The Book Search

 I might have mentioned before that I'm not typically a fan of graphic novels.  I like creating my own mental images of characters and settings and so I don't usually choose graphic novels. BUT, holy cow, these two new ones have such interesting story lines and the art work is SO compelling, you have to look for them! The first one is called Atana and the Firebird by Vivian Zhou .  This is her first book, but it better not be her last!  The cover is stunning and that's exactly what made me want to read it.   All the art work has this magical, glowing quality to it, which is perfect because it's about Atana, a mermaid, who is living alone on an island.   One day, a Firebird comes to earth.  Her name is Ren and she has been hearing stories all her life about how wonderful Earth is and so even though it's been hundreds of years since a Firebird has come to earth, Ren has come to experience Earth life.  But there are evil forces afoot and it's not safe for Ren and s

 Still reading for the CYBILS award, but coming down the end of the pile.  Today I found this really great one lurking! It's called "If you meet the Devil, Don't Shake Hands" by Sylvia Whitman.  I'd never read anything by Whitman before, so this one was a very pleasant surprise.  The narrator is Gavin, a worrier who is in middle school.  His best friend, Javi, is an excellent support system because Gavin's dad has been deployed in the military and Gavin's worrying has really ramped up.  He has a big (annoying) sister and his mom, but Javi is his closest ally.  Javi lives upstairs from Gavin and they are in and out of each other's homes all the time.  But when Javi's mom sends Javi a text that the Devil has returned, Javi's grandfather, who left when Javi's mom was a little girl.  A magician and card sharp and general rogue.  Gavin goes with Javi to his apartment as support for him.  But the man sitting at the table doesn't seem that evi

 If I haven't said it often enough, reading for the CYBILS award is so much fun.  It's a lot of work (well, if you call reading LOTS of middle grade chapter books work) but then there are THESE treasures you can uncover.   The first one is called Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom.  It's written by Nina Varela.  I hadn't read anything by her before but this one was so good!  It's about Juniper, or June who has recently moved from Dallas, Texas to a small town in southern Florida.  She isn't so good at making friends but she's pretty good at disappearing into a crowd.  She likes to draw and has been busy drawing a graphic novel, but she's been having these REALLY weird and realistic dreams.  She doesn't want to worry her parents, who already worry about her not having friends and fitting in and her friends in Dallas seem to have forgotten about her.  But one night, she has to deal with her dream, because one of the people from her dream shows up

 It may seem like this post is a little late, being two days PAST Halloween, but these magical titles are so great, you're not going to want to miss them!   The first one is the latest offering from two of my favorite authors-Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass.  They co-wrote another book called "Bob" that remains one of my favorites, even though it was published five years ago.  They are both masters at plot twists so I was super excited to read this one.  It's told from a few different points of view, which at first is a little confusing.  The first character's voice is Mortimer, a cat that lives in a library and rescues mice that have moved in there.  He feels very guilty about something that happened (but readers don't find out what actually happened until almost the end of the story).  The second storyteller is Evan, a boy who is just finishing fifth grade.  He lives with his loving parents, his dad who is an exterminator that relocates mice rather than killing

 Reading for the CYBILS is so much fun.  It's a little like standing in a firehose spray of children's literature but if you can get past feeling completely overwhelmed (that was earlier this week), it's a blast, because there are SO MANY great books.   Well, not literally, because that would hurt.  Okay, then!  Let me tell you about my two new favorites.  Creatures of the In Between by Cindy Lin is an exciting adventure that starts in the middle of things, with an attack on Whisper Island, a haven for magical beasts.  The Kingdom of the Three Realms is tied to the magical beasts and the leader of the Realm is meant to be bonded to a magical beast.  The current leader is the Dowager Queen who's phoenix does her bidding.  The Crown Prince is Jin, her 12 year old grandson, who has spent his entire life learning from books about magical creatures because, other than her phoenix, there are no other creatures in the kingdom.  Jin really wants to bond with a magical creature

 One of the best parts (in my opinion) of reading for the CYBILS book award, is that, as a panelist, I'm asked to read as many of the middle grade speculative fiction books published in the last year as possible.  Even better, if I blog about them.  So we get a list of the books and are asked to read them.  Invariably, there are some that I've already read and some that are really hard to get a hold of and some that are just terrible.  And some of them are complete gems that I never would have read, had it not been for the list!  That's the case today- my new favorites!  Have a look! The first one is an illustrated fairy tale, which we hardly ever get.  Typically, picture books are a separate category, but this one, even though it is beautifully and lavishly illustrated by P. J. Lynch (one of my very favorite illustrators) is really not a picture book.  The text is dense and complicated and rich, like a beautiful tapestry or a soaring opera.  It's written by Eion Colfer

