#IMWAYR JANUARY 15, 2018

#IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers Readers host the kidlit rendition. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.

Here in our home in Oliver, BC, I'm writing in front of the living room window. The brightness of the snow compensates for the grey overcast sky. As dusk settles into dark I am struck by the quiet of this place and realize I have internalized this peace. Small towns might have their limitations, but in this deep winter calm and respite from the rest of the world, they are piddling. Monday we return to the hum of background noise that is the city. I am missing my family there, but at the same time, sad to be leaving here. Tomorrow I will run around like a chicken without its head cleaning up things I should be doing now, but I'm sitting here, having finished a draft of this post, a glass of wine at my side, and revelling in this moment of being right with the world.

CHAPTER BOOKS

Not For Sale by Sara Cassidy & Helen Flook (Illustrations)

4 stars

I read the sequel to this last year and loved it so much that I've been meaning to read this one ever since. Cyrus and his brother, Rudy, are happy in their house in the city and don't want to move. But their parents aren't working as often as they once were and they need to downsize.
Cyrus comes up with a plan to stop the sale of the house. It almost works.
What appealed to me in the sequel was the fabulous characters Sarah Cassidy has created, and I ended up loving them even more now.
If you have readers who are fans of Laurel Snyder's Charlie and Mouse, but are ready to move on to a bit more challenging material (the publisher states that the reading level is for children from seven to nine) this series will appeal. This is a warmhearted family that will make you laugh and love with them.


MIDDLE GRADE & YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

4 stars

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

Katherine Applegate writes, "In Kek's story I hope readers will see the neighbor child with a strange accent, the new kid in class from some faraway land, the child in odd clothes who doesn't belong, ... I hope they see themselves"
She certainly succeeded.
In my teaching career I worked with different children from different places. It wasn't till I spent time immersed in a different culture and language that I began to understand what it might be like for them. This books unveils the trauma and culture shock new immigrants deal with.

5 stars

The War I Finally Won (The War That Saved My Life #2) by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley & Jayne Entwistle (Narrator)

I was challenged at first by Jayne Entwistle’s narration because as soon as I heard her voice I was confused as to what book I was listening to. Entwistle’s voice IS Flavia de Luce from Alan Bradley’s series. I quickly adjusted and was completely pulled into the story. I absolutely adore these characters!
The prequel had a satisfying conclusion, so it really wasn’t until I started this one that I realized how much still needed to be resolved. While Ada struggles to come to grips with her new life and learn to trust, she teaches the rest of us many important lessons about being human and might even help us resolve issues of our own. 

5 stars

Dear Martin by Nic Stone 

This book belongs on the same shelf as The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. While we can try to understand what it means to be black in America it's only when the experience is personalized as it is in these two novels that we really begin to apprehend the gravity of the reality.
I was not prepared for the death in this book. I continue to reflect on the significance of this because while nobody should ever have to anticipate the possibility of it, I've come to realize that it's probably my white privilege that allowed me to be ignorant of what was to come.
I appreciate the complexity in this book. Nice Stone has created authentic characters and posited them in untenable situations. I hope that we learn to do better by their real counterparts from reading literature like this.

4 stars

Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr 

This is a beautifully satisfying book set thousands of years ago during the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean.
The gods have carved out a brutal destiny for Aissa. Discarded by her priestess mother upon her birth because of perceived imperfections, she was rescued by Kelya, a wise woman, and adopted into a loving goat herding family. She was orphaned at four when raiders killed her father and kidnapped her mother to sell into slavery. Following this she was dropped in the servant quarters and abandoned to the heartlessness of the other servants and considered a cursed child by them and other villagers. Eventually she was cast out and forced to survive on her own.
When she gets her wish to leave the island and become a bull dancer, she has no inkling of what horrors are in store for her and what she will have to overcome before she finds acceptance.
I liked so much about this novel. Wendy Orr has created a fabulous world to get lost in. I appreciated the map at the beginning of the book that helped me understand the island more concretely. She's populated it with feasible characters. It's impossible not to care about Aissa as she struggles and triumphs through all her trials.

ADULT NONFICTION 

4 stars

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown & Karen White (Narrator)

I am deeply inspired by Brené Brown’s work. This book motivated so much, that I have decided to make vulnerability my personal word for the year. I hope it will enable me to build stronger connections to my family, friends, and people I meet and work with. I'm going to have to purchase my own copy.

CURRENTLY

I'm listening to The Ethan I Was Before by Ali Standosh. I'm still reading Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough by Doug Saunders for book club, and have just started Cast No Shadow, a graphic novel by Nick Taplanasky and Anissa Espinosa.

UP NEXT

I now have a pile of graphic novels to focus on for the Cybil awards. I'll start listening to whatever audiobook becomes available next. 


PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MUSTREADIN2018 3/25 - 1 in progress

#MUSTREADNFIN2018 1/12 - 1 in progress

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 1/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge 10/333