Sunrise Nights by Jeff Zentner & Brittany Cavallaro

  

It's no secret I love Jeff Zentner's books!  The Serpent King, In the Wild Light, and Colton Gentry's Third Act are all some of my absolute favorites.  So of course I got my hands on his book co-written with Brittany Cavallaro, Sunrise Nights.

Told in a blend of poetry and prose/dialogue and in alternating voices, this book tells the story of two teens who meet on the last night of their time at art camp.  The small town crawls with the campers, called "Hackers" as the teens all enjoy a bonfire and run around together all night until they meet up to view the sunrise on their last day.  

One narrator is Florence, an incredible good dancer who is going blind.  The other narrator is Jude, an anxious photographer who feels peace behind the lens.  These two happen to run into each other on Sunrise Night and spend all their hours until dawn with each other.  There's a connection, but it's only a few hours.  Instead of exchanging email addresses or phone numbers, they decide NOT to communicate at all for an entire year.  They will just let the night they shared remain a wonderful memory and see each other next year on Sunrise night. 

Florence and Judge visit lots of fun spots in town and share more with each other about their hopes and fears than they did with any one else during their entire time at camp. 

So...will they meet up the next year?  What will happen to each of them during the year?  Will they still feel the same about each other if they run into each other again??

I enjoyed this book.  I liked the poems and the pace moved quickly.  However, this one did not measure up to Zentner's other books for me.  I haven't read anything by Cavallaro, but still, I just didn't feel any huge passion here.  Yes, these two are both different and drawn to each other.  But there wasn't a big spark, and while I enjoyed the story and how it ended, it wasn't my favorite. But I still recommend it.  I think if you are an artist or feel sometimes like you can't quiet down all that's in your mind, you'd connect with these characters.  There's a lot to like here, and it was a quick, enjoyable read.  

Back to the Blog!!

 Hello!  This year my school system is moving our teacher websites to Google Sites, so I thought I would come back to the blog and just use it again for book recommendations and reviews.  I clicked through the old entries this morning, and wow!  So much fantastic reading.  And I haven't stopped!  Just stopped blogging.  So...I'm going to come back to this site and get back to it!  Later this week, look out for a few Summer Reading posts.  I've got some recent favorites that I MUST recommend for summer, and I am  going to share my summer reading plans as well!!  Happy Reading!  and Happy Summer!!

Internment by Samira Ahmed

I loved Ahmed's Love, Hate and Other Filters.  I heard about this new book over the summer and have had it on my To Read list for a long time.  Ahmed wastes no time jumping straight into the conflict in this warning novel.  After one brief moment with her boyfriend, Layla Amin's world forever changes when officers show up at her house.  A police officer from her own town closes Layla and her parents into his patrol car, and the nightmare begins.  The Amins along with other Muslims are processed and transferred to an internment camp.  

Once the shock starts to wear off, Layla and a few other young people begin thinking about how they can stand up to the powers who are keeping him there.  Unfortunately, it's not that hard for Ahmed or any of us readers to imagine what internment of a group of people looks like, because history provides us too many instances of when a nation has turned against its own citizens in the name of "safety" or "security."  However, what Ahmed's book does is bring this idea to 2019.  To now.  And what makes this book so painful is that even though you know it's not real, it sadly, seems like it could be.  When we look around at events and attitudes in our government and nation, it sickens me to think that a book like this even needs to exist. 

But it does.  Ahmed takes history and adds technology and more surveillance.  It's telling that the first thing the Exclusion Authority officers do is take the Amins' phones.  Social media and journalism play an important role in the story and to Layla's resistance.  At the very beginning, the reader, along with the internees, are cautious as they figure out what exactly is going on.  I knew what was coming because I knew what this book was about.  But Ahmed moves forward quickly, and every chapter adds more complications to the prisoners' plight and raises the stakes for these American citizens whose rights have been stripped away. 

This book is important not only because of its portrayal of the internment of citizens, but mainly because of how it reminds us that we are ALL an important part of the resistance.  Layla does not sit still and just let things happen to her.  Others support her and do what they can to help her voice be heard.  But they do what she needs.  They don't talk over her.  They support her.  They do what she asks.  That's an important message for allies.  It's about supporting people who need your help.  Shut your mouth and amplify the stories of others.  Let your actions speak louder than your words.  Be there.  Show up.  

I taught about Chinese Exclusion last year, and I've wanted to teach When the Emperor Was Divine  for a while now.  I think this book is important, and I am going to get as many copies as I can into my classroom and into my book club rotations.  I know it will inspire important conversations.  I thank Ms. Ahmed for this story and for her voice.  

All the books from the end of summer and the start of the school year!!

I got so busy with the beginning of the school year, that I haven't had a chance to really share all the books that ended my summer reading and started my school year.  Since it's a big list, I am just going to share a little bit about each one, but it'll hopefully be enough for you to maybe see if you might be interested in these titles.

The first is Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy, who's from right here in WNC.  This is a novel for adults, not YA, but the protagonist is a young man from WNC, Jacob McNeely whose father runs a meth ring and has many people in the area involved in his business.  Jacob dropped out of school and struggles with working for his dad or imagining something different for his life.  He reconnects with an old girlfriend and considers his options.  This book is rough.  It's hard to read at times, but it's a gripping look into what happens when there doesn't seem like a way out.  I don't recommend this book to all, but I do think that some kids would be interested to see what happens to Jacob and could identify with the feeling of being stuck and not knowing what choice to make.  I want to read Joy's other two novels.  This one was suspenseful, heartbreaking, and honest.

