The Book Search

 I always feel so lucky to get to read for the CYBILS award.  I love being a first round panelist where we read EVERYTHING.  I'm not going to tell you that all the nominees are wonderful because that would be a straight up lie, but there are SO many terrific surprises as we read.  Here are two of my new favorites. The first one is called Roll for Initiative by Jaime Formato.  This is her first novel and I really hope it's not the last, because this one was terrific!  The main character in this one is Riley, who lives with her mom and her older brother, except that her older brother, Devin, has left to go to college and Riley misses him terribly.  Riley's mom works A LOT and Devin really held the family together.  Riley is unhappy with having to ride the bus, fix her own meals, do the laundry and her homework all on her own but as luck would have it, a friendly girl named Lucy has moved into her apartment complex and she's looking for some new frie...

 So my colleagues and I are busily reading the books on our CYBILS list.  It's a little daunting at this point-there are 107 books on our list (that's the usual thing) and they all have to read by at least 2 people by the end of December.  Trying to get everyone copies of each book is a completely different issue, one luckily I don't have to deal with!  That's the job of the amazing Sheila Ruth .  Anyway, I've had a little extra time on my hands this week - I managed to catch some icky bug from one of those rotten PreK kids (who sat on my lap for an hour weeping copiously).  So I've put my time to good use.  Here are two of my new favorites and these are both mysteries! Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee is such a wonderful, heartfelt story.  It's about Maizy, who lives in Los Angeles with her mom, a food stylist.  They have driven across country to Last Chance, Minnesota to come and spend time with her grandparents.  Her grandfather i...

 I'm so excited that I was chosen to be a first round panelist for CYBILS again!  This year, I'm doing middle grade fiction (instead of speculative fiction like last year).  It's so awesome to get to read realistic fiction with all the cultural issues that are typically a part of middle grade fiction.  I've read a few so far, and these are two of my new favorites.   The first one is by Amy Sarig King, you might know her work- The Year We Fell from Space and Me and Marvin Gardens.  She has a terrific voice, but wait until you read this one-It's called Attack of the Black Rectangles.  It's about Mac who is navigating his final year of elementary school with his two best friends, Marci and Denis.  He lives with his mom and his grandfather.  His dad does not live at their house, but he comes over every week for dinner and to work on an old car in the garage.  His new teacher writes a column for the newspaper that supports conservative values...

 I LOVE reading for the CYBILS award.  The list of books we read is virtually the entire catalog of everything that's been printed in the year of the award so I end up digging deep into one category of books, this year, it's middle grade fiction.  A lot of social issues appear in middle grade fiction-these are books written for kids in upper elementary and middle school and those kids are trying to figure out a lot.  Often times books like these end up offering pathways for kids they didn't even know they wanted.  So imagine my surprise today (literally, I read these two books today) that two of the books are centered around kids who want to see themselves or people like themselves in the Civil War.  Yep, the American Civil War, the one that was fought over states rights or slavery?  That ended in 1865?  That one.   I KNOW.  And they're BOTH terrific. The first one is called The Secret Battle of Evan Pao.  It's written by Wendy Wan-...

 I don't often read YA but two showed up on my Netgalley list this week, how lucky!  They couldn't be more different, but they were both terrific! The first one is called Mere Mortals written by Erin Jade Lange.  It's about two vampires, Charlie (Charlotte) and Reg, sister and brother, who have been expelled from being vampires because of an unfortunate incident.  They are dropped off at a halfway house of sorts, where they can learn to be human again.  Charlie and Reg are very unhappy about this, particularly since the town where they've landed is a small town in Iowa that seems completely empty of culture or shopping or any of the things that Charlie and Reg think are fun.  They are staying with a man named Sal, who is meant to help them with the transition and they have been registered to attend the local high school.  They send out appeals to different groups of vampires to try to get their punishment cancelled but either get a negative response or...