Nothing skeletal about these reviews ~

One fifth grader submitted three book reviews to Destiny Quest today!
Skeleton Man Great. Awesome. Breathtaking. Amazing. These are some of the many words that can positively describe this incredible book. Once you finish a given page, you always have the urge to flip to the next one. I highly recommend this great book. The Graveyard Book This is one of the best books that I have ever read in my life. I found this great read at a bookstore in the "used" section and decided to buy it. Then, when I started to read it, I found out that it was really incredible. If you have not read this, then you really should.

grade 3 book and movie spine poetry

Cars

The Dead of Night

It Happened on a Train

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

by Oliver and Shoshana

The NeverEnding Story

Ella Enchanted

What Came From the Stars

Despicable Me

by Alden, Aniyah, Cailen and Quinn

Charlotte's Web

The Bus People

Vampireology

by Carmela and Sebastian

Pippi Goes on Board

Like the Willow Tree

The Ruby Key

Sold

by Daisy and Madeline

Crime Scene

Detective LaRue

Super Guinea Pig to the Rescue

by Noemi

Geromino Stilton

Dead End in Norvelt

Sparrow Road

Dark Water

Heartbeat

by Amanda and Saylor

Energy

Treasure

Swords

How Strong is It?

by Aaron, Dhruv and Teddy

Fly High Fly Guy!
The Search for WondLa

The U.S. Air Force

Special Military Forces

Shazam!

Bomb

Hideout

It Happened on a Train

The Dead of Night

Crime Scene

by Andrew and Claudio

Spring Book Fair

We're in Day 2 (of 3) of the spring Book Fair. The indefatigable Julie Pottinger is in charge, in partnership with the University (of Washington) Bookstore. There is, as always, a great selection of books for readers of all ages. Proceeds from the Book Fair are used to support the purchase of textbooks for students on financial aid. Come to the Community Room and indulge yourself in the luxury of boooooks!

In the Face of All that is Changing in the Library World, I choose to Write

I am surrounded by all this new stuff! There is a Lilypad kit on my desk, and a reminder to order the 9th grade novels from OverDrive so that we have them in digital format. There is an iPad in my drawer that needs setting up and three technology blogs in my soon-to-disappear Google Reader to catch up on. I am feeling paralyzed by how quickly technology is changing and how unprepared I am for that change.

But I need to stay current, so I will resurrect our old Bush Readers Blog. It's a start anyway!

Most recently I have been reading coming-of-age novels to present to the 9th grade English classes. The presentation happened last Monday and was a lot of fun. And all week long 9th graders had something to say when I asked what you reading, what did you choose. It was great! Here's the list:

• Reservations Blues, Sherman Alexie
• Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
• Cities of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy
• The White Boy Shuffle, Paul Beatty
• City of Thieves, David Benioff
• A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
• The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Kidd Monk
• The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie King
• Rumors of Peace, Ella Leffland

What would you choose?

Another independent minded girl

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book just won a Printz Honor Award from the American Library Association, and it well deserves it. Frankie is one terrific fifteen-year-old -- smart, brave and mind-bogglingly independent. As brilliant a strategist as she is, however, I loved that glimpses of being 15 shone through. Her world as she has known it has just ended, and she wonders for a few minutes if she could be the mindless, adorable arm candy that her boyfriend loved (past tense very important!), and then rejects that choice. She knows herself, but is young enough to yearn.

But that's not all: along with the excellent main character and the suspenseful, clever plot, there is very astute social commentary on boy-girl relationships, power and rebellion, surveillance, and language. Another title (and the best so far) for the indie-girl list!

Meanwhile, I just finished Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves, a fun romp through alternate worlds, fighting bad guys and getting lost. Yes, I admit it, I'm throwing a bone to you boys out there.


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Winter Reading

Here in Seattle we were snowed in for several days around Christmas. It was divine! Especially after Christmas (and all the sewing and baking and cooking fun) I probably read a book a day. I noticed two trends: as mentioned before, the girl who falls in love but realizes that allowing a boy to save her is probably a bad thing, that she may need to grow and mature before acting on her love. The Revolution of Sabine is one and Climbing the Stairs (by Padma Venkatraman) is the second I've read recently. Both were surprising and thoughtful historical novels. In Climbing the Stairs, 15-year-old Vidya and her family move in with her father's more traditional family. It is the eve of World War II and all over India people are responding to Gandhi's call for civil disobedience in the face of British rule. The title comes from the traditional Brahmin house in which women live on the first floor and men live on the second -- with the books, which is what Vidya is after. Following up on this theme of independent young women, I think I need to read Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper novel, Terrier.

The second trend was of people getting unexpected windfalls. In Lottery, by local author Patricia Wood, a slow-witted man wins the lottery and has to fend off his unscrupulous family. I occasionally laughed out loud at Perry's different way of looking at the world, and was charmed and surprised by the ending, including how he copes with said unscrupulous family. In Everything You Want, by Barbara Shoup, 18-year-old Emma is unhappy her freshman year in college. She has no social life, her former best friend is acting like she's poisonous, and she spends all her evenings with her science project, a goose she's named Freud. When her parents win the state lottery, she can have everything she wants, but money can't buy happiness, can it? Now I'm anxious to read The Fortunes of Indigo Skye, by Deb Caletti, another YA novel about unexpected windfalls. I wasn't able to finish Caletti's Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, so we'll see.

I resolve to do better

Okay, my last post got interrupted and I never got back to it, so I am completely embarrassed and resolve to do better. Here's the book I most recently read and wrote about on GoodReads. Do you know that site? It's like Facebook for readers! I love it. I use it to keep track of what I have read and what I want to read, to check reviews on books we might get for the library, and to check up on my kids. It's totally invaluable!

The Revolution of Sabine by Beth Levine Ain

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this book set a few years before the French Revolution, but thought it filled with sterotypes -- the fop, the good peasants, the evil aristocrats, the charming, but clumsy, princess who is more at ease walking on cobblestones than dancing in a ballroom -- proof of her essential goodness. That said, I very much appreciated the ending. It's a pleasure to read a book about a teenage girl who recognizes that being parted from her "true love" might be the wisest thing for her, that it might actually help her grow.


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