Best Reads Summer 2022

Here are my favorite books that I read during the summer break. 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

Endlessly Ever After: Pick Your Path to Countless Fairy Tale Endings! by Laurel Snyder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On my first venture, I died. Wah waaaaaah.

Huge props to Snyder for writing rhyming text with rhythms that line up! Like a dork I counted syllables, and most lines are 14 with iambic (I think) feet. I have read too many rhyming books lately that don't bother with meter and they make me cranky.

Anyways, our class periods are getting extended from 35 to 50 minutes next year, and while in the past I may have dismissed this as being too long to get through effectively for Mock Caldecott, I welcome it now!

 

Brave Every Day by Trudy Ludwig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'd like to use for Mock Caldecott, but I also feel there's value in reading it to ALL of the students at the beginning of the year and having them write out:

I worry about what if ...
I worry that I can't ...
I'm scared that ...
BUT
I'll try to ...

Or will I just be opening myself up to dealing with trauma and having to tell the social worker?? Hmm.

 

Let's Find Momo!: A Hide-And-Seek Board Book by Andrew Knapp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Will definitely use with PreK.

Early Readers

Cranky Chicken: A Cranky Chicken Book 1 by Katherine Battersby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I laughed out loud at the evil worm and the various cranky pants.

Middle Grade Fiction

The Adventure Is Now by Jess Redman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally! The new go-to book for every time a kid asks me for a book with an "adventure." Short chapters, lots of action, some feelings, and silliness. Also I think I might use the list of misspelled words on p. 118 as a brainteaser for my students.

 

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The chasm between those that have and those that do not widens every day. Everywhere. This depiction of life in Mumbai illustrates societal problems (including the WATER MAFIA - despicable) without completely traumatizing the reader. The characters continue to cling to hope and work to better their situations. The kind of book more of my middle-class kids need to read.

I may need to do something for World Water Day with my students on March 22. Loved the app idea Minni came up with.

p. 42: "Is this growing up? Learning how dangerous the whole world can be? Learning that not everyone follows the rules. That some people don't care if they hurt others. That they only care about themselves and making a profit."

 

This Is Not a Drill by K.A. Holt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The texts and app were the perfect way to tell this story. Seems like they were in lockdown a lot longer than it should be necessary with just one intruder. But ... Uvalde just happened, so what makes sense doesn't seem to happen that often.

 

Nonfiction

When Cloud Became a Cloud by Rob Hodgson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my favorite water cycle book I ever read.

 
I'm Trying to Love Garbage by Bethany Barton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bethany Barton does it again! Fun, informative, and in this case, very timely.

 

Blips on a Screen: How Ralph Baer Invented TV Video Gaming and Launched a Worldwide Obsession by Kate Hannigan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zachariah Ohora's illustrations are a great match with the topic of this book, and I love that the back matter encourages kids to protect their own intellectual property. Will use with Grade 2 for Mock Sibert and possibly older grades as well. I can't wait to see their horrified faces when I show them what video game graphics used to be.


My Stinky Summer by S. Bug by Paul Meisel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can definitely use this as part of a library lesson. We can talk about timelines, habitats, diets ... and smelly things.

For Grownups

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Such fun! The fact that there was kind of no way to figure out whodunit without seeing a photo that we couldn't see knocked it down to a 4, but I can't wait to read the next one.

 

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SO MUCH FUN. Victorian murders! Mysterious societies! Powers! So many characters kept appearing, it was like a party, and the Athena Club's interjections throughout the narrative were entertaining. Can't wait to read the next one.

 

His & Hers by Alice Feeney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finally guessed who did it in an Alice Feeney book! Could not put down.

 

No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club: Diary of a Sixtieth Year by Virginia Ironside
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm pushing 50, and evidently I'll be just fine when I'm 60, because I related so much to Marie. I too worry about:

- cancer of the esophagus from wine ingestion
- "this baby being weird. And me being the only person who could spot it being weird."
- the fact that "I am so busy pottering about and mooching around, I would never have time to get in twenty minutes of brisk walking."

I too want to:

- be able to "spend a day doing nothing instead of feeling obliged to cram it with diversionary activities to avoid guilt and anxiety"
- wear comfortable shoes ... you know, "the hideousa but comfortaballa shoesa for the olda batsa!"

Unfortunately, looks like I won't be able to read any more books about Marie without buying them used on Amazon. Which I may do as a birthday gift to myself.

 

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
You did it again, Alice Feeney!
The same way!
But I will still read more of your books.
Just maybe not in one sitting until after midnight again.
Because then I don't get out of bed until 10.

 

I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well. Feeney got me again. Never in a million years would I have figured out that twisted, bonkers, nasty twist. Oh, but the ride to get there.

 

Recursion by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

REALLY engrossing, although I got lost at the end and did not quite understand the solution. Overall, mindbending in a good way.

p. 123 - "He has wondered lately if that's all living really is - one long goodbye to those we love."