Free Katie & Kimble Word Puzzles Now Available for Books 1 and 2! Free Katie & Kimble word puzzles are now available on the right sidebar under the Katie & Kimble Activity Corner.
[Reading Level 3, 280L, for ages 7-10] Nine-year-old Katie Russell and her family look
normal. But the Russells don't know they are living with Kimble,
the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. That is, until Katie discovers Kimble
and the two of them set off on a quest to find out what happened to
Kimble's mother.
The Lexile® Measures for the Katie & Kimble Books are Here! (280L and 290L) The Lexile® measures for the Katie & Kimble books are now available.
The
Lexile Framework® for Reading is a scientific approach to measuring
reading ability and the difficulty of reading materials. The Lexile
Framework includes a Lexile® measure and the Lexile scale. A Lexile
measure represents both the difficulty of a text, such as a book or
article, and an individual’s reading ability. Lexiles are expressed as
numeric measures followed by an “L” (e.g., 850L), and are placed on the
Lexile scale. The Lexile scale is a developmental scale for measuring
reader ability and text difficulty, ranging from below 200L for
beginning readers and beginning-reader materials to above 1700L for
advanced readers and materials.
Manage your students’ reading comprehension
Lexile
measures allow you to manage comprehension. Matching a reader’s Lexile
measure with a text with the same Lexile measure leads to an expected 75-percent comprehension rate—not
too difficult to be frustrating, but difficult enough to be challenging
and to encourage reading progress. You can further adjust anticipated
comprehension simply by choosing more or less difficult texts within a student’s Lexile range, which spans 50L above and 100L below his or her Lexile measure.
[Reading Level 3, 280L, for ages 7-10] Nine-year-old Katie Russell and her family look
normal. But the Russells don't know they are living with Kimble,
the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. That is, until Katie discovers Kimble
and the two of them set off on a quest to find out what happened to
Kimble's mother.
In Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish, Mr. Russell Sings! In
Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish, Book 2 in the Katie & Kimble
series (290L), you will discover that Katie's dad, Mr. Russell, likes to sing!
He sings loudly and he sings well. In fact, he likes to sing when he
feels full of joy!
The song that Mr. Russell sings is called "For the Beauty of the
Earth." It's a beautiful old hymn - one of my favorites. You will
notice, if you send a free Katie & Kimble e-card, that you can
choose this song. Listen here.
I wanted Katie & Kimble readers to be able to hear this beautiful
song with the words. So, I made up a list of songs from iTunes so you
can hear free samples.
The first version of the song is from the 1994 movie Little Women,
a story about four sisters growing up together 150 years ago. This version has
just two voices singing with no music. It is very plain and sweet.
The second version of the song is sung by a group of sisters called
BarlowGirl. This is an amazing and beautiful arrangement. It almost
sounds like a Christmas carol. This might be considered odd since this
song is not a Christmas song. But, I sure do enjoy listening to the
BarlowGirl version. It's very modern. You can listen to the BarlowGirl
version of "For the Beauty of the Earth" free over at YouTube.
Click here. Or click on the picture below of BarlowGirl.
The third version of the song is sung by the St. John's Children's
Choir. It's almost like a dream. It starts out with one child singing
alone. Then more children join in on the second verse. This version
sounds more like church music, with an organ playing in the background.
All three of these versions are quite different. And yet, they are all
the same song! Click below to hear the free iTunes samples.
[Reading Level 3, 280L, for ages 7-10] Nine-year-old Katie Russell and her family look
normal. But the Russells don't know they are living with Kimble,
the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. That is, until Katie discovers Kimble
and the two of them set off on a quest to find out what happened to
Kimble's mother.
Mom Bloggers Review Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story, a Chapter Book for Ages 7-10 Here you can read reviews of Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story
(a chapter book for ages 7-10) written by some wonderful mom bloggers. See what moms are thinking about this new chapter book series by children's book author Linda Thieman!
[Reading Level 3, 280L, for ages 7-10] Nine-year-old Katie Russell and her family look
normal. But the Russells don't know they are living with Kimble,
the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. That is, until Katie discovers Kimble
and the two of them set off on a quest to find out what happened to
Kimble's mother.
