Here are my favorite books that I read during the first trimester of the year. 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
The Book of Rules by Brian GehrleinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love this but ... we aren't allowed to have rugs anymore. We'll see what happens next year when I supposedly have one building with a new carpeted library. Or maybe I'll just change the first rule. Definitely a fantastic first K lesson read.
There’s A Ghost In This House by Oliver JeffersMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, this would have been a good one for last year's Mock Caldecott. Although if Jeffers only lives in NYC part-time, does he qualify? Nonetheless, will be adding to the collection.
Kindergarten: Where Kindness Matters Every Day by Vera AhiyyaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Our Ks this year are fairly feral. I'm going to try reading this and see if it helps at all.
Lou by Breanna CarzooMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Short and sweet. Love all the representation in the background characters.
Every Dog in the Neighborhood by Philip C. SteadMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Love that they took matters into their own hands.
I Want to Be a Vase by Julio TorresMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Is there subtext? Maybe. Would the jigsaw melt in the toilet? Definitely. But ... might as well try, right? I had a silly grin on my face the entire time I read this, and will be using for Mock Caldecott. But not reading the last page, because I am forever telling my students "Books are not hats!"
A History of Me by Adrea TheodoreMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hoo boy. I felt that in my gut. Want to have in my collections for all the girls who are the only brown people in their class. Well, and the boys too I guess. Although I have to say my schools have become more diverse demographically over the years. I still never know where to look when I talk about slavery and the civil rights movement, though.
Does a Bulldozer Have a Butt? by Derick WilderMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
K-Fai Steele, why did you have to move to Switzerland?? Now I can't use this for Mock Caldecott!
To Make by Danielle DavisMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Inspiring. But the gnome and fairy distracted me. More kids need to hear the message that sometimes you need to WAIT.
Middle Grade Novels
Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason ReynoldsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Welp. Best book I've read about the 2020 experience yet. Oof. One to read and reread. The text and art work so well together. Some favorite lines:
"and she wipes weary from her eyes / still glued to the no-good / glued to the high-definition glare of low-definition life"
"ain't nothing but a fist with a face that looks like mine"
"and my brother never lifts his head from the game / while his hands jut around moving in a panic as he fights / for an extra life"
"and turns back to the television that seem to say too much / where he watches the same thing my mother is watching in the living room / and I'm wondering why he won't change the channel"
"and can't nobody breathe in a knit sweater in the summer / a turtleneck wrapped around my whole family our necks caught in a tunnel of too much going on / and it feels like I'm the only person who can tell we're all suffocating"
"and that maybe the oxygen mask was hidden on the hinges of my mother's mouth ... and maybe oxygen masks are stocked in the books on the shelf my mother's been begging us to read / but we haven't yet / and I figure maybe there's a breath between the pages"
"and it feels like he might knock the wind into me"
"and I wonder if maybe an oxygen mask is hiding amongst the crumbs of memories caught between the cushions of this couch"
"and I'm sitting here still still still wondering / why my mother won't change the channel / and why the news won't change the story / and why the story won't change into something other than / the every-hour rerun / about how we won't change the world / or the way we treat the world / or the way we treat each other"
I need to go pour myself a drink.
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly BarnhillMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wonderful writing; were the "I alone can fix it" references a little too on the nose?
Yonder by Ali StandishMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes I let my displeasure with a plot or a character get in the way of my judging a Mock Newbery book for its writing. Happily, this one delivers on all counts. Lots of metaphors and action verbs and "yup" sentences. But also lots of fully realized characters and a bunch of threads that come together nicely.
I liked the flipping between the past and the present, and kudos to the designer who gave the different time frames different backgrounds (but maybe not to the one who gave the exact same cover creative brief to this and "Anyone Here Seen Frenchie?").
The parallels between then and now were sobering ... except now we KNOW what is happening everywhere in the world because of social media. And yet ... do we do anything about it?
p. 317 - "Courage took practice."
Surely Surely Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada KellyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
We need more books like this! Old-fashioned in a good way: a kid stressing about kid things like kickball and whether they can communicate with a cat.
Like Marisol, I, too, have a Brain Train. ("I wish ... I wonder ... If only ... Maybe ... I should ... Surely ...") And yes, "Sometimes it helps to focus on the right nows so you don't get lost in the what-ifs." (p. 72)
Playing the Cards You're Dealt by Varian JohnsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oh, I hope my kids give this one a chance. I liked it way more than I expected. Realistic portrayal of family drama, friendship woes, stressing about an activity ... and I really want to learn how to play spades now.
Falling Short by Ernesto CisnerosMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not a Newbery, but a solid middle-school stress and friendship book that alternates between two narrators and shows that we all have problems.
Bea Is for Blended by Lindsey StoddardMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The family situation was a bit run-of-the-mill, but the soccer team drama bumped this up a star for me. Wow, Principal Meesley sucked. Loved that the team took the situation into their own hands and received so much support - but not interference - from their families.
I did think it was weird that the season seemed to have consisted of only four games before the semifinals? I guess there aren't a ton of teams floating around rural Vermont?
Nonfiction
Pizza!: A Slice of History by Greg PizzoliMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Just the right balance of facts and whimsy. Did you know that in the U.S., "we eat 350 slices of pizza every second"?
Pink, Blue, and You!: Questions for Kids about Gender Stereotypes by Elise GravelMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Would absolutely buy for a public library or child of my aquaintance, but not sure about a school library pretty much only because of the illustration with the little baby penis. Other than that, the content is presented sensibly and easy for a kid to understand, and I like that the text asks readers questions.
June Almeida, Virus Detective!: The Woman Who Discovered the First Human Coronavirus by Suzanne SladeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Suzanne Slade is becoming one of my favorite nonfiction authors.
Harriet's Ruffled Feathers by Joy McCulloughMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I never knew that the Audubon Society was named after James Audubon, but not created by him! Will be a nice tie-in to PBL to show that one person can effect change.
The Fastest Girl on Earth!: Meet Kitty O'Neil, Daredevil Driver! by Dean RobbinsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Short enough that maybe a 5th grader would actually read the whole thing for wax museum?
The Girl Who Could Fix Anything: Beatrice Shilling, World War II Engineer by Mara RockliffMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Only one thing I didn't get with this book ... in the picture of taking apart a motorcycle, was that her in the pants?
Rock by Rock: The Fantastical Garden of Nek Chand by Jennifer BradburyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
My one issue ... Nek was out in the park all night making statues while his wife was home with the kids?
Young Adult
The Agathas by Kathleen GlasgowMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A bit overlong, but the clues were laid out well ... I just didn't see them until p. 350 or so.
For Grownups
The Good Sister by Sally HepworthMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Totally called one of the twists early on, but it was so well done. I usually rotate my pile of books by reading one chapter / 25 pages of each one in turn, but I finished this in three sittings. Truly a page turner. Fern and Wally's characters are wonderfully depicted.
Things to Look Forward To: 52 Large and Small Joys for Today and Every Day by Sophie BlackallMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Getting this as a Christmas gift for a few people ...
p. 83: "The museums we create tell the story of who we are and the people we have loved."
p. 84: "Finishing something means that you can begin again, and that's something to look forward to."
