Best Reads of August 2018

Summer vacation means way more reading time! Here are my favorites from August. 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

Bigger! Bigger! by Leslie Patricelli
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Imagination! Cooperation! Although if I were the main character I might have beaned my sibling with a block.


We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ahhh! I need to add this into my K "how to behave at school" repertoire.


I say OOH You say AAH by John Kane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Will the kids like it? I think so. Adding to Mock Caldecott and will also use with K.


Geraldine by Elizabeth Lilly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A super cute allegory about being the new kid and finding your way to fit in. Although Geraldine's neck is a bit insane.




What Happens Next by Susan Hughes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting structure and important theme, but would the solution presented here really work? Will recommend to Guidance and social worker/school psychologist anyways.

Middle Grade Novels

Walking with Miss Millie by Tamara Bundy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Solid coming-of-age novel with some good advice from Miss Millie that I plan to use this school year:

p 124: "You're never too old to be hurt just a little. But if you're lucky, one day you be smart enough to quit putting yourself in the situations that hurt ya."

p. 192: "I learned it's okay to get mad. It's okay to get sad, but after all that gettin' mad and sad, ya gotta get smart. Ya gotta take a step back, away from all your hurtin', and figure out what ya can change and what ya can't."


Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea by Lynne Rae Perkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this so much more than I thought I would. Nothing much really happens, and spending a week at the beach (what state? I couldn't figure it out. It drove me crazy. Maine?) in a rented house is a foreign concept to some of my students. And they may see it as "girly." But I loved Perkins' style ... it was almost dreamlike.

p. 222: "You never knew what amazing thing would happen next, that was for sure. Alix wondered if that might be true in Shembleton, too. If it could be true in everyday life, when you weren't on vacation. She felt that it could."

I'm going to try and hold on to that when the school year starts ...


Road Trip with Max and His Mom by Linda Urban
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked it better than the first one ... I feel like we got a little more insight into Max's personality. Lots of amusing lines. For example:

p. 57: "There were a lot of minutes between now and after school tomorrow. How as he supposed to know if he needed any last-minute things when it wasn't the last minute yet?"

His desire to experience "hardships and deprivations."

p. 103: "he did not look tall or brave or awesome. He looked like a guy whose family motto might be 'Let's Go Home and Eat Soup.'"

Nonfiction

Do Not Open This Math Book: Addition + Subtraction by Danica McKellar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, now I finally know what it means to add 3-digit numbers in expanded form. McKellar does an excellent job of explaining things like 10 frames and number bonds, which I still find annoying but oh, well. Would recommend to any parent to work through with their early elementary students.

For Grownups

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This may be my favorite book of the summer because it was so fun. I mean, yes, there were some terrible actions / beliefs revealed by the end, but it kept me reading after my bedtime because I was enjoying it so much. One of my favorite scenes was the widows declaring that Preetam had "done plagiarism" by describing a TV movie as her story. Excellent summer read ... actually, it would be an excellent read during any season. Loved it.