The Book Search

I've been doing some reading on things that I've been seeing on some lists but haven't had a chance to read and wow, now that I've read them, I'm a little sorry I waited so long, but oh well, better late than never. The first one I actually read this summer and somehow forgot to blog about it.  It's called Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan.  It's kind of a genre defying book because it starts off as a fairy tale and then has three parts of what appear to be unrelated historical fiction and then finishes as both a fairy tale and modern fiction.  It sounds a bit confusing but I assure, the story is anything but.  It starts with a boy named Otto who is wandering around in a forest and gets lost.  He is approached by three sisters who have quite a fantastic story.  They leave him back at home, a bit confused, but with a harmonica to remind him of his quest.  Then we go to Freidrich in Germany in the late 1930s.  Then to Ivy in California in 1941 and finally to...

Oh it's that time of year again and we are hosting the Scholastic Book Fair this week.  I found a couple of books there that I really liked and I can't wait to share them with the kids. The first one is a picture book.  It's called "I Wish You More" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Litchenheld.  It's a very pretty picture book about wishing positive intent for someone else.  It's full of little truisms like "I wish you more will than hill." or "I wish you more Woo Hoo! than Whoa!".  What's really great about this one is that you can read this one a million times for lots of different reasons.  One teacher I showed it to wanted to give it as a gift to her pregnant daughter.  One wanted to give it to her partner on their five year anniversary.  One kindergarten teacher looked at it and said it would be great for teaching beginning sounds and another teacher thought it would make a great mentor text for writing.  See wh...

There are some amazing new books out there for teens who are struggling, which is one of my favorite genres!   Here are three really great ones to look for. The first one is called "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Septys.  She has already written a couple of terrific pieces of historical fiction, one called "Between Shades of Gray", which is about a Lithuanian family trying to survive during the Russian occupation.  The second is called "Out of the Easy" which is set in New Orleans in the 1950s.  I was really lucky to get to hear her speak at a reading convention and was completely impressed with her research skills and the way she tells a story.  This book is an excellent example of her storytelling prowess.  It's told from the perspective of four different people, which is a bit confusing at first.  One is a German sailor, one is German art restorer, one is a Lithuanian nurse, and one is a young Polish girl.  Each of them have a story to tell and eac...

Big news!  I got picked to be on the CYBILS panel to judge middle grade fiction! So excited and I'm getting to work with some awesome other bloggers!  I can't wait to get started.  In the meantime, I'm trying to polish off my Netgalley list and wow, did I find some good ones. My new favorite book is called "The Girl Who Could Not Dream" by Sarah Beth Durst.  It starts with a seminal event, Sophie is 6 and she decides to take a dream and dream it herself.  She dreams a monster (6 tentacles, 4 scaly claws, black iridescent fur, 3 rows of razor sharp teeth) but the monster turns out to be friendly and smart and hilarious.  The story flashes forward to when Sophie is 12.  You then find out that her parents have a book store and they also distill and sell dreams.  Sophie does not dream and really, really wants to.  Monster has become her friend and protector but a complete secret from everyone except her mom and dad, which limits her opportu...

Boy are there some terrific new non fiction titles out there!  Let me tell you about a couple of them. The first one is called "The Great Monkey Rescue" by Sandra Markle.  It's about golden lion tamarins.  The book starts with some background information about the tamarins and then moves into how scientists are trying to reintroduce the tamarins back into the wild.  There are some gorgeous, engaging photographs that are sure to attract readers.  There are also some great text features that will make it a good non-fiction mentor text. The second one is also about animals and it's called "8: An Animal alphabet book".  Each page (and sometimes a full page spread) is one letter.  There are eight of one animal (like ants for A) but then there are also other animals that also start with the letter (which, happily, are listed at the bottom of the page, if like me you are thinking to yourself "What is a seagull doing on the A page?  Oooohhh, it's ...

I've been reading some middle grade fiction in my after school hours this week.  I found a couple of terrific new ones and an old that I missed when it came out. The one I missed is called "Tesla's Attic" by Neil Shusterman and Eric Elfman.  This is the most fun science fiction I've read in quite some time.  It's about a boy named Nick who's had a big traumatic loss and so his family has moved across country.  He didn't want to move but he's putting on a brave game face for his dad and his little brother.  They are moving into an elderly relative's house (she died before the story starts and that's not the big loss) and so they have a bit of cleaning up and cleaning out to do.  Nick claims the attic as his space and wow, is there a lot of junk in the attic.  Nick decides to have a garage sale to clean things out and make a little extra money and that's when the weird stuff starts.  Nick finds a lamp and when he turns it on, people see...