The Book Search

I'm enjoying the winter break-we got to come and spend some time with my family in Western NC, we've eaten A LOT, laughed a lot, walked a lot...  Today it's POURING  so I had a little time to finish some books!  YAY!!! The first one is called "Skylark and Wallcreeper" by Anne O'Brien Carelli.  It's told from two different perspectives-Collette and Lily.  Collette is Lily's grandmother and lives in a nursing home in New Jersey.  When they have to evacuate because of Hurricane Sandy, Collette gives Lily a pen and tells her not to lose it, that it's important, but in the chaotic aftermath of the storm, the pen disappears.  It turns out that the pen is link to Collette's past that Lily doesn't know anything about.  Collette grew up in France in the 1930s and 1940s and was involved in the French Underground.  So the story has pieces from World War 2 (told from Collette's perspective) and the present day (told from Lily's perspective).

Since October, I've pretty much read nothing but middle grade realistic fiction.  I liked it a LOT but a steady diet of anything, even the good stuff, can leave you craving something different, something spicy, something sweet, something surprising.  So these books totally fill that bill! The first one is called "Inkling" by Kenneth Oppel.  It's a really interesting combination of realistic and fantasy fiction.  The main character is Ethan.  He lives with his dad and his younger sister Sarah. Sarah has Down's Syndrome and their mother died about two years ago.  Ethan's dad is struggling with depression and unresolved issues around his wife's death.  He is a successful graphic novelist, but he hasn't sold anything since his wife died.  The savior comes from an unlikely source-ink.  One day, the ink magically gathers itself into a ball and starts to gather more ink, and more and more until it's animated.  It soaks up some words and then it lear

I'm still reading for the CYBILS award and it's bit surprising this year.  Usually there are several that I can start and within just a few pages, I know I'm not going to have to finish reading it because it's not interesting or it's poorly written, or I don't find the characters interesting.  But this year, they're all so GOOD.  Lucky I'm a fast reader! This first one is called "Everlasting Nora" by Marie Miranda Cruz.  It's about a girl named Nora who lives with her mom in a cemetery in Manila.  They live in the cemetery because a while back there was a fire in their apartment and in addition to losing most of their belongings, Nora's dad was killed. They lived with relatives for awhile, finding small odd jobs to make money, but when things there didn't work out either, they ended up moving into the family mausoleum.  It's not ideal-there's only a small lock on the gate and it's only closed on three sides, but most o

I'm polishing off the last of the turkey AND the last of my CYBILS list.  Although every time I think I'm really done I get another a box, so maybe I'm not as done as I think I am! The first one I read that really surprised me was called "Boy Bites Bug" by Rebecca Petruck.  It's about Will, who lives in a small town in Minnesota.  His community doesn't have many immigrants so he's been with the same group of friends since he was in kindergarten until a new boy named Eloy moves in.  Eloy's family is from Mexico and his family runs a Mexican restaurant in town that has been wildly popular.  Will is offended when his old friend Darryl uses a racial slur towards Eloy and on a dare, eats a stinkbug which gains him a surprising notoriety in his middle school.  Will decides to use that notoriety to make Darryl feel bad about his use of the racial slur in a science project that he does with Eloy about eating bugs.  Except that Will often offends Eloy wit

As we're approaching the Thanksgiving holiday, it's great to have a little time to stop and think about all the things I'm grateful for, like the ENTIRE week off school (thanks Palm Beach County Schools) and having brand new books delivered to my doorstep (FIVE PACKAGES TODAY!!!-Thanks CYBILS!).  AND since I've got all these new books AND all this time, guess what I did today?  Not laundry!  Not yard work (ok, there was a little yard work, just a few weeds and a few bags of mulch). YES!  I was reading!  Luckily, there were some terrific ones in the mail today! The first one is called "Class Action"  by Steven B. Frank.  Mr. Frank comes by his knowledge of kids and schools first hand.  On the back fly leaf, it lists his profession as a middle school teacher.  So he knows of which he speaks.  The story is about Sam, who feels like he's drowning his homework.  His big step sister is drowning even more thoroughly, because she is bent on attending a good coll

