#IMWAYR July, 11, 2022

Welcome readers! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have beouten up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next. 

We enjoyed having our two grandkids visiting with us for four sleeps last week while Mom and Dad got the new house ready to move into. They arrived and left earlier than expected, so I am able to get a post in. The youngest had never been away from her parents before. During the day she was fine, but bedtime was hard. They returned home on Sunday. It was time. I came home, picked five pounds of raspberries, froze them, and crashed on my reclining rocking chair listening to an audiobook. My partner came in saying he already missed them. It will take me a day and getting all the chaos of toys strewn all over the house cleaned up before I do. As I write this, I am just enjoying the quiet down time. 

The best part of having them with us, is reading together. Ada is on the cusp of becoming an independent reader so we read fun pattern books to help her on her way. We also read lots of different picture books, but today I'm mostly just sharing books that are newish to me. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS 

 

4 stars

A Day for Sandcastles by JonArno Lawson & Qin Leng (Illustrator) 🍁

A family spends the day at the beach in this wordless picture book. The three children spend their time trying to build a sand castle. Time and again it is destroyed by different things. A toddler totters through it. The wind blows a woman's hat into it. Waves crash into it. The siblings remain undaunted and rebuild after each disaster. Then it's time to go home. 

Qin Leng's artwork is brilliant. I spent hours poring over the illustrations. 

Then I gave it to my granddaughter to try out by herself. I think she isn't ready for this kind of book yet - at least, not all by herself. 

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS 

5 stars

The Strangest Thing in the Sea: and other Curious Creatures of the Deep by Rachel Poliquin & Byron Eggenschwiler (Illustrations) October 5, 2021 🍁

I like how this book is laid out. Each animal is given two full page spreads. In the first, the second page is folded over so we see an imaginary version of the unique creature we are about learn about. 

The inside spread has an illustration showing the animal in its habitat. Information boxes, written in scientific jargon, surround the beast. Each page has a fact box on the bottom right hand side with details about the animal. I like that these show a silhouette of a scuba diver or their mask compared to a similar image of the creature. This is a brilliant way of getting a sense of what the size data means. 

On the right hand side of the spread is large print text written from the perspective of each animal. I read and enjoyed this by myself the first time round. Then Ada and I read a few pages of the book for a few nights til it was done. Those personalized entries were what fascinated her most. 

CHAPTER BOOKS

5 stars

Charlie and Mouse Series by Laurel Snyder & Emily Hughes

Charlie & Mouse (#1) April 11, 2017; Charlie & Mouse & Grumpy (#2) January 1, 2017; Charlie & Mouse Outdoors (#4) March 3, 2020; Charlie & Mouse Lost and Found (#5) August 24, 2021

Charlie & Mouse Are Magic, the newest book in this charming series will be released in August. Luckily, Lost and Found was available at my library so I was able to introduce these two brothers to my five year old granddaughter, Ada. She ended up loving these characters as much as I do. We laughed together at all the same places. I then found some digital versions available at the library, downloaded them, and we binged a bit. We read the first book in the series a couple of times. Ada especially enjoyed the Bedtime Banana story. We both agreed that Grumpy is a lot like her Grandpa. 

I am thinking I will get one entire set for her and another for her cousin who is the same age. 

If you know nothing about these books, they are based on the author's two sons. They capture the joys and humour of everyday life. Emily Hughes' illustrations are the icing on the cake. She captures an innocence in childhood and shows us a diverse cultural community living together in harmony.

4 stars

Eva's Treetop Festival by Rebecca Elliot

Ada and I enjoyed the first in this series well enough. Eva is a young owl who tries to organize a festival all be herself. It's an overwhelming task. At first she thinks she can do it by herself, but by the end realizes she needs help. Along the way she learns a valuable lesson about delegating and turns a foe into a friend. 

5 stars

The Princess in Black and the Bathtime Battle by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale & LeUyen Pham (Illustrations)

Ada and I are now caught up in our Princess in Black reading. We might have read this together before, but I didn't keep track of it. In this one the princesses superhero alias' have to work together to give a bath to a very stinky monster.  

