The Book Search

  This is always such a fun time of year.  The CYBILS awards are in their first round and there are SOOOO many books to be read.  This year I'm a second round judge so I'll have a shorter list to read, but I'm keeping my eye on things, just so I can keep up.  Two great books caught my eye this fall and they are great! The first one is a sequel to the CYBILS middle grade speculative fiction award winner last year-Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia.  I devoured that one last year during Thanksgiving weekend when people were giving me long looks when I would bust out laughing and then try to explain the entire story line without giving too much away.  I started reading it aloud to my fifth graders this year and they are only annoyed because I only get to see them once a week.  It's great being able to slow down a bit and talk about some of the amazing symbolism and cultural connections.  SO NOW, I just finished reading the secon...

I'm getting down to the end of my list of books to read for CYBILS awards.  I always really love being able to read for this award, but it's kind of intense-the window for reading books is pretty short (3 months) and the list of titles is pretty long (for middle grade fiction, there are usually at least 100 titles), but oh my gosh, is it worth it.  Getting to read all the newest books is amazing, I'm so lucky I get to do it!  Like this year, these two new titles are terrific! The first one is called "Tristan Strong punches a hole in the sky" by Kwame Mbalia.  This is part of a new Rick Riordan Presents series.  If you by chance have never read any of Riordan's work, he started a series of books about a boy named Percy Jackson who struggled in school because it turned out his dad was a Greek god.  Riordan went on to write a series about a group of kids who's parents were Roman gods and then Egyptian gods and then Norse Gods.  He's now lending his name...