Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis

Deborah Ellis has the capacity to write about difficult issues with remarkable elegance and grace. Moon at Nine is no different. 

Based on a true story, it's about two girls, Ferrin and her friend Sadira. They are high achieving students attending a private girls' school for gifted learners. The time is 1988, shortly after the Iranian Revolution and the fall of the Shah. 

Ferrin's life is tangled with secrets. Her parents live western style lives behind closed doors. Her mother is working to bring the Shaw's son back into power. Any of this could bring them to the attention of the revolutionary guards and destroy them. 

As if this wasn't enough, Ferrin and Sadira are also keeping a dangerous secret. They love one another. It will mean certain death if they are discovered. 

While not a complicated story, it is tense and fast paced. I wanted this story to have a happy ending, but was prepared for the worst. 

It will be a welcome addition to our library because it opens a world into diverse characters in a diverse setting. 

It is suggested for students in grades 9 and up, but I feel my grade sevens, and even my sophisticated sixes could manage it. 

The Summer I Saved the World in 65 Days by Michele Weber Hurwitz

“It is very often the ordinary things that go unnoticed that end up making a difference. As you embark upon your high school careers, be unnoticed, but be remarkable.”  Mr Pontello, eighth grade history teacher.

I’m charmed to bits by this sweet story.
Nina Ross, following the advice of her grade 8 history teacher, decides to do one kind thing anonymously for every day of her summer holidays.

It begins with one simple deed; planting the flowers her elderly neighbor, Mrs Chung, can’t plant herself because of a broken leg. As the deeds add up, her neighborhood transforms from a sterile closed off collection of families and individuals into a vibrant connected community.

While the good deeds play a significant role in this tale, Nina has numerous other issues to deal with. She’s still grieving the loss of her grandmother, the only person who really got her. Jorie, her self-absorbed friend, doesn’t seem to have any inkling about who Nina is, or what she might want for herself. (Yet, while it might be fraught with difficulty, the two girls still have a loving relationship) Nina’s lawyer parents are so caught up in the most important divorce trial of their careers, they have no time for Nina or her brother, Matt. Matt seems to have almost disappeared from the family, showing up to sleep and shower before he is off again to some mysterious rendezvous.

The neighborhood is full of interesting characters. Mrs Millman, the conspiracy kook, is certain the empty house on the block is haunted. Mrs Cantalani is expecting her fourth child at any time and has three wild boys who manage to wreck havoc in their wake. Mr Dembrowski, the terror of the neighborhood, has many secrets. Mrs Chung has a history of stories and beliefs. Mrs Bennett struggles alone to support her two boys; four year old Thomas, who runs around with his wooden sword capturing invisible criminals; and Eli, Nina’s age, who tries to help out his mother, and deal with his reprobate of a father.

I can think of at least 6 girls off the top of my head who will love this book as much, if not more than I do. 

I gave this book to my brother, a grade seven teacher, who is already coming up with plans for how he will use it in his classroom. 

I'm thinking a few boys I know might also enjoy it. 

Better Off Friends by Elzabeth Eulberg

Can a boy and a girl be best friends in a platonic relationship?

This is the story of Macallan and Levi who became friends when they were 12. Levi arrived in Wisconsin the year after Macallan’s mother was killed in a car crash. They didn't hit it off at first, but ended up friends because of their mutual enjoyment of a British sit-com. Their parents connected and became close so they spent a lot of time together as extended family.

I liked the format. Alternative chapters in the book are written in distinct font to portray which character's perspective is being revealed. Each chapter is followed by an interlude where the two of them reflect on the content. The characters are witty and charming. I liked both of them.

Honestly, I read this book because, a very, very, long time ago, I married my best friend. I wondered how an author would deal with a boy and a girl being best friends. Would it feel authentic and truthful? Would my much younger self be able to connect?

The answers are sort of.

I liked this book well enough. There are parts I thought were very smart and maybe even brilliant. It even felt authentic at times. There were some truths I related to:

• It’s hard for others to get that you can just be friends with someone of the opposite gender. 
• It can be uncomfortable when your best friends date each other because of the fallout if they fall out. 
• High school relationships tend to be temporary and fraught with angst and upheaval. Against that backdrop, it wouldn't be worth it to give up a solid friendship for something so transient. 

I wanted to love this book but couldn’t. I was disappointed that the friendship was marked by sexual tension and hints of jealousy from early on. Maybe it’s because I’m too old for my younger self to connect to the teen angst inherent in it. Maybe it’s because I did have a platonic relationship with a boy who was one of my best friends, and for me at least, the romantic component never played a part. (Well not until we had graduated, gone off in separate directions, and met each other again as adults)

Here’s what I know for sure. Marrying your best friend when you are ready to make a commitment goes a long way to ensuring success in the relationship. I can only wish for the best for these fictional characters.

2014 Must Read Challenge

Holy Goodreads it's time to check in on my 2014 to read list!
Here's the good news: I've read 68 novels so far this year. And the bad news: only 27 of these are from my to read list of 57 books. 