OMG.  This book is now on my top 10 YA books of all time list.  For real.  I got it last semester and never got around to it, but brought it home for summer, and I am so glad I did.  It takes place in a small town in Tennessee where three best friends are sort of outsiders in their school.  Dill and his mother have nothing and struggle to make ends meet.  They both work and do their best ever since Dill's father, a Pentecostal preacher, got arrested and put in jail for a crime.  Dill's friends are still there for him, though, which is good.  Lydia, his friend forever, lives in a much better home.  Her mom is a dentist in town, and she runs a really popular fashion blog that is nation-wide famous.  She posts about the best thrift shops and styles.  She's hoping to go to college in New York.  And then, there's Travis.  Travis is a big ole boy who works after school at his father's lumber yard.  His brother was killed in the military.  Travis wears all black all the time and an amazing dragon necklace.  He also carries a staff and is obsessed with his favorite fantasy series and its author.  These three don't exactly make sense as BFFs, but they are perfect.  As they start senior year, they all have to think about what their futures hold.  Dill also had to decide if he wants to change his relationship with Lydia by letting her know how he truly feels about her.  As Lydia applies to college and Dill doesn't, their friendship undergoes some strain, and all three of their stories develop throughout the novel as they try to be who they really are in a community that doesn't always understand them.  I cried at the end of this book, but loved every. single. second.  It's a must read.

Oh, goodness, you need to read this series if you like dystopian, sci-fi-ish, futuristic series.  I won't tell too much about the second book, but I'll give you a set up of the series in general.  I will say I have read both of these and loved them.  I can't wait til the third book comes out in 2019.

Scythe takes place in our world in the future, but unlike so many dystopian series, this is actually a utopia!  One day "the cloud" actually becomes a sentient being.  Along with all the medical and technological advances, the cloud, now the Thunderhead, can take care of everyone, everywhere all the time.  No more disease.  Everyone gets a guaranteed income.  If you do die, you just go to a revival center for a few days and they will get you back in shape as fast as they can.  No hunger, no war, no problems.  Once you age as far as you like, you can simply reset and be young again and do it all over again.  Everything is perfect.  The Thunderhead watches and takes care of everything.  However, since there is no natural death, humankind had to come up with a way to control the population and manage death.  Enter the Scythedom.  Scythes take care of the business of death by "gleaning" people.  They have a strict set of rules.  Scythes are trained rigorously and apprentice under an experienced scythe.  Citra and Rowan are both selected to train as Scythes, but what they learn is really hard.  There are different factions of Scythes starting to emerge.  Some scythes glean with honor, dignity, respect, and kindness, while others have very different ideas of what gleaning should be like.  That's enough to get you started.  I loved this series.  It gave me lots to think about as I compared the future to our current world.  It's new, intriguing, and action-packed.  I highly recommend this series.

A wonderful book that all middle and high school students should read.  The book follows three refugee children on their individual journeys to another land.  Their stories are incredible, and all three stories come together in tear-jerking conclusion.  Josef is escaping Nazi Germany.  His father was in a concentration camp, but then they were all reunited a board a ship to seek asylum in Cuba.  Isabel is a young girl from Cuba whose family boards a small boat to reach Miami.  And Mahmoud is a young boy from Syria who, along with his family, wants to escape his war-torn country and just get somewhere safe, like Germany.  As you read this book, you get specific, real details about the individual lives of these three children, but you also learn about the time period and the historical conflicts that cause these kids to need to leave their countries for safety, freedom, and opportunity.  The book alternates chapters which helps kids stay tuned in.  Each story builds chapter by chapter, and the conclusion is perfect.  I think this is a good book for younger kids.  It teaches so much about refugees and forces us to ask ourselves important questions about how our country chooses to help or not help those who need it.  I think it's a good entry book for high school readers, too, because it ties the current refugee crisis to historical topics they might have studied already, so they have a little background.  Pick it up, people.  It's an important one.

Man, this book was really hard to read because of the subject matter.  Inspired by the missing D. C. girls news stories, it's the story of Claudia whose friend Monday doesn't come back to school after summer break.  When Claudia confronts Monday's family members, she's shut out and given no information or conflicted stories at best.  She tells school officials but people just keep passing it off to someone else, and no one seems as concerned as Claudia.  Claudia still goes to school and, sadly, struggles.  Without her best friend, she's sad and lost.  She continues her life, but feels hurt and doesn't understand why her friend won't contact her.  She never gives up, though, on figuring out where Monday is, and she does find out by the end of the book.  It's a crazy read.  Claudia's struggles will make sense to many kids as she navigates high school, church, parties, friends, and love.  But what really blows you away is the ending.  It'll stick with you for a while.  A rough topic, but a good read.

Another book inspired by current events, Ghost Boys is about a young man named Jerome who is ready to start back to school.  His neighborhood is pretty rough.  His parents work hard, and his grandmother keeps the family together and teaches him to try to see the positive things in his world everyday.  Near his home one afternoon, Jerome gets shot by a police officer and dies.  His story becomes news.  But for Jerome, what happens on earth, court proceedings, the charges, none of it matters.  He's dead.  He still wanders around as a ghost boy and meets another ghost boy also from Chicago who was killed many years ago, Emmett Till.  Emmett helps Jerome navigate his new existence.  Can people feel, sense, or see him?  He has to figure out how long he will be this way and why he's still here with the other ghost boys.  This book was hard to read, but really showed yet another perspective on the tragedy we see in this country of young black men dying at the hands of those in power more than others.  We must end this violence on young people of color, and Rhodes' book is another important voice, along with Angie Thomas, Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely, Nic Stone, and others who give voice to the voiceless through their powerful and important novels.  Another good entry book to the topic.  It's shorter than The Hate You Give and might be a quicker read for readers who might not want to or be able to dedicate as much time to that novel.  Highly recommend to middle grade readers also, who might not be ready for a more YA take on the topic.

Well, we will end here on a much happier not with To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han.  I didn't read her Summer I Turned Pretty Series years ago, but picked this up when I heard all the rave reviews about the Netflix movie that just came out.  Well, the book was GREAT!  Like Stephanie Perkins and Becky Albertalli, Jenny Han takes me back to the days of crushes and kisses and parties and fun.  Lara Jean writes goodbye letters to all the boys she's loved before and stores them in a hatbox her mother gave her years ago.  They are really just for her, to help her get over her crushes, most of whom don't even know that she likes them at all.  But it's good because she makes her peace with the crush and moves on.  Until...her letters get sent out in the mail and received by the boys.  Her sister Margot has left for college; her mom's been dead for years; and Lara Jean doesn't really know where it all stands as she, her dad, and little sister, Kitty, take on new roles in Margot's absence.  I loved Lara Jean's voice and style.  She reacted as I totally would have when she found out the letters went out, which is to say, she freaks completely.  I haven't seen the movie yet, but can't wait, AND I will be ordering the other two books ASAP so I can follow the rest of Lara Jean's story.  Keep in mind I've only read the first book, so right now I am totally #teampeterkavinsky.  We'll see if it stays that way when I get my hands on book #2.  A sweet, romantic, fun read and a wonderful Asian American main character who rocks it as she starts figuring out who she really is and wants to be.

Whew!!  That was a lot!  I am enjoying reading with my students and sharing great books with them.  When kids say, "Wow!  That was super good!"  I just smile and jump around a little.  There's so much amazing YA out there!  I also read Captain Underpants #5 with my daughter and did a reread of Harry Potter 3.  Right now, I think I am going to try to read all the rest of the Throne of Glass series since the final book Kingdom of Ash comes out next month.  I will make time for What If It's Us, though, also by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera.  I'm sure I'll read that one in a just a day or two.  So it's off to Rifthold for now for me.  Hope maybe one of these books sounds good to you!

Love, Hate, and Other Filters

Maya is an Indian Muslim teen who lives in suburban Chicago.  She's a senior who's applied to colleges and is ready to start the next chapter of her life.  But her vision of that future is different from what her parents want. 

Maya, who loves film, and never goes anywhere with out her camera, dreams of going to NYU to study film, but she knows her parents won't have it.  She's been accepted but hasn't told them yet.  And right now, she wants to just work at the bookstore and spend time with Phil, the boy she's crushed on since middle school.  Phil and Maya end up spending time together over spring break, and this new friendship is something Maya never imagined would finally happen at this point senior year. 

Maya's parents, however, would love for her to stay closer to home for college and to date and eventually marry a Muslim boy from a good family and background. 

Then, a horrible tragedy occurs and Maya's plans are turned upside down.  This book was incredible.  Each chapter begins with some small snippets from another plot line, and Maya narrates the chapters.  She's a smart, strong young woman dealing with a lot, when the tragedy adds even more to her plate.  This book shows readers what Maya as a young Muslim teen in a less diverse community has to deal with on a daily basis.  Maya's struggles with her parents highlight the tensions that come when the new generation wants something different.  This book shows readers how Maya deals with her normal life but how she has to deal with so much more because of some people's hatred for her religion.  Ahmed's book is incredible and I am also very interested in her next book, out March 2019, called Internment.  

Royals

Well, friends, I will admit that we did watch the Royal Wedding this summer.  Harry and Meghan are awesome.  I loved the wedding and the American preacher and all the celebration.  Sorry, but it's cool and fun and yay love!!

If you liked the royal wedding, too, then you will like this quick, fun read by Rachel Hawkins.  I have read some really heavy stuff this summer, and so I was excited to read a more fun, lighthearted book.

Daisy Winters works the Sur-N-Sav and is trying to enjoy her summer, but that's pretty hard when her ex-boyfriend has ruined it by selling their prom pics to the paparazzi.  And life is just different for Daisy because for the last few years, her older sister Eleanor has been dating the Crown Prince of Scotland.  If dating the prince caused enough trouble, there's even more when Daisy finds out her sister and the prince are now engaged.  Daisy ends up spending time in Scotland and learns a lot about her sister, herself, and the wild royal world. 

Daisy does her best to navigate the royal events as best she can.  But Sebastian, the other wild prince, makes that hard because he and his buddies, the Royal Wreckers as they are called by the tabloids, always keep things stirred up.  Except for Miles, who keeps a lower profile and tries to help Daisy out when he can. 

I enjoyed this book a lot.  It was fun and all the characters kept me entertained.  I like books that allow you to travel to new places, and this one does that.  Though it's completely fictional and a very American view of Royal life, it's still very entertaining and fun. 

