It's Monday and not only is it time for #IMWAYR, there are only
two weeks of school left til winter break. I admit that the latter makes me a
tad more excited than the former, but just a tad. Thank you Jen at Mentor Texts
and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers for hosting this weekly party.
I have held my last book fair. It is very liberating to say this.
It isn't that Scholastic didn't have some spectacular books. They did. In an
ordinary year, I would be having another one in the spring, but this last one
was so frustrating, I decided to just say enough. There are a couple of
reasons for this. First, the 'seasonal' collection was all Christmas books. I
teach at a multicultural and multifaith school. To be honest, I was ashamed to
see this selection of books. I have been complaining about it for the last
number of years, but this year when I was told that they had included some
other titles but they didn't sell, I suggested that maybe they needed to
have better choices. My other frustration came from the fact that they upgraded
their Wi-Fi credit/debit machines and now they don't work at our school. I want
to thank Ms
Yingling, whose comments here last week gave me extra courage to make this
decision.
I went book shopping on Saturday and picked up a passel of new
Hanukkah titles and even scraped together time to do a blog post about them.
You can read my post about them here or see them on goodreads here.
I also picked up some new Christmas books, but I'll blog about
them next week some time.
Other than seasonal books, I did get some other books read.
PICTURE BOOKS
 |
| 4 stars |
If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur by Linda Bailey Colin
Jack (Illustrations)
I must confess that I have adored every Linda Bailey book I have
ever read. In other words, I am a fan. This is one of our Chocolate Lily book
club books for this year. Readers will discover all the truly positive reasons
why owning a dinosaur is a good thing. This is a fun read that will leave
young readers with a model for writing their own story. Colin Jack's cartoon
style illustrations add an extra level of hilarity for the reader.
Of the many picture books I read at the book fair, these are a few that stuck out.
 |
| 4 stars |
The Very Noisy Bear by Nick Bland
I have loved every one of Nick Bland's books about Bear, and this
one is no different. I loved that bear wasn't afraid to keep trying new
instruments until he found the right one, even though the instruments (and
their original owners) suffered for it. I finished this book up with a surprised laugh.
 |
| 3 stars |
Monsters Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
& Ben Cort
Ben Cort's bold and colorful illustrations are perfect, albeit, some are a tad scary. Mostly the poetry works for me but occasionally the rhyme and rhythm falters. I can see that this would be a great book for children just moving out of diapers!
 |
| 4 stars |
Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey
Rosen Schwartz & Dan Santat
This book is a lot of fun. I read it during the book fair with a few boys I have been doing writing workshops with. It will make a perfect addition to the twisted fairy tale telling ideas they have been coming up with. In fact, I told them they could have written this. (Maybe without the rhyme scheme as they are only 6 and 7 years old) We were not totally satisfied with the ending because while we didn't want the wolf to eat Red Riding Hood, he really had worked hard to become a ninja!
NOVELS
 |
| 5 stars |
The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall & Narrated by Susan
Denaker
Adoration isn't too strong a word for how I feel about the
Penderwick family. Each book is like visiting with a family of old friends. I
can't imagine listening to a finer book to provide a break from the insanity of
book fair week. I loved discovering what was going on with them through the
voices of Batty and Ben. I laughed and I wept a bit while driving home and
listening to this book. Susan Denaker's voice captures this family brilliantly.
The best part of finishing it, is discovering that I missed The
Penderwicks at Point Mouette so I have it to look forward to while waiting for
the fifth book in this series to come out.
 |
| 4 stars |
Rabbit Ears by Maggie de
Vries
This book deals with difficult subject matter. It is the story of
a girl, Kaya, and her family after she ends up addicted to heroin and working
the streets in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, BC. We eventually discover
that an old man in their neighborhood abused her when she was younger. It is
not an easy read despite being a relatively short and simple book. de Vries
knows her subject matter having written earlier about her sister, Sarah, who
was one of the Missing Women from that part of town.
I have to admit that I'm nervous about my grade sevens reading
this book. It's part of the Stellar book club books chosen for high school. I'm
sure glad that I've read it and can debrief it with them in our meetings.
CURRENTLY
I've started listening to The
Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands
and reading The Rule Of Three by Eric Walters.
UP NEXT
Since we separated book club into three groups, and I am leading
only one of them, I feel a bit relaxed about needing to finish them all. I hope
to get a few more of my must read in 2015 titles completed before reckoning day
arrives.