  There have been SO MANY middle grade fiction books coming out this month.   I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up!   But so far so good!   Here are two of my newest favorites. Nell of Gumbling is a fun new fairy tale/graphic novel/mystery/friendship story.  I’m pretty sure there’s not a specific genre for this one, but it was a very fun read. It's written and illustrated by Emma Steinkellner, who also wrote and illustrated the adorable "The Okay Witch" , which I blogged about here .  This new one is about Nell, or Lenore, who lives in a place called Gumbling.  There was a king there once, but when a witch threatened to eat him, he relinquished his throne and the city has been run by a council ever since.  She lives with her two dads, who are star farmers and her two younger siblings, Rib and Schmitty.  She has two best friends, Gil, who is a Thumbkin and Myra, who is a fairy.  Nell has started a journal because she’s super excited to start her internship. 

So here's a project I've been working on for awhile.  You know how much I love middle grade fiction and this has been something I've been wanting to do and now, YAY!  I have time!  This is a set of comprehension questions for all 15 books for the SSYRA 3-5 list for 23-24.  This year's titles include: The Area 51 Files by Julie Buxbaum Bedhead Ted by Scott Giacomo Better with Butter by Victoria Piontek The Curse on Spectacle Key by Chantel Acevedo Glitch by Laura Martin Good Dogs on a Bad Day by Rachel Wenitsky Honestly Elliott by Gillian Dunn The Haunted Mustache by Joe McGee Odder by Katherine Applegate The Raven Heir by Stephanie Burgis Secondhand Dogs by Caroline Crimi Solimar by Pam Munoz Ryan Strangeville School is Totally Normal by Darcy Miller Stuck by Jennifer Swender Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas It includes an answer key and summaries of all the books.  They are available as a set of all 15 as a Google Doc and I'm working right now on separating them into

 Do you need a great new book for a read aloud?  What about one that has wonderful connections to gardening and growing things, vegetables, team work and becoming a part of a new community?  Then 'In our Garden" written by Pat Zietlow Miller and illustrated by Melissa Crowton is just the book you're looking for!  My new activity pack has Montessori language activities with vegetable three part cards and a compound word train with words from the story. There are also comprehension activities-there's a cause and effect printable and a printable retelling frame.  There are science activities and math activities, there's so much there!  Click on the book cover and it will take you to Teachers Pay Teachers page!  

 I've been waiting and waiting to get to this part of my TBR pile-I have this HUGE stack of books that are being published in the next few weeks and I'm so excited to get to read them!  These were DEFINITELY worth the wait! The first one is called Nimbus by Jan Eldredge.  The main character is Nimbus, Nim for short, an 11 month old black cat, who lives with a boy named Fletcher.  They live with Fletcher's aunt because Fletcher's dad is working so much.  Fletcher doesn't mind living with his aunt, but Aunt Connie is not a big fan of Nim but Fletcher rescued Nim when she was a really small kitten and had been hit by a car.  He took very good care of her and they are tightly bonded.  One night, Fletcher finds an old jar and tries to open it.  It turns out what's in the jar is REALLY bad-it's a nightmare demon and it's trying to suck out Fletcher's life essence.  Nim attacks the demon and thinks she's destroyed it, but she's also been badly injur

 I'm pretty excited about some big changes here at my house.  My husband and I both decided to retire at the end of the school year and we've spent most of the summer traveling (not quite finished with THAT but since we're retired, it gets to be an ongoing thing, YAY!).  Also, being 'she of the short attention span', I had some ideas about things I wanted to be able to do once I retired, so here's the latest new thing-in addition to doing book reviews, I'm also writing lesson plans!  I started with the Sunshine State Young Reader Award Jr. books (because I'm pretty familiar with them and they are some amazing new books!) and they are now available on Teachers Pay Teachers !  I've created packets with librarians and classroom teachers in Florida in mind, so they're vetted by a certified school librarian (that's me!), they are tied to the Florida state curriculum (BEST standards, but handily, this also links them to other curricula), there are

