It's Monday! Memorial Day Edition

Welcome to the Memorial Day edition of It's Monday!  What Are You Reading?  Really, this post has nothing to do with Memorial Day other than the fact that I am writing it at 6:30am rather than 5:30am as I do most Mondays during the school year.  Memorial Day does, though, mean there are just 7.5 days of school left in this school year, which means summer #bookaday is near. Yay!


Here's what I've read this week:

83.  Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger (finished 5/22) Funny story about a boy with plans to take over the world and the two kids who try to stop him.

84.  Stick by Andrew Smith (finished 5/24) Haunting story of two brothers, abused by their parents, who search for a safe harbor.

85.  Long Story Short by Siobhan Parkinson (finished 5/25) Another story of child abuse, this one set in Ireland.

86.  The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (finished 5/26) Touching story of a silverback gorilla who lives in a shopping-mall circus.  Based on a real animal.

87.  Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Velchin (finished 5/27) Newberry honor winner for 2011.  Story of a boy whose devotion to Josef Stalin is shattered over the course of two days.

This week I plan to:

• finish The Survival Kit
• read The Berlin Boxing Club
• read Girl of Fire and Thorns.

Of course, I also have a couple of papers to write for my grad class and I need to begin packing up my classroom, deciding what to leave for the teacher that will be taking my current position, what will move to the new literacy office, and what will go into storage (in case I decide I don't like this coaching gig and ask to return to the classroom).

Want to know what others have been reading this week?  Hop on over to visit Kellee and Jen and click on the links!

It's Monday! What Have YOU Been Reading?

Welcome back for another exciting recap of my reading week!  Thanks to this meme, sponsored by Jen and Kellee over at TeachMentorTexts, I am guaranteed at least one blog post every week.  Lately, I'm good if I get that much written!  To say that I'm eager for school to be out and summer to begin is an understatement.  My to-read list is HUGE and growing by the day!


So here's what I've read this past week:

75.  The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge (finished 5/14) Steampunk dystopian set in the eastern US.  An enjoyable read.

76.  Secrets of a Summer Village by Saskia Akyil (finished 5/15) Teen romance set in a summer village in Turkey

77.  Under The Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall  (finished 5/16) Novel in verse about a girl grieving the loss of her mother.

78.  Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (finished 5/16) Fun to read graphic novel.

79.  Orchards by Holly Thompson (finished 5/16) Novel in verse about a girl finding herself in her mother's village in Japan

80.  Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (finished 5/19) Lighthearted romance set in the City of Light

81.  Hound Dog True by Linda Urban (finished 5/20) Touching story of a girl who finds her voice.

In the upcoming week, I plan to read:

• Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
• Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger
• Stick by Andrew Smith
• Long Story Short by Siobhan Parkinson

In addition to my "fun" reading, I also have work to do for my grad class, so I'm not sure if I'll meet my reading goals or not. I know I'll certainly try, though!

Happy reading!

Orchards by Holly Thompson

Orchards by Holly Thompson (Delacorte, 2011)


Summary from publisher:
After a classmate commits suicide, Kana Goldberg -- a half-Japanese, half-Jewish American -- wonders who is responsible  She and her cliquey friends said some thoughtless things to the girl.  Hoping that Kana will reflect on her behavior, her parents pack her off to her mother's ancestral home in Japan for the summer.  There Kana spends hours under the hot sun tending to her family's mikan orange groves.  
Kana's mixed heritage makes it hard to fit in at first, especially under the critical eye of her tradition-bound grandmother, who has never accepted Kana's father.  But as the summer unfolds, Kana gets to know her relatives, Japan, and village culture, and she begins to process the pain and guilt she feels about the tragedy back home.  Then news about a friend sends her world spinning out of orbit all over again.

I'm finding I'm really enjoying free verse novels lately.  This one in particular had me turning page after page until I finished the book.  Kana's search for who she really is is relatable for almost every teen girl, though most of them do not travel halfway around the world to figure it out.  Kana's Japanese grandmother seems harsh and distant at first, but by the end, she and Kana have found common ground.

I'm lucky to be able to say that in 18 years of teaching seventh grade, we have never had a student successfully carry out a suicide.  I can't imagine what it would be like, what the friends and adversaries might go through as they work through their own feelings of loss and confusion.  With the addition of social media in the mix, the grieving process becomes even more complicated, as was the case in this novel.

Girls who enjoy realistic fiction and free verse novels will surely like this great story.

