eddie Red UndercoverMystery in

Mayan Mexico

BY

Marcia Wells978-0-544-30206-8 hardcover 978-0-544-55692-8 eBook

Edmund “Eddie Red” Lonnrot, the NYPD’s youngest crime-solving hero, and his best friend, Jonah, are ready to relax on a family vacation in Mexico. But when Eddie’s father is falsely accused of stealing a priceless Mayan mask, the boys uncover another complex mystery. Can Eddie and Jonah and new friend Julia uncover clues and catch the real crook in time? Find key words from the story hidden in the letters below. Words can appear backward, forward, and diagonally.

Word Search

GradeMiddle

DETECTIVE

GHOSTMAN

GOLD

MASK

MAYAN

MEXICO

MYSTERY

PHOTOGRAPHIC

PYRAMID

ROBBERY

Answer key follows, or can be found at hmhbooks.com/middlegrademania/resources.html.

O G X T S K J F D E T H P N J

K C X G S O P Z D W H Y R M G

F L I A Q F Z E M T R C M Y Q

O G M X W J D R I A I W J S A

K M B N E N S N M H H J V T I

M V I A G M S I P J H D E E Z

G V O Y W B D A D E V I M R E

C H X A Q Y R E B B O R F Y O

Y P O M N G L E I B N Z C J F

O R B S O G I A F I R I M G Y

X V Z T T N W F L L L U B Y E

D V O O V M X Q F Y P S S J R

M H M F Y L A L Y A P I W E U

P G O L D Y O N N Q D B E L M

T A N T D E T E C T I V E W J

Key Words

This page may be photocopied for free distribution.

Name: ________________________________________

Flying CarsThe True Story

BY

Andrew Glass978-0-618-98482-4 hardcover 978-0-547-53423-7 eBook

As soon as airplanes and cars existed, early in the twentieth century, people envisioned a personal vehicle that would both fly in the air and drive on land. For the next hundred-plus years, dreamers and tinkerers and engineers devoted themselves to designing and building flying cars. Follow the steps below to create your own flying car using the template on the next page.

Ready for Takeoff!

GradeMiddle

Step 1Place the airplane template print side down on a table or hard surface. The white side of the paper should be facing up. Fold the paper in half lengthwise and run your finger along the folded edge to make a crease. Open the paper, white side facing up.

Step 2Fold down the top corners toward the center to meet at the crease, as shown. Your paper should look like a house with a colorful roof.

Step 3Take the outside corners at the “roof” edges and fold them toward the center to meet at the crease, as shown.

Step 4Fold the left side completely over the right at the crease, as shown. Your paper should look like a long colorful tri-angle with a slightly squared bottom.

Step 5 Turn your paper to the right, so that the crease is now forming the bottom edge, as shown. Fold the top of your triangle down toward the bottom along the black dotted line. This will create a wing of your plane. Turn the pa-per over do the same on the other side. You now have two wings!

Step 6On the underside of each wing, you’ll see a red dashed line. Fold the edges up on both wings along this dashed line, as shown. Your flying car is now ready for takeoff!

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Flying CarsPaper Airplane TemplateFold as shown in the instructions to create your own flying car!

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Answer Key

MiddleGradeMania

THE TRAPNumber Pattern

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ____ , ____ , ____ , ____ , ____ . . . .

Describe the pattern: The final two integers are the addends for the next number in the sequence.

THE IRE OF IRON CLAWVocabulary Match-Up

EDDIE RED UNDERCOVER: Mystery in Mayan MexicoWord Search

O G X T S K J F D E T H P N J

K C X G S O P Z D W H Y R M G

F L I A Q F Z E M T R C M Y Q

O G M X W J D R I A I W J S A

K M B N E N S N M H H J V T I

M V I A G M S I P J H D E E Z

G V O Y W B D A D E V I M R E

C H X A Q Y R E B B O R F Y O

Y P O M N G L E I B N Z C J F

O R B S O G I A F I R I M G Y

X V Z T T N W F L L L U B Y E

D V O O V M X Q F Y P S S J R

M H M F Y L A L Y A P I W E U

P G O L D Y O N N Q D B E L M

T A N T D E T E C T I V E W J

55 89 144 233 377

MALCOLM UNDER THE STARSCharacter Jumble

M A L C O L M

A M E L I A

SS H A D O WT R I P E D

MT I

A

H D

C

E N

A

I

D

G

E

H

M

T

Y

B E E R T

H BO UN NE NY Y

S N I P

S Y L V I A

1. k2. f3. d4. h5. j6. e

7. g 8. b 9. l10. a 11. c 12. i

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Illustration copyright © 2015 by James Hamilton from The Ire of Iron Claw. All rights reserved.