Sunshine State Young Readers - grades 3-5

I'm a little late getting started on the SSYRA list for this year.  Someone tweeted out today that they'd finished the whole list, GAH!  I'd better get cracking!

The first one I read is called "The First Rule of Punk" by Cecelia Perez.  It's about a girl, Marisa Luisa, who likes to be called MaLu.  Her mom is a professor and her dad owns a music store.  They've been amicably divorced for quite some time, but MaLu lives with her mom.  So when her mom gets a job offer to teach at a school in Chicago for two years, MaLu goes (unwillingly with her).  She's worried she won't find any friends or anyone who likes Punk as much as she does.  The story is fairly predictable- MaLu tries to fit in and stand out at the same time is unsurprisingly unhappy with the results.  But she finds a group of people who accept her and believe in her and having surprisingly similar values to her own.  It's a nice story about finding your own voice and appreciating the voices around you.  I think the kids are going to like this one and I think it's going to be fun trying to make zines with them as a little project.

Here's Mr. Colby Sharp's review of "The First Rule of Punk".

The second one I read is historical fiction.  It's called "I Love You Michael Collins" by Lauren Baratz-Logsted.  It's about Mamie, who is 12 years old in 1969 and as a school assignment, she's supposed to write a letter to one of the three astronauts that are going to the moon.  The other girls choose Neil Armstrong (he's so cute!) or Buzz Aldrin (he's so strong!) but Mamie chooses Michael Collins, the pilot of the Command Module.  She continues writing to him after school is out because it provides her an opportunity to share details about her life that she's having a hard time telling anyone else, even her best friend, Buster.  So when Buster finds out, he's mad, but then happy because he's so excited about the moon landing too.  Everyone is excited except Mamie's father, who tells the family that they are not allowed to have a party for the moon landing because it's just silly.  Mamie's mother decides she's had enough and leaves the family.  What's great about this is the historical culture part-there are cultural references to things big and small that make the story feel very realistic (especially to someone old enough to actually remember these things, like I am).  It's also great because it will be an excellent springboard to a cultural study of that time period as well as just being a good story.  I liked it a lot and I think the kids are going to like this one as well.