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge (Delacorte Press, 2011)


Summary from publisher:
In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rule and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft's epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the Proctors deem Heretical, or born of the belief in magic and witchcraft.  And for Aoife Grayson, time is running shorter by the day.
Aoife's family is unique in the worse way.  Her mother and her older brother, Conrad, both went mad on their sixteenth birthdays.  And now, a ward of the state nearing her own sixteenth birthday, Aoife is trying to pretend her fate can be different.
Her future seems bleak.  Until one day she receives a letter that reads simply.
Find the witch's alphabet.
Save yourself.
Aoife knows the letter is from Conrad, but the last time she saw her brother was the day he lost his mind and attacked her before going on the run from the Proctors.  Could it be that he is sane somewhere and warning her to get out while she still can-- or is the note simply a message from a rambling madman?
To save herself, Aoife must find her brother. And to do that, she must leave Lovecraft and venture into a world of Heretics and air pirates, night creatures and dark family secrests ... before the clock winds down and she too succombs to the necrovirus.

I haven't read a steampunk book since the anthology back in February.  This book was a nice change from the many, many dystopians I've been reading, though there were definitely some dystopian elements.  The one thing that bothered me was that I couldn't pin down a time period for this book.  Steampunk books are often set in the Victorian era with more advanced technology, but this book had date references as modern as 1933.  Even though it really doesn't matter to the story, I like knowing roughly when a story takes place.  Also, why do steampunk and fantasy authors have to give their characters such weird names?  How the heck does one pronounce Aoife anyway?

Kittredge packs some nice twists into the story line, and I enjoyed seeing what direction she would take the characters and the plot.  Aoife is a spunky character who has a mind of her own; she does not want to be defined by her society's narrow view of women, and this characteristic sometimes leads her into trouble.  There's also quite a bit of action that is sure to keep readers turning the pages.

This book might have more boy appeal with a different cover.  Certainly the adventure and steampunk elements outweigh the romance in this novel.  I wonder, though, how many boys will pick it up....

Five 4ths of July by Pat Raccio Hughes

Five 4ths of July by Pat Raccio Hughes 
(Viking, 2011)



Summary from publisher:
July 4th, 1777. '78. '79. '80. '81.
Five 4ths of July. Five pivotal days in the life of Jake Mallery, a teenager growing up on the Connecticut coastline.
The American Revolution is under way, and all Jake wants is freedom from tyranny -- the tyranny of his strict father, that is.  Jake has a reputation for being wild; his nickname, "Mal," is French for "bad." He doesn't care about fighting for liberty.  To him, the pursuit of happiness is sailing the high seas on a privateer, seeking adventure.  But his father insists that Jake remain at home to tend the family's ferry and join the local militia in case their town is attacked.  Which, Jake knows, will never happen. He's destined to a life of boring chores, militia drills, and verbal sparring with Hannah, the insufferable indentured servant of his best friend Tim's family.
But on July 4, 1779, Jake's world is turned upside down:  The British are coming, and they mean to suppress the Patriot rebellion by any means necessary.  The brutal Battle of New Haven sets off a series of horrific events that will shatter Jake's life.  And only when he has lost his own freedom does he begin to understand what's at stake in this war.

I've not read a book set in the American Revolution in about a year.  The last one was Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, and I find that each time I read a book set during this time period, I learn something new.   In Five 4ths of July, I was reminded of how long the Revolutionary War took; I often think it is shorter than it really was, and I had no idea that the British kept American prisoners aboard prison ships.

Hughes does a great job of showing Jake's growth over the course of five years and many hardships.  I liked that at the beginning I didn't much care for Jake or his vanity.  As the book progressed, however, and the circumstances became more dire, Jake changes.  But it takes a tragedy to turn him from egotistical boy to thoughtful man.

Hughes also shows how the dividing lines between Patriot and Tory were not always as clear cut as we assume they were.  People had varied feelings not only about independence but about the war itself.  Jake and many of the people he comes into contact with have to work through their various feelings about the war; no easy task to be sure.

Students who like historical fiction and adventure are sure to enjoy Five 4ths of July!

It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading?

Happy Monday once again!  At this point, my year-end countdown is in full swing... only 3 more Mondays left after today!  I'm happy to report that summer #bookaday will begin in full swing for me on June 8 (which also happens to be my daughter's golden birthday)!


This past week has been a difficult one for me reading-wise.  I had several assignments due for my grad class, and I also had a few evening events.  Those concerts and things really cut into my reading time!


Here's what I read last week:

72.  Entwined by Heather Dixon (finshed 5/8) Awesome retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses

73.  Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (finished 5/10) Okay dystopian adventure

74.  Five 4ths of July by Pat Raccio Hughes (finished 5/12) Interesting take on historical fiction set in the American Revolution

This coming week I'd like to:

• Finish The Iron Thorn
• Read Secrets of a Summer Village
• Read Under The Mequite
• Read Anya's Ghost

Want to see what other's are reading?  Head over to TeachMentorTexts and click on the links!

