Read:  1/24/2017

Review:  In Depression-era Flint, Michigan, 10-year-old Bud Caldwell (BUD, not Buddy) is plucked from his“home” to go to a foster family. This will be the third foster home he’s been in since his mother's death, and he’s not impressed. However, he takes his worn, cardboard suitcase with his few but treasured possessions and tries to make the best of it. Before he knows it, he’s on the lam and on a mission to find the man who he believes to be his father.  He is determined to find his own way and sure that the things his mother left him are clues to his father’s identity and whereabouts. 

I like this book, because of Bud's determination and the complexity of the characters as depicted during a bleak period of time in American history.

Age/Audience:  Grades 3 and up.  This story will appeal to young boys, because it is told from that perspective. Also, young readers who are interested in aspects of the post WWI era will find this book interesting.  

Teaching Points:  This book can be used to teach about the causes of the Great Depression and how the depression affected people, specifically as it pertains to homelessness and the significance of Hooverville for homeless families. 

Read:  2/29/2017

Review:  This is the story of an African American family, fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the deep south of the 1930s. Nine-year-old Cassie Logan, growing up protected by her loving family, has never had reason to suspect that any white person could consider her inferior or wish her harm. However, during the course of one devastating year when her community begins to be ripped apart by angry night riders threatening African Americans, she and her three brothers come to understand why the land they own means so much to their papa.

I like this book, because the children in this family learned to stand for what was right, even when it cost them dearly.  This is a lesson that all students could learn from, regardless of their race.  Also, one of the characters has the best name ever, Stacey!

Age/Audience:  Grades 4-7.  This story would appeal to students who like to read stories about strong family ties or who have an interest in the racial climate of America during the the Great Depression. 

Teaching Points:  This book can be used to teach about the injustice of racially segregated schools, post-WWI economic inequality among southern black sharecroppers, and other similar themes.

Read:  2/17/2017

Review:  This story is about Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake and no happy campers. In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley Yelnats has landed at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail, even though his conviction was all a case of mistaken identity. Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter, learning how to get along with the boys in Group D, and fearing the warden. However, Stanley soon realizes that the boys may not just be digging to build character--but in fact the warden is seeking something specific that could be of benefit to Stanley's family as well.

I like this book, because it is somewhat strange and unpredictable in the beginning but ultimately reveals a deep understanding of friendship and a compassion for society's underdogs. 

Age/Audience:  Grades 5 and up.  This book would appeal to adolescent boys who enjoy dark humor and a some sense of mystery. 

Teaching Points:  This book covers lessons about bullying, injustice, loyalty, selflessness and perseverance, and could be used to teach one or all of these concepts. 

Read:  3/14/2017

Review:  Twins, Josh and Jordan, are junior high basketball stars. They are the teen phenom sons of former superstar, Chuck "Da Man" Bell, and junior high principal, Crystal Stanley-Bell. Josh is the better student, one inch taller, plays small forward, and aspires to go to Duke. Jordan (JB) attempts to emulate his idol Air Jordan, plays shooting guard like his namesake, and yearns to go to North Carolina. Both are all county players on their way to the big time.  In addition to basketball, the Bells experienece teenage angst in the form of JB's new girlfriend Alexis, which leads to a rift between JB and Josh. Both Bell parents impart vital life lessons to the twins, which are relayed to the reader in the form of basketball lessons. 

I like this book, because the author tells the story in a novel-in-verse style that is energetic, relatable, and easy to read.  I also like that  this story is a portrait of a family that truly loves and supports one another. 

Age/Audience:  Grades 5-7.  This book will appeal to boys who enjoy the game of basketball and who can relate to the coming-of-age experiences of meeting one's first love and how that can change the dynamics between siblings, even those who are extremely close. 

Teaching Points:  The author's writing style of novel-in verse-gives it a very poetic feel, and makes this a good book to read out loud in English classes to encourage students to write their own poetry about topics of interest to them.

Read:  1/30/2017

Review:  A 12-year old girl lives alone on a Pacific island after she leaps from a rescue ship. Isolated on the island for eighteen years, Karana forages for food, builds weapons to fight predators, clothes herself in a cormorant feathered skirt, and finds strength and peace in her seclusion. 

I like this book, because the main character displays such resourcefulness when left to fend for herself. 

Age/Audience:  Grades 2-5.  This book would appeal to young girls who have a sense of adventure and independence.

Teaching Points:  This book can be used to teach on the theme of survival against the backdrop of science and social studies concepts about island life and human complexities. 

