Each month, when my kids head to lunch, I ask them to leave their independent reading book in a pile on one of our classroom desks. While the kids are away, I make a video sharing the titles they are currently reading. It if fun to make/share, but what I love about it the most […]
Category Archives: New Book Reviews
October
21
White Bird: A Lesson in Trust by Sarah Derringer
posted by CBethM
The new R.J. Palacio graphic novel is a “Wonder story” about a young Jewish girl’s experience in Nazi-occupied France in the 1940s? What? I know. I was thinking the same thing. You see, I, like millions of other readers, read and loved Wonder. I fell in love with the book’s message of overcoming […]
October
16
Look No Further- Review of Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds – Review by Amy Watkins
posted by CBethM
When Jason Reynolds said that he wrote Look Both Ways with teachers in mind, he wasn’t lying. I have never taken so many notes while reading a YA book trying to capture all of the ways I could picture using it in my classroom, nor have so many characters carved their way into my heart […]
October
03
Reading Along the Border – New Perspectives, New Understandings by Jennifer Sniadecki
posted by CBethM
I’ve spent the last few years learning and growing my own reading life, and although I like to think of myself as a reader of diverse books, I have a long way to go. Last year I spoke with several students about their needs and interests as readers with the purpose of rebuilding our middle […]
September
25
Jackpot is a Winner by Georgia Parker
posted by CBethM
I hit the jackpot (pun intended) when Nic Stone’s latest novel landed in my mailbox. I’m a huge Nic Stone fan, and her YA realistic fiction. I adore her debut novel Dear Martin in which Stone brilliantly uses a combination of prose and an epistolary style to give voice to her protagonist, Justyce, as he […]
September
12
Get on the Bus! by Lucretia Brattin
posted by CBethM
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart caught my attention when I saw the cover. My sister and I have a desire to turn a school bus into an RV after we retire from teaching. We think we will travel around the country and have lots of adventures. I’m always on the lookout […]
August
29
Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen – Review by Victoria Tomis
posted by CBethM
Pilu of the Woods’s protagonist, Japanese-American elementary schooler Willow has monsters. A lot of them. In Mai Nguyen’s debut graphic novel Pilu of the Woods the androgynous and bespectacled “Will” is of the precocious child achetype–she has an affinity for recognizing even obscure plants, and has facts about just about any of the flora […]
August
22
TRUMAN by Jean Reidy: My New Go-To Book – A Review by Rosanne L. Kurstedt
posted by CBethM
I read picture books. I write picture books. And I share picture books with students of all ages. I often go to Barnes and Noble or the library and pull handfuls of books off the shelves. After scouring the new releases, I settle in to read. As I open each book, my stomach twitters […]
June
20
Five Reasons to Add Patron Saints of Nothing to Your High School Curriculum by Oona Marie Abrams
posted by CBethM
Last November, I had the opportunity to meet Randy Ribay at NCTE in Houston, where I received a signed copy of his novel After the Shot Drops. Ironically, I haven’t gotten my hands on the book for several months, because it is constantly checked out of my classroom library. Recently, though, I received several advance […]
June
06
After the Fire by Will Hill – Review by Shannon Baer
posted by CBethM
BEFORE Everyone has their own concept of what creates a family. For Moonbeam, it is her mom and the other members of the Holy Church of the Lord’s Legion. Set in Texas, the group resides on a compound just outside of town. They are a mostly self-sustaining group, and in the past have driven to […]
