The Book Search

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...

Are you sensing a trend here?  Yeah, a little fantasy fiction is a good way to pass the time during a hurricane watch!  A hurricane watch where we had both power and internet access.  It was a LITTLE scary to pull up the weather radar and see a Category 5 hurricane sitting 90 miles from us (sorry Bahamas), so reading scary stories was a good thing for me to do! The first one feels like a folk tale.  It's called Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack.  It's about Anya who is an only child.  She lives with grandmother and her mother.  Her dad has been conscripted by the army and they aren't sure where he is.  The town magistrate is threatening her mother-either pay their taxes right away or move out of their house and out of the town.  Anya really wants to help but she's been seeing weird things as she's out and about doing her chores.  She makes a new friend, Ivan,  who has come to town with his dad and the rest of his family. ...

So you might not be able to tell from the blog, I'm not a big fan of scary stories.  I like suspense but a lot of the scary things are, well, just too scary for me.  I had nightmares after Doll Bones and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  So I have NO IDEA why I chose "Scary Stories for Young Foxes" by Christian McKay Heidicker.  It WAS scary but it was SO well written and I think it's going to be perfect as a mentor text for my students. It's told in two different voices-Mia and Uly.  Both are fox kits that are living really different lives.  Mia comes from a family with a loving mom and brothers and sisters that are kind and supportive of one another.  Uly, not so much.  Uly has a deformed front paw and his sisters seem bent on getting rid of him.  Each one tells a tale of how they end up separated from their moms and their litter mates (terrifying), how they survive,  and then how they come together to help each other.  E...

I just finished two more Sunshine State Young Reader award nominees and they were terrific!  I can't wait to get them into my library! The first one is called "Wedgie and Gizmo" by Suzanne Selfors.  Selfors is no stranger to the SSYRA list-her book "The Sasquatch Escape" and "Fortune's Magic Farm" made the lists in years past.  I know why this one made the list too!  This book is told from two perspectives - Wedgie, an exuberant corgi who believes he is a super hero (with a cape!) and Gizmo, a grumpy guinea pig who believes he is an evil genius and is looking for a plausible plot to take over the world.  They are living together in a newly blended family-Gizmo's owner/servant, Elliot, has moved with his dad in with Jasmine, Jackson, their mom, and her mom (Abuela).  Elliot is the least happy about the move and in the move, Gizmo's cage was damaged so for the moment, he's living in Jasmine's Barbie dream house, which he doesn't...

I haven't forgotten how to write a blog post.  At least I hope not.  I know it's been a long time since I did, but I finished my term as a member of the Sunshine State Young Reader Jr. Award committee (three years and a LOT of picture books, which I was NOT supposed to blog about).  I feel a little adrift (no boxes on my front door step every day!  No stacks of books that need to read and reviewed! ) it's a little sad, but also, freeing-I can read whatever I want!  I can put books I don't like down and never pick them up again! I read GROWNUP BOOKS.  I'm trying not to let it go to my head.  But I've found my way back to some middle grade fiction that are just coming out (thanks Netgalley!) and there are some really fun ones. The first one is called The Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander.  It's about plucky little Lenora, who although she has very rich and inattentive parents and an inattentive nanny, really wants a JOB.  One day, the nanny w...

So does it feel like January just streaked past?  How did it get to be February for goodness sakes?  I always heard as you get older time passes more quickly, but this is ridiculous!  Anyway, luckily, I had enough time to slow down and finish a book!  And even better, it was a really great book! It's called "The Storm Keeper's Island" and it's written by Catherine Doyle.  It came out in January and I was lucky enough to get to read it as an advanced reader's copy on Netgalley.  It's about Fionn and his sister Tara who go to spend the summer with their grandfather on the island where he lives and their parents grew up.  Fionn is especially missing his dad, who disappeared off the the coast of the island in a boating accident.  Right away things seem a little weird.  His grandfather's house is full of candles.  His sister keeps trying to sneak away to meet her boyfriend, an annoyingly smug and handsome boy from the island named Bartley. ...

Since October, I've pretty much read nothing but middle grade realistic fiction.  I liked it a LOT but a steady diet of anything, even the good stuff, can leave you craving something different, something spicy, something sweet, something surprising.  So these books totally fill that bill! The first one is called "Inkling" by Kenneth Oppel.  It's a really interesting combination of realistic and fantasy fiction.  The main character is Ethan.  He lives with his dad and his younger sister Sarah. Sarah has Down's Syndrome and their mother died about two years ago.  Ethan's dad is struggling with depression and unresolved issues around his wife's death.  He is a successful graphic novelist, but he hasn't sold anything since his wife died.  The savior comes from an unlikely source-ink.  One day, the ink magically gathers itself into a ball and starts to gather more ink, and more and more until it's animated.  It soaks up some words and t...

I'm plowing through the CYBILS middle grade speculative fiction.  There were a few dogs in the pile but I've hit a bit of a hot streak and it's SO much fun to read such imaginative, creative, exciting stories!  Check out these beauties! The first one is called "The Shadow Cipher" and it's the first one a series called York by Laura Ruby.  I'm relieved that this only the first one because the characters and plot of this one were so interesting, I was really sorry for the book to end!  It's about fraternal twins, Tess and Theo, who live with their parents in an old apartment building in New York.  The apartment has been in their family for several generations and there is a story about a mysterious treasure that's hidden with lots of clues and ciphers.  They connect with a boy who lives in their building, Jaime, who is a computer whiz.  He lives with his grandmother, the building's caretaker.  Suddenly, they have a very sharp deadline for solvi...

New books!  New books!  New books!  It's so exciting to get new books!  I just got a big box of new books for our library!  I don't even remember how I chose them, but here are some of my new favorites. The first one is called "My life in pictures" by Deborah Zemke.  It's a short chapter book about a charming girl named Bea (short for Beatriz).  Bea likes to draw and has a very annoying little brother that she calls "The Big Pest".  She has a best friend who lives next door named Yvonne and they have marvelous adventures together until Yvonne moves away to Australia.  A new family moves in and guess what?  They have a child the same age as Bea!  Except he is a monster.  Bea draws to work her way through this problem and it has a great ending.  This one would pair up well with "Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie " by Julie Sternberg-it has the same short chapter format, as well as a similar art and writing style.  The kid...

We just finished up the book fair at school and I'm so relieved it's over with. It's SO much fun. The kids LOVE buying books and we get to see a lot of books that we wouldn't normally get to see. The kids love to look at the Guinness book of world records and the Ripley's Believe it or not books (although the guy with the snakes coming out of his nose and mouth seemed a little over the top to me) and since I refuse to buy those for the media center anymore, it's the book fair or Costco! But it is EXHAUSTING and busy and I'm so glad on Friday afternoon, I packed everything away so when I come in on Monday morning, we can go back to our regular routine. A teacher from the local university stopped in during the book fair (she supervises student teachers at our school) and she asked for books that could help with teaching behavior management. She's going to be teaching a class at our university this fall and she was looking for trade books to put on h...