Spanking Shakespeare is one of the funniest books I have ever read. The main character, Shakespeare, is a senior in high school and writing his senior project. It’s hilarious!!! Clever!!! Intelligent!!! When you start reading it you won’t be able to stop. Not appropriate for young readers, but enjoyable for older teens and adults. Posted by MichelleRead More →
Harmless, a book that is anything but, raises some eyebrows. Do you buy it for your child? Do you put it on the shelf as a librarian? Can it be used in the classroom? As an 8th grade Language Arts teacher I saw many heart-wrenching situations that my students wound up in, many situations that I think we as educators don’t always catch or know how to deal with. I grew up in a pretty stable environment, a fact I am thankful for, but a stable environment is not always par for the course. What I love about Harmless is that it is told fromRead More →
Sonya Sones’ What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know is an easily accessible story of a lovable nerd experiencing his first relationship and its accompanying issues. It tells the story of Robin Murphy, an awkward artist who happens to land a popular girlfriend. When she is dropped by her friends for dating ‘the’ Murphy, they must make a stand together or lose what they have fought to gain. Written in accessible verse, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know is a poignant coming-of-age tale. Sones’ narrator Murphy is the anti-hero whose quirks and insecurities are instantly endearing and lovable. As an imperfect Prince Charming, Murphy’s journey from timid boyRead More →
Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande attacks the controversial arguments surrounding religion in schools from a new perspective. Mena, Brande’s protagonist, starts the school year having been kicked out of her church group. When none of her former friends will speak to her, Mena finds refuge in science class with a charismatic teacher and cute new lab partner. When the class begins the unit on evolution, however, Mena finds herself in a difficult position between her old and new friends. Tackling a number of controversial subjects, this book tells a compelling story of a young girl figuring out what she believesRead More →
The Afterlife by Gary Soto grabs the reluctant reader in the first few pages with the story of Chuy who is stabbed, dies, and becomes the ghostly protagonist of this compelling story. As Chuy struggles to find the significance of his life and watches his family come to terms with his violent end, he meets the lovely Crystal, also recently deceased. I read this story with junior high students who “HATE to read” but they were quickly drawn into Chuy’s search for understanding and the question of whether his death would be avenged. The author of this book, Gary Soto, is a favorite ofRead More →
The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) tells the story of teen twins Sophie and Josh who discover that a San Francisco bookstore owner, Nick Flemming, is really Nicholas Flamel, a nearly 700 year old alchemist who created the elixir of life. His enemy, Dr. John Dee, steals the Codex, an ancient book containing the secrets of magic, and a prophecy regarding the twins. As Flamel and the twins race to recover the book, they are pursued by Dee and the members of the Elder race who are the source of most of humanity’s ancient myths and legends. Throughout this riveting book, Elders and other magical creatures line up onRead More →
The Arrival, the newest book by Shaun Tan, tells the the familiar story of an immigrant in an intriguing new way. Conveyed entirely in detailed drawings which look like sepia-toned, worn photographs, this book feels like paging through an old photo album without the aid of captions or notes. We follow the immigrant as he packs a small bag, says a heartbreaking goodbye to his wife and small daughter, and boards a steamer ship along with hundreds of others to reach a new land. The new city is at once recognizable and surreal and recalls the halls and images of Ellis Island and New York City.Read More →
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is Sherman Alexie’s first novel for young adults. It’s based in part on his own experiences growing up poor on the Spokane Indian Reservation. It tells the story of Junior (known as Arnold to the white people in the world he inhabits on a part-time basis), an Indian teenager coming into adulthood. When he decides to leave the run-down, dead-end reservation school to attend a rich, white farm town school, his mom tells him “you’ll be the first one to ever leave the rez this way. The Indians around here are going to be angry with you.”Read More →
Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer’s much-anticipated follow up to her highly successful novels Twilight and New Moon, continues the saga rich with vampires, werewolves, and Bella Swan, the girl who loves them both. Picking up right where New Moon left off, Eclipse is filled with danger, intrigue, fighting and plenty of suspense. While the plot is riveting and the book is a page-turner that is almost impossible to set down, Eclipse differs from the first two books in the amount of background and character development Meyer provides. Not only does Meyer delve more deeply into the mythology of the werewolves and vampires, she also picks out individualRead More →