I started this book because I had heard good
things about it and found three new copies of the series discounted in a second
hand book shop. I figured I better read at least the first so I could encourage
my readers to have a go at them.
I continued reading because it is a great
story. Neil has many of the qualities of gifted kids I've met over the years.
He doesn't have many social skills and his passion for food and cooking, not to
mention his over sized ego, prove to be a barrier in his acquiring any. His
parents have little to do with him except to fund his restaurant, but luckily he
has had a great mentor in semi-retired chef, Angel Jicama, who attempted to
teach him cooking at the same time as trying, unsuccessfully, to encourage Neil
into a more emotionally healthy attitude. In spite of all his quirkiness, I
found myself getting attached to this flawed main character. I also came to
admire Larry, Neil's older cousin, who is more charming, sensible and smarter
than Neil has figured out. One reason I enjoyed this book is that it is
set in my city, Vancouver, BC. There is something special about being able to
make a personal connection to places mentioned in a book. In addition to all this,
there was enough suspense, action, and shenanigans in the plot to keep me
hooked till the end.
You would think this would be enough, but I can't leave without mentioning the illustrations which are a delight to look at all by themselves. See what I mean?
This will be a book to hand over to students
who enjoyedAll
Four Stars by Tara Dairman. Even though there are no recipes included,
I'll definitely be reading more of this series.
This week Ayla, one of my grade five library
assistants, guest hosted my blog with her review of Lumberjanes. I've been
lucky to have worked with Alya a number of times over the years. Like those
Lumberjanes, Alya is the kind of person who can get along with just about
anyone.
Nerdy Birdy by by Aaron Reynolds & Matt Davies (illustrator)
Nerdy Birdy likes reading and playing video games, but he is lonely. He doesn't
fit in with other birds, not even at the bird feeder because he is allergic to
bird seed! He would like to be like the cool birds, Eagles, Cardinals, and
Robins, but they want nothing to do with him. Eventually he finds a group of
other nerdy birds to belong to. They all like to read, play World of Wormcraft
and many have the same food allergies. Then a new bird, Vulture, enters the
community. He isn't like the cool birds, but neither is he like the nerdy
birds. When his new friends rejected Vulture, Nerdy Birdy knew something was
wrong and decided to make friends with him anyway. I love the ending message in
this book, that you can be friends with people who are not the same as you.
Students are sure to love these illustrations as much as I did.
NOVELS
5 stars
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
I am so glad this book was on my #mustreadin2015 list and that I transferred it
to my #mustreadin2016 list. Wow! It took me a while to figure out what was
going on, and who all these characters were. By the time I started to
understand, I was hooked. This is a powerful story about love and loss and
forgiveness.
It is a book that made me cry, not just at the heartbreaking moments of
sadness, but sometimes just because of the heartbreaking sweetness.
Taylor is caught up in game of war between different groups of teens on the
Jellicoe Road. There are the townies, the cadets, and Taylor's faction, the
boarders. It's a strange conflict with roots that, unbeknownst to Taylor,
tangle up with her own.
Since her mother abandoned her at a 7/11 when she was eleven, Hannah has been the one dependable adult in her life. There is a parallel story, written by Hannah, of the young people who once upon a time inhabited this space, and out of boredom, created the war. When Taylor discovers that Hannah has
disappeared, she starts to read the novel in an attempt to figure out what is going on. Eventually she heads off in search of her. There is a reason books win the Printz award. The writing in this book is just gorgeous. The story is mythical and magical. I love the honesty and love between the characters: not just the romantic love, but the deep caring that Taylor's housemates and the other characters have for each other.
4 stars
Red Wolf by Jennifer Dance
This is a powerful story about a five year old Anishnaabe boy who is taken from
his loving parents and forced to attend residential school until he is 15.
There he is stripped of his name, his language, and his self-respect. He is
taught that all indigenous peoples are "dirty savages" who must be
saved and assimilated. Equality was never part of the equation, as the
children, once they left, were expected to do nothing more than work as menials
for white people.
This is a very dark and troubling story, made worse by the fact that while Red
Wolf may be a fictional character, what happened to him and his peers was reality
for many children here in North America. This story is set in the late 1800's,
but the last residential school in Canada closed in 1996.
I'm hoping to get a full blog post up about this book sometime later this week.
