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...

I've been reading a TON of children's literature this summer (if you enjoy data, I've read 212 books since school got out).  However, it's been quite some time since I picked up a chapter book and finished it in ONE DAY and then kept talking about it to everyone I meet.  It's called "Ban this Book" by Alan Gratz.   It's about a girl named Amy Anne.  She lives in Raleigh, NC with her mom and dad, two little sisters, and her big dogs named Flotsam and Jetsam.  Amy Anne loves to read and has strong opinions but often feels too embarrassed to share her opinions with anyone.  One day she goes to the library to re-check out her favorite book, "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E. L. Konigsburg, only to find that a parent has challenged this book (along with several others) and so it has been removed from the library.  Amy Anne is outraged and the librarian, Mrs. Jones, invites Amy Anne to come to the school board meeti...