It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/12

I am excited to be a part of the conversation at #IMWAYR!  Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting this meme.

As the end of summer rapidly approaches, I am reading all that I can!  I always tell my students that my favorite thing about summer vacation is uninterrupted reading time... so I'm relishing every second of it these days!

Recommended for grades 5-8

As a librarian, how could I not love Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein?  Rollicking and clever, this mystery tells the story of the eccentric Mr. Lemoncello and the challenge that he and a brilliant librarian create for a group of middle school kids. Invited to spend the night in the new public library, the kids are then challenged to get out of the library, using a myriad of clues and information that can be found in the stacks and databases of the library.  This will be a hit not just with librarians, but with young readers as well, who will appreciate the realistic dialogue and dynamics amongst the kids in the library as well as the creative mystery of figuring out how to get out.  

Recommended for grades 3-6

Richard Peck's latest offering, The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail, is an animal fantasy that can stand alone or be read with the companion novel, Secrets at Sea.  The sweetness of the story and the intrigue of a "mouse underworld" will appeal to many.  I think this would make for a great read aloud as Peck's writing, as always, is so vivid and paints such wonderful pictures of royal and regular mice.  

Recommended for grades 4-6

Jewell Parker Rhodes' Sugar is set during Reconstruction on a Louisiana sugar plantation.  This historical fiction offering tells the story of a fascinating time in American history through the eyes of ten year old Sugar.   Orphaned and being collectively raised by a community of former slaves, Sugar longs for a different life.  Through very different friendships (with both the former master’s son and new laborers from China), Sugar expands her understanding of herself and the world.  I was unaware that plantation owners brought workers from China to their southern fields in the 1870s and Rhodes beautifully illuminates this surprising meshing of cultures.  If I taught history, this would definitely become a read aloud in my classroom! 

Recommended for grades K-5

Too Tall Houses by Gianna Marino strikes the perfect tone as a modern day fable. The design of the book (which is in itself tall) compliments the story of rabbit and owl, two friends who live side by side. Rabbit likes to garden and Owl likes to gaze at the forest, so when Rabbit's rooftop garden gets too tall for owl to see over, Owl must retaliate by making his house taller. Then, of course, Rabbit's garden doesn't get any sun, so he has to make his house taller. You can see where this is going. The bright illustrations perfectly capture the back and forth and the resolution is just right. I can't wait to share this one with my students!

For adults

Finally, The Last Summer of the Camperdowns by Elizabeth Kelly is a book that I was eagerly anticipating. I read a number of reviews which described it as "hilarious," but having read it, I must say that it is hilarious with a serious dose of heartbreaking. Riddle Camperdown is twelve in 1972. Her charming dad is running for political office and her beautiful, cynical and sharp mother is a former actress for whom motherhood is foreign. Riddle accidentally witnesses something horrific - something life-altering, mind-blowingly horrific - and she must decide what to do with the knowledge of what she saw. Family dysfunction, first love, the spiraling nature of history - The Last Summer of the Camperdowns covers it all. I loved it!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/5/13

I am excited to join the conversation at #IMWAYR!  Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting this meme.

We are deeply into the dog days of summer now and I am reading a mixture of books that have just arrived for my library and those that have been on my TBR list for a while... my favorite this week was Ari Berk's beautiful Nightsong.

Recommended for K-3 

Nightsong, written by Ari Berk and illustrated by Loren Long is a beautiful book, rendered almost completely in black (which you'd think would make it dark, but Loren Long manages to make it soft and warm feeling).  It tells the story of little Chiro, a baby bat, who is venturing out into the world for the first time.  Chiro slowly begins to rely upon his senses and discovers his powers of echolocation.  Along the way he makes friends and discovers that the world is a good and safe place.  

Recommended for grades 5-8

There was one title on this year's Maine Student Book Award list which I had not read, but no longer!  I can finally check them all off, as I read The Ghost of Graylock.  This is a great title for those kids who beg for scary books.  This one is seriously creepy!  When Neil and Bree have to move in with their aunts because their dad has moved out and their mom is debilitated by depression, they are somewhat shellshocked and disappointed.  When Neil discovers that a broken down old psychiatric hospital is close to their new home, though, his interest is piqued.  Very quickly, Neil, Bree and their new friends become entangled in the terrifying ghost story related to the hospital.  I will hand this to fans of ghost stories, with the caveat that they shouldn't read it at night!

Recommended for grades 5-8

This week I also loved the sequel to another title on this year's Maine Student Book Award list, New Lands (The Chronicle of Egg #2) by Geoff Rodkey.  When I reviewed the first book in the series (Deadweather and Sunrise) I said it was quite possibly the best pirate story I had ever read (and I've read quite a few).  I'm always nervous about sequels when I feel especially attached to the first book and I was thrilled to discover that New Lands takes off where Deadweather and Sunrise ended.  I think what I most love about this series is that the plot is full of very fast paced action and excitement, but at the same time, the main character, Egg, is entirely sympathetic and vulnerable.  He is madly in love with Millicent (a girl who doesn't always seem worthy of his devotion), he is an entirely loyal best friend to Guts, and he is struggling to cope with the fact that his family treats him horribly.  I can't wait for the third book in this series to come out so I can discover how it all ends.

Recommended for grades 6-8

Finally, The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chaniani, has one of the coolest covers I've seen in a while.  That, combined with the subject matter, will make it a good draw for middle school readers.  This is a seriously hefty book, coming in at almost 500 pages, and it will require a patient and somewhat sophisticated fantasy reader.  That said, though, this book will be appreciated by readers who just can't get enough magic, intrigue and blurring of lines between good and evil.  For years, two children have been kidnapped into the School for Good and Evil, where fairy tales come true (as in, the kids are the actual characters in the tales we know and love).  Best friends Sophie and Agatha are this year’s picks, but with a shocking twist - Sophie, beautiful and kind, is sent to the School for Good and Agatha, surly and dark, is sent to the School for Evil.  What follows is a wild ride as the two girls attempt to both find their places in the school and escape it.