From top left: The King of Garbage; Edward under the sea; Edward as a girl; Drawing the campfire with Bull; Drawing the train; Edward with Lawrence and Nellie; Edward on the train; Edward in outfits.

When I started at my new school in September I learned that all the 3rd grade classes read The Tale of Despereaux for Language Arts. So after recovering from the disappointment of not being able to read this with the 2nd grade classes this year (I did manage to squeeze it in with one special education class), I settled on another Kate DiCamillo book for them. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I adore this book. And I actually think it works better for 2nd graders, despite being considerably sadder. We read The Velveteen Rabbit first and have been drawing comparisons between the two stories.

We’re almost done with the book. Last week we read the saddest part of the story, and the kids handled it really well. Before we launched into the sadness, though, we drew our favorite scenes from the book so far. Some of my favorites are above.

We’ll finish the book next week, and then we’ll write reviews for it.