#IMWAYR August 8, 2016

Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. #IMWAYR

During the past two weeks I read two stories that take place during 9/11. Here's what I read:

Young Adult

Here's the book's blurb:

On the morning of September 11, 2001, sixteen-year-old Kyle Donohue watches the first twin tower come down from the window of Stuyvesant High School. Moments later, terrified and fleeing home to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge, he stumbles across a girl perched in the shadows, covered in ash, and wearing a pair of costume wings. With his mother and sister in California and unable to reach his father, a NYC detective likely on his way to the disaster, Kyle makes the split-second decision to bring the girl home. What follows is their story, told in alternating points of view, as Kyle tries to unravel the mystery of the girl so he can return her to her family. But what if the girl has forgotten everything, even her own name? And what if the more Kyle gets to know her, the less he wants her to go home? "The Memory of Things" tells a stunning story of friendship and first love and of carrying on with our day-to-day living in the midst of world-changing tragedy and unforgettable pain it tells a story of hope.

Young adults who read this book are exposed to the events of 9/11 but the love story makes reading those events easier to handle as they unfold. These two lives are drawn together in a deep and intense way as they bear witness to history.

Last week I read nine, ten. 

Here's the book's blurb:

Ask anyone: September 11, 2001, was serene and lovely, a perfect day until a plane struck the World Trade Center. But right now it is a few days earlier, and four kids in different parts of the country are going about their lives. Sergio, who lives in Brooklyn, is struggling to come to terms with the absentee father he hates and the grandmother he loves. Will's father is gone, too, killed in a car accident that has left the family reeling. Naheed has never before felt uncomfortable about being Muslim, but at her new school she's getting funny looks because of the head scarf she wears. Aimee is starting a new school in a new city and missing her mom, who has to fly to New York on business. These four don t know one another, but their lives are about to intersect in ways they never could have imagined. Award-winning author Nora Raleigh Baskin weaves together their stories into an unforgettable novel about that seemingly perfect September day the day our world changed forever.

The character's in nine, ten are also drawn together because of the events of 9/11, but in a very different way. Instead of a love story, nine, ten is a story of family relationships and acceptance of others. It's a way for middle graders to learn about the events, again in a context that allows access without being overwhelmed by tragedy. 

As a teacher of third graders and a mother of an 11 and 13 yo, I am very glad to have these books that tell a tough story while keeping the age and experience of the readers in mind.

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My summer reading goal stands at 8/10 picture books, 11/10 middle grade, 7 YA, and 1 professional book. As for the writing, I added a new element of conflict to my novel that I hadn't realized I was missing, but I think it's going to work well. 

If you like my reading choices, you can check out all the books I've read on Goodreads and please leave me a comment below.