Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.
LOVE this IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for new books you'll want to read.
Do you all follow your reading plans? Apparently I do not. Oh well.
What I Read
The best books I read were middle grades. Only read a couple picture ones and they were so-so.
Kid Vs. Squid by Greg Van EekhoutMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Really make that like three point five. It was a lot of fun and a length that many of my students will actually be able to FINISH. (Can you tell I get frustrated when they don't finish? Once or twice, it's all good. But some of them? Almost never. :[) The timing seemed a little off ... was great until the ending sort of seemed to come out of nowhere and then there were a couple pages of "and this is what happened to our main characters after" and then it was done. So, you know ... maybe a few more pages would have been a good thing.
Lots of cool sea creatures. Actually almost to the point where I got a little tired of them. This would make a super cool graphic novel.
I have another of the author's books on my Nook. Will have to move that up the TBR list!
PS Small thing ... I get the title ... rhymes and all that. But the squid? Not actually a big part of the story.
The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer L. HolmMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oops. I missed the first one. But that's OK, it was still easy to follow.
And funny! I like funny. May Amelia and her brothers are funny. Even better (or worse, as some of the borrowed storyline is sad) that some of this comes from the author's own family history.
Georgia's Greatness by Lauren Baratz-LogstedMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I like these. There are off funny lines and crazy things happening. A few holes in the story, yes, hence not quite four or five stars. But I do still think I shall have to get them for the school collection. Public library didn't have number two but oh well. There's a little recap of the story so far at the beginning of each one, so while it would assist the OCD reader in me to finish them in order ... it's not imperative.
Mr. Pete is a good guy. The McG is not quite so bad as she might seem. And these are eight ingenious almost eight year olds.
Jackie's Jokes by Lauren Baratz-LogstedMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Alert ahead ... CLIFFHANGER ENDING!
The beauty of discovering a series later on. We're inching closer and closer to four stars.
Marcia's Madness by Lauren Baratz-LogstedMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Keep them coming! Only (slight spoiler here) ...
no real answer to the cliffhanger ending of #4 yet.
View all my reviews
I'm in the middle of listening to The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains ... but I'm afraid I must be kind of the poster child for it. At least in audiobook format I'm finding it very hard to pay attention and follow the train of thought.
The Coming Week
I'm in the middle of A Curse Dark as Gold and LOVING it. This is why I don't go through and more viciously weed my Goodreads TBR list of over 1000. This one was like number 14 or something ... been on there for a while and I just happened to choose it as an older book to request at the library.
I seriously much catch up on my Netgalley and Edelweiss e-ARCS before they all time out and they don't let me have any anymore. Especially if the rumor that I heard turns out to be true and my public library starts charging for ILLs/holds in September. :[
I got rid of some books this week. Or, to be honest, boxed them up before a PTA mom comes to save them in her garage until the district book sale (it comes at a very inopportune time of year for teachers to clean shelves!). It was hard. Why is it so hard? The idea of books is sacred. I do not believe that the actual books themselves are and yet still have a hard time letting go. Or maybe I should have participated in the OK to ReRead challenge. That could have made it harder! Anyway. Shelves can breathe again. You know what that means ...
...more books! I hate cleaning out bookshelves, even when I desperately need the space. Must be some kind of teacher related sickness.
ReplyDeleteYep. That's exactly right. Already have ... four coming? Five? I had some points on Amazon. My local indie bookseller is highly inconvenient. :/
DeleteI do not follow my reading plans either, I am also very OCD about following series in order and I agree that it is painful to get rid of books just on the principle of the thing. Many of these books sound really good and I will have to seek them out. I hope that the rumor about your library charging is not true...that would be awful.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only one who doesn't follow plans!
DeleteAnd boy howdy do I hope so, too. Or ... eek. If they'd even like pay $20 a year for the card that will let you ILL all you want? I know they need budget $$$. But so do I! :/
Weeding the library is horrible, but I have tried to be brave so things are fresh and updated. My rule of thumb: If it appears on AwfulLibraryBooks.net is HAS to go!
ReplyDeleteHa. At school it's not quite as hard to weed (unless it's Nancy Drew). Personal books? I have the worst time over. But ever so true. Awful Library Books is a hoot!
DeleteI have never heard of the Sisters series so I'm so glad I stopped by your cute blog. I loved The Trouble with May Amelia; I just read that this year. And though I'm not very familiar with weeding, I know my school librarian did it and she also said how hard it was!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great book titles and info! I'll stop by again!
Yay! Thank you so much.
DeleteI am so glad you liked May Amelia though now you have to read the first one because it is fabulous too.
ReplyDeleteI have 2 of The Sisters books and just haven't gotten around to reading them- will have to fix that.
Happy reading this week! :)
Yes. I checked when I went by the public library and they didn't have it in. My holds were already maxed out but as soon as I can I'm getting it!
DeleteThe Sisters books are quick reads. I won't say they're perfect but they certainly are fun! I plan on getting some for my students in the fall.
Hip Hooray to weeding and freeing up space for new books, quite painful process but oh so refreshing afterwards! I enjoyed those Sisters 8 series, read them all. I wasn't quite keen on how the series ended to be honest... and never did like how some of the sisters treated one another but enjoyed completing the series nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteDrat! Really? I hate when I'm not super fond of endings (Mockingjay? I'm talking to YOU!). But yes. It does feel nice that my bookshelves can breathe again!
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