The Book Search

Reading for the CYBILS is SO much fun!  It can feel a little overwhelming sometimes, but I always find books that I never would have read, if it weren't for the list!  Including these two gems. I'm a big fan of novelty and by that I mean plots or characters that are really different from anything I've read before and both of these books fit that bill!  The first one is called Poppy and Marigold and it's written by Meg Dendler.  She's written a number of books but this is the first one of hers I've read.  Her website is here if you want to check it out .  It's about a girl named Poppy, who lives in a dystopian world, where people are segregated by the color of their skin.  Poppy's skin is blue and the Blue Society is steeped in technology and rule following.  There are 50 rules that all Blue citizens must follow and they repeat them every day at school.  There are also hard consequences for rule breaking but Poppy is a good student and an obed...

 I've been having a great time reading the books on the new Sunshine State Young Reader lists.  They never fail to find such fun books!  Here's a link to the K-2 list .  And here's a link to the 3-5 and 6-8 lists . They have such a variety of books.  And here's a link to my TPT store where there are reading comprehension questions for all the 3-5 and 6-8 books and lesson plans for the K-2 list.   But lucky me!  I've had to read some advanced readers copies from Netgalley and boy, did I find some good ones!  The first one came out a couple of weeks ago-it's called "The Cookie Crumbles" and it's written by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow.  It's about Laila and Lucy, two girls who have been best friends since kindergarten, even though they have very different interests AND they live on opposite sides of town.  If they want to go to high school together, they BOTH need to get into the prestigious high school, Sunderland.  Laila is trying ...

 Need some great new middle grade books with relatable characters?  Wait till you hear about these! The first one is called Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston.  I've loved Sherri Winston's writing since I first discovered her when she wrote a column for the Sun Sentinel.  She has such a terrific voice in her writing and her latest story is no exception.  Shark Teeth is about a 12 year old named Sharkita.  She is the primary caregiver for her 5 year old sister, Lily and her 8 year old brother Lamar, who has fetal alcohol syndrome.  She's the primary caregiver because her mom is unreliable as a parent.  Kita loves Lily and Lamar and would do anything to protect them.  But awhile back, things were pretty terrible.  Their mom disappeared for 9 days and Lamar had a giant melt down and knocked Kita out.  Kita called 911 to get some help and all three kids ended up in different foster homes and their mom wound up in jail.  Kita is determin...

 So my colleagues and I are busily reading the books on our CYBILS list.  It's a little daunting at this point-there are 107 books on our list (that's the usual thing) and they all have to read by at least 2 people by the end of December.  Trying to get everyone copies of each book is a completely different issue, one luckily I don't have to deal with!  That's the job of the amazing Sheila Ruth .  Anyway, I've had a little extra time on my hands this week - I managed to catch some icky bug from one of those rotten PreK kids (who sat on my lap for an hour weeping copiously).  So I've put my time to good use.  Here are two of my new favorites and these are both mysteries! Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee is such a wonderful, heartfelt story.  It's about Maizy, who lives in Los Angeles with her mom, a food stylist.  They have driven across country to Last Chance, Minnesota to come and spend time with her grandparents.  Her grandfather i...

 Wow, so I guess it's been a busy fall.  There was this little projec t  that kept me busy for awhile. Oh and school ... in the middle of a pandemic... and being available for a relentless amount of tech support to teachers trying to teach a hybrid model of both in person and online classes to 3, 4, and 5 year olds.  BUT this week, I actually had time to read some books!  YAY!!!  Here were two terrific ghost stories with great cultural connections.   The first one is called The Ghost in Apartment 2R by Denis Markell.  Danny is the storyteller.  He lives with his parents and his older brother in an apartment in Brooklyn.  It's a small apartment and his bedroom has always been in a closet.  That was all supposed to change when Danny's older brother, Jake, went to college.  Except that now, his parents decided, in an effort to make some extra money to help pay for Jake's college expenses, they are going to rent out the bedroom on ...

It's so much fun to have time to read over the summer.  Here are some brand new ones you might want to look for! The first one is called The Book of Fatal Errors.  It's targeted at middle graders and it's a really fun, exciting read.  It's about Rufus, who is just starting summer vacation after a tough year in 6th grade. He's a little worried about summer vacation because his mom is going to be gone, but he's hoping that means he'll get to spend all summer with his grandfather at his house, which is Rufus's happy place.  Except that his grandfather has an accident on the first day of vacation and his dad thinks Feylawn (which is what Grandpa's place is called) is not safe for anyone.  He wants Rufus to spend his summer learning new things, like his cousin Abigail, who has attended a number of different camps each summer, knows several languages and seems to spend all her time making sure the adults like her.  But it turns out Grandpa's accident w...

I got some terrific new books this week from Netgalley-compelling, adventurous books! The first one is called "The Okay Witch" by Emma Steinkellner.  It's a graphic novel (not my favorite) about a girl named Moth, who is 13 and struggling with all the usual middle school issues-friends, clothes, her mom, teachers.  But on Halloween, Moth discovers that she's actually a witch and her mom is a witch too.  Her mom chose to give up being a witch because her coven had been chased into hiding hundreds of years ago.  Her mom wanted to live life in the real world and not in the utopia that her own mother had created.  Moth is stunned at this revelation and has to decide if she wants to live a magical life or if she wants to live in the magic free zone her mom has created.  Complicating matters are a cute new boy in town and the evil doers that chased Moth's family into hiding in the first place.  It's a really fun, adventurous story and I liked it a lot, eve...

I don't know how I fell down this rabbit hole, but I've been reading middle grade fiction and every one of them were mysteries that had some kind of code or puzzle.  A happy coincidence apparently, because they were all good. The first one is called "Winterhouse" by Ben Guterson.  It's about a girl named Elizabeth who comes home and finds that her guardians (her parents were killed when she was 4), her aunt and uncle have left to go on vacation.  They've left her a train ticket and $3 and directions how to get to where she's going while they are on vacation.  All of this seems a little suspicious to Elizabeth-her aunt and uncle haven't wanted to spend an extra penny in the entire time she's lived with them and now suddenly, they want to go on vacation and send her to a hotel?  She can only imagine what kind of a terrible place it's going to be.  But when she gets there, she's pleasantly surprised, no, stunned, to find that Winterhouse is ...

There are several mysteries afoot this week!  The first one is called "Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard" by Jonathan Auxier.  I'm just going to tell you straight up that I think Jonathan Auxier is a genius.  His writing is so clear and so specific.  It's just perfect.  I'm pretty sure I'd love even an obituary written by him.  I loved "The Night Gardener" and "Peter Nimble" so I was DELIGHTED to read "Sophie Quire" and it did not disappoint.  The story is about Sophie.  She and her dad run a book store and Sophie loves books, especially story books.  (Sophie's mother was tragically murdered when Sophie was a little girl).  She is a talented book mender and so even if the bookstore is not making a lot of money, people are still bringing her books to mend.  However, there is a terrible thing happening in her town, Inquisitor Prigg is trying to rid the town of Nonsense and his strategy for doing that is burning all the story ...