I often worry that kids aren't reading. I know at my school, their teachers are pushed to teach reading using passages and answering questions so that they'll be ready to take our state mandated test. I know that I've been reading to them and that they seem to like the stories that I choose. I'm always relieved when I find a new book that I think "Oh, I know EXACTLY who's going to love this one". I read two like that this week.
The first one is called The House That Wasn't There by Elana Arnold. You might remember Elana Arnold wrote a series of books about a boy called Bat about a wonderful character who was on the autism spectrum and his kind supportive family who foster a baby skunk. It's a terrific story and her new one is just as good, maybe even better. This one is about Alder, who lives with his mom in Los Angeles. They live in a small comfortable house, where they've lived for Alder's whole life. There is a beautiful walnut tree that shades the house but when the new neighbors move in, they cut the tree down without warning. Alder and his mom are crushed and angry. The new neighbors are a family who are transitioning from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Oak's mom has a new job, so they're in LA but Oak's dad is still in San Francisco and Oak misses him fiercely. She's also pretty angry that no one seemed care that she DID NOT want to move or that she's not happy with the new space or really anything about it. So when she sees Alder out in the yard, they don't exactly make a good first impression. Or a second impression. However, strange things are afoot. Alder and Oak get paired up on a school project and they find out that they are better friends than they might have thought. Alder and his mom decide to adopt a kitten and Oak and her mom to decide to adopt a kitten too. As Oak is unpacking their things, she comes across a mysterious book called Feline Teleportation and when it disappears, it reappears in the most amazing place. This is a lovely book about coincidences and connections in the most unlikely places. It's about how we make judgements about people and how it might turn out we are completely wrong about our first judgements, if we are open minded enough. I loved the characters in this story and I know my elementary kids are going to love this one too. Especially the kids who like quirky characters with lots of surprises.
This is the cover.
And here's what Colby Sharp had to say about The House that Wasn't There.
The second one is not a part of the Rick Riordan Presents series but I was totally ready to resign myself to the fact that it follows the formula that Riordan has put together-a kid who feels out of place in his or her community and a member of their family is threatened by a scary monster. The kid has to fight the scary monster with the help of other monster types that they didn't realize were monsters but have been actually close to them for awhile. I've read enough of these that I'm starting to have a bit of an attitude about reading them. EXCEPT that this one, is totally awesome. It's called Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera. It's about Cece Rios who lives with her parents and her older sister, Juana, who is prettier and smarter and more well behaved. They live in a remote village called Tierra del Sol that is is a pretty dangerous place. There are criaturas, evil creatures, that roam and try to capture humans. The only ones who can tame the criaturas are brujas and being a bruja is a crime in this town. Juana is kidnapped by El Somberon, one of the worst of the criaturas and the only plan that Cece can come up with to save Juana, is to become a bruja. Except that her mom is bruja fighter and Cece has never been the kind of person to be as ruthless as a bruja must be. But she does her best. She ends up capturing a criatura and then a second one and then a third one, learning their stories and their magic along the way. The criaturas are all based on Southwestern American folklore and have lots of references to some of the different stories (which, if you've been reading some of the other Rick Riordan presents stories, like me, you might have to stop along the way to do some research). This one has a lot of Spanish words in it, which might be off putting to non-Spanish readers. I speak a TEENSY amount of Spanish and it was enough to get me through. I really like Cece's character a lot. I also like the criatura characters (I am SO NOT going to tell you, because the surprise is awesome) that she captures and how different she is from the other brujas. So even though I was convinced I didn't really need to read this one, I did and it was great. I was really sorry when it was over! This one would be perfect for kids who like adventure and non-traditional heroes. If they have some background in American Southwestern or Mexican culture, it will probably be helpful, but I'm definitely going to get it for my library.
I've been enjoying my spring break and since we were traveling, I had some long uninterrupted time to read (because when I'm at home, there's a lot of "Oh look! Something shiny!" going on). There are some terrific new middle grade fiction books in the pipeline. Here are two of my favorites. The first one is called "The Orphan Band of Springdale" by Anne Nesbet. It's historical fiction but it's based on the author's family stories. It's set in World War 2 and I really loved that it tells the story of what it was like growing up in America at that time, with some of the ugly prejudices that people held as well as some of the social issues that have since been resolved. Gusta's dad leaves her on a train as they were heading to Maine because Gusta's dad is a socialist and believes that workers should have rights and he is being pursued by the police. Gusta ends up at her grandmother's house, which is a kind of an orphan
I've fallen deep in the dark heart of middle grade fantasy fiction this week and there have been many, many magical creatures! These were my two favorite ones! The first one is "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell. It's not her first book but it's the first one I've read and I thought it was great. The writing is compelling and beautiful. I fell into the book but I kept stopping so I could keep going back to it! As an example, here's the opening line: "It was a very fine day, until something tried to eat him." The story is about two kids-Mal and Christopher. Mal lives with her great aunt Leonor in a place where magical animals are commonplace. Neither of them knows what happened to her parents, but the man who brought her to Leonor left a big coat that allows Mal to fly. And then a murder shows up. Mal narrowly escapes but Lenor does not. Meanwhile, Christopher is going to spend the summer with his grandfather, whom he doesn
I'm super excited to be reading for the CYBILS again this year! I love reading all the latest speculative fiction and boy are there some great ones! Here are my two latest favorites. The first one is "Island of Wonders" written by Frances Hardinge and illustrated by Emily Gravett. It feels like an old fashioned story. The format of the book is big-like picture book sized, which is good because there are lot of illustrations. And the illustrations are just amazing-in three colors-black and blue and white, they almost feel like NC Wyeth or that Art Deco kind of traditional children's literature. But the STORY. Whoo-boy, is it great. A super creepy fairy tale kind of story and so beautifully written. It's about Milo, whose father is a ferryman, but a special kind of ferryman, HE ferries the dead to the afterlife. The islanders place a lot of trust in the ferryman, because if he doesn't do his job properly, the dead will wander around wreaking havoc o
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