Best Reads of the First Half of Summer

It is summer, which means I order dozens of books to prep for Mock Caldecott, Mock Newbery, and Mock Sibert! These were my favorites from the past five weeks. Plus a bunch of grownup entertainment. All images and summaries from Goodreads.

Picture Books

Ploof by Ben Clanton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SUPER adorable, but I'm not sure if I will use as a readaloud because of all the blowing ... students are so germy. I suppose I could paperclip those pages and skip them ...

 

Bubbles by Ben Clanton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet. Are board books appropriate for school libraries? May go ahead and add.

 

Spider in the Well by Jess Hannigan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cuckoo bananas. Echoes of Klassen's of "I haven’t seen any rabbits anywhere. I would not eat a rabbit. Don’t ask me any more questions." I'm sad Hannigan lives in Ontario, because that means I can't use this for Mock Caldecott.

 

Go and Get with Rex by David LaRochelle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure playing Go and Get would work with a class of 20 kindergarteners, but I think reading this book will!

 

Jump for Joy by Karen Gray Ruelle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet. And I really liked the way the text was mirrored between Joy and Jump. But I can't help but wonder ... where does Jump live, and who is feeding him?

 

Built to Last by Minh Lê
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aw, it's a metaphor! Will my students understand? Not sure if I completely understood all of their creations and how they fell apart, honestly, but the illustrations are A plus.

Early Readers

Orris and Timble: The Beginning by Kate DiCamillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the Kate DiCamillo I know. Sweetly serious and made me smile.

 

 

Chapter Books

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So good. The story just flowed, even if the time travel mechanics didn't QUITE make sense. But will they ever? I did appreciate that they did extensive research in the future on locations, to make sure nobody apparated inside a tree or under water. And Ridge's studied "slang" was hilarious. There was a good balance of adventure and FEEL-ings.

Most of all, I LOVED THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE, my alma mater, and the mention of the Christiana Mall ... I literally JUST took a photo of it from the highway a couple of weeks ago to send to my family as R. and I drove home to RI from DC.



And Then, Boom! by Lisa Fipps
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fipps describes Joe's hunger and fear effectively ... reading this book was was very stressful! And underscores why I don't think teachers should have their kids do stuff for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Because some parents SUCK. But this book doesn't.

p. 11: The longer I wait for her, / the more nervous I get / that she won't ever return, / and yet / the more I fear her coming home.

p. 24: Nobody even looked at us. / We were invisible. / People didn't want to see us, / because if they did, / they'd get scared that one day / they could be us.

p. 142: For some reason the game Rock, Paper, Scissors / pops into my head. / Hakeem's strong / like a rock. / I'm a lightweight / like paper. / Paper beats rock. / But Hakeem's words cut like scissors. / 'Cause they're true.

Quibble: Would 6th graders really be sitting crisscross applesauce on carpet squares for a readaloud?

Nonfiction

The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants by Philip Bunting
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is so adorable. Too bad Bunting is Australian, so I can't use it for Mock Sibert. But I'm adding it to my wishlist for the general collection. And maybe I will read it to K during our nonfiction unit.

 

Determined Dreamer: The Story of Marie Curie by Deborah Hopkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Concise, accessible account of Curie's life (although maybe a bit too long to read to my restless students as a Mock Sibert). The fact that will stick with me is that she boiled down literally tons of ore dust over the course of four years to isolate a whopping Cheerio-weight of radium. And the information about her helping to bring X rays to the WWI battlefields was new to me.

For Grownups

Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oooh, I should have seen the big twist coming, but Clare was too clever for me! Great read, and I want Murray to be my neighbor.

 

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hoo wee! What a read! So well paced. Recommended for summer entertainment - at the beach or on the futon.