The Book Search

At my school, I haven't done a good job of talking with my students about black history.  I did put together a black history display right in the entry way of the library but we've been busy working on a research project about the Winter Olympics and I have some other projects that I'll have to pick up so it's probably not going to get the attention it deserves this year.  But I have been trying to make sure that we have more ethnic diversity in our collection and to remind our kids that they have big opportunities if they work hard for them.  It's difficult to remember that sometimes when the media presents such skewed images of people of color or people of certain religions.  But we persevere.  Here are two titles that might help provoke conversation and help people understand one another more fully. The first one is not history at all.  It's called "Astronaut Annie" and it's written by Suzanne Slade and illustrated by Nicole Tadgell.   They...

I'm finishing up a rotten cold (which gave me laryngitis so bad I missed 3 days of school!).  I feel well enough to read, YAY!  So I was digging around on my Kindle for something new and look what I found!  New middle grade fiction!  So here's what I was reading this weekend. The first one I actually read over the summer and somehow got shoved to the back of the pile of books on my iPad.  It's was really a fun read.  It's called Sidetracked by Diana Harmon Asher.  It's about Joseph, who lives with his mom and dad and his grandfather and struggles with ADHD.  It makes it difficult for him to focus on anything for any length of time, which people at school find very exasperating.  Joseph is small and skinny which he finds exasperating and keeps hoping to find something he's good at.  Two different things happen fairly close together.  One is, a new and very athletic girl shows up at school.  The second is that Joseph's special ...

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 ...

Here's what I found in some new non-fiction this week. The first one is a biography called "Martin Luther King: The Peaceful Warrior" by Ed Clayton.  It was originally published in 1964.  The story is well written and doesn't seem to be anachronistic.  It gives a nice overview of Dr. King's life and some of the people who influenced him.  The artwork is warm and interesting.  I was a little fuzzy on what had been updated, since I hadn't read the initial work but overall it was a nice biography of Dr. King.  I read this one as an e-book from Netgalley so it will be interesting to see this as an actual book-to see the placement of the artwork and and how that all fits together.  I liked the fact that the book is written by people who actually knew Dr. King and how they interpreted the events of his life.   The second one is also a biography.  It's about Andrew Carnegie.  It's called "The Man Who Loved Libraries" by Andrew Lars...

After having plunged into the dark heart of middle grade fantasy fiction for the past few months, I'm coming out on the other side, ready to read some new things!  I happened to get a hold of some realistic fiction for upper middle grade or YA, bigger than what I've been reading and what a treat.  Here are two I read this week. The first one is a graphic novel called "Illegal" by Eion Colfer and Andrew Donkin.  I find graphic novels are not usually my first choice.  I read really fast and I love creating my own mental images.  I find the graphic novels require me to slow down, read the text and interpret the pictures because they are usually a big part of the story.  This one was worth slowing down for.  It's about a boy named Ebo.  It's told in two different parts and it flashes between the two parts of the story.  The story begins with Ebo finding that his brother, Kwame, has left the family home (which is pretty short on family-their par...

I'm moving back into my post-CYBILs life.  For the last two months, I've been reading virtually nothing but middle grade fantasy (speculative) fiction.  It's been a lot of fun but I'm ready to move onto something else. So imagine my immense joy this morning to look in Netgalley and find something completely different from what I've been reading, NON FICTION.  So I dove in and what a reward!  Here's some of what I found. The first one is called "Spy on History: Victor Dowd and the World War II Ghost Army" by Enigma Alberti.  It's the story of a group of soldiers during World War II that were artists, weathermen, sound engineers and writers that helped to mislead the Germans into thinking that there were a lot more American soldiers in different places than there actually were.  The story is written in a very easy to read conversational prose that moves the story along quickly.  It recounts several different times during the war when the Ghost Ar...

So I'm knee deep in the CYBILs list.  In case you didn't know, CYBILs stands for Children's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Award.  I've been lucky enough to serve as a panelist this year on the middle grade speculative (fantasy) fiction and it's SO MUCH FUN.  It is a bit daunting to see the list-there are over 120 books (chapter books!) and we have two months to read them.  I was WAY behind the power curve this year, because I've mostly been reading picture books for another book award I read for so I've been scurrying to catch up.  I'm getting there, but I'm a little relieve that weather here in South Florida is supposed to be terrible tomorrow, in hopes that I'll actually think it's a good idea to sit down and read during the day time, instead of waiting until I go to bed, when invariably, I'm tired enough, I get to "The ..." and fall asleep. Anyway, this week, I've had a chance to read some great ones that I'...