Click on the above image to get to a list of different participants in this challenge.

After perusing my summer reading list I've realized that none of my 2014 books are on there, so I'm going to have to make some adjustments.

Some of the books I've read have wowed me. Here is a list of my five stars books. They are not in any particular order of preference because really, how can you choose one spectacular book over another? I loved each of these for different reasons.  I've linked to books that I blogged about in case you want to read more of my opinion....

1. The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp written by Kathi Appelt and read by Lyle Lovett was so delicious that no sooner did I finish it, I started all over again. 
2. Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage. I tumbled head over heels in love with these characters and Turnage's writing, so I just had to read:
3. The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage. It was as good if not better than the first. 
4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman: Just remembering this book takes my breath away. I loved it so much that I read the sequel, 
5. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman: I loved this book. Maybe this wasn't quite as stunning as American Gods, but then, what could be?
6. The Raven Boys and by Maggie Stiefvater &
7. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater: These characters are so compelling I am desperately waiting for the next in the series to come out!
8. The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielson: This book is both dark and hopeful. I couldn't put it down. 
9. This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl: I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but John Green was a friend of Esther Grace, and so I picked it up. It's a heartbreaker, but full of love and hope at the same time. 
10. The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck: I hadn't read any Steinbeck since my late teens, but he is my son's favourite writer so I asked him to recommend something. Wow! This collection of short stories about families that live in a farming community is so loaded with lyrical whimsy it feels like magical realism except it's not. Steinbeck's power is that he takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. 
11. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley: Flavia de Luce is one of my favourite fictional characters, but I think I came to care more for her in this one. I can't wait to see where Bradley takes her next. 
12. Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle: I fell in love with Nate last summer and was tickled pink to read this sequel. Federle didn't let me down!
13. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: I am embarrassed to admit that I had no idea there was such a thing as fan fiction til I read this book. I'm happy to say I've turned many of my sophisticated grade 7 readers onto Rainbow Rowell. 
14. The Water Castle by Megan Frazer Blakemore. Love love love this book. I was heartbroken that our paperback lit circle set arrived too late to use. 
15. Countdown by Deborah Wiles. I've long been a fan of Wiles, but the integration of nonfiction elements into fiction makes Countdown truly brilliant!
16. In Darkness by Nick Lake: This is dark magical realism, a disturbing tale embedded with Haitian religion and mysticism. The characters are complex and not always likeable. The setting is depressing. In spite of all this, there is a glimmer of hope. 
17. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall was a spring break recommendation. I loved how it felt like an old time children's classic. 
18. The Archived by Victoria Schwab. I'm not generally a fan of such scary stories but I loved the unique world building and strange convoluted plot. 
19. The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henke. I'm waiting for this to come out in paperback so I can order a set for literature circles for younger readers. 
20. The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne Valente: This novel reads almost like poetry. 
21. Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein: I loved this as much as Code Name Verity. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle this book, but it is as much about love and friendship as it is about the horrific circumstances in the concentration camp.

I'm now reading Adaptation by Malinda Lo. It was recommended by my niece Casey, whose blog, Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian, is the place to go if you are interested in queer Canadian fiction. 

We're deep into renovations of our internet free house in the Southern Okanogan Valley, so I'll try to get this posted and look forward to reading everyone's responses when I am back in Vancouver. 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

It's #IMWAYR. Check out TeachMentorTexts and Unleashing Readers to find out about more fabulous books!

I thought I would be getting lots of fiction reading done since we are on strike, but that isn't how it is turning out. 

First I had to type up all the summer reading recommendations from my school community and post them. It was a huge job! You can read about it and see the lists here. We ended up with 195 book suggestions. I'll do my best to read as many of them as I can....

While I have managed to get some fiction reading in this past week, I have primarily been reading news articles, political blogs, facebook posts, and twitter feeds. I've been consumed with reading anything to do with the teacher strike I am presently in the middle of here in British Columbia.

I'm impressed with anything Tom Kertes writes. His blog is Reflections on Liberation Learning. 

I've been inspired by all the positive support I've been reading from the facebook page BC voters supporting BC teachers and public education

I so proud to be part of such an amazing group of determined, dedicated, compassionate and principled professionals. There's nothing like adversity to get creativity exploding, and I am seeing and reading it regularly in the twitter feeds. Most recent are the responses to an ad posted in a recent paper claiming teacher wage demands were out of the affordability zone. (It really isn't about wages anyway) Teachers have reframed it in numerous ways, but my favourite remains the one where a teacher explains how you correctly add percentages. 

As it turns out, it was created by the aunt of one of my colleagues at work.

I admit that after a while I couldn't stomach anymore of that ilk and went back to reading fiction.  

I finished reading Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd. It was as delicious a read as stoneberry ice-cream must be to taste.  Clicking here will take you to my blog post yesterday about it.   

