The Book Search

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 ...

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 ...