The Book Search

I read two books this week that both had to do with postwar trauma.  One is historical fiction and one is present day and they were both terrific! The first one is called "A Galaxy of Sea Stars" by Jeanne Zulik Ferruolo.  Jeanne wrote a terrific book last year called "Ruby in the Sky" that I really enjoyed, so I was delighted to see she had a new book out.  This one is just as good, and maybe even better!  In "A Galaxy of Sea Stars", Izzy, the main character is starting middle school.  She's nervous like most kids are but she's got a lot on her plate.  Her mom has gone to stay and work with her sisters in their family restaurant, and although it seemed like she would be gone just a short time, it's turning out to be longer than Izzy figured it would be.  Part of why her mom left, is that her dad is different now.  Her dad served in the army in Afghanistan and came back different.  He's had to take a different job, they've had to move ...

I'm a big fan of Linda Sue Park, so when I saw she had a new book, I couldn't wait to read it!  You might have read some of her other middle grade fiction, like "Long Walk to Water" or the Newbery award winning "The Single Shard".  Her latest one is called "Prairie Lotus" and it's a terrific combination of historical fiction and modern activism.  Hanna is 14 and she and her dad are traveling to an expansion town in South Dakota in hopes of settling there.  They are leaving California, where although the family had a successful business there, it cost them Hanna's mother.  Hanna's mom was injured during a riot and massacre of Chinese people and never fully recovered.  Hanna and her dad are trying to build a new life.  Hanna is hoping to go to school to get a diploma, something her mother wanted badly for her.  Hanna is also a talented dressmaker and she would like to pursue that as a career.  The new town has an ally-a friend of her dad...

I fell down into a well of grown up fiction that was just terrific but I'm finding my way back to middle grade fiction, because, well, because I can.  Here's some amazing books to look for! The first one is called Chirp by Kate Messner.  I was lucky enough to get to meet her in November at the FAME conference in Orlando and my friend David was brave enough to try the Chirp Challenge she describes in the book.  I'd been looking forward to reading it since November and I finally got to! It was totally worth the wait.  One of the things that Kate does so well is give you characters that are interesting and likable immediately, but there's always something bigger that comes as you read.  In this case, Mia and her family have moved back to Vermont to be closer to her grandmother.  Her grandmother had a small stroke and is recuperating well, but runs her own business, which Mia's parents would like her to sell.  Mia's grandmother sells crickets for food an...

We're on winter break now and winding down the CYBILS awards.  In fact, I was really surprised to come home from school on our last day and find two new books to read!  They were SO worth waiting for! The first one is "Homerooms and Hall Passes" by Tom O'Donnell.  It's about a group of adventurers who live in a magical, medieval kind of realm called Briandalor, where they spend their days searching for treasure and battling vile monsters.  To relax, they spend Thursday evenings playing a role playing game called Homerooms and Hall passes, which has each of the players assume the role of a student in a 21st century middle school.  The students have to try to navigate middle school without getting thrown out.  The leader of the group, a good wizard in training named Albiorix, is a big fan of the game (he has 26 reference books about the game that he carries with him).  The group also includes a second leader, Vela the Valiant, a paladin (or knight), as...

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...

I might have mentioned before that I'm actually not a big fan of science fiction.  It's not my jam, but actually, after this round of the CYBILS reading, I might have to rethink that label, because there has been some righteous science fiction this year. The latest one I've read is called "The Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity" by Nicole Valentine.  It's about Finn, who's a middle schooler and a bit of a loner.  His mom has left the family and no one is talking about where she is or how long she'll be gone and she's not answering her phone or responding to text messages.  Finn is worried.  His dad sends him to stay with his grandmother in rural Vermont and that's kind of a good thing.  He adores his grandmother, it puts him closer to his best friend, Gabi, and since his dad has been really distant and kind of unresponsive, it's kind of good to be away from him.  Except that once he's there at his grandmother's, really weird...

I am not usually attracted to science fiction.  I blame a steady diet of fairy tales and magically related books in my youth, but one really great thing about CYBILS is that it sends you places you didn't even know you wanted to go, reading books you didn't even know you should look for.  So here are two of my new favorites (go ahead, call me fickle). The first one is called Cog and it's written by Greg Van Eekhout.  It's about COG, which is short for cognitive development.  Cog is a robot with artificial intelligence, so he's meant to learn things and he looks exactly like a 12 year old boy.  He lives with his inventor, Gina and she's trying to teach him lots of things, like shopping and smiling.  Gina tells him that he learns from his mistakes.  So one day Cog decides to make a mistake to learn something new.  He goes outside by himself.  He sees a dog in the street and car coming straight for the dog.  He calculates the speed at whi...