It's Monday!

I'm joining Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers in sharing my reading this week.  Head on over to their blogs to see what others are reading and link up your own post!

I really LOVED all of the books I read this week.  Whereas last week was all Middle Grade, this week I read a wide variety of books.  I'm just now noticing it was mostly adult...that's quite an anomaly for me!  

Middle Grade

I finished Spirit's Key and loved it!  I'm a MAJOR dog person, so that probably had something to do with it. This doesn't come out until September, but it will make a great addition to the fantasy section of my classroom library.  I'll write more about it at a later date.

Lisa Graff's books have been really popular in my classroom.  I went out and bought this one right away because she's just an author I know the kids will read.  I really love her book Umbrella Summer, but this one is even better.  Albie is a kid you will root for from page one.  Would be a great book to read along with Wonder or Out of My Mind.  It might be a read aloud for me this year.

Young Adult

I read Anna and the French Kiss just a couple weeks ago and I enjoyed this one just as much.  And it made me want to visit San Francisco ASAP.  I really enjoy companion books.  I liked seeing what was up with Anna and St. Clair as I learned about Lola and Cricket.  Looking forward to the last in this series coming out soon.

Adult

I assumed this was a YA book since it is written by Rainbow Rowell, but it's not.  It's still awesome though.  Lincoln is a down and out kind of guy, very much in limbo about what to do with his life.  He gets a job as IT support for a newspaper and one of his jobs is to read inter-company email that gets flagged for being inappropriate for work.  As he reads, he gets caught up in the conversations of Beth and Jennifer, whom he never turns in, and keeps reading their emails for months.  

This is a story set in a bookshop on an island.  Sign me up!  This is my favorite setting for a book!  A.J. is in a downward spiral after he unexpectedly loses his wife.  In the midst of all this, the most unusual thing shows up in his shop one day.  This is all I can say.  Read it, it's amazing!

I haven't read a good ghost story for a long time and this one was fantastic.  Definitely creepy enough that I didn't want to get the laundry out of my closet - and it was the middle of the day!

I read Elin Hilderbrand's new book every summer...island living at its best.  I'm sensing that I need to visit an island sometime soon...

I just realized that I gave each book on this list 5 STARS on Goodreads!  Definitely a great reading week!  

The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres to read, whether it's a book for children or adults.  I'm always fascinated by the way that people lived in different periods of time.  Unfortunately, this genre is the hardest one for me to get the kids in my class to read.  I'm not sure why that is.  Maybe it's because they don't have enough background knowledge on the time period and they get lost right away.  Maybe it's because they don't feel that the characters relate to their life.  I'm not sure.  I do know, however, that The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill will be a book that I put in my classroom and book talk in hopes of getting some new readers into this genre.

Hazel loves mysteries.  She carries around her Mysteries Notebook much like Harriet the Spy carried her notebook.  It's the beginning of the Cold War and suspicions are swirling about Communists around town.  Just as the accusations start flying, a mysterious man comes to work as a gravedigger for Hazel's parents.  As she starts spying on him, Hazel becomes convinced that Mr. Jones is a Russian spy.  

There's also Samuel Butler, a new boy in town with a secretive past.  Hazel has always been known as the smartest (a fact that she says was "widely acknowledged by the whole fifth grade").  So she is threatened at first by Samuel.  But then they realize that their natural curiosities benefit each other and they team up to find out what exactly is happening in Maple Hill.  

I think this is a historical fiction book that my fifth graders can really relate to.  Hazel is perfection...I love her voice in this book.  She knows who she is and what she wants.  She can be a little (a lot) snarky at times.  She wants to bust out of this small town and see the world.   I highlighted tons of passages that I thought were perfectly written to show how Hazel was feeling at the time: 

Some were funny - 

"She liked to make a well in her potatoes and fill it with gravy, then float her peas in it, but her mother said that was uncouth, which was another way of saying no."

Some were good advice - 

"Don't go down that road, Hazel, comparing yourself to others.  You'll only end up driving yourself crazy."

"The only problem was, whenever someone told her not to go down a road, she couldn't help but find herself sprinting ahead." 

Some were serious - 

"What if the whole country, the whole world, was just like Maple Hill, over and over again?"

I think that the author, Megan Frazer Blakemore, did a great job weaving history into this book without making it too heavy.  It would be a great introduction into this time period, which I admit, I have trouble wrapping my head around sometimes since it is not written about as much.  It would be a great book to read along with Countdown by Deborah Wiles.

I received this book via Netgalley, but I definitely plan on purchasing a copy for my classroom.  Have you read The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill?  I'd love to hear what you think!

How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied

How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied (also known as the book title that will take up nearly all of your 140 characters on Twitter) is a brand new book by Jess Keating.  After I started hearing some buzz about this book on Twitter, I started following the author.  And I found out that she is hilarious and so very kind!  Based on that alone, I popped out to the bookstore to grab her book and I was not disappointed!  And I had a perfect day to spend on my patio reading it cover to cover.

And see there...she responded right away!

Ana, named after an Anaconda, is having a rough end to the school year.  Her best friend has just moved away (to New Zealand of all places).  She's dealing with final tests at school, a crush on a boy named Zack, and "The Sneerers".  And to top it all off, her famous grandfather has just arrived (surprise!) and her parents are moving the family into a zoo for the summer.  

I loved this book for many reasons, but most of all because the author hits the nail on the head when describing the feelings of a 12 year-old-girl.  I am sure that nearly all of my fifth graders will be able to relate to her and I am so excited to share this book with them in the fall.  

Another thing I love about this book is that Ana keeps lists of things that puzzle her.  For example:

- Strange Things About Girls That I Will Never Understand, Despite Being One

and

- Top Motherly Tricks:  A Marvel of Science or Black Magic?

