Juvenile Fic (& one Non-Fic) I've Been Reading

GUYKU: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Loved this one. Loved the poems and the illustrations. If I get a chance I will update this review from school (where the book currently resides) with a specific example or two. I just know I had to show a couple of them to my assistant and she laughed. And considering at the time the library was full of kids waiting for day cares to pick them up that's saying something. Can't wait to share it with the kids in the fall. (Gotta love it when book orders come in two days before the last day of checkout and what ... six school days before we're out for the summer.)



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Clementine and the Family Meeting by Sara Pennypacker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


OK. All quotes are coming from an electronic ARC so ... page numbers are going to be off. But I can't help sharing a few. They make me laugh.



"Then Margaret had blabbered on and on about advanced lip-gloss tips and the proper application of eyeliner until I thought I would die of bore-dumb." (pg 8)



I will NEVER hear that word the same way again.



"I opened my backpack and pulled out my important papers folder and ... [it] was still there! I'm supposed to keep it until the end of the project, and every day that it's still in my backpack feels like a miracle." (pg 11)



I so understand that feeling.



I need to stop collecting quotes. It's slowing my reading down. ;]



"My inside clock keeps perfect time, and so I am never late for anything. Okay, fine, I'm late a lot, but it's only because I forget to set my inside clock. But I was remembering now." (pg 18)

Yep. Been there, too. Didn't know I had so much in common with Clementine.

"'What's on the agenda?' I asked. Agenda is Latin for 'list of stuff to talk about,' so when you say it, you're saving your mouth a lot of work. Plus, you sound smart." (pg 22)



HA! As a teacher faced with too many meetings lately ... I wish more agendas sounded smart.

"It's the teacher's job to teach and the students' job to learn. Both of you have to decide about how best to do that." (pg 66)



SO TRUE.

I absolutely cannot wait to share this with my students. As school gets out in a week it won't be until the fall. But you can bet I'll be adding more orange Clementine spines to our Pennypacker bookshelf!




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Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A kid-friendly fictionalization of what happened to too many Afghanis in the mid to late 90s. Taliban rule forced many if them to leave their homeland. Then 9/11 and even here they were not treated very well.
I actually lived in the Bay area in the mid-90s. I was doing church service work more with Hispanics but if this book is correct Fremont had more Afghanis than anywhere else in the US. I could believe that ... there were people from all over the world!



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Here There Be Monsters: the Legendary Kraken and the Giant Squid by HP Newquist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Super curious ... if only tomorrow wasn't the last day of school. Will kids go nuts over this book? I think yes ... but we'll have to wait until the fall to find out.




DRAT on end of year new book deliveries. But HOORAY for sort of creepy weird fascinating books like this one!


Though the quote about Tennyson on pg 15 seemed kind of random. The English major part of me appreciates it but seriously? Why include "'Tis better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all" in the book JUST because he also wrote a poem about the Kraken? Which is hard to read because it's printed in script?



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