One of the things that middle graders find compelling is an exploration of social issues.  As a group, they are exploring the edges of childhood and adulthood and trying to find their own paths, they are connected strongly to their families but are finding their own identities and sometimes these clash with their parents' views.  It's an interesting time.  The books that I've been reading this week explore some of those clashes. The first one is called "No Fixed Address" by Susin Nielsen.  It opens with an interview at a police station.  Felix is 12 and lives with his mother.  It turns out they've been homeless for several months and despite Felix and his mother's optimism that things are going to work out, they really aren't working out.  But, that's really the end of the story.  The beginning works it's way through how they ended up there.  When Felix was small, they lived with his grandmother.  She died when he was about 5 and they inherit

One of the things that's so much fun about reading middle grade fiction is the amazing array of characters.  This first book has the most interesting array of characters I've read in awhile.  It's called "The Not So Boring  Letters of Private Nobody" by Matthew Landis.  It's about 12 year old Oliver, who is SO EXCITED to be starting a new social studies unit on the American Civil War.  Oliver loves learning about the Civil War.  He even belongs to a group of people who re-enact Civil War battles.  The bad news is that the project he's been so excited to start requires that he has a partner (he really wants to work alone) AND he and his partner are given a soldier to research that no one has ever heard of.  The partner is a GIRL named Ella who appears disheveled and is failing many of her classes.  She is not particularly interested in the Civil War and Oliver tries very hard to get out of working with her.  But, his teacher, Mr. Carrow (who is wildly enthu

I'm really excited that I get to be on the CYBILs judging panel again this year!  Last year I did middle grade speculative (fantasy) fiction and this year I'm doing realistic fiction.  It's such an awesome opportunity to get to read A LOT of books in a short amount of time!  So, not to gloat, but                                 Aaaand, that would be me doing the happy dance! The first book I read was already terrific!  It's called "Once Upon a Princess" by Christine Marciniak. I'm going to tell you the truth, I was totally ready to hate this one.  I have very little patience with things that are just pink and sparkly and after the first chapter, I was ready to kick it to the curb, but I persisted and man, was it worth it!  It's about a princess (yes, pink and sparkly and silk gowns to start with but be patient!) who is ready to attend her first ball.  She's only 12 and typically princesses don't get to start attending balls until they

We had our Scholastic book fair this week and there was a grand assortment of books.  There were two new ones I'd been hearing about but hadn't read, so I got to read this them this week! The first one is a picture book.  It's called "All Are Welcome" by Alexandra Penfold.  It's a story told in rhyming verse about how school is a welcoming place.  The illustrations are warm and inviting and show a range of people who look different, sound different, and worship different from me.  This is going to be a terrific book for talking about classroom and school community.  I think it would be appropriate for little kids, but I think big kids, even middle or high schoolers, could appreciate it too.  Unfortunately, Scholastic only sent me three and when I tried to reorder, they were out of stock.  I think this shows that a LOT of people are enjoying and appreciating what a good book this is.  So you need to look for it too! The second one was a chapter book an

Ahhh, a long weekend filled with rainy days.  A tropical disturbance that's dumping rain but no real drama?  I'm in.  And LOTS of good books to read.  So here are two that are coming to a book store near you soon! The first one is called "The Darkdeep" and it's written by Allie Condie and Brandon Reichs.  I loved Condie's work but haven't read any of Reichs (which I'm TOTALLY going to fix), but since it's the start of a brand new (what I assume will be) series, I'm not sure it matters.  "The Darkdeep" is about a group of kids who live in a small town in the Pacific Northwest.  There are three kids-Nico, Emma and Tyler who are solid friends.  Opal used to be their friend, but now appears to be friends with the town bully, Logan.  Logan is mad at Nico because Nico's dad is forest ranger and has made recommendations that have damaged Logan's family's business.  Nico, Emma, and Tyler are out flying a drone that Nico had been

