Monday Reading - More & More Special Books

     Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and 

  

Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! Happy Reading! 

        Hope everyone made it through Daylight Savings Time. It's been so warm in Denver that it felt like early October instead of November! Have a lovely week ahead!

          It's a tween romance, at least according to twelve-year-old Peyton (with her own 'boyfriend list") whose summer appeared to be lost when her best friend leaves to spend the summer helping a family member with young kids. However, she both becomes a heroine and a detective after rescuing a hit-and-run victim who she hopes will be her summer boyfriend. She and that best friend had planned to have their first one this summer. After that rescue, as Jennifer Richard Jacobson lets Peyton tell her story, things turn from romance to mystery. She lives in Mussel Cove, a coastal Maine town, and makes quite a few assumptions as days pass. Her search shows changes in her ideas of how to live her life, the one she wants to live perfectly. She even has numerous quotes on her bedroom wall that guide her. There are family conflicts from a parents' divorce, a grandmother who was thought loving, but realized she was also rather controlling.   It's a mixed-up world for Peyton with no one perfect answer. At one point, toward the end, readers might learn from her own summer's "education". It feels authentic to read from this tween's POV. How do they grow up? By experiencing love and loss, just what happened to Peyton. 

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

     

         Three kids and one dad, AND "The Longest Storm" made for a very long, often uncomfortable time. They couldn't go outside. They were stuck with each other! Arguments raged, quarrels over the smallest things. Then one night, big crash of lightning, and everyone was caught in the dark, until they gathered. Somehow it all changed after that. There was comfort and finally, light, finally, the storm ended. Vaccarino tells it like it is. Stuck inside, we can tire of each other, but in a calamity, there is a time for being grateful that we have each other. With illustrations that also show the stories' emotions, Dan Vaccarino offers a chance for a new outlook on family time and what's important. Fun story!

             It feels like people wait and wait for a new book by the Fan Brothers. They do not disappoint with stories you want to read more than once and turn the pages slo-o-owly in order to catch all the interesting details. This time, something (according to the insects on the ground) did fall from the sky. They marvel over it. Some guess it's a comet from the sky; the walking stick "was happy to find something even stranger than himself in the garden." "The dung beetle tried to roll it, but it was too heavy." Everyone thought it was the most amazing thing. Spider took a step further and the next morning claimed it was his. See, it sits in his web! With some help, he opens Wonderville for all to come to view this thing. He charges one leaf and as more come, he raises his prices. Perhaps it's a fable that will bring much discussion about the spider's actions. You will be happily surprised at his change of heart. The Fan Brothers bring another tale to us readers, perhaps they call it a Wonderville for us?

         I wait for any book by Sergio Ruzzier, always fun to read for younger readers. This time in the morning, Fish tells his mom that he's bored. He has nothing to do. Everything is 'dark and cold and boring". All of a sudden. . . Fish discovers Sun, a new friend. They play a few games together, like hide 'n seek. The day becomes delightful, until. . . I guess you and the readers know what happens and the readers will love it. 

        As you see at the top of the cover, this is part of the "I Can Read! Comics" with three levels. At the front, there is a page titled "Cartooning Basics" explaining panels, gutters, and tiers. It adds how the word balloons work and more. It's a helpful addition for comic readers and perhaps those who want to try to draw their own. This story with simple illustrations and brief text will make a great storytime.

         They're back! Whoever would have thought that a Papa rooster and his young 'Little Red Chicken' would give such joy and laughter? I guess David Ezra Stein did, and for the third time brings back Papa who only wants a bit more sleep on a Saturday morning and a child who is awake, very wide awake, and he has brought breakfast in bed -- cookies! Papa says "no" so the second wish is for Papa to read a book to Little Red Chicken, who chooses a book of nursery rhymes. Well, they are familiar to readers until that young one changes them to "cookies" in endearing, clever ways. For example: "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, She had so many -- Cookies, she gave me a few!" Those pages are shown in the book's pages, and although Little Red Chicken keeps the rhymes going, Papa also keeps saying "No." until. . .  he needs to rest just a little longer so the Little Red Chicken creates his own poem, with illustrations! 

        Stein's details are always fun to look for even though the story itself keeps calling for readers to turn the page, turn the page! I loved seeing Papa's bedroom with the lamp and books along with kids' toys on the floor, the kitchen, and Papa's pajamas! It's another book about these chickens to love!

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

       Every night Moose and his family settle in by the fire and Moose tells a story. One night he realizes he has no new stories to tell. The next day he goes into town to the library and borrows a bunch of books. Many of his forest friends come by to hear Moose tell some stories, but their home gets so crowded, more than sardines in a can! He has a marvelous idea, finds an old bus which he fixes up into, hope you guessed it, a "Book Bus". Then he checks out loads of books to share with forest friends. Yet, there is a problem: none of the animals know how to read. So Moose teaches Bear and Bear teaches Badger. And Badger teaches Fox. What a blessing Moose is to spread this wonderful skill, to read!

You might imagine the rest of the story, and Inga Moore's illustrations bring it to life beautifully! Here's one peek at one fabulous double-page spread. I know all librarians and teachers will adore this book.

                          Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

                       

            

        

   

What's Next: Gary Paulsen's final book, How to Train Your Dad (though I've read another is coming next year) and Malinda Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club