1) Café of Dreams (April’s review of Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story) “a magical feeling”
2) The Book Connection (Cheryl’s review of Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story) “An excellent start to a new series of chapter books for young readers”
3) Mom of 2 Dancers Reviews (Ginny’s review of Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story) “Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story is the first book in this wonderful new series.”
4) The Book Faery (Farrah’s review of Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story) “I would recommend this book, and look forward to the other chapter books Thieman has coming out for my daughter to read.”
5) Posey Sessions (Megan’s review of Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story) “I ended up really enjoying the story and the idea of friendship between Katie, a little girl, and Kimble, a ghost.”
6) Bookfoolery and Bable (Nancy’s review of Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story) “a very positive book”
Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story(Book 1 in the series) and Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish (Book 2 in the series) are available here:
New Review! Mom Blogger Cheryl Reviews Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish (Book 2) at The Book Connection! Mom/book blogger Cheryl over at The Book Connection has now reviewed both of the first two Katie & Kimble books.
“An excellent start to a new series of chapter books for young readers.”
Here's an excerpt from her review of Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish.
"One of the best aspects of this book is the complete acceptance of
Kimble into the Russell family from Katie's parents, her two-year-old
brother, Toby--who has always been able to see Kibo (as he calls
her)--and even the family's dog, Twinkle. While young readers might not
make the connection, this could be a book that parents use to show
adopted children that they are accepted and loved just as much as
natural born children."
Thanks, Cheryl! I'll get right on the third Katie & Kimble book for you! Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish (290L) picks up where Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story
left off. Katie's dad, Mr. Russell, still doesn't know about Kimble.
But he's going to find out soon! What will the girls tell him? And
how will they tell him? "Hi, Daddy, this is my friend, Kimble. She's
a ghost!" That doesn't really work too well, if you know what I mean. How will Mr. Russell react?
And what will the girls WISH for when they find a coupon for a magic wish?
Fun Katie & Kimble Hint: On the sidebars, click on the yellow stripes for a little surprise or two!
Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story(Book 1 in the series) and Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish (Book 2 in the series) are available here:
[Reading Level 3, 280L, for ages 7-10] Nine-year-old Katie Russell and her family look
normal. But the Russells don't know they are living with Kimble,
the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. That is, until Katie discovers Kimble
and the two of them set off on a quest to find out what happened to
Kimble's mother.
Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story Series--Twinkle's Song: Twinkle, Twinkle, Great Big Dog! One of our Katie & Kimble readers wondered if Twinkle had a song. Here's the answer!
Twinkle sort of does have a song! Here is what I am thinking. Well, have you read the Kimble, Kimble chant? It's over on the right sidebar and also on the last page of the Katie & Kimble books.
Well,
this chant almost fits into the melody of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Star." I especially like the part where it goes, "Twinkle, Twinkle,
great big dog!"
So, I guess, at this point, Twinkle's song is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Great Big Dog!" I thought that was kind of fun!
Here
is how the Kimble, Kimble chant fits into the melody of "Twinkle,
Twinkle, Little Star." You CHANT the first two lines: Kimble, Kimble is
a ghost. Katie, Katie loves her most!
Then you can either keep
chanting, or you can start singing, "Twinkle, Twinkle, great big dog."
And if you start singing there, the rest of the chant fits into the
song perfectly! I did not plan that, so I think it's pretty funny!
Give it a try!
Fun Katie & Kimble Hint: On the sidebars, click on the yellow stripes to hear Twinkle barking!
Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story(Book 1 in the series) and Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish (Book 2 in the series) are available here:
[Reading Level 3, 280L, for ages 7-10] Nine-year-old Katie Russell and her family look
normal. But the Russells don't know they are living with Kimble,
the ghost of a ten-year-old girl. That is, until Katie discovers Kimble
and the two of them set off on a quest to find out what happened to
Kimble's mother.
Free Katie & Kimble word puzzles are now available on the right sidebar under the Katie & Kimble Activity Corner.
In
One of our Katie & Kimble readers wondered if Twinkle had a song. Here's the answer!
