Best Reads T2 2019-2020

Here's what I read and loved this trimester. 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

Linus The Little Yellow Pencil by Scott Magoon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shared with the art teacher, since kids can be mean about each other's work.




Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed to Open This Box by David Goodner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More Ginny Goblin books, please.





Going Down Home with Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet.




Hum and Swish by Matt Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This may be a last-minute addition to my Mock Caldecott pile. Love the illustrations.


I Want a Dog by Jon Agee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I laughed out loud at the dead fish and the costumed lizard.





The Sad Little Fact by Jonah Winter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Can we send several copies to the White House?




The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cute, but doesn't Barnes know that naptime takes away from Common Core instructional time? Ugh. My students could so use that downtime. So, sadly, unrealistic.




Middle Grade Fiction


  Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wish I had read it when I was younger, but I'm glad to have come across it now. Fun stuff.





Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I probably should have seen the big reveal coming before I started to suspect it.

I appreciated reading Nova's letters for a chance to better understand what someone with her issues might be thinking trapped behind a wall of communication problems.

p. 221:"It turns out a nova is not an explosion at the end of a star's life, like a supernova. A nova is an explosion on a white dwarf that makes a dull star get brighter and brighter all of a sudden until it is the brightest thing in the sky after the sun and moon, but then it fades back to normal. A supernova kills a star, but not a nova. In a nova, the star survives the explosion. That's me. I survived."


Bad Dad by David Walliams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Definitely Dahl-esque.

Lots to love, including Auntie Flip's volumes of poetry (e.g., "Rhymes About Hand Cream" and "The Joys of Quiche"), bottom humor, Raj's rounding up "best by" dates to the nearest decade, and the wonderful design. So much fun - the written words are part of the action.



Nonfiction


Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island by Jennifer Thermes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Gorgeous. Well written, bursting with facts, meticulously illustrated.

"The city commissioners had thought it would take centuries to fill the grid with buildings. It only took sixty years."

I want to learn more about Paradise Square falling into the old landfill, Seneca Village, and the Great Blizzard of 1888.

Which One Doesn't Belong?: A Shapes Book by Christopher Danielson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Will add to my 1st grade unit about sorting and categories.



Firefighters' Handbook by Meghan Mccarthy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Straightforward facts that my kids will eat up.




Comics: Easy as ABC!: The Essential Guide to Comics for Kids by Ivan Brunetti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really liked the tips and suggestions, but then at the end there were bizarre four-panel comics that didn't seem to be for kids, and it all ended with a giant ad for TOON books.





For Grownups 

  Curious Toys by Elizabeth Hand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had no idea until I was looking at other reviews that Henry Darger was a real person! Kind of belies the statement at the end of the audiobook that any similarity to charaters living or dead was a coincidence ...

Anyways, I enjoyed listening to this, even though I thought we hadn't been given enough clues at all as to the killer's identity.