Scholastic Book fair

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 what I mean?  Everybody I've shown it to loves it.  You will too.

The second one is a graphic novel and they only have it in a paperback copy at my book fair, but I'm going to need to get in hardback for my library, because this one is going to get checked out A LOT.  It's called "Sunny side up" by Jennifer Holm and  Matthew Holm.  They are a brother and sister team that have written a series of graphic novels called Babymouse and Squish.  The kids LOVE those and this new one, while more serious, they are also going to love.  In fact, I hauled it out at my fourth grade book club on Friday and just flipped through the pages so the kids could see it and they started moaning "Please.... must read...."  Music to my ears!  The pictures are gorgeous and the story is awesome.  Sunny is 11 in 1976 and is going to spend the summer with her grandpa in a retirement community.  She had big plans to spend her summer with her best friend at the shore, but because of a cataclysmic event (which is alluded to through the book but finally told almost at the end) she ends up with grandpa.  Grandpa's idea of big fun is different from hers and kids are in short supply in the 55 and older community where he lives.  It's a great story and did I mention how awesome the art work is?  Full color and very eye catching.  Don't miss this one.  

Here's a super short book trailer about it. 

And here's an interview with Jennifer Holm and the 2015 National Book Festival.  

The last one is historical fiction and it's another one I'm going to need to get in hardcover because I can already tell it's going to get a lot of play.  It's called "A Night Divided" by Jennifer Neilsen.  Jennifer Neilsen wrote one of my favorite series-a fairy tale series- that started with "The False Prince".  Her books move at a super fast pace so they are extremely hard to put down.  She also manages to write about some of the most interesting characters you'd ever want to meet.  In this case, she's telling the story of Gerta who lives in Berlin in 1961.  She has two older brothers and a mom and dad who love her.  Her parents and older brothers lived through World War 2 (she was a post war baby) and are trying to make a life in eastern Berlin.  Her dad believes that the Russians are not taking the country in the right direction and is concerned enough that he wants to go to the west.  Mom wants to stay (she has a good job and her mom lives out in the countryside).  Dad decides that he and one of the older brothers will go to the west and see if they can find a place to live and jobs and be back in a day or two to get everyone else.  Except that overnight, the Russians build the Berlin wall.  This book shows what it must have been like living near the wall and some of the things that happened.  I think the kids are going to love it.