My One Hundred Adventures

Horvath, Polly. My One Hundred Adventures. New York: Random House, 2008. Print.

Summary
Jane Fielding wants to have a summer full of adventures, 100 to be exact. What she doesn't plan on is throwing Bibles out of a hot air balloon and babysitting the terrible Gourt children. Jane chronicles each adventure, while living at a summer beach house with her mother and 3 little siblings. She meets eccentric characters and has a summer that she will never forget.

Key Vocabulary

• Thrombosis
• Seer
• Channeling
• Bursitis
• Spirituality

Electronic Resources

Polly Horvath

• This is author Polly Horvath's web page. Students can learn more about the author as well as her other books, if they are interested in reading more by this author. There is a brief summary about each book, as well as a excerpt that will catch the reader. Her tour/press dates are given as well as the countless awards that her books have won!

Scholastic

• As with many books, the Scholastic web site offers teaching tips to go along with the book as well as student webquests. Students can learn more about author Polly Horvath and have group discussions using the discussion questions this website provides. There are recommended books listed, if the reader enjoyed My 100 Adventures, as well.

Teaching Suggestions:

Before reading:

• Students and the teacher can complete an anticipation guide for this book and walk through the table of contents to make their own predictions. Key vocabulary should be taught so students can make more accurate predicitions as well as guide their reading later.

During reading:

• While students are reading, they should keep in mind different connections: text to text, text to self, and text to world. They can compare Jane Fielding to a main character in another book they have read recently or even compare her to someone they know. They should also make inferences while they read. They can read with a partner or by themselves and use inferential questioning to guide them as they read. They can do this as they read each of Jane's adventures and use what they know about Jane to predict what might happen in her next adventure. They can have discussions amongst their peers to gain different perspectives and get different ideas on what Jane will do next.

After reading:

• Students can work in groups on each of Jane's 13 adventures. They can break each adventure down into a story map. Once they are finished, they can rejoin their class as a whole and compare and contrast the different adventures. As a class, they can write about the adventures on large chart paper to post in the classroom. They can do this at different times as each group finishes their assigned chapter or they can do it all at once when they finish the book as a class.
• As a writing response, students can write their own adventure they would like to have, either during the summer or even during the school year. They can write what adventures they would like to have in the classroom and come back to these adventures at the end of the school year as a self reflection.