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Showing posts with the label Nora Raleigh Baskin

More terrific new middle school fiction

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These last few days have felt pretty realistic to me, so more realistic fiction may or may not have been what I was looking for.  Except that's what was in the TBR pile from Netgalley, so ok.  The good news is that they were really different from the kind of realism I've been living, so it was nice to get into someone else's head for change. The first one is called "The Brave" by James Bird.  The cover of the e-book I got had it spelled like this "Th3 Brav5", which should be an indicator that this character doesn't think like most people.  The main character is Collin, who has grown up with his dad.  He doesn't know his mother at all, expect that she's a Native American.  It says in the description of the book that Collin struggles with OCD.  His OCD manifests itself in counting, which doesn't seem that unusual to me.  Except that Collin counts letters.  He counts the letters as people speak to him and when he responds to them, the first ...

Books about September 11

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We've all been figuring out how to talk to our smallest students about September 11.  For the past 15, as adults, we've all been trying to process what this event meant to our country and although there have been a few things to talk with little kids about what happened, most of it is so big and so scary, that it didn't seem like a good idea.  Thankfully, some amazing authors and illustrators have been able to create some stories that introduce a conversation about what happened in way that is emotional without being overwhelming. The first one is called "Seven and a Half Tons of Steel" by Janet Nolan.  It's about a piece of the Twin Towers that was removed from the crash site and used as part of a new Navy ship.  This one JUST came out last week (August 1st!) and one really great thing about it is how hopeful it feels.  A terrible, scary thing happened, but people could take that wreckage and turn it into something strong and powerful.  The other thing...