What will YOU read this week?

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined by Heather Dixon (Greenwillow, 2011)



Summary from publisher:
Azalea is trapped.  Just when she should feel that everything is before her... beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing...it's taken away.  All of it. 
The Keeper understands.  He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace.  And so he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.
But there is a cost.
The Keeper likes to keep things.
Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

I am a bit of a sucker for retold fairy tales.  I love them.  I devour them.  No fairy tale has been retold too many times for me.  I'm not sure WHY I love these stories so much; I just do!  Perhaps it's all of those descriptions of balls and fancy gowns....

Anyway... Heather Dixon hits a home run in this retelling of the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses (which happened to be play I was in during my freshman year of high school).  The book starts out on Christmas Eve at a ball (of course) and ends a year later.  Over the course of this year, the princesses lose their mother, discover the secret passage to the magical world of Keeper, fall under his spell, and then try to break it.  Along the way, many suitors come to woo Azalea and win her hand, but none of them seems to capture her heart.

I enjoyed the unexpected playfulness I found in the story.  The humor is welcome in what could be a dark and depressing tale.  Dixon gives the various suitors and each of the princesses unique personalities, which increases the fun factor!

Girls who love a good historical fiction or fantasy are sure to enjoy Entwined!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Monday, May 7, 2012
Whoa... time flies!  It feels like just yesterday I was writing my last Monday post.  Here's what I've been up to this week:

68.  Burnout by Adrienne Maria Vrettos (finished 4/29) Powerful story about a girl who loses 24 hours and her quest to find out what happened during that time.

68.  Wither by Lauren DeStefano (finished 5/1) First in a dystopian series where boys die at age 25 and girls at age 20.  Interesting spin with a little romance.

69.  The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts (finished 5/2) "Grown up" romantic story.  Classic Nora.

70.  Pink by Lili Wilkinson (finished 5/4) Great story about a girl trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs.

71.  Insurgent by Veronica Roth (finished 5/6) Book 2 in the Divergent trilogy.  It's awesome.  Need I say more?

This week I need to:

• Finish Entwined
• Read Shatter Me, 
• Five Fourths of July, 
• The Iron Thorn and 
• Secrets of a Summer Village

Somewhere in there I will also attend my daughter's orchestra concert and complete two case studies for my grad class.

Happy reading, and don't forget to visit Jen and Kellee over at TeachMentorTexts to see what others are reading, too!

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
(Katherine Tegan Books, 2012)



Summary from publisher:
One choice can transform you - or it can destroy you.  But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves - and herself - while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors.  War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices wil become even more irrevocable - and even more powerful.  Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.


Oh, how do I tell you about this book without getting all spoilery?  I'll do my best.  But be warned; it's going to be difficult.

Insurgent picks up where Divergent leaves off.  Tris and Four (Tobias) are trying to figure out why Erudite has attacked the Abegnation faction and are basically running for their lives throughout the book.  We see Tris struggle with the guilt she feels for killing her friend Will and with her role in the new Dauntless.  We also see exactly how she is Divergent - her three aptitudes surface at various points in the story.

Roth does a masterful job of keeping suspense growing.  She includes just enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing without making him/her dizzy.  Honestly, I can't wait 'till the third, as yet untitled, book comes out next spring.  You can be sure I'll be preordering that one!

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

Pink by Lily Wilkinson (Harper Teen, 2011)


Summary from publisher:
Ava has a secret.  She is tired of her ultracool attitude, ultra-radical politics and ultrablack clothing.  She's ready to try something new -- she's even ready to be someone new.  Someone who fits in, someone with a gorgeous boyfriend, someone who wears pink.
Transferring to Billy Hughes School for Academic Excellence is the perfect chance to try on a new identity.  But just in case things don't work out, Ava is hiding her new interests from her parents, and especially from her old girlfriend.
Secrets have a way of being hard to keep, though, and Ava finds that changing herself is a bit more complicated than changing her wardrobe.  Even getting involved in the school musical raises issues she never imagined.  As she faces surprising choices and unforeseen circumstances, Ava wonders if she will ever figure out who she really wants to be.

Based on the jacket blurb, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book.  I was glad to be reading a realistic fiction book after a few fantasies, and I was happy to see this is a stand alone book, not one of a series.  Beyond that, I figured the story could go any number of places.

I found myself completely caught up in Ava's world.  There was so much I could relate to from my own high school experience, especially being part of the theater crowd.  While the kids I hung around with in high school were not so separated as in Ava's school, I could put names of friends in the places of some of the characters an the story would have gone on as written.

