The Book Search

These books have a survival theme.  They are super hard to put down so I've had a couple of very late nights this week! The first one is called "Wolf Wilder" by Katherine Rundell.  It's about a girl named Feo who lives with her mom Marina in a wilderness part of Russia.  They live a simple life that they find satisfying... they rehabilitate wolves.  The story is set in Russia towards the end of the reign of the czars.  Rich people are adopting wolves as pets and finding that they are too wild to keep.  It is cultural taboo to kill a wolf so Feo and her mom teach the wolves to be wild again.  Unfortunately, the wolves are accused of killing some of the wildlife around the area (Feo is sure it's not them) and they attract the attention of a local military leader (who is completely terrifying).  He comes to take them to jail and Feo and the wolves make a run for it but Matrina ends up in a military prison.  Feo decides to rescue her.  The...

Starting to see a pattern with the CYBILS books... this post is going to be about girls who are trying to stay friends with girls they have been friends with a long time.  Personally, I think this part of genre is too limiting because I don't think boys will want to read this although they have intriguing boy characters.  I think the boys just won't be interested. The first one is called "Moonpenny Island" by Tricia Springstubb.  It's about two girls, Flor and Sylvie, who have been best friends since they were little.  They live on a small island where Flor's dad is the lone police officer and Sylvie's dad is the mayor.  Big changes start when Sylvie is sent to a school on the mainland, then Flor's mom leaves to help take care of her grandmother.  Flor's sister also seems to be changing.  The characters in this one interesting and the story line is compelling.  There are big themes of friendship and honesty and how do you best help people. ...

I'm deep into the CYBILS list.  I don't think I've ever gone this long without reading a grown up book but THERE ARE SO MANY!!! I'm also a little afraid that I'm hitting a wall with these books.  I might have to go and read 50 shades of Gray just to shake things up a bit.  Ok, I'm not that low yet.   I read this one this morning.  COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.  I read this first chapter last night and when I woke up, I thought I should read a bit more.  Until I finished it.  It's called "The Safest Lie" by Angela Cerrito.  I should also mention that I've hit a saturation point with books about World War 2 and so I don't choose to read them any more, but this one had such a compelling voice, that I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.  Noticing a theme?  It's about Anna, who is 9, and lives with her parents in Warsaw in the Jewish ghetto.  Things are bad.  All of their conversations are in code because people live in very tight quart...

This week, I've been trying to whittle down the list of middle grade fiction for the CYBILS award.  Some of these books are terrific and I'm SO GLAD I've had a chance to read them. This first one was terrific.  It's called "Listen, Slowly" by Thanhha Lai.  If you read children's literature at all, you might recognize Thanhha Lai's name... she wrote a book a few years ago called "Inside Out and Back Again" which was a Newbery honoree and the National Book Award winner.  I think this one is even more accessible because it's written in prose and the character's voice is so strong and clear, I think she will resonate with a lot of kids.  It's about a Vietnamese American girl named Mai (or Mia in America) who lives in California with her mom and dad and grandmother.  She has lots of friends and likes surfing and hanging out and has big plans for the summer.  Until her parents come to her and tell her that they want her to go with Vie...

It's started!  The nominations for the CYBILS awards started this week and I've got 19 books on hold at my local library... yikes.  I hope I can keep up!  Luckily, there were several I had already read and a bunch I'd never heard of so I started yesterday and finished the first one this morning.  I hope the rest aren't this emotional or I might not survive! The first one is called "The Penderwicks in Spring" by Jeanne Birdsall.  This one is the fourth one in the series and although I read the first one, I haven't read the second or third one and I really don't remember too much about the first one other than I liked it.  The Penderwicks are a big, loving, old fashioned kind of family.  The kids are nice to each other and although the story is set in a modern time (there are cultural references that make that obvious) the kids play outside, listen to music, and read and seem completely oblivious to screens.  There are some issues and this book, t...