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.
Middle Grade Fiction
I had the opportunity to read a NetGalley digital ARC of this follow-up novel to The Perfect Score. In the first book, readers met the characters: Randi (the gymnast), Gavin (the football player), Trevor (the mean kid), Scott (the smart kid), and Natalie (the future lawyer). These unlikely friends teamed up to cheat on a statewide assessment. In The Perfect Secret, these kids are back. It’s the next school year and they’re still dealing with the consequences of their cheating scandal.
But this year, they are working together to get their teachers Mrs. Woods and Mrs. Magenta (who are estranged mother and daughter) to reconcile their differences. In addition to that, each of these characters deal with their own problems of racism, bullying, and family drama. Middle grade readers who enjoyed the first book will appreciate the continuation and development of each character’s storyline. The book has a lot of good messages about friendship, perseverance, and kindness.
But this year, they are working together to get their teachers Mrs. Woods and Mrs. Magenta (who are estranged mother and daughter) to reconcile their differences. In addition to that, each of these characters deal with their own problems of racism, bullying, and family drama. Middle grade readers who enjoyed the first book will appreciate the continuation and development of each character’s storyline. The book has a lot of good messages about friendship, perseverance, and kindness.
Picture Books
This is a cute picture book that tells the story of Eraser, who is always fixing everyone's mistakes but never gets the opportunity to produce her own work or be a star. She gets tired of being taken for granted and runs away, and then everyone figures out just how important she is. There are lots of cute puns and moments in this book that will have lots of young readers giggling.
During the fall months, my allergies kick up something awful. The combination of dust and mold from the leaves have me suffering all the time with watery eyes and a sneezy, stuffy nose. So I can really relate to Big Bear in this cute picture book about autumn. Poor Big Bear is sneezing and his sneezes are so intense that he is convinced that he is the one causing the leaves to blow around, the apples to fall off of the trees, and the geese to take flight. The wind works very hard to convince him otherwise, and young readers will have fun finding out if the Big Bear will figure it out and go on home to sleep for the winter. This is definitely a fun one to share with kids during the weeks of September and October.
This nonfiction picture book is a good way to help young readers understand why leaves change color and fall to the ground during autumn. The book discusses the way leaves and trees change throughout the seasons and introduces different plant vocabulary words. The colorful illustrations complement the text nicely. At the end of the book, there are directions for making leaf prints, a glossary, and a list of resources for further study. This would make a good book to share with young readers during the fall months.
The fun of gardening and discovering that a mystery vine is loaded with pumpkins is captured in this sweet rhyming picture book. After planting a garden, the children in this story can't figure out where the mystery vine came from or what's growing on it. Once the orange surprise is discovered, the joys of baking and carving jack o'lanterns are celebrated. This book includes recipes for roasted pumpkin seeds and apple-pumpkin bread. There are also directions for gardening activities, making this a terrific book to share with young readers during the fall season.
Rob Buyea's previous series, Mr. Terupt, has been popular with students, I think because he is so good at making the kids in his book true-to-life and giving them each a distinct voice.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to have to read The Perfect Secret -- I listened to the first one as an audiobook, so perhaps I'll read the second with my eyes. :) And Eraser looks so cute. I'm going to go make sure I have that one on my wish list. Your books are making me excited about fall, but today it's SNOWING huge ice flakes. I hope we don't skip right over fall here in the midwest. LOL Thanks for all the shares, Jana!
ReplyDeleteI liked Eraser, thought it was clever, & will be useful for writers workshops. I put Sneeze, Big Bear, Sneeze on the TBR list. Sorry about your allergies. Some of my family struggle with them, too, in the fall. Thanks, Jana. Best wishes for the rummage sale.
ReplyDeleteI have been wanting to get Eraser for a while, and this will be a good reminder for my next order for my library.
ReplyDeleteI liked Mr. Terupt but still have not gotten to The Perfect Secret. The autumn books look great too. Thanks for the post!
I haven't read The Perfect Score, but you really sold the series!
ReplyDeleteHappy reading this week :)
Eraser is such a cute story with a very important message. Thanks for the fall book suggestions too! Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteA lot of autumn-themed picturebooks here - so nice! Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteThe Perfect Score seemed a bit far fetched. Testing is no longer such a big deal-- just something that needs to be done. I wish Buyea would write a wrestling book.
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