Read:  4/6/2017

Review:  Melody was born with cerebral palsy and has never spoken a word.  However, she has a photographic memory and is the smartest kid in her whole school, but no one knows it. Most people, her teachers and doctors included, don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again.  However, she learns the strength of thumbs as she taps on a special keyboard that finally lets her "talk." When she is transitioned into the regular classroom, Melody's undeniable contribution enables her class to make it to the national quiz team finals. 

I like this book, because it reveals the level of quiet strength and fortitude it takes to overcome disabilities and the misconceptions that people form about the disabled.

Age/Audience:  Grades 5-8.  This book will appeal to students with learning and/or physical disabilities. 

Teaching Points:  This story is told through the eyes of the main character, Melody.  Therefore, this book could be used to analyze the ways in which the author creates the first-person narrator of Melody and the effects these choices have on the story and the reader. It can also be used to teach cultural awareness and tolerance of students with disabilities. 

Read:  3/6/2017

Review:  This is the story of the evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held Denmark during World War II. When word got out in Denmark that Jews were to be detained and then sent to the death camps, the police arranged a small flotilla to herd 7,000 Jews to Sweden. Lois Lowry fictionalizes a true-story account to bring this courageous tale to life. She brings the experience to life through the eyes of 10-year-old Annemarie Johannesen, whose family harbors her best friend, Ellen Rosen, on the eve of the round-up and helps to smuggle Ellen's family out of the country.

I like this story, because it delves into the notion of what it really means to be a best friend.  In this case, a 10-year-old girl undertakes the most dangerous kind of mission to save her friend.

Age/Audience:  Grades 5-7.  This story will appeal to adolescent girls and those with an interest in WWII stories. 

Teaching Points:  This book can be used to teach about the Holocaust, specifically the courage and heroism of the Danish and Swedish people and all others who resisted the Nazis.

Read:  3/28/2017

Review:  This story is about ten-year old India Opal Buloni who has just moved from Watley to Naomi, Florida with her father, the Preacher. Lonely for the last seven years since her alcoholic mother ran away, Opal shops one day and discovers a lost dog who she aptly named Winn-Dixie. Opal and Winn-Dixie need each other, and the preacher allows the dog to stay in their adult trailer park home.  Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal learns 10 things about her long-gone mother from her preacher father. Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal makes new friends among the somewhat unusual residents of her new hometown. Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal begins to find her place in the world and let go of some of the sadness left by her mother's abandonment.

I like this book, because it deals with the real, but often undiscussed topic, of children who are abandoned by parents, and the author handles it in a very heart-warming way.  

Age/Audience:  Grades 4-7.   This book will appeal to readers who have pets as best friends and who may be dealing with parental abandonment. 

Teaching Points:   The main character, Opal, describes a lot of things using metaphors and similes, and this can be used a teaching point throughout the book. 

Read: 4/1/2017

Review:   Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only passenger on a small plane flying him to visit his father in the Canadian wilderness when the pilot has a heart attack and dies. The plane drifts off course and finally crashes into a small lake. Miraculously Brian is able to swim free of the plane, arriving on a sandy tree-lined shore with only his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present. The novel chronicles in gritty detail Brian's mistakes, setbacks, and small triumphs as, with the help of the hatchet, he manages to survive the 54 days alone in the wilderness. 

I like this book, because it is a story about perseverance.   Brian does not always accomplish his desired task easily, but he has to learn from his mistakes. 

Age/Audience:  Grades 7 and up.  This book will appeal to boys who enjoy reading survival stories. 

Teaching Points:  This story could be used to teach themes related to physical and emotional survival when facing difficult situations.  The books is also full of strong, descriptive language which would be used to teach vocabulary and the relationships of words to each other as it pertains to text comprehension. 

Read: 4/11/2017

Review:  In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness, no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy.  As a result, he devises a plan to escape beyond the boundaries of the community. 

I like this book because of its ambiguous ending.  The book does not explicitly answer the questions of if Jonas lives or dies. All we really know is that he was made free, and he made a choice, but we are not given any insight as to whether or not it was the right choice.  This allows for more in-depth reader discussion at the end of the book. 

Age/Audience:  Grades 7 and up.  This book will appeal to readers who like mystery novels and can enjoy a read in which all the final answers are not given to them but they have the liberty to draw conclusions for themselves. 

Teaching Points:  This book can be used to teach the positives and negatives of "sameness" within a community.