Big Apple Stories: Welcome to New York!

LMC Bulletin Board by Mrs. LaChance and Mrs. Massam.

Start spreading the news! We're leaving today! We want to be a part of it, New York, New York! From Midtown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from Times Square to Tribeca, from Central Park to Soho, from Broadway to Wall Street to Park Avenue... we're hailing a Reading Road Trip cab, exploring stories connected to New York, New York... the city so nice they named it twice! Check out Mrs. Cifrodella's Welcome to New York video: six book commercials presented, not in a New York minute, but in a little more than two Lafayette minutes.

Historical Adventure: City of Orphans by Avi. The tenement world of 1893 New York City is lively and dangerous, full of threats to immigrants and their families. Thirteen-year-old newsboy Maks Geless teams up with a homeless girl to battle the Plug Ugly gang and to find a way to free his wrongfully imprisoned sister from The Tombs, a dismal city jail.

Connecting to City of Orphans in library classes, fourth and fifth graders are exploring 1913 New York City using primary sources and through the experiences of Victoria Confino, an immigrant girl who lived in a tenement apartment at 97 Orchard Street. We can visit Victoria's home today: The Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side offers building tours and walking tours of the neighborhood. 

New York City Tenements, Early Twentieth Century.

Metropolitan Escapades: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. After careful planning, twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid decides to run away from suburban life to a place that is beautiful and elegant. The Metropolitan Museum of Art seems to be just the place!  Before long, Claudia and younger brother Jamie find themselves in the midst of a headline-making mystery.

Classic at the Crossroads of the World: The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. Newly arrived at the Times Square subway station, country cricket Chester befriends Mario, a young boy whose parents run a nearly-bankrupt newsstand, Tucker, a fast-talking Broadway mouse, and Tucker’s sidekick, Harry the Cat. The friends adventure in New York City... but will they save the failing newsstand? 

Take a look at Mrs. Cifrodella's Reading Road Trip Cricket!

Two Stories in Words and Pictures: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick.  Twelve-year-old Ben has lost his mother and his hearing; he leaves his Minnesota home to search for the father he has never known in New York City. Rose lives with her father in the city and keeps a scrapbook about a famous actress; she feels compelled to search for what is missing in her life. Set fifty years apart, their stories—Ben’s told in words, Rose’s shared in pictures—unfold and intertwine.

Wonderstruck Poster by Jessica F. and Madi F.

Four Enigmatic Letters, One Fantastic Read: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show The $20,000 Pyramid, twelve-year-old Miranda tries to make sense of increasingly mysterious events… and a series of anonymous notes that seem to defy the laws of time and space.

Big Apple Book Display in the LMC.

Page-Turning Adventure Fiction: I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis. On a blue-skied September morning, Lucas takes a train into New York City to tell his dad's friend Benny-- a firefighter and former football star-- that his parents don't want him playing football anymore. Everything changes when the Twin Towers are attacked.

I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 Diorama by Ian T.

Reading Road Trip Puppet Show 

featuring Charlie, Ben, Bennett, and Reilly.

Book Commercial Project by Ryan B.

Author Interview Project by Siena, Jordan, and Sheehan.

I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 project

featuring Emmy, Emma, Caroline, and Riley.

We Love Them, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah: Who Were The Beatles? by Geoff Edgers. In February 1964, a British rock-and-roll quartet—sporting groovy haircuts and mod suits—stepped off an airplane at Kennedy Airport and were greeted by thousands of screaming fans. Two days later, The Fab Four from Liverpool—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Star—made a television appearance on a popular variety program, The Ed Sullivan Show. Even though it was difficult to hear the performance over shrieks of adoring teenage girls in the audience, over seventy million viewers across the nation tuned in to watch and listen: Beatlemania had arrived in Manhattan and was sweeping across America! Check out this very cool Who Were the Beatles? Reading Road Trip video, featuring Sadie, Olivia, Kitty, Anna, and Maeve:

Reading Road Trip by Annabelle H. and Charlotte W.

... If we can make it there, we're gonna make it anywhere... it's up to you, New York, New York! Where will Reading Road Trip Take us next?