#IMWAYR April 6, 2015

It's Monday again and time for #IMWAYR. It's when bloggers write about the books they have been reading in the past week. A warning to the wise that this can become an expensive addiction! Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Rickie from Unleashing Readers host this weekly event. Check out their blogs for links to the many participants.

Thank Goodness for a four day weekend. I might just be getting caught up with my 2015 must read goal! I've finished up a few novels and a couple of picture books this week.

The Search For the Red Dragon by James A Owen

3 stars

I enjoyed this second book in The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, but can't see any but my most sophisticated readers getting into it. There are numerous historical and literary references. Without the background knowledge, I'm not sure that it will work. That said, for serious Tolkien fans, this book would be right up their alley. 

This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J Cavanaugh

5 stars

This is a heartbreakingly poignant book. Cavanaugh's characters just barged right into my life. I couldn't help but care and worry about them all. 

Ratchet, a young homeschooled girl, wants more than anything to have a friend. Her father is a passionate environmentalist who, with Ratchett's help, fixes cars in their garage for a living. Her mother died when Ratchet was young. Ratchet has it in her mind that if she can only find out more about her mother, she will be able to figure out who she herself is. While her father won't talk about his wife, he does keep a hidden locked box. Ratchet is sure that the secrets it hides will help her figure out herself. 

When her father is forced to do community service teaching a go kart building course to local youth, Ratchet finds a place for herself where she is needed. She even makes a friend in one of the students, Hunter. Hunter struggles with learning issues, and as she helps him out, reveals hidden strengths in herself. 

If I had my own classroom I would read this book out loud and have my students do some of the writing activities.  Here is an example of one of the powerful poems that left me gasping.

Dad is saving

The planet

for the Good Lord

Sometimes

I wonder

if anyone

is worried 

about saving

me.

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

  

4 stars

Jordan and Josh are basketball playing twin brothers. Their father, a former basketball star, is their primary caretaker. The twins are all tangled up in each other's lives until one of them falls in love. Then Josh does something that could destroy them. On top of all this their father becomes very ill. 

There is so much love about this book. The writing is dynamic and powerful. 

Happy is a huge river right now and I've forgotten how to swim. (p207)

Filthy, silence don't mean

We have run out of things to say,

Only that we are trying 

Not to say them. (p208)

He's no longer listening to music,

But his tears are loud enough

To dance to (p212)

It's punctuated with Basketball Rules that reveal truths about how to live your life.

Basketball Rule # 3

Never let anyone

lower your goals.

Other's expectations

of you are determined

by their limitations

of life.

The sky is your limit, sons.

Always shoot for the sun

and you will shine.

Until now I would have said the only sport worth reading about was baseball. Kwame Alexander has changed my mind. I just wish the whole book had worked more for me. Even after rereading the last section again, I don't really understand the ending. 

4 stars

Messenger by Lois Lowry

I read The Giver ages ago and then when Son was published, I found and listened to Gathering Blue. Since then I've reread The Giver. They have all been satisfying reads. While I enjoyed finding out what happened to Matty, I'm mostly just blown away by how relevant this series still is. I hope that Son won't disappoint me.

X a Novel by Ilyashah Shabazz & Kekla Magoon

4 stars

This is a fictionalized biography of Malcolm X in his early years. It's a telling tale of a brilliant young man falling into trouble and deeply out of control. It isn't an easy read as it's akin to watching a train wreck about to happen. At the end Malcolm finds some kind of redemption. What struck me as profound in this novel isn't so much that this is Malcolm X's story, but that it is a story whose deeply etched grooves continues to find actors in the many young men before and after him who are disenfranchised from mainstream society.  My only quibble with this book is the jumping around in time which I found disconcerting. I encourage readers to read the notes at the end.  

Wild by Emily Hughes

3.5 stars

The illustrations in this book are stunning; rich with detail and humor. I'm not even sure why I don't like it. I wanted to love it, but I didn't leave the book feeling anything but sad and disheartened. So that's probably why. Still I can imagine that it could engender rich conversations about what it means to be human. 

The Queen's Shadow: A Story About How Animals See by Cybèle Young

5 stars

I don't know who wrote about this book in an #IMWAYR post a few weeks ago, but wow am I glad you did. This is a book I can't wait to get for our library! At a gala event the Queen's shadow goes missing. Mantis Shrimp, a detective, interviews the other animals who tell what they saw through their eyes. For the reader, we discover the many different ways that animals see the world. This is told through the fictional account, the images on the page, and a sidebar that gives additional information. The book is made even richer by supplemental information at the end of the narrative; first on vision and then more details about the animals in the story. To top all this off, there is a glossary at the end of the book!
(I think I figured out it was Adrienne Gear who turned me on to this one.)

Currently I'm reading (with my eyes) Finding Grace by Becky Citra and listening to Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. I'm loving both of them so far!