 I'm playing catch up on blog posts because while we were away I was reading madly but we often had kind of sketchy internet connections AND there was more wine involved than usual (it was France, what can I say?).  Anyway, here are two new realistic fiction books you should definitely look for. The first one is by a favorite author, Gary D. Schmidt. He's written some of my perennial favorites-The Wednesday Wars, Orbiting Jupiter, Okay for Now...  there are lots more and he has such a gift with voice! His characters always ring so true and that's exactly how this new one is.  It's called The Labors of Hercules Beal and it's so great.  It's about Hercules, who at 12 is dealing with a big loss-his parents were killed in a car accident and his brother has come home to run the family business, a nursery on Cape Cod. When school starts, Hercules is given an assignment by his 6th grade social studies/language arts teacher, Lt. Colonel Hupfer.  The assignment is a Clas

 We've been traveling and in my opinion, long plane rides plus great books equal a really great trip.  These two brand new titles were great to have a long to keep the plane ride from getting boring!  The first one is called The International House of Dereliction.  It's written by Jacqueline Davies who wrote a series of books that started with The Lemonade Wars about a brother and sister who have a disagreement and decide to solve the problem by raising money through a lemonade stand.  It was a very popular series in my elementary school library, but this one goes in a really different direction.  This one is about Alice, who lives with her very loving parents.  Her mom is a professor and her dad is a building inspector and loves to fix things.  Their family history is long and well documented and Alice, who is home schooled, has strengths from both sides of the family.  They move often because they do such a good job fixing up the properties that the college gives them, that t

 The publishers seem to be trying to play catch up after COVID.  There are SO MANY new books coming out, it can feel overwhelming to see my TBR pile.  Or maybe I'm just too greedy!  Anyway, here are some that are coming out soon. The first one is called When Giants Burn by Beth Vrabel.  Beth has a real gift for telling stories about interesting characters - two of my former favorites are Blind Guide to Stinkville and The Newspaper Club, if you missed them.  This new one is no exception.  It's told in two voices-Gerty and Hayes.  Both are being seen by the school counselor for interpersonal issues.  Gerty's family are survivalists and are doing their best to be independent from government influences.  Hayes lives with his grandmother, his younger brother and his mom, who has recently been released from jail. Neither of the kids feel like they have any friends and so find some connection to the other.  Gerty is trying to build an ultralight airplane so that she can fly away,

 FINALLY finding my way back to doing some reading!  Here are two good new ones I found.   The first one is called The Book of the Stolen Dreams by David Farr.  It's about a brother and sister, Robert and Rachel, who have been tasked by their father to find a book of stolen dreams and use it to bring down an evil dictator, Charles Malstain.  The book, it turns out, holds the secret to the line between the living and the dead, allowing the person who controls the book to potentially, live forever.  There are a number of protections set up for the book (it's been around awhile and the family that helped create it knew the power that it had, as well as it's potential for abuse) so a really wonderful part of the book is watching Rachel and Robert try to figure out who they should trust.  This is a very exciting book with lots of plot twists.  The evil villain is wonderfully evil, in a way that some readers will draw parallels to things that are happening today.  I thought this

 I just finished two graphic novels you might want to be on the look out for.  My students really love graphic novels that are realistic fiction, like Smile and Drama by Reina Telegmeier or the Baby Sitter's Club, so these two new ones are right in that sweet spot. The first one is by one of my favorite authors, Wendy Mass.  Wendy has written some amazing middle grade fiction like 11 Birthdays and the Candymakers that are perennial hits in my elementary school library.  Her first foray into graphic novels is called Lo and Behold.  Like many of her books, the story is based around a middle schooler, Addie, who is going to spend the summer with her dad who is a futurist, which is a scientist who helps people plan for the future.  His current line of study is augmented reality and he's super into it.  Addie's mom is out of the picture-of course Wendy doesn't tell you the whole thing at the beginning, but it involves a bike accident and pain killers.  Addie really loves sci

 Would you be surprised to hear that body images are something that kids think about?  The images kids see on social media (including TV and video games) shape the way they think about their own bodies and not always for the better.  Here are two books where the main characters are thinking about the way that they are perceived and how people perceive them in two really different ways.   The first one is called Time to Roll by Jamie Summer.  This is a sequel to her book Roll With It.  The main character, Ellie, wants to be a baker and finds happiness cooking and baking for her family.  She is also in a wheelchair most of the time, which she doesn't find as off putting as some other people do.  In Roll With It, Ellie and her mom move back to their hometown to help Ellie's grandmother because Ellie's grandfather is struggling with dementia.  In this second book, Ellie has happily settled into her new hometown, she has wonderful friends and her mom has found love in the form o