4 stars
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
I'm not sure I really want to give this book four stars, but it is definitely
more than three. My students have been encouraging me to read it and since I
was between audiobooks and this one was available, I decided to listen to it. I
was reticent because Collins also wrote The Hunger Games series. I finished the
first in it, but couldn't read more because they were too violent for me. Gregor
was a pleasant surprise. Boots is a delightful character and Gregor is such a
loving brother. It is a really great middle grade adventure. I might even
listen to more of the series.
NONFICTION
5 stars
Separate
Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by
Duncan Tonatiuh
This is a fabulous book that tells how a family
worked hard to ensure that their children and other Latin American children
would have the same quality of education as the rest of their peers. I loved
the illustrations as much as the story. The notes at the end of the book
provide additional detail about how this story eventually leads up to the
better known Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case that ended segregation
of students across the United States.
5 stars
Redwoods by Jason Chin What a
great read! A young boy picks up a book about redwoods, and as he reads from the
book we see him transported into the Redwood forest. I love how Jason Chin's
illustrations make the text come alive. I learned much as I read this
deceptively simple picture book. The ending is a delightful surprise.
5 stars
Between
the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I've finished this book for now, but I'm not sure it is the kind of book that
will ever let go of me. Coates words pierced my consciousness and from hereon
in, will haunt how I interpret the world around me, especially when it has to
do with my personal and societal interconnectedness with black people. These
days I'm worried how our lessons on black history in Canada might be perceived
by the black children in our school.
Ta-Nehisi Coates can really write. Words and phrases carve themselves like
tattoos onto my consciousness. Lines like this, "Some of us make it out
but the game is played with loaded dice." leave me stunned as I
take in the hard, simple truth of them.
Here is a man brilliantly passing on his knowledge and wisdom to his teenage
son. But it's also a lesson on history, civics and morality for the rest of us
as he reveals the inherent danger of occupying a black body in America and how
it signifies everything that is wrong with the dream of America. I am left
mindful that the dream of Canada is carved into the skin of our indigenous
population and other immigrants not deemed white enough.
CURRENTLY
I'm listening to Flunked by Jen Calonita, another book we have in our library
that I need to read. I'm still waiting for All American Boys so instead I
started reading The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds.
UP NEXT
I've got The Outside Circle by Patti LaBoucane-Benson waiting
for me. I'm also hoping to get to Zomboy by Richard Scrimger, one of our book
club books. I also have to read Lumberjanes!
This blog post is written by Ayla, one of my grade five library monitors. I meant to bring the book home with me this weekend, but forgot it. I'm going to get to it soon! Lumberjanes is an amazing book about a group of friends going to a summer camp. If you like friendship books or books with gods and goddesses, then you will love this book. It has lots of twists and turns. This book has lots of amazing and very detailed drawings. I love how all the characters have completely different personalities but they can work together. My favorite character is Rose. I really like her personality because she is so strong.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone nine and up.
I appreciate all my library monitors,
but I have come to cherishmy conversations about books and life with Anna, one of my grade sevens, who comes in to help me after school on Friday afternoons. This week Anna guest hosted my blog with her review of Tomboy. My editing was minimal. Please
read it. I am not sure which of us was more excited when Liz Prince
tweeted a response after reading her post. Anna is also writing a novel. I am
looking forward to reading it some day soon.
Today is Monday and time for #IMWAYR. Many thanks to Jen at Teach Mentor texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers for hosting this weekly event. Their kindness enables the rest of us to find out what other kid lit aficionados are reading and blogging about.
What with
supporting my mother as we wait for a place where she will get more care,
attending different kinds of meetings last week after school, and trying to get
the library under control, it was an overwhelming week, and truthfully, my
reading life, up until Sunday, showed it. If it were not for audiobooks, I'm not sure I would accomplish anything.I wondered if I was in a reading slump, as all I was doing was listening to stories. Yet this weekend, something changed. I gave myself permission to not finish all the work on my to do list, and spent Sunday afternoon relaxing on the sofa reading. I suspect not reading text during the weekdays might be just from the exhaustion of days so full they
seem to never end.
NOVELS
Manners and
Mutiny by Gail Carriger
3 stars
In this
conclusion to the Finishing School series, Sophronia, in her last year
at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality,
is forced to utilize all her special training and fancy tools. It is discovered that the Picklemen are
involved in a nefarious plot to take over the government. To do it, they must take over the school, a massive dirigible, and get it to London. Sophronia embraces all manner of subterfuge, coquettishness, and even hand to hand
combat in order to save the country, her school, and her life. Two out of three isn't bad I supose. I wanted to love this
book more, but it just didn't live up to my expectations.
Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
5 stars
This book is why I gave myself permission to abandon my to do list. I discovered Sunday morning that I had this book checked out from the library and that it was overdue. From the first line to the last it was as if I'd fallen into a beautiful magical world of unconditional love and adventure. I couldn't help but make connections to Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant. Rundell's writing is just stunning. Here are some examples:
Mothers are a thing you need, like air, she thought, and water. Even paper mothers were better than
nothing – even imaginary ones. Mothers were a place to put down your heart. They
were a resting stop to recover your breath. Page 32
"Books crowbar the world open for you." Page 34
Carrie Gelson, if I didn't already love you, I would now for recommending this book to the rest of us.
NON FICTION
5 stars
Tomboy by Liz
Prince
I am so glad
Anna convinced me to take this book home and read it.
Not only did I enjoy it, I made personal connections to my own youth in this look at what it means to be a girl. I did get a bit freaked out when Liz worries that she will never
be 'normal' and professes to hate girls. Thankfully Harley starts her on the road to understanding that being a girl has many
more configurations than what is portrayed in modern media and popular culture.
My discussions with Anna about this book were rewarding. We had a long conversation about the use of the word 'tomboy.' Like Anna, I will be recommending
it to older elementary students. If I taught in highschool, I would invest in a
literature circle set of it.
The Inventor's Secret:
What Thomas Edison told Henry Ford by Suzanne Slade & Jennifer Black Reinhardt (Illustrations)
4 stars
Essentially the first part of this book is the story of how Thomas Edison inspired
Henry Ford to create his many different automobiles. The picture book section
is interesting narrative, but it is Reinhardt's illustrations that made the
book for me. I really don't understand cars at all, but her illustration on
page 21 showing how a four stroke cylinder works went a long way to remedy
this. I also enjoyed seeing the illustrations of the different kinds of cars Ford
invented. I have to confess that I had a special interest in seeing them
because my partner's parents traveled from Saskatchewan to British Columbia in a Model T back in the 1940's.
I appreciated the sections at the end of the book that deal more specifically
with the two inventors relationship and their different inventions.
From The Mountain to the Sea: We Share the Seasons by Brenda Boreham and Terri Mack (available from Strong Nations)
4 stars
This nonfiction big book is as much a collection of charts as it is a book. It enables teachers to implement aboriginal learning principles into their primary classrooms throughout the year. Clicking on the above link will take you to where you can read more about the many ways to use this in your classroom, but you have to see the book for yourself to appreciate the gorgeous illustrations. The left hand side of each page spread is illustrated to show the natural world. On the right hand side the illustrations reflect aboriginal culture. Each double page spread ends in a question that students, taking turns using the accompanying eagle feather, can respond to.
CURRENTLY
Between the
World and Me written and narrated by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Learning to
see the world in new ways is one of the reasons I am a reader. This book
humbles me, enrages me and makes me weep. If it isn't already on your want to read list, it should be. I've already decided to purchase a print copy for myself.
On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
The beginning
of this book was a bit confusing for me, but I persisted because the writing is
just stunning. I've got this on my portable devices and whenever I get a chance, or have to stop and wait, I just read. I think this is the title that is most helping me
get back into more real reading.
A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children edited by Doris
Seale and Beverly Slapin
Last week,
after reading Debbie Reese's postWhere
do you shelve Native American stories? I decided to take a hard look
at our collection. I know we have texts that are beyond problematic, but
haven't gotten around to weeding them because I'm sure how to replace
them. In addition to all this, while I may have Menominee ancestry through
my grandmother, I am mostly a mix of everything and have lived a life of white
privilege. In essence, I am in no position to really understand all the nuances
that might make a book distasteful at best and harmful at worst. Then I discovered this book.
It isn't the kind of book you sit and read cover to cover, but it is an
excellent resource filled with information about different authors and
titles. After a bit of work, the "I should probably weed these books" pile is
much higher than the"Keep these" pile.
UP NEXT
I'm going to read Red Wolf by Jennifer Dance. There has been some controversy over whether or not this book should be in our library system given that the author, while she has family in an aboriginal community, is not herself, an aboriginal woman and should not be telling stories that are not hers to tell. The book has won all kinds of accolades and awards here in Canada and has even been lauded by Joseph Boyden. We shall see....