This week I read two books that are SO different from one another and yet both have big theme of courage. The first one is called "Storm Runner" by Jennifer Cervantes.  It's part of a series called 'Rick Riordan presents!'  that have titles by different authors, including Cervantes, Yoon Ha Lee, and Roshani Chokshi.  "Storm Runner" is the first in a series about a boy named Zane who lives with his mom and his mom's brother, Hondo.  They also have a dog that Zane is very attached to named Rosie.  Their house has a volcano in the backyard where Zane likes to go exploring.  Zane has one leg that is shorter than the other, so he gets bullied a lot.  Zane's mom has been working hard to get him into a different school, which Zane does not think will help with the bullying.  In fact, when he starts the new school, he gets into trouble almost right away.  When he gets sent to the principal's office, he's surprised that a very beautiful girl wan

We started school this week.  I love this time of year with all the new potential!  I'm so excited to share some of these new titles with my students this year. Last week I read a terrific new one-it's called "Nowhere Boy" by Katherine Marsh.  It's the story of two boys (told from both points of view).  Max lives with his parents and his older (and perfect) sister.  They've just moved to Brussels and Max is not happy about it.  He's enrolled in a French school (he doesn't really speak French and has a tutor to help with that) but his parents think this will help some of the trouble he was having at his old school.  The other boy is Ahmed, who is fleeing Syria with his dad.  When his dad disappears trying to pull their small boat to safety, Ahmed finds himself alone in Brussels trying to avoid the police and make his way to England, where his dad thought they would be able to settle.  Ahmed ends up living in Max's basement and when Max fin

I might have mentioned that we went on an extended trip this summer.  It was great but one of the things I worried about was being able to have enough books along to keep me busy.  It turns out that the ebooks were a big help because I would have needed a whole big suitcase to take all the books I wanted along.  It also turns out we were pretty busy seeing amazing beautiful things. But read I did!  (There were some extended plane rides and a rain delayed layover at the end of the trip) so here are some of the best from the summer so far! I think my new favorite one is called "The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle" by Victoria Williamson.  It's written from three different points of view-one is Caylin, a girl who is dealing with the death of her beloved grandparents as well as the alcohol abuse and neglect of her mother, Reema, a girl who's family has fled Syria for the safety of a new home in Scotland, and then a fox, who is badly injured and then gives birth

I'm reading all the Sunshine State Young Reader award nominees before we go back to school (I hope!).    It's always so awesome to see the books the committee chose-they're mindful of lots of different things but I love the variety of the kinds of books they choose.  The one I read last night is a good example of that-it's called "Overboard!" and it's part of the Survivor Diaries series by Terry Lynn Johnson.  This one is the first in the series, I know I'm going to need to order the whole series, because it's great.  It's about a boy named Travis who's struggling a bit.  He was injured last year in an accident (ok, a dare) at his gym.  In the past year of recovery, he's gained weight and feels a bit traumatized.  His parents take his family on a whale watching tour near the San Juan Islands and he's learning a lot about whales and wild life when he's plunged into the water.  Luckily, the captain's daughter Martina is close

So I totally HAVE been reading this summer, but we've been traveling, visiting family and far flung places.  It's been a blast, but I'm glad to get home to regroup and READ. So now that I'm home, I've had a chance to catch up on some of the Sunshine State Young Readers that I hadn't read before.  Let me tell you, the committee did a GREAT job of choosing books!  These are titles that hadn't been on my radar but they are terrific! The first one is called "The Great Treehouse War" by Lisa Graff.  I love her work-she has the most amazing ideas and characters in her stories and this one did not disappoint.  It's about a girl named Winnie who's parents have decided to separate in the most non-amicable fashion you can imagine.  Eventually they decide to buy adjoining houses with a treehouse in the middle so Winnie will spend three days with each parent and one day in the treehouse so each parent has equal time.  Unsurprisingly, Winnie