Seven Ways We Lie

This is an excited post for me because I KNOW Riley Redgate.  I had the honor of teaching R. in high school, and remember what an amazing reader and writer she was.  A super cool human!  Anyway, I only recently found these books and was excited to get in touch with her and to get started reading all three books!  I am reading her books in pub order and so I first started with Seven Ways We Lie.

The book has seven main characters who all represent one of the seven deadly sins.  Great concept, but the cool thing for me is that it doesn't run the book.  Each character was unique and different.  I saw differences in their voices and liked each of their perspectives, and most of all how Redgate brings all the stories together.

At the beginning of the book, the principal calls an assembly to discuss an issue with the student body:  someone turned in an anonymous tip that a teacher is having a relationship with a student.  Of course the entire school is talking about it, and everyone looks around now wondering who it is?  Which teacher would anyone even want to hook up with and which teacher would be crazy enough to start something with a student.

The book covers all aspects of high school: arts, sports, lunch time, teachers, families, drugs/alcohol/parties, love, coming out, friendships, needing to run out of class and sit in a bathroom stall for a few minutes, and of course, the seven deadly sins.  Each chapter, I was interested to see how the stories came together and how the characters changed.  I loved it!!

I really liked the book and am so happy and proud of R.'s accomplishments.  I can't wait to fangirl in a signing line someday if I am lucky enough to run back into her at a book festival (Yallfest?) or bookstore someday.  I also want to say to the kids out there who write, that Redgate is proof that you can do it.  I'm super pumped to now follow the career of an incredible author.

Be True to Me

Kids!!  I read story set on Fire Island while I was at the beach in SC and it was amazing.  It's been on my To Read list since last summer, when my favorite blogger Jen Hubert at Reading Rants recommended it!  I knew I wanted to wait until summer to read it, so I kept it until this summer.

It is GREAT!  I recently watched Thoroughbreds...and though this book is no where near the same...The movie is a crazy murder movie and the book is about summer romance and a love triangle...the vibe is still the same...sort of.  Anyway, strange comparison aside.  This is a compelling read.

First, I love the setting.  Fire Island, NY in 1976, during the Bicentennial.  I found it incredible refreshing to travel to the seventies.  I loved the details Griffin included about music, politics, culture, and style.  Most, I really liked being in the 70s where there are NO CELL PHONES!!  I don't know...maybe it's silly but I even enjoyed a break from phones while reading.

The good thing is that the setting, while cool, isn't what really drives the novel.  It's the two different perspectives of the two main characters, Jean and Fritz.  Jean is from a wealthy family who summers in Sunken Haven every year.  She always lives in the shadow of her beautiful and perfect sister, Daphne.  This year, however, Jean is excited because Daphne will be in Europe and out of the way.  Jean can have her own summer.  One that she would like to spend with Gil Burke, who she met in the city before heading out to the island.  Gil and Jean shared an amazing New York night together, so she is ready to find him and share an even more amazing summer with him in Sunken Haven.

But, Gil sees Fritz O'Neill when he first arrives.  Fritz, who is a military kid, isn't from the same background as the old wealthy families, but she comes each summer to be with her friend who summers there, too.  Fritz is wild and cool and unlike any of the other girls.

Gil is stuck between Jean and Fritz, who both want and love him.  The book is set in three acts that build to an epic conclusion.  I loved this book because it was romance and thrilling.  The book deals with crushes and first love and first times.  The setting and characters are complex and engaging.  Each person has their own background that really affects how they feel about an interact with the others.  I feel for all of them, even when they are at their worse.  Loved it and excited to read Griffin's new books Tell Me No Lies soon.

Two Incredible Series

 I don't want to say too much about either of these two books since both are #3 in their respective series, but what I do want to say is that if you love fantasy, complex characters, and powerful female main characters, please go start the Ember in the Ashes series and the Throne of Glass series.

I read Ember the year it came out and have waited patiently for each of the next two installments.  Laia of Serra's life changes when her brother is imprisoned and her grandparents killed.  She runs, but eventually starts working as a servant for the Empire to try to find a way to locate and free her brother.  Torch Against the Night follows up wonderfully to the first book, and Reaper - good grief!!  I don't even know where to start.  I wish that I had had time to reread both of the first two books before I read Reaper, but I just didn't have the time.  I was able to pick up ok.  This third book was all action.  I had a hard time keeping track of every group and what they were doing, but I held on enough.  It was very good, and even if I couldn't always keep track of the minor characters and new people, I enjoyed continuing with Laia, Elias, and Helene.  I was pretty wrecked at the end of the book, and am very interested to see how Tahir wraps up the series.

I read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight over Christmas and never got around to continuing the series since I had so many 2017 and 2018 new books to get to.  This series was recommended to me by one of my favorite students and I loved it immediately.  As a kid, I read Terry Brooks (my dad's entire Shannara series) and this series brings back some of what I loved about those books.  Sweeping settings, fantastical creatures, lurking evil, and characters trying to figure out who they are and what their powers can do.  I love Celaena's story and so far, each book in the series has been complete on it's own.  They each leave you wanting to continue, but have their own satisfying endings, which is nice.  I am going to start Queen of Shadows soon.  This third installment was probably my favorite so far.  I really liked the Celeana/Rowan plot line.  It's a really cool world and an epic story.  I love these and can't wait to keep reading!

