Sunshine State Reading Book

 Title: Lawn Boy

Author: Gary Paulsen

Grade Level: Grades 4 to 7

-This book is for more advanced, higher level elementary students as it is a chapter book filled with more advanced topics and ideas of stocks, investments and money. The book is broken down into fairly small, easy to read chapters  with large print that will make it easy for the students to follow along and comprehend the storyline.

Summary: The summer that the narrator's life drastically changed was when his grandmother gave him an old riding lawnmower to try and make a couple dollars cutting grass with. Low and behold, the boys business skyrocketed and the young boy was left with more than he could quite possibly handle. A booming business and more money than he can handle, he invested his money into different markets with the help of Robert, his stock market accountant and lawn mowing customer.

Classroom Strategies: This book would be a great addition to a higher elementary grade classroom. The book could be used to discuss jobs or working as well as making money and making smart decisions in handling your money. This is definitely a fun, comical story. I would probably have this book assigned to the students individually to read on their own during Center/Reading time or at home. The students could then write a book report or create a time line of events that happened.

ESOL Strategies: Since this book is an upper level chapter book, it may not be appropriate for all ESOL students and may be very difficult for them to read depending on their level of proficiency. I would have the student pair up to read the book together, most likely pairing an ESOL student with a higher level reading student so they can help the student comprehend and follow the story. I would also instruct any ESOL students to utilize summarizing  their ideas as well as drawing illustrations to help them remember and comprehend the story. strategies to help them stop throughout their reading to summarize what they have read so far, making sure to take detail notes on the sections or reading as well as drawing

Read Aloud: If I chose to read aloud from the book, I would choose chapters or excerpts that the students may have trouble understanding. These would include the chapters that begin to talk about the stock market and investing. These would be key topics to discuss with the students and by utilizing specific sections of the book, the students will be able to understand these ideas and concepts a lot better.

Personal Opinion: I enjoyed reading this book, it was an easy read that was comical and kept my interest. Although it dealt with the stock market and more business topics, the way the story was written and the fact that it was about a young boy making extreme money by mowing lawns, it kept me very interested and made me want to continue to read to see what was going to be happening next!