NOVELS

5 stars

The Boy Who Failed Show and Tell by Jordan Sonnenblick February 2, 2021

This memoir by Jordan Sonnenblick goes a long way to explain why his fictionalized young men are some of the sweetest I've encountered in middle grade fiction. 

A lot happened to young Jordan when he was in grade four. His pet snake had way too many babies. He had bullies to watch out for, drum lessons to keep on top of, and had to take a lot of medication for his asthma. To top it all off, his teacher hated him - really hated him. (This last bit really made me really angry.) When she hit him his parents put him in a new school with a new loving teacher. 

This is an important book for teachers. As someone with asthma who on occasion has to take a lot of medication, I am fully aware of how jittery this makes us. I've always cut kids like young Jordan as much slack as I could. For those who never had to experience this, it gives you insight at what it feels like. The whole book is full of insights to help teachers become better people in the classroom. 

For readers, this book will help struggling students realize that they are not alone. They are sure to appreciate the humour in this.

I loved all the connections to comic books and literature. I managed to miss Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series. (I was in my last years of high school and taking in 'serious literature' when it was first published) After reading this I am convinced that I missed an important reading experience in my youth. 

4 stars

The Crosswood by Gabrielle S. Prendergast January 19, 2021 🍁

This is from the Orca Currents collection. These books are "are short, high-interest novels with contemporary themes written specifically for middle-school students reading below grade level. Reading levels from grade 2.0 to 5.0. Interest level ages 9-12"

Blue Jasper loves his twin siblings, but they are a handful to look after. One day when he is trying to give his mother a break, he takes them for a hike in the forest. Just like that, they disappear. It turns out they have been kidnapped by the Fairy King. Blue discovers that they are actually the children of the Fairy Queen. In exchange for her saving Blue's life, his mother made a bargain to look after the twins. Now the queen wants to take his mother's life for failing to take proper care of them. Blue makes a bargain with the queen and sets off into the dangerous fairie realms to rescue his foster siblings. Along the way he makes all kinds of new friends. 

As is common with these books, the plot zips right along. I was enthralled enough to keep turning page after page. What really impressed me was how much character development Prendergast managed to fit into this novel. I finished up wanting to read the sequels, The Wherewood & The Overwood. 

As a fan of Holly Black's fairie books, I wondered if this book would work for me. It turns out to be like a stripped down version of one of hers. It might not have the rich complexity of Black's books, but I was still pleasantly surprised. 

The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman  March 10, 2020

I am thankful to Karen Yingling, who highlighted this book a number of years ago. Anytime she gives a book 4 or more stars, it goes onto my must read list. I am a sucker for any book with grandparent connections and this book did not let me down. 
Set against the backdrop of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, this story of forged friendships unfolds through the perspectives of three main characters. Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko are two girls who lived in the city at that time. Both lost their fathers through the accident. Rita Grigorievna fled Kiev in 1941, just prior to the Nazi invasion. At first Valentina and Oksana seem to be enemies. Then they end up travelling together and staying in Leningrad with Valentina's grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. As Oksana gets to know Valentina and her grandmother she discovers that her abusive father's anti-Semitic rants were false. As the two girls and the grandmother get to know one another, love grows between them. Then Oksana's mother comes to take her back to Minsk. The man she is now with turns out to be as abusive, if not even more than her father was. It's up to Valentina and Rita to come up with a plan to rescue her. In the end it involves the Muslim family who save Rita in the 1940's. Fans of Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch will enjoy this. 

CURRENTLY

The Body by Bill Bryson
Traitors Among Us by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

UP NEXT 

Three Women and A Boat by Anne Younson

Truckers by Terry Pratchett

READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 13/24 one in progress

#MustReadNonFiction 11/18 one in progress

Canadian Authors 41/100 one in progress

Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

Indigenous Authors 12/25

2022 Big Book Summer Challenge 4 one in progress

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 162 /250