It's also super nice to read a series with all of the books out!!  I struggle with this a lot, because I pick up the first book in a series and then wait for the second and third installments.  It's nice to be able to just keep on reading.  Even though it's a pain for me, it's nice when a series is complete and my students haven't read it - because they can just keep on going!

Well, these two are great fantasy reads.  I am going to keep going with both series.  I think I'd like to do a reread of all three Ember in the Ashes books before the fourth books comes out.

Dread Nation

I got this one the day it came out, and I was soooo pumped!  It was great and I can't wait to get it into the classroom library.

The premise is cool - during the Civil War, the dead get up and walk.  The zombies, called "shamblers" will eat you and a bite will turn you.  So this changes the entire course of U.S. history as we know it.  Cities have started building their own defenses, and people have their own opinions about how to stop the shamblers.  One of the things that has been put in to place are training schools, part of the "Negro and Native Reeducation Act" in the book.  As part of this act kids of a certain age go to "school" to learn how to fight the walking dead.

The main character, Jane McKeene, attends one of these schools, the reputable Miss Preston's, and Jane is on the of the best at the school.  Jane was separated from her mother and entire family, and she yearns to get back to them.  But once she graduates from Miss Preston's will she be able to go home and see if her mother is even there??  Or will she be hired as an "attendant" who will protect her white mistress from shambler attacks?  Jane hasn't heard from her mother in so long, she fears the worst.

The girls of Miss Preston's go to a lecture in Baltimore that changes the entire course of her story.  What happens at the lecture plus the mysterious disappearance of a neighboring family get Jane wrapped up in something that is much more serious and sinister than she thought.

I loved Jane's voice and the entire organization of the book.  Each chapter has excerpts from Jane's letters, and I enjoyed reading the real story and piecing together the rest from the letter snippets.  Jane is a tough young woman of color who kicks major zombie butt.  The secondary characters in the novel are all wonderful and important to Jane's story, too.  I loved the setting and the history wrapped up with this new vision.  Jane is spunky and doesn't let others bully or scare her.  I loved this main character and the world Ireland has created.  This is going to be an awesome series and I can't wait for more installments.  The books is action packed, but also eye opening when you consider the darker side of American history and how this book speaks to us today.

There's more evil in the world than just the shamblers.  Good thing Jane McKeene is ready to take on all of it.

Back!! Summer Reading 2018

I haven't been on the blog for waaaaay too long.  I've been reading all this time, though.

This past year, I have really been able to read again at the pace I used to, and I have also (thanks to Donors Choose and BookOutlet.com) really been able to add to my classroom library. 

So the big news is....I am back and want to continue book blogging.  I am starting back by posting my 2018 summer reading list.  This is really just a nice, colorful version of my Goodreads To Read list, but still....many of these books are piled up by my nightstand ready to go.  I am so pumped to relax this summer and dive into as many of these as I can. 

Which of these do you love?  Have you read?  Would you recommend??

Coming up this week are my first reads of the summer:  Dread Nation, Reaper at the Gates, Be True to Me, and Heir of Fire.  I am working on these reviews and am excited to be back in the saddle again here on the old blog.  Thanks for visiting and here's to summer reading fun!!

Everyday by David Levithan

I was so intrigued by the idea of this book when I read the summary online that I just had to get it.  It was super!  Here's the deal:

A is a person who wakes up in a new body every day.  One day a girl.  One day a boy.  One day in one town working hard in school and getting good grades.   The next day, another town, in the body of a person with an addiction.  It's been like this forever.

A has learned about it and has dealt with the fact that this is how life will be until one day A wants it to be different.  A meets a fabulous, beautiful girl, Rhiannon.  Now instead of calmly floating on to the next day, the next place, the next body, A wants to be back with her.  Kind of hard, though, when A has no idea where the next place or body will be.

So begins this book.  I liked that it just starts.  No real introduction, you just start one day with A on the journey and it all happens.  I thought the pace of the book was great.  It was detailed yet quick-paced.  I was so interested in how it all worked but I really enjoyed meeting the characters as well.

What really stuck with me about this book, though, was that A literally got to walk around in another's person's shoes every single day.  I think about how much we judge other's.  Even if we're calm and controlled enough to never blurt out crazy things, we all think stuff sometimes.  What A has realized is that all people, no matter what the outside appearance might be, have their own stuff they're dealing with.  A respects the bodies and tries to understand what the kid is going through.  I felt like I got to meet so many different kinds of people as I read this book.  I got to see so many perspectives on life, just like A does everyday.

So, can A and Rhiannon be together?  How can something like that even begin to work?  And if A does try to tell Rhiannon somehow that this is how life is, who would even ever believe a "story" like that.

I loved the book.  I was really hooked at the beginning and couldn't wait to see what each day would bring and how all the details of each day would affect the rest of the story.  I highly recommend this book because it's different and new and cool, but also I recommend it because it's eye-opening to see so many different kinds of lives.  I think it's a good reminder not to judge someone until you've tried to see things and understand things from their perspective.

Can't help it, so here's a favorite passage:

I have been to many religious services over the years.  Each one I got to only reinforces my general impression that religions have much, much more in common than they like to admit.  The beliefs are almost always the same; it's just that the histories are different.  Everybody wants to believe in a higher power.  Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves, and everybody wants company in doing that.  They want there to be a force of good on earth, and they want an incentive to be a part of that force.  They want to be able to prove their belief and their belonging, through rituals and devotion.  they want to touch the enormity.   

