Fabulous Finds: The Secret Tree

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. The school I teach at had it's spring semester Book Fair. We had a great time and my students bought some really incredible books. (Not to mention countless posters and neat erasers.) When mentioning the Book Fair and my awesome students, I have to mention that those two things are the reason for my absence. My students have bought me a big stack of books.

Okay maybe that's exaggerating but you get the idea. So I have been slowly finding my way out of these books with the hopes of posting about each one. To begin with, I chose a book called "The Secret Tree".

I chose this one first because I teach third grade Reading. This book seemed right up my alley and I wanted to find out if it was a book I'd recommend to any of my students.
Here is the book description from Amazon.com:

A sweet story of a tree that's literally filled with secrets.

What is your secret?

Minty's neighborhood is full of mysteries. There's the Witch House, a spooky old farmhouse on the other side of woods from where Minty and her best friend, Paz, live. There's the Man Bat, a seven-foot-tall half man, half bat who is rumored to fly through the woods. And there are the Mean Boys, David and Troy, who torment Minty for no reason, and her boy-crazy older sister, Thea, who acts weirder and weirder.

One day Minty spots a flash in the woods, and when she chases after it, she discovers a new mystery--a Secret Tree, with a hollow trunk that holds the secrets of everyone in the neighborhood. Secrets like:

I put a curse on my enemy. And it's working.

I'm betraying my best friend in a terrible way.

No one loves me except my goldfish.

This is my personal description of The Secret Tree:

Minty is a fresh-faced young lady with the summer ahead of her. She plans on hanging out with her bestie, do some roller-derbying, and enjoy the sunshine. Minty's plans change when she finds a mysterious tree in the woods near her home.

The tree holds secrets from the neighborhood. Secrets that Minty is determined to match with their authors. When attempting to be the neightborhood problem-solver, Minty ends up making a new friend, almost losing her best friend, and learning that change isn't always a bad thing.

This book is absolutely fantastic for students in Grades 3-4 and possibly Grade 5. A lot of children will be able to identify with Minty in a variety of ways which makes her a very likeable character.

I have just started book number 2 of my Book Fair stack and it's a fairly large book so it may take me a while to get back to you all. Until then....Happy Reading!

-CM (currently reading "Ravenwood" by A. Peters)