Here's what I read and loved this summer. Several grownup books at the end! Click on the titles to read plot summaries. If you'd like to see all of my books, you can follow me on Goodreads.
Picture Books
Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have long been irritated at the general educational focus of getting kids into college. Learning to function as a productive member of society gets lost on the way, as does the importance of the trades. (My cousin's friend once remarked that if a job wasn't featured in Richard Scarry's "What Do People Do All Day?" then they wondered if it was truly necessary.)
This celebration of the people who do the hard physical work of building and creating is refreshing. It takes a team; nobody is more important than anyone else. Everyone's job has value. And Long's illustrations are fantastic.
Wishes by Mượn Thị Văn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Stunning in its simplicity.
The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Delightful.
I AM COMING CLOSER.
Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wonder a lot too.
Gorgeous illustrations.
Sunrise Summer by Matthew Swanson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One of those books that introduces kids to a completely different experience than they are used to. (Unless they live in an Alaskan fishing village.) Lively illustrations accompany interesting text. My copy says pub date 2020, so I don't think I can use it for Mock Caldecott? But Amazon says 2021. Hmm.
My First Day by Phùng Nguyên Quang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hmm ... I want my kids to understand that not everyone lives a middle-class life in exurbia. Maybe I'll use this as a jumping-off point.
Mel Fell by Corey R. Tabor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Extra star for the format. I can't believe nobody came up with it before! Will definitely make for good Mock Caldecott discussion.
Early Reader
Stuck Together by Brian "Smitty" Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oh my goodness, this was great! "I done broke my pea-hind!" "I'm a marble!" My students will love it.
Middle Grade Novels
Starfish by Lisa Fipps
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not sure if this needed to be in "verse," but I stayed up and read it all in one sitting. Loved Ellie's voice. Loved that there were actual strategies shared by the therapist.
p. 31 - "It's unknown how many students' lives
librarians have saved
by welcoming loners at lunch."
p. 49 - "If I were an article, she'd put a giant X on me."
p. 59 - "Dr. Woodn't-You-Like-to-Know
shelves books based on color,
not alphabetically,
so I think she obviously can't be trusted."
p. 153 - "I saw bits and pieces of me
in the shards.
And it hit me.
That's how people see me,
as bits and pieces of fat.
Not as a person."
Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not really a ghost story, first of all. I mean, yeah, there is a ghost, but this isn't quite what the kids who ask for "scary" books are asking for. However, it is so well written; I'm giving it an extra star for the actual text. But I kind of want to take away a star for the whiplash I got between p. 115 and p. 154. Really? A ghost haircut made you pull a 180? It kind of made it seem like the right haircut is all one needs to find one's identity. Within minutes.
Finally, school is 45 minutes away? Gross.
p. 15 - "Smiling seems like it would hurt, like clay has dried on my cheeks and a twitch of my lips would crack it off."
p. 29 - "[G]etting good grades just felt like playing a game, and winning."
p. 46 - "Even reading on the porch sounds more interesting when I pretend to be a character in a book doing it. Reading A Book On The Porch, instead of just reading a book on the porch."
p. 49 - " ... I'm panting, then sobbing, my shoulders quake and my palms press against my face slippery with tears and snot and that narrator that's always murmuring in my head suggests that this is the part of the story where I cry over my uncle's death and maybe start to heal but I don't think that's what's happening but I don't know what's happening ..."
Nonfiction
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am thinking about doing a Mock Sibert with my 2nd graders this year, but this one might be too traumatizing for 7 year olds. Maybe I'll read it to 5th grade? Unbelievable that it was covered up for so long.
The Highest Tribute: Thurgood Marshall’s Life, Leadership, and Legacy by Kekla Magoon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow! This was really good. I think I will pair it with a book about RBG, which I had already done with 2nd last year, and ask the kids which laws they would change.
http://gardencity-library.blogspot.co...
http://oaklawn-library.blogspot.com/2...
Never Let a Ghost Borrow Your Library Book: Book Care Guidelines from Library Secret Service by Karen Casale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So much more fun than some of the other book-care titles out there. Will be using for K. And 1, since they never had checkout during COVID times, just book giveaways. It's going to be a job explaining that they can't keep their books this year.
A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice by Jasmine A. Stirling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A focused picture-book biography that doesn't seem to have any gaping holes or shoehorned extra facts. Nicely done.
For Grownups
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
PERFECT vacation read. Shifting perspectives, skeletons in closets, a body somewhere that we don't even know who it belongs to until the last few chapters. I guessed one twist, but not the other two huge ones. Highly entertaining.
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Thanks to the "Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone" podcast for introducing me to Mary Roach. I want to read all the things now! I kept driving my boyfriend crazy with "Did you know ..." statements. And feel vindicated for all the times people told me my food couldn't possibly have just come out of me already because it needs 24 hours. Nope! Just 5! And some of us have faster systems. So there.
The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Whoa, Nellie! I stayed up way too late last night devouring the this book. I half guessed one twist, but not the other two, and kudos to Ms. Kubica for her tricking me. However, the last few chapters got really bonkers and stuff seemed to happen way too fast, including Sadie's acceptance of a few things that were revealed and a crazy climax. I fell asleep thinking of plot holes and overwrought writing. But overall, a cracking summer vacation read.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fantastic read. Would you trade your soul for freedom? What about if it meant living forever?