It's only in the finer points that it gets complicated and contentious, the inability to realize that no matter what our religion or gender or race or geographic background, we all have about 98 percent in common with each other.  Yes, the differences between male and female are biological, but if you look at the biology as a matter of percentage, there aren't a whole lot of things that are different.  Race is different purely as a social construction, not as an inherent difference.  And religion--whether you believe in God or Yaweh or Allah or something else, odds are that at heart you want the same things.  For whatever reason, we like to focus on the 2 percent that's different, and most of the conflict in the world comes from that.

One passage/character/body that really affected me was Kelsea.  I thought about how hard high school is and how it's hard even if you've got everything together.  This girl's story really touched me.  It make me thing about how every time we say hello to someone, especially someone who's different or seems to need it,  we might be helping out.  Kindness matters so much.  More than we ever know.  We can't ever afford to be unkind to each other.  Every look, every smile, every nod, every hello matters and can send peace and respect into the world.  Here's Kelsea's life:

Kelsea has email access on her phone, but I'm still worried about anything being traced...so I walk the halls and go to classes, waiting for my chance.  I have to push harder to get Kelsea through the day.  Any time I let it, the weight of living creeps in and starts to drag her down.  It would be too easy to say that I feel invisible.  Instead, I feel painfully visible, and entirely ignored.  People talk to her, but it feels like they are outside a house, talking through the walls.  There are friends, but they are people to spend time with, not people to share time with.  There's a false beast that takes the form of instinct and harps on the pointlessness of everything that happens.  

That's a rough life for a kid to have to live.  But not every day that A wakes up is like this.  This was just one reminder about how much a person might be going through whether their outer self shows it or not.  A cool read.  I'd pick it up, soon, if I were you!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

This book is currently out as a movie right now.  It came out (the book) in 1999.  In 1999, I was a senior in high school.  Preoccupied with passing Calculus and getting into college, I wasn't really too much of a reader that year, believe it or not.  So somehow, this book passed me by.  I've seen it on shelves, and it's been a young adult book cult classic for a long time, but I still never got to it until now.  I can say that I am really glad I read it.

Some books stick with you and you feel all happy and warm and fuzzy inside when you finish.  Others make you grab boxes of tissues.   This one stayed with me, but not in a way I've experienced before.  I just enjoyed it.  I was glad to have gone on the journey with Charlie.

So the books is told through letters written by Charlie to his listener.  He is wandering through high school.  He's different.  He's really smart.  He's got a family.  They're great, but like all families, they have their issues.  He is observant.  He doesn't really "participate" in life.  His English teacher gives him some extra books to read and encourages him to participate.  He does.

This is the story of his participation (or sometimes his lack of it) in school, life, and love over the course of the year.  He meets up with Patrick and Sam who are cool and quirky.  They adventure.  They experiment.  They are infinite.  We follow Charlie to football games, school dances, and parties.  Charlie thinks of others before himself, sometimes to a fault.

It's hard to really describe this little book.  But it was really good.  I read most of it one sitting because I just followed Charlie and wanted to know how things worked out for him.

The book does touch on some scary subjects:  drugs, sex, date rape, domestic violence.  But it's in a way that really shows readers how terrible these things can be for young people.  To ignore these issues isn't good...they're real, and I felt that the author presented them and handled them well.  But they aren't the focus of the book.  To me the book was about figuring out who you are and about trying to make it in this crazy world, even when it seems like that is the hardest thing you can do.  There were so many touching moments in the story.  I am really happy I finally got to this one.  I recommend to students who don't mind reading books about big issues.  I also think you decide pretty quickly if you like the letter format and Charlie's narrating voice.  The reader can take it from there and decide if this is the book for you.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

I had seen this book forever on the shelf and never even picked it up to look at the back.  But this summer, when I saw a nice hardcover on sale at a used bookshop, I picked it up.  Asher's 13 Reasons Why is very popular with my student readers, so I took a look....I was instantly hooked!

So, Josh and Emma are in high school in 1996.  What's super cool for me is that this exactly when I started high school, and I must say the book was right on as far as time-period stuff goes.  Anyway, when the internet really first started in people's homes, you would always get these free AOL discs in the mail.  Tons of them! So when Emma gets a computer from her dad, she's all ready to set up her first email address and her IM account....(old school IM yall!) and she has Josh come over to help.  She and Josh were BFFs forever but had an awkward I-like-you-but-just-as-a-friend moment earlier last year, and so things are a bit rocky.  But they put the disc in and are setting it all up when they see this window for something called Facebook.  But it's 1996...Facebook doesn't even exist yet.  They actually end up seeing their own profiles in their own futures....and what they find is pretty interesting.  Who are they married to?  Are they happy?  Did they finish college?  Are they still friends?  All of these questions surface as they start digging deeper into their futures.  And  then, once they start making choices during the year, they see that these changes affect their future profiles.

The book is told from alternating points of view, which is always fun.  This keeps it fresh and also allows for you to see the story from multiple perspectives.  It was a fun read because we can all think about what it would be like to get a glimpse into our futures.  What would we do??  I liked the regular school stuff, too:  parties, dates, sports, class, hallway conversations.  It was all pretty fun and real.  I recommend this to both guys and girls.  If you like Facebook...that's a plus.  You'll get a kick out of it!

Chiggers by Hope Larson

A while back I read Mercury by Hope Larson and really liked it.  I've been trying to beef up the collection of graphic novels in my classroom library, so I picked this one up.  It was pretty good.  I most enjoyed the fact that it was about camp.  I loved reading about the camp atmosphere and activities.  Bunk life is crazy, and it was fun to be reminded of old times at summer camp.  I thought that the characters were cool, but overall it was just ok for me.  I wasn't terribly moved by the story at all.  I will add it to my collection, but will probably recommend Mercury first.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

OMG.  I loved this little book.  I was so inspired not only by Auggie, but also by all of the supporting characters.

So Auggie Pullman has a deformed face.  It's so bad, he tells you in the very first chapter, that whatever you're possibly imagining....his face is worse.  Yet, he decides to try to go to school.  He's been home-schooled until now, but his mom can't keep up with his studies.  He needs to go to school.  But let's all be realistic, school's hard enough even for kids who have it all together - this is going to be a nightmare for Auggie.

So the story begins.  Auggie will impress you at every turn.  I found so many little nuggets of wisdom and kindness.  I really felt moved by the book.  So maybe the ending was a little too sweet, but who cares....I want to live in a world where people accept Auggie for who he is.

Kids need to read this book.  Kids who are in middle school, high school, college, and even us adults who are students of the world.  You need to meet Auggie because he helps you get some perspective on your life and what you're facing.  A great walk in many characters' shoes.

Read it!  Now!

A snippet - Page 59 to Page 60
___________________________________________________________________________
I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden I started to cry.

Mom put the book down and wrapped her arms around me.  She didn't seem surprised that I was crying.  "It's okay," she whispered in my ear.  "I'll be okay."

"I'm sorry," I said between sniffles.

"Shh," she said, wiping my years with the back of her hand.  "You have nothing to be sorry about...."

"Why do I have to be so ugly, Mommy?" I whispered.

"No, baby, you're not..."

"I know I am."

She kissed me all over my face.  She kissed my eyes that came down too far.  She kissed my cheeks that looked punched in.  She kissed my tortoise mouth.

She said soft words that I know were meant to help me, but words can't change my face.
____________________________________________________________________________
Hello!  Doesn't this just break your heart.... Yet this kid makes it.  He faces mean kids and comments and stares.  And he still tries and gets up every day and does his best and sends out positive energy for others.

And here's a bit from Auggie himself - page 65 - Auggie's paper about one of his class assignments:

"This precept means that we should be remembered for the things we do.  The things we do are the most important things of all.  They are more important than what we say or what we look like.  the things we do outlast our mortality.  The things we do are like monuments that people build to honor heroes after they've died.  T hey're like the pyramids that the Egyptians built to honor the pharaohs.  Only instead of being made out of stone, they're made out of the memories people have of your.  That's why your deeds are like your monuments.   Built with memories instead of with stone."

My Really Late Summer Reading List

So, I moved from one city to another this summer.  Started a new job.  It's been busy.  But...here are the cool books I read this summer that I thought y'all might like.

Just a quick word about each one.

Maniac Magee - Can't believe I never read this one, but it was such a gem. A classic story with memorable characters.  One of those that you just have to read no matter when it happens.

Divergent - Beatrice lives in a future Chicago in which society is divided into factions.  She's in Abnegation but must decide when she's sixteen what faction she will align herself with.  Her choice could have serious consequences not only for her but also for all the people she loves and knows.  This was the first book/series that I thought came close to The Hunger Games.  I really loved this book.  Couldn't put it down.  Loved the characters and just the questions it brought up about people/their personalities.




Insurgent - Sequel to Divergent.  A must read if you like the first one.  I am, of course, just sad I've got to wait until the final book comes out.








The Name of the Star - I love, love, love anything by Maureen Johnson.  She's a smart, cooky, cool writer.  This book is different from her others.  It follows Rory, who's going to boarding school in London.  She's from Louisiana, so it's a huge culture shift.  But, she's game.  She meets people at school.  What's interesting here, though, is that London has a lot of history....not all of it great.  Someone has been recreating the Jack the Ripper murders from the past.  This book is boarding school fun meets London ghost hunting.  Super, fantastic fun!!!



Where Things Come Back - An award winning book and definitely worthy.  I loved this book because it is written from two totally different points of view.  The two narrators aren't even a part of each other's story...until they are.  I remember thinking...how is this all going to connect, and when it did....I was floored.  It was a really good, gritty book.  Check it out.






Out of My Mind - An easy read, but a really moving book.  This book is from the point of view of a girl with cerebral palsy.  She can't move or talk, but there's so much happening inside her mind.  You get a front row seat at she works through all these challenges at school.  A good read to remind you to walk in another person's shoes so that you can understand new perspectives about the world and how you treat and view people.

Anya's Ghost - I've been  trying to read more graphic novels.  This one was great!  I really, really loved it.  Anya is having issues with friends and school and just everything like every other kid in the world.  Her family's Russian and she deals with that, too.  Anyway, she ends up falling into a well and there is a skeleton down there!!!  She ends up talking to the ghost who belongs to the bones.  At first it's actually kind of cool, but then it begins getting weird....A fun high school, annoying ghost, be who you are story.

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Obviously, since this is the second book in a trilogy, I don't want to give too, too much away for people who haven't read it.  But I will say, I really enjoyed book two!  I felt like it was fast paced and exciting.  It picked up right where the first book, Across the Universe, left off and didn't slow down for one minute.

