COME FALL

By A.C.E. Bauer
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-375-85825-3

FROM THE FLAP: Heading back to school is never easy, but it’s especially difficult when you are doing it alone.

Lu Zimmer—kind of pretty and very quiet; this year a little lost now that her best friend has moved away.

Salman Page—knows how to stay under the radar at a new school, a lesson he had to learn early as a foster kid.

Blos Pease—literal to a fault. He gets queasy when things aren’t “just so.”
Puck—the mischievous messenger of the faerie realm who likes to meddle in the human world.

Bird—a large black crow whose attraction to shiny things brings them all together.

Three very real kids, a very unreal spirit, and a wily crow spring from the pages in this feel-it-in-your-heart-tale of finding and losing friends. A.C.E. Bauer has once again created complex and absorbing characters, all trying to define themselves as they navigate the fragile beginnings of friendship.

KATE’S TAKE: A magical romp through the woods complete with student writing prompts and samples.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
Split students up into small groups and ask them to act out scenes from A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

BOOK BUDDIES Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
In Come Fall, the characters meet each other through a designated buddy program. Pair up your student with a book buddy-another student in a younger classroom. This is a great way to build school community, and increase student confidence.

ORIGAMI DREAMS Visual/Spatial and Intrapersonal
Give each student a piece of origami paper. Ask him or her to write one of their dreams on the white side of paper. Have them fold the paper into a bird. Hang the birds up around the classroom.

PHOTOS PLEASE Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic, and Naturalist
Take a nature walk with the class and ask each student to take a photo with a digital camera. Ask them to write a poem about their picture.

RUMINATION AND WRITING WITH MRS. R. Verbal/Linguistic and Intrapersonal
Ask students to complete one of Mrs. R.’s writing assignments from the book. The great thing is you can use the character’s writing samples to provide scaffolding for your students.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-A Backyard Vegetable Garden for Kids by Amie Jane Leavitt
-A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare
-A Place for Birds by Melissa Stewart
-Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach
-I Must Go Down to the Beach Again by Karen Jo Shapiro