2.24.20 It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? THE BENEFITS OF BEING AN OCTOPUS

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week

&

the titles we are currently reading.}

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Description from IndieBound:

NPR Best Book of 2018, Bank Street List for Best Children’s Books of 2019, Named to the Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher List, Maine’s Student Book Award List, Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Award List, Rhode Island Middle School Book Award 2020 List, 2020 Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award Nominee, 2021 South Caroline Junior Book Award Nominee, 2020-2021 Truman Award (Missouri) Nominee.

Some people can do their homework. Some people get to have crushes on boys. Some people have other things they’ve got to do.

Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there’s Lenny, her mom’s boyfriend—they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer.

At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend Fuchsia has her own issues, and since they’re in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it’s best if no one notices them.

Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus: eight arms to do eight things at once. Incredible camouflage ability and steady, unblinking vision. Powerful protective defenses.

Unfortunately, she’s not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate club. Even though Zoey resists participating, debate ultimately leads her to see things in a new way: her mom’s relationship with Lenny, Fuchsia’s situation, and her own place in this town of people who think they’re better than her. Can Zoey find the courage to speak up, even if it means risking the most stable home she’s ever had?

This moving debut novel explores the cultural divides around class and the gun debate through the eyes of one girl, living on the edges of society, trying to find her way forward.

Thoughts…

Not long ago I shared with you that I read Free Lunch by Rex Ogle.[BIG NEWS! That book one the 2020 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award on the same day that New Kid won the Newbery.]

Braden’s TBOBAO feels like a partner book to Free Lunch, but with a slightly older female MC, Zoey. Zoey is living in poverty, unlike most of the kids in her school. Zoey and her mom—and her two younger siblings, who she is often in charge of caring for—are living with Lenny, a totally creepy dude. He’s sometimes nice, but more often than not he’s rude, inconsiderate, and controlling. These are different ways of being abusive. Zoey’s mom feels like she has no other options, though, so she puts up with it.

Zoey has way too much responsibility for a seventh grader. She longs to have a normal—a typical—life.

As with Free Lunch, this had me thinking about YOU, my students. I don’t know what your lives are like when you leave school. I worry about you and the things you may be dealing with. I’m troubled that at the same time I might be pushing/challenging/gettingonyourcase about your reading and writing, you may be struggling with tough situations outside of school.

So again, I encourage you: Find an adult you trust. Speak to him. Share with her. Get help.

Braden has turned this book into a movement. You can read more about it on her site. Here is a screen shot so you can get a glimpse:

 If you want to hear Braden read the first chapter, you can watch here:

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WHAT ABOUT YOU?

LET’S RING THE BELL!

Period 2&3 read 12 books this past week.

Period 5&6 read 16 books this past week.

Period 8&9 read 6 books this past week.

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AUDIO BOOK

 

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2.14.20 {BOOKflix Friday} The Lunar Chronicles & GNs

Today is

Few things can draw a reader to a new book like a book trailer can.

Get the popcorn ready.

Lights…Camera…Action!

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Cinder

“. . . it unfolds with the magic of a fairy tale and the breakneck excitement of dystopian fiction.” –Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Scarlet

Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life.

Cress

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker – unfortunately, she’s being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

 

Winter

The epic conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles.

Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long. Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

Fairest: Levana’s Story

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story—a story that has never been told … until now.

 

 

 

Summary

The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?

With nine stories—five of which have never before been published—and an excerpt from Marissa Meyer’s novel, Heartless, about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Stars Above is essential for fans of the bestselling and beloved Lunar Chronicles.

 

As I was reading I made a connection that I tweeted out to the author, Marissa Meyer.

It never gets old:

Mal Reynolds From FIREFLY

 

Han Solo from STAR WARS    

 ••••

For those “Lunarheads” who can’t get enough, Meyer has also published 2 graphic novels which continue the adventures of Iko, our favorite female robot.

(the art in this one is by the same guy who does the  books)

 

2.10.20 It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week

&

the titles we are currently reading.}

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Imagine being taken from your family, getting pushed by gunpoint onto a crammed cattle car on a train, and delivered to a “work” camp (i.e. Concentration Camp, i.e. Death Camp). Imagine further that once there, you were stripped of your clothes and given a prison uniform, fed watery soup, expected to sleep in group bunk beds, and were tattooed with an identification number.

What if you were then given the “honored” job of tattooing all the incoming prisoners.

Awful, right?

Except that you’d be able to use your position to help others get food and medicine.

And you even got to fall in love with one of the young women you tattooed.

This is the true story of Lali Sokolov and his work in—and escape from—Auschwitz.

If this sounds interesting, you may be interested in a couple other books that take place around the Holocaust:

 

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WHAT ABOUT YOU?

LET’S RING THE BELL!

Period 2&3 read 7 books this past week.

Period 5&6 read 18 books this past week.

Period 8&9 read 13 books this past week.

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AUDIO BOOK

 

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2.7.20 {BOOKflix Friday} TOWERS FALLING

Today is BOOKflix Friday!

Few things can draw a reader to a new book like a book trailer can.

Get the popcorn ready.

Lights…Camera…Action!

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Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes is an accomplished author who has written a few hits for readers your age in the past few years.

 

Today we’ll take a look at three of them.

Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. She doesn’t have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya’s visions show a powerful hurricane–Katrina–fast approaching, it’s up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm.

Ninth Ward is a celebration of resilience, love, family, and friendship, and a deeply emotional story of transformation.

 

•••

 

When her fifth-grade teacher hints that a series of lessons about home and community will culminate with one big answer about two tall towers once visible outside their classroom window, Dèja can’t help but feel confused. She sets off on a journey of discovery, with new friends Ben and Sabeen by her side. But just as she gets closer to answering big questions about who she is, what America means, and how communities can grow (and heal), she uncovers new questions, too. Like, why does Pop get so angry when she brings up anything about the towers?

•••

I shared this book in the past on one of my IMWAYR? blog posts:

Description from IndieBound

 

A heartbreaking and powerful story about a black boy killed by a police officer, drawing connections through history, from award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes.

 

Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better.

 

Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that’s been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust and brutal killing.

Soon Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till, a boy from a very different time but similar circumstances. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. Jerome also meets Sarah, the daughter of the police officer, who grapples with her father’s actions.

Once again Jewell Parker Rhodes deftly weaves historical and socio-political layers into a gripping and poignant story about how children and families face the complexities of today’s world, and how one boy grows to understand American blackness in the aftermath of his own death.

My Thoughts…

Wow— what a flood of emotions came rushing through me at various point of this story. This book was, as they say, “Ripped from the headlines”. There have been too many news stories in the past few years of men and boys of color who have been mistreated at the hands of white police officers. And yes—some are shot and killed.

It’s tragic.

On the first page of this book, Jerome is already shot and dead. That’s not giving anything away. The things he sees and the people he meets as a ghost gives him insights and experiences he wouldn’t otherwise have. I liked that he met up with the daughter of the policeman who shot him. Important lessons there.

It was especially fascinating hearing Emmett Till’s story. Yes— that Emmett. Don’t know what he’s all about?

From Biography.com

Who Was Emmett Till?

Emmett Till was born in 1941 in Chicago and grew up in a middle-class black neighborhood. Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, in 1955 when the fourteen-year-old was accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who was a cashier at a grocery store. 

Four days later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam kidnapped Till, beat him and shot him in the head. The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them. 

I recommend this book to all readers. It is fantasy… but it’s also realistic and modern day and historical. Quite a combination.

 

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2.3.20 It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? FINDING ORION

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week

&

the titles we are currently reading.}

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From IndieBound:

The acclaimed author of Ms. Bixby’s Last Day and Posted returns with an unforgettable tale of love and laughter, of fathers and sons, of what family truly means, and of the ways in which we sometimes need to lose something in order to find ourselves.

Rion Kwirk comes from a rather odd family. His mother named him and his sisters after her favorite constellations, and his father makes funky-flavored jellybeans for a living. One sister acts as if she’s always on stage, and the other is a walking dictionary. But no one in the family is more odd than Rion’s grandfather, Papa Kwirk.

He’s the kind of guy who shows up on his motorcycle only on holidays handing out crossbows and stuffed squirrels as presents. Rion has always been fascinated by Papa Kwirk, especially as his son–Rion’s father–is the complete opposite. Where Dad is predictable, nerdy, and reassuringly boring, Papa Kwirk is mysterious, dangerous, and cool.

Which is why, when Rion and his family learn of Papa Kwirk’s death and pile into the car to attend his funeral and pay their respects, Rion can’t help but feel that that’s not the end of his story. That there’s so much more to Papa Kwirk to discover.

He doesn’t know how right he is.

If you like adventures, puzzles, and riddles, you’ll certainly like this tale—told from the point of view of a sarcastic middle schooler. Filled with quirky family members and oddball escapades, this audiobook will be sure to please… IF you’re willing to invest more than the minimal amount of time listening.

Let’s watch the first minute of this message from the author himself:

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WHAT ABOUT YOU?

LET’S RING THE BELL!

Period 2&3 read 13 books this past week.

Period 5&6 read 15 books this past week.

Period 8&9 read 9 books this past week.

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AUDIO BOOK

 

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