I was 23rds of the way into Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood when my digital copy from the VPL expired. It was one of those ARG! experiences since it will take me months to get it again. A kind soul loaned me a copy so I hope to get that finished this week.  

I started I Have a Bad Feeling About This by Jeff Strand, but since I learned my lesson from losing Oryx and Crake, realized I had other library books due that I better get on to first. 

I started and finished Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis. My review of it will be posted by tomorrow I hope. 

I've started listening to Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, the second in the Code Name Verity series. I wasn't sure at first, but have become hooked. I'm listening as I drive around with coffee and doughnuts to the picket sites in the morning. It's a strange thing to be reading about war when you are in the middle of your own battle... 

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

Oh My, Oh My, Oh My. Natalie Lloyd has written a spindiddly first book! 

Our heroine is Felicity Juniper Pickle. Her power is seeing and collecting words from places and people, words that blink, words that hum, words that burst into colours and shapes, words with legs and wings, words she writes down in her blue notebook or on her shoes and arms. There are never-before words like ardwolf, "a hyena that stays up all night and eats termites," and spindiddly "amazing."   
                  
When Felicity is with friends and loved ones, she can turn these words into poems and stories. Unfortunately, if she is around more than one person at a time, words "melt on her tongue like snowflakes... and disappear right off the edge of (her) lips." Her throat freezes up, and her words come out all jumbled when she tries to talk in front of strangers. 

Because her mother is a wanderer who travels from place to place painting, Felicity claims to be "from here and there and all across the world." Felicity has lived in six different states. It isn't easy starting school in a new place and making new friends. Words like: 
"Dork
Lonely
Loser
Clutzerdoodle"
engulf her when she starts 6th grade at Stoneberry school in Midnight Gulch, her mother's home town. 

Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, "used to be a magical place, a town where people could sing up thunderstorms and dance up sunflowers." Now it has barely a snicker left. The town and inhabitants have been cursed, a curse that chased the magic away and won't let Mama find peace wherever she goes. 

In Midnight Gulch, Felicity makes her first best friend, Jonah Pickett, (The Beedle) a young boy whose goal is to make everyone happier. As the story unfolds, Felicity and Jonah search for a way to lift the curse so that Felicity can remain in Midnight Gulch to grow up and stay as long as she wants. 

There is so much to love about this book:

I loved the made up words:
"A factalactus is a truth that hurts a little bit, that prickles and stings, like you tried to shake hands with a cactus flower. But just because it hurts doesn't make it less true. 

And factobaulous "a truth that feels so good, it's like you hugged the summer sunshine."

I loved the writing. There are simple lines like:

"part of me wanted to crawl off like a spider word and under the chairs" 
 

And whole paragraphs of pleasure:
“The way he said her name made my heart cramp. In all my years of word collecting, I've learned this to be a tried and true fact: I can very often tell how much a person loves another person by the way they say their name. I think that's one of the best feelings in the world, when you know your name is safe in another person's mouth. When you know they'll never shout it out like a cuss word, but say it or whisper it like a once-upon-a-time.”

I loved the motley collection of characters:

Jonah Pickett, whose goal in life is to secretly make people happy, just happens to use a wheelchair. 

Florentine, the poet, 

"Magnolia 

Star root 

Dragon 

Luminous 

Memory" 

mentors Felicity so she is prepared for 'the duel.'

Cleo, the feisty aunt, who quilts who takes them in is surrounded by: 

"Patch it 

Mend it 

Stitch it back together" 

MIdnight Gulch itself: 

" a poem tangled up inside a rush of the midnight song the crickets were whistling.

Finally,

At Last,

Forever, and now,

Here you are."

Here is some wisdom I'll take with me from this book:

"Your words matter more than you know" 

★★★★★

195 Summer Reading Recommendations From Dickens School Community

A few weeks before the end of school at a Monday morning assembly, instead of doing my usual book talks, I explained that I was hoping to read a book a day over the summer. I held up a piece of chart paper and asked our school community, (students, parents, and staff) to write down their recommendations for what I, and others, should read during our vacation. After the assembly, I hung the paper on a wall outside of the library. By Tuesday morning, that sheet was full, so I put up another. By Wednesday morning, that sheet was full, so I put up another. On the Thursday, I put up another sheet. That sheet stayed up until we left. 

It's taken me a while but here is the list in digital form. I've added some titles of my own that I plan to read. If you click on a book title it will take you to a Goodreads link so you can read what others think of it. Information on reading grade levels and interest grade levels comes from Perma-Bound. Occasionally I couldn't find this information. 

If you have more suggestions or the title you recorded isn't here, it might mean I overlooked it or I couldn't figure out what the book was, please repost the title and author's name here.

This link below should take you to a google doc. If you click on the link you will be able to see it and make comments. 

Dickens' Summer Reading Recommendations

Here's another way to access the list as an excel file for your own use.

Dickens' Summer Reading Recommendations

Happy Summer everyone! I can't wait to get back in September to talk about the books you are reading!