More Book Fun

    COME VISIT TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS, WITH JEN AND KELLEE WHO ARE HOSTS OF THIS KIDLIT MEME, FROM PRIMARY TO YA.  Read everyone's posts to find out what people are reading!

        It's Monday! What are you Reading? is another meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books for your TBR list. 

Bookish Words:  It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.        

                                                                       ~Sherlock Holmes

Mooshka A Quilt Story  written & illustrated by Julie Paschkis – About a quilt made by Karla’s grandmother, telling stories through each patch.  But as Karla’s routine changes when a baby sister arrives, the quilt remains quiet, until Karla figures out a way to make the stories come alive again.  Loving story about family & quilt stories & working out how having a baby sister isn’t too bad after all.  For primary children.

I’ve had the opportunity to listen to two more audio stories this week, one I liked some, enough to read all the way through, and the other was wonderful.  The first is Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes.   I struggled with paying attention to this.  I wasn't excited about the voice, especially the presentation of the females, and it took me a while to become interested in the characters. It's clearly about loss & friendship, and may fit a certain student. It's a quiet book. All the tough things have already happened, so this book is about the aftermath of the losses. I enjoyed some of the descriptions.  It is like a little story that would touch someone well if they had experienced the same things, so in that light, I should tell you that it’s about young teens going through their parents divorcing, and in another family, a tween who has to deal with the death of a brother whom he never knew.

            The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg   I am slowly trying to read all of E.L. Konigsburg's books, & recently finished & blogged about Throwing Shadows, have also loved her Newbery award-winning books and when I found this one in an audio book, I grabbed it! I loved every bit, was surprised that I hadn't heard that it concerned a small part of the crazy Nazi world, the world that created the definition of those who were named "degenerate", and the art that was confiscated because of part of that movement. The book brought two seemingly disparate stories together, revealing the mystery & then the solution at the end. It was a terrific book to listen to, with different voices coming in.

              I finished Divergent by Veronica Roth. I enjoyed the main character, Tris, although I didn’t like her as much as Katniss.  She did grow, however, and I became more respectful of who she was as the book moved along.  I am/was intrigued by the concept of the factions, and actually would have liked more about each, perhaps visiting or something, although they were so separated, perhaps that was impossible. The book was long, but I still wanted more background work in some parts, for some characters. And, at the end, I knew who were the probable ones to live to fight another day, but was surprised that there wasn't more surrounding the ending scenes. I won't say more, too much to give away.

Across The Alley by Richard Michelson, Illus. by E.B. Lewis

            This book caught my eye at the library and tells the story of two boys, across the alley in separate apartments in old-time Brooklyn when the population is changing from predominantly Jewish to African-American.  They talk mostly about baseball, but Abe also plays the violin & must practice like Willie must practice pitching.  There are some nice moments when everything comes together happily, and the watercolors by E.B. Lewis are beautiful.  This could be used to talk about cultural differences and compromise as well as inclusion instead of exclusion.  It's also a great mentor text about story organization. 

Next, if I have time while doing #TeachersWrite:

              Finish The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate and Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger. I checked out more Elephant & Piggie books, plus two other books for the award-winning meme I’m also participating in.  Will review later in the week.