Though I did not have the question of my sexuality to grapple with, I certainly drifted at points, trying to figure out just where I fit in.  Ava drastically changes schools in order to help her figure this out, but her decisions made sense and felt real.  While her sexuality is certainly part of who she is, it is not the defining quality in this book.

Older junior high/high school girls who like realistic contemporary fiction are sure to like Ava and enjoy her story.  It's a good read.

Wither (Chemical Garden #1) by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano 
(Simon & Schuster, 2011)


Summary from publisher:
What if you knew exactly when you would die?  Thanks to modern science, every newborn has become a genetic time bomb -- males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty.  In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. 
When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege.  Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose to escape -- to find her twin brother and go home.
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom.  Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments.  With the help of Gabriel, a servant she is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free in the limited time she has left.

Over the past few years, we've seen a wide variety of takes on the bleak future the United States may face if various YA dystopian writers are right.  Wither is another spin on this theme. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the book or not, based on the jacket blurb, but I ended up enjoying the story, even if aspects of it disturbed me, such as the ages of the girls who are kidnapped and sold into marriage.

I found myself forgetting that I was reading about 19, 16, and 13-year old girls as I got caught up in Rhine's story.  DeStefano does a great job of maintaining suspense and creating twists and turns to keep the reader going.  Of course, I knew going in that this was the first in a trilogy so I didn't expect to feel closure at the end of the book, and it's a good thing, too, since I'm dying to know what happens to Rhine next.

Overall, this was an intriguing story that girls who like a bit of romance in their dystopian novels will enjoy.  The love triangle in this one is definitely of a different sort!

Burnout by Adrienne Maria Vrettos

Burnout by Adrienne Maria Vrettos 
(McElderry Books, 2011)



Summary from publisher:
On the day after Halloween, Nan wakes up in a subway car.  She is not dreaming.  She doesn't know where she's been or what she's done.  She's missing a whole day from her life.  And she's wearing skeleton makeup and a too-small Halloween costume.
Nan is not supposed to wake up in places like this anymore.  She's different now, far from that dangerously drunk girl who hit bottom in the Nanapocalypse.  She needs to find out what happened to her, and fast.  As she tries to put together the pieces of the last twenty-four hours, she flashes back to memories of her previous life.  But she would never go back to her old friends and her old ways. Would she?
The deeper Nan digs, the more disturbing things get.  This time, she may have gone one step too far.  This time, she may be a walking ghost.

I read this book in about an hour and a half one night when I couldn't sleep.  While this is not a fat book, it is an intense one; a story that would not let go of me until I had pieced together the loose ends and discovered where Nan had been on Halloween and what had happened to her.  Vrettos captures the reader on the first page, and enhances Nan's story through flashback chapters labeled as "Remembering." These flashbacks chronicle Nan's friendship with Seemy, an important part of the plot.

This is definitely a book for older readers, mostly due to the subject matter, rather than graphic descriptions of anything.  Because of the female protagonist and her decidedly female world view, this book will definitely appeal to teen girls, though there is certainly much here for boys to learn from.

I doubt I'll put this book in my seventh grade classroom library, though I will be passing it along to a high school teacher.  This is a book that deserves to be read.

Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

Witchlanders by Lena Coakley (Atheneum, 2011)



Summary from publisher:
High in their mountain covens, red witches pray to the Goddess, protecting the Witchlands by throwing the bones and foretelling the future.
It's all fake.
At least, that's what Ryder thinks.  He doubts the witches really deserve their tithes -- one quarter of all the crops his village can produce.  And even if they can predict the future, what danger is there to foretell, now that his people's old enemy, the Baen, have been defeated?
But when a terrifying new magic threatens both his village and the coven, Ryder must confront the beautiful and silent witch who holds all the secrets.  Everything he's ever believed about witches, the Baen, magic, and himself will change when he discovers that the prophecies he's always scorned...
are all about him.


This was another one of those can't-put-them-down titles that I didn't think I'd like when I first picked the book up.  Holy cow!  Coakley does an amazing job of creating this world of Witchlanders and Baen, of villager, magician, and witch.  I enjoyed seeing both Ryder's story and Falpian's and how they two came together.  There was just enough action and suspense to keep me reading, and my seventh grade students will be happy to hear that there is no love triangle!

This definitely read like a stand along book, and as far as I can tell, there isn't a sequel (although, the way YA publishing is right now, it's probably a trilogy).  I do like the idea of stand alone books right now; I have series fatigue!

This book will appeal to both boys and girls (but why there's a girl on the cover is beyond me when both main characters are male), especially those who like fantasy and adventure stories.  There's just enough sword fighting to make it exciting!

This is one of those rare YA books with no swearing or sex, and it was a refreshing read!