The series is about two main characters, Amy and Elder.  Elder is a leader on the spacecraft Godspeed.  He's part of an elaborate hierarchy of leadership aboard the vessel.  He finds out in book one that what he thought he knew about the ship isn't true at all, and he faces many choices and decisions.  Amy, on the other hand, is not a member of the Godspeed crew like Elder is.  She, along with her parents, was frozen when Godspeed left Earth.  That is until someone unplugged her way before her time.  She's lucky that she made it.  But when she looks around at the mono-ethnic people on the ship, she realizes that her pale skin and red hair make her stand out and that she might be lucky to be alive, but she's certainly not safe.  Amy and Elder continue to work together during the first and second books to get the ship where it needs to be and to focus on the one important thing in the future - completing Godspeed's mission of landing on another Earth-like planet, Centauri-Earth.

Revis is a fun writer.  Both books, once they got going, were fast reads.  I kept wanting to turn pages so I could find out what in the world would be next.  I highly recommend if you like sci-fi sort of stuff. 

P.S. I absolutely love both of the covers for these books.  The first book had a two-sided cover.  I wish the second book had a reversible cover as well, but it didn't.  Still great covers, though.

Why We Broke Up

I liked this book.  I remember performing a Maira Kalman book for one of my classes at UNC.  I love her illustrations.  The art included in the book makes this a really special book.  Unique.  I enjoyed the read.  I wasn't really taken with the story at first.  I wasn't sure what I thought of the voice of Min as the narrator.  But once I got into the story, I was hooked.  I was hooked because obviously, I knew they broke up but wanted to get the details.  But I was also hooked because I've been heart broken.  This book as quotes from all kinds of writers about their first or biggest heartbreaks, and that's really what's here.  Straight up heartbreak.  It's messy.  You're feelings are hurt.  But you still love the person.  It's complicated.

Min is labeled as "arty" by some, though really she can't even draw or anything.  But suffice it to say, Min isn't one of "the" popular kids.  She's got her gang.  She knows a fair amount of people.  She's just a high school girl.  Enter Ed Slaterton.  Somehow, he and Min cross paths.  He's interested.  She's interested....I mean, this is basketball co-captain Ed Slaterton.  Things happen...and this unlikely pair turns into an actual couple.  But it doesn't last.  The book itself is Min's "Why We Broke Up" letter to Ed.  She has put all the objects, souvenirs, etc. from their relationship into a box and has THUNKED the box onto his door step.  Who knows what he'll do with it.  Who knows if he'll read Min's letter.

I liked that this book was honest.  One of my favorite parts is when Min is saying just how normal she is.  She's not different.  She's not arty.  She's just a girl.  We all do so much in our lives.  We fill many roles and we have many responsibilities.  I don't care who you are or how smart your are or how athletic you are or how interesting you are....You are still a boy....or you are still a girl....and when we give our hearts to another, there's always that possibility of heart-break.  But what would life be without the ups and downs, right?  This is a great read.  While it's sad because you know what ultimately happens between these two....it's still nice to read about someone going through something that we all deal with - the break up

Oh, and here's the website for The Why We Broke Up Project....if you want to share.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I finished The Marriage Plot and Wuthering Heights right at the beginning of the year, and then I took up John Green's latest.  I don't want to post too much because I know so many people are reading the book.  Also, it was just so good, there's not a whole lot to say, or maybe, I am just not sure what to say.  In short, you are immediately in love with Hazel Grace Lancaster from the moment you read the first sentence.  This character is unique and real.  What she says about life and her disease is honest and funny and terrifying all at the same time.  I knew I would probably shed a tear or two at the end of the book...I mean, how can you not?  It's a Cancer Kid book, right?  When I read Jenny Downham's Before I Die, I was weeping at the end.  But what shocked me was that I teared up multiple times throughout, and then, of course, I was sobbing at the very end.  But I thought that this was fitting.  I mean who wouldn't cry all the time (like Hazel's dad) if you were going through all of this.  It's sad.  I am just so amazed at how Green got me to feel so much for these characters.  I also love how books like this help you put your life into perspective.  What I love about literature and this book is that we read it and we experience something that we might never experience in all our days.  It's tragic...but like the classic definition of tragedy....it enlarges and ennobles us.  We are better for having witnessed what happened to these characters and we can appreciate our own lives and the relationships we have.

One last thing I will say I loved about this book was the fact that Hazel was just around her parents and her few good friends.  So many kids and adults today are so concerned with the appearance of being busy and involved in every freakin' activity possible.  Sometimes I feel like kids and grown-ups might feel like if they aren't getting straight A's AND playing three sports AND being really popular AND taking music lessons on the side AND volunteering five million hours a week AND finding time to still cook and read for pleasure AND maintaining a perfectly positive attitude all the time....then they aren't doing enough.  But you know, that's just not true.  I think this book shows that what matters is relationships and family.  Basketball wasn't that important to Augustus.  And the people who knew he played or knew him in high school didn't really KNOW him.  What matters is knowing people and appreciating them for exactly who they are.  Conversations matter.  Time with people matters.  Friendships and relationships matter.  Not all that other stuff. Not that that stuff is bad, but it's not always that important.  I recommend this book to every person in the entire world.  It's a great story with a great narrator and great characters and a great message.  LOVED it.  I did.