Ana is really hilarious and I cared for her right from the start.  I can't wait to read the next book in the series, How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel, which will hopefully come out early next year!

Have you read this book?  I'd love to hear what you think!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I'm joining Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers in sharing my reading this week.  Head on over to their blogs to see what others are reading and link up your own post!

Happy Monday!  It has been a wonderful first full week out of school!  Here's what my week of reading looked like...

I loved this new novel by Amber McRee Turner!  The premise is so different...Circa's mom is a photographer and her dad works to restore old photographs.  They have a family tradition called "Shopt" where they Photoshop old photos and add new details to them.  This was based on a fun activity from the author's own family.

  

I bought this book just because the author, Jess Keating is so personable and kind on Twitter.  I love supporting debut authors whenever I can and I am already looking forward to her next book!

I am not much of a graphic novel reader, but I like to keep up to date on them so I can share them with my class.  One of the grade-levels I will be working with in the fall is interested in doing a graphic novel unit, and I think Bird & Squirrel will be a great addition. I loved how opposite the two characters were and I loved the enthusiasm of Bird, though I am much more like Squirrel.

I loved the illustrations in this book.  It reminded me of my senior year of high school when I read The Little Prince in French.  I can't even imagine how I did that back then because I can't speak a word of it now.  It was interesting to see how Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's life was reflected in his writing. 

I'm also nearly finished reading Spirit's Key by Edith Cohn, which comes out in September.  I am loving it so far...it's very different from any other book I've read!

Have you read any of these books?  I'd love to know what you think!

The Secret Hum of a Daisy

Grace is a girl without a place in the world.  She has spent her life moving throughout the state of California with her mother.  A new town every few months.  She is a professional "new girl" at school.  She finally thinks she and her mother have found their perfect spot, living with Mrs. Greene and Lacey, when the unthinkable happens.

                                                                 

Now Grace is living with a grandmother she has never met, in a town she never heard her mother speak of.  She begins to meet people who knew her mother and her father, and she learns more about her past in a few weeks than she had known in her entire life.

As Grace gets to know the town, she begins to find clues.  Clues that remind her of a game, a treasure hunt, her mother used to send her on when they moved to a new place.  As Grace tracks the clues, she begins to think that they were left by her mother and that they will tell her what to do.

Grace is one of those characters that I just want to pick up and take home with me.  She is creative and loving, but she is not going to give herself up too easily.  She feels lost and betrayed by some of those closest to her.  I also love her new friend Jo and her brother Max.  All of the secondary characters in this book are so perfectly written.

I feel like there have been a lot of books lately where the girl is dealing with the loss of her mother. Revolution and Sure Signs of Crazy are two I have read recently.  All three of these are totally different types of situations, but I feel like Grace, Sunny, and Sarah would be great friends.

Have you read The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer?  I'd love to hear what you think!

It's Monday!

I'm joining Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers in sharing my reading this week.  Head on over to their blogs to see what others are reading and link up your own post!

It's my first Monday of summer break!  I'm excited to get back into the blogging groove.  I started this blog last summer, but most of my school year posts came during breaks from school.  I've had a great start to my summer reading, I was in a bit of a slump at the end of the year, but that's pretty normal.  It's a busy time!  

Here's what I've read in the past week:

Picture Books

This was a cute book about opening your mind to new things and using your imagination.  Sometimes you need to meet someone who gives you an extra push.

I love a great dog character!  This would be a great book to use when talking about accepting yourself the way you are and growing into your own skin.

Middle Grade

All of these books were amazing!

If you loved Countdown, you've got to read this new one by Deborah Wiles.  I reviewed it here.

Grace is an awesome character.  I've been so impressed with all the main characters I've read recently.  I've got a review scheduled for tomorrow for this book.

Another awesome main character.  This would also pair well with Countdown by Deborah Wiles.  I think it is a tricky time in history for middle grade readers to understand, but Megan Frazer Blakemore does a good job making it accessible to kids and showing the fear that people were feeling in the early days of the Cold War with Russia.  Plus Hazel is hilarious.

Young Adult

This was the first Stephanie Perkins book I've read and I've already requested the other two books in this series at the library.  I love books set in Paris!

Have you read any of these books?  I'd love to hear what you think!

Revolution

My first #BookADay for Summer 2014 was Revolution by Deborah Wiles.  I read Countdown when it first came out in 2010 and I was excited that it was the first of three books in a 1960s trilogy.  If you've read either of these books, you will immediately know why there was so much time in between the two...the amount of research Deborah Wiles does for these book is on another level.  I think this is why these books are so appealing. Throughout the book, there are snippets of the world at that time.  Photographs.  Song lyrics.  Quotations.  Advertisements.  All of these additions really bring the book alive.

The summer of 1964 is a turning point of the Civil Rights Movement.  Freedom Summer.  For 12 year old Sunny, it is a summer of change and growing into her own skin and deciding what kind of person she is going to be.  

It starts with a chance encounter in the community pool in the middle of a summer night.  Then come the "Invaders".  Then her beloved pool is closed down.  There is picketing in the street.  There is a new girl from the North who reminds her of her mother.  And through it all, she encounters the boy from the pool over and over again.  Without even knowing him, she becomes more and more curious and confused about what is happening in her town.  

One thing I loved most about this book was Sunny's voice.  I loved everything about her.  She was slightly mischievous but her heart was in the right place.  She is haunted by the disappearance of her mother when she was a baby.  She is trying to figure out where she fits in with her new step-family.  She's trying to understand what has happened to her town.

This would be a perfect book for anyone who has enjoyed The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine or Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood.

I don't know what the topic of the third book in this trilogy will be, but I will certainly be ready to read it!  

Have you read Revolution?  I'd love to know what you think!