The first book I picked to read was Zebra Forest by Adina Rishe Gewirtz. I know they say "Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover" but honestly I do. I chose it because of the unusual cover. I wanted to find out what the Zebra Forest was...and I did. It's a haunted, spooky forest behind the house of a family. Behind the Zebra Forest is a prison and one night there is a prison breakout where almost 50 prisoners escape! The family's life changes when one of the prisoners comes into their home and barricades himself for almost a month! It's a great book of relationship, suspense, and
It was like Christmas in the library last week as we unpacked and prepared 7 boxes of new books for the library! We had so much fun and are so happy that all the books are out and ready for students and teachers to read. Besides the tables above, we have two other carts full of new books and more boxes on the way!
The first book I picked to read was Zebra Forest by Adina Rishe Gewirtz. I know they say "Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover" but honestly I do. I chose it because of the unusual cover. I wanted to find out what the Zebra Forest was...and I did. It's a haunted, spooky forest behind the house of a family. Behind the Zebra Forest is a prison and one night there is a prison breakout where almost 50 prisoners escape! The family's life changes when one of the prisoners comes into their home and barricades himself for almost a month! It's a great book of relationship, suspense, and
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Friday night, I stayed up till 1:30 a.m. because I wanted to finish reading The Fault in Our Stars. I was not prepared for the ending, but I won't spoil it! This was an excellent around about friendship, family, cancer, hard times, and being a teenager. What an EXCELLENT book!
I finished Dear Bully - wow - that was a tough read. This book confirmed how often bullying goes unseen. After reading such a heart-wrenching book, I decided to go for fantasy, so I picked Paranormalcy by Kiersten White. I have had students for the past three years telling me how great this book is and that I should read it! I even had an advanced reader copy (ARC) from one of my literature professors, but I am just now getting around to it. So far, so good! It's nice to escape from reality sometimes. ;-) At the end of the semester, I challenged all my students to read over the break. See the tab "Christmas Reading Challenge." I committed to read as well. I set out to read five books and finished three of them. Here are the ones I finished:
I was reading Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan and got to page 252, but I got bored with it so I stopped. One of my block 1 students picked it up this morning and was thrilled to read it! Just goes to show that everyone enjoys different novels. I started A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz last night and am really enjoying it so far. Most of my reads have been YA reads, so it was really nice to read Girl in Translation. It is for my monthly book club and I look forward to visiting with my friends about it.
Happy New Year and Happy Reading! Today was my first day back to work after two weeks off for surgery. It was an exhausting day, but I think almost every student told me they were glad I was back. =) While I was at home recovering, I got to catch up on some reading.
A dear colleague brought me a book called Close Your Eyes by Amanda Eyre Ward. It was an adult read, but so good! Just before surgery, I picked up Maggie Stiefvater's new book, The Scorpio Races. I am a big Maggie Stiefvater fan and this was by far my favorite book of hers and a NEW favorite to my ALL time favorites. This is a young adult book, so I would definitely recommend it for any junior high students. I also read Crossed by Ally Condie. It is the sequel to Matched. I really enjoyed Matched, but was sadly disappointed in Crossed. Both are YA reads. There is a third book, so hopefully that one will redeem the series for me. Now I am reading an Agatha Christie book at home. I taught an Agatha Christie book in seventh grade and grew to love her Miss Marple series. They are murder mysteries, but not too much blood and gore. (I cannot handle that!) So Happy Reading! I miss reading books for fun. The fall semester seems to get so busy and I cannot believe it is almost the end of October! There are so many new books out I want to read and those are just the few I know of. I am in need of a trip to the Blue Willow Bookshop for a chance to browse, slow down, and enjoy books. Thankfully, I checked their website today and Kate DiCamillo, a fabulous author, will be visiting Monday at 5 P.M. I am excited to hear her speak because I have so enjoyed her books...The Tale of Despereaux, Because of Winn Dixie, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Ms. DiCamillo's writing reminds me of The Velveteen Rabbit, a favorite of mine!
Here are some of the books I am looking forward to reading... Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn Crossed by Ally Condie (comes out November 1st!) Since I have been teaching 7th grade the past three years, I have not read all of the books that we study in 6th grade. This week I started reading Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, a novel we are using in academic classes. So far it has been a very interesting book! Gathering Blue is a companion novel to The Giver, meaning it can be read as a "stand alone" novel. Several years ago, my mom and I listened to The Giver on a LONG car trip to west Texas. My mom normally does not enjoy fantasy books, but we were both hooked! Today, we still talk about listening to the audiobook on our eight hour drive and how It made the time pass so much quicker! So I guess if anything, I would say if you're having a hard time getting into a book, have someone you care about read the first few chapters aloud to you OR find the audiobook to spark your reading time. If it can work for my mom, who strongly dislikes fantasy, then it can work for anyone!
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January 2017
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