I love joining Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers each week to share my reading life.
I missed a week sharing my reading, and the books I've read are too good to skip, so here's what I've read over the past two weeks:
Let me begin with A Fire Truck Named Red. This one came in the mail from a publisher. When I first saw it I figured I'd read it and then give it to my niece, Vivian. Moving to seventh grade next year is making me analyze every book as I contemplate bringing each to a new classroom. Upon reading it, however, I changed my mind. In talking to his grandpa and hearing stories about when he was little, a boy grows closer to him and sees the gift of the fire truck in a new light. I decided that this must come with me to my new classroom. The seventh graders have to interview someone in their family over a certain age every year and write up a paper describing that relative. I think this picture book will be a great example of how this assignment can be beneficial to my new students.
Moving on to another great ARC, Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet. I know Sweet for her amazing work in picture books, but here she branches out. This biography is much longer, around 180 pages if I remember correctly. Sweet has done amazing research here to share what a remarkable man White was. I cannot wait to have students read this and discover the author for themselves. And of course, since Sweet is the author here, the illustrations that go along with the text are amazing. I cannot wait to buy a hardcopy of this one.
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Shovan I purchased after Donalyn Miller reviewed it on Nerdy Book Club. (HERE) I have to say, I teared up a bit thinking about how this was my last year in fifth grade too. At first I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep track of each character. (There are 18 students and each poem is from the point of view of a different one. Then they repeat.) They poems do a great job clearly sharing the voice of each child.
Tim Federle could write up detailing the weather each day for a month and I'd buy it. His Nate books were brilliant. So when I heard that he wrote a YA book, I was rather impatient to read it, as you can see from my Facebook status below. Federle did not disappoint. Brilliant.
And finally, The Serpent King. Sigh. It's now been three hours since I finished this book and I'm still in mourning. I don't want to be done. I want to begin rereading it immediately, but I have too many books I need to get to. A friend said it's on sale this week through Kindle, I highly recommend you get it now. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I think it would be great for 8th on up. Not sure if I'll hand it off to 7th graders or not. This book was so good I had to blog about it immediately, and cried as I wrote the blog. (HERE). The book is that powerful. Read it. That's all I can say. Read it.
