It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They "encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Saturday will be the first day of autumn. It's the time of year to start getting out the fall decorations, cooking favorite fall foods, drinking pumpkin lattes, and buying (and rebuying) Halloween candy. But the thermometer still thinks it's summer. Either way, it's always fun to grab your favorite book and either head for the backyard lawn chairs or into the air conditioned family room and escape to someplace way more exciting. Here's what I've been reading this week:

Middle Grade Fiction

The Darkdeep (The Darkdeep #1) by Ally Condie, Brendan Reichs

I had the opportunity to read a review copy of this middle grade novel that was shared with my #BookRelays Twitter book group. This adventure story will be released in early October, just in time for enjoying a scary thriller during the Halloween season.

The story takes readers to the Pacific Northwest where there is a small town, Timber, that has fallen on hard times. The logging company that is the town’s biggest employer has had to lay off many workers. Many in the town blame Nico’s father, a park ranger who discovered an endangered species of owl and alerted government officials who put serious restrictions on the logging companies activities.

As a result, twelve-year-old Nico is the target of bullies, chiefly the son of the lumber company’s owner, Logan. When Logan flies Nico’s expensive homemade drone off of a cliff over Still Cove, Nico goes over the edge to try to get it back. When Nico’s friends try to find him, they discover an island with a pond and a strange houseboat on it. The houseboat is where they discover the DarkDeep, a mysterious dark pool that brings all of their deepest fantasies and fears to life. Of course, it’s not all fun and games and it soon becomes clear that they have stumbled onto something that is very dangerous. Young readers will be engrossed in this thriller as they try to find out what Nico and his friends are going to do about the DarkDeep.

This book will be enjoyed by fans of the book 24 Hours in Nowhere by Dusti Bowling. In that book, you have an unlikely group of friends who face adventure in the desert Southwest. In the process of solving a deep, dark, and dangerous mystery they learn a lot about themselves and develop self-confidence in their abilities to face fear and learn to tolerate others.

Louisiana's Way Home by Kate DiCamillo

I had the opportunity to read a NetGalley digital ARC of this middle grade novel in exchange for a review. As a big fan of Kate DiCamillo’s writing, I was very excited to read this book. This continuation of the story that was started in Raymie Nightingale, takes us into the world of Raymie’s friend, Louisiana Elefante.

Two years after the events in Raymie Nightingale, Louisiana’s world is turned upside down when her granny awakens her in the middle of the night, with suitcases packed, to drive north. Along the way, a dental emergency forces them to stop in a small town in Georgia. As Granny recovers in a motel room, Louisiana makes friends that will be her only help when she suddenly finds herself all alone in the world.

One of the things I love about Kate DiCamillo’s writing is the journeys of self-discovery that her characters undertake, resulting in a sense of hope, self-confidence, and understanding of others. The attention to detail in the development of characters and plot lines results in such juicy, honest moments that the reader wants to learn everything possible about the backgrounds of everyone in the story. I would love to read a book on all of the others in this book: Bernice, Lulu, Burke Allen, Reverend Obertask, etc.

This middle grade novel comes out in October and it will definitely appeal to fans of Raymie Nightingale. It will also appeal to fans of historical fiction, as the story takes place in October of 1977.

Snared: Escape to the Above by Adam Jay Epstein

Middle grade readers who enjoy fantasy adventure stories like Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Hobbit, will enjoy this new novel which begins a series by Adam Jay Epstein. The author says that he was inspired to write this book by questions that always puzzled him – “Have you ever wondered what happened after Indiana Jones ran away from the giant boulder? Who pushed it back into place for the next guy who came wandering in? And who greases the gears of all those crushing walls found deep in the catacombs? Or feeds the giant spiders while they wait for a new band of ring-laden adventurers to come wandering into their lair?”

This novel is written from the point of view of Wily Snare, a twelve-year-old boy who is the trap master in the deep underground world of Carrion Tomb. He has spent his whole life there creating traps, maintaining the tunnels, and capturing treasure hunting trespassers. He has often wondered about the outside world, what he knows as The Above.

But along comes a band of burglars that includes a blue-haired, acrobatic elf, a former-knight with a magic arm, and a giant creature made of dirt and moss who defy all of Wily’s best tricks and traps and defeat the keeper of the tomb. In addition to taking all of the tomb’s treasure, they also take Wily and his sister with them so that they’ll be able to make use of Wily’s skills as they continue to plunder treasures throughout the kingdom.

This book would be a great way to discuss point of view and narrative description with young readers and writers. I love the way the author describes the wonders of the outside world as seen through the eyes of Wily, who has never seen the sky, trees, mountains, butterflies, or a sunset. Everything is brand new to this character.

The book takes readers on a great adventure as Wily and his new friends escape all sorts of dangers – those chasing them from the Carrion Tombs, the soldiers of the Infernal King, and scary creatures that try to eat them. The book also has good character development as Wily experiences all that the outside world has to offer and learns the truth about his own background. This book is one that will be popular with readers of fantasy adventure.

Picture Books

A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin

This charming picture book has the flavor of a folk tale, but was created by the author to evoke the joy and love of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, her favorite Asian holiday. Using sweet, calming text and gorgeous illustrations with the yellow moon and the yellow stars on black clothing to tell the story of the cycles of the moon, this book is definitely a good one to share with young children as a bedtime story or with young readers as a read aloud. This could also be a nice mentor text to help young writers create their own folk-stories.

The Rough Patch by Brian Lies

The loss of a beloved pet, who really is a member of the family, is never easy - for kids or grownups. This book takes a look at grief and how we deal with it and move on. Evan and his dog were best friends and they did everything together. Evan especially loved gardening with his dog. But when his dog dies, Evan lets the garden go. When a rogue pumpkin vine sprouts and a giant prize winning pumpkin grows, the reader will be relieved to see that things are turning around for Evan. This is a great story that illustrates the power of gardening to help lessen stress and deal with painful problems. This would be a terrific picture book companion to the middle grade novel, Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Heuiser Hill.

Whimsy's Heavy Things by Julie Kraulis

This picture book tells young readers what can happen when you let big things weigh you down. A metaphor for dealing with problems by taking them one by one and breaking them up into smaller things that are easier to manage, this book uses simple text and whimsical illustrations to tell the story of a girl who tried a bunch of ways to ignore her heavy things until she couldn't anymore. This book would be a good companion to What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada.