It's All About the Journey: January 2017

Monday, January 30, 2017

#IMWAYR January 30, 2017

Radiant Child is a beautiful book about the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The illustrations were created in the style of Jean-Michel Basquiat's art and look like they are placed together in wood panels. My class found the illustrations and story interesting and they liked the style and use of color (but still felt Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat should have won the medal).

Middle Grade

The Twyning is a dark middle grade book about a fight between the world of rats and the world of humans. It's told from both points of view. The book explores issues of leadership and bravery and would be enjoyed by an older middle grader.

Young Adult

What if the life we live is only the beginning of the story? In your second life, there are two opposing sides, and they are at war. The main character, Tenly is wanted by both of them and if they can't have her, they'd rather see her perish and end up in Many Ends, a terrible place of misery, than join the other side. I found this story a little flat but loved the main character. I will read the next book to find out what happens to her.

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If you like my reading choices, you can check out all the books I've read on Goodreads and please leave a comment below. It's Monday, what have you been reading?

Monday, January 23, 2017

#IMWAYR January 23, 2016 #MockCaldecott

Each week I try to join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers to share all of the reading I've done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. It's #IMWAYR!

The results are in and by now you know the real winner of the 2017 Caldecott. On Friday, my class held their own Caldecott debate after studying our nominees for three weeks. This was the first time I did this unit and I loved every minute of it, especially the final discussion. They had an intelligent debate, and used text evidence to prove their points. When our final results were in, this is where we stood:

Our Winner
Are We There Yet? written and illustrated by Dan Santat: We felt that Are We There Yet should have won because the illustrations do an amazing job telling the story inside the story. We liked how time goes backwards and the pages turn over to show how bored the main character was during the drive. We loved the use of bright colors and how all the imaginary scenes disappeared when they arrived at Grandmas. We also like that if you looked closely you can find hidden information - and Beekle!

Our Honor Books
The Return written and illustrated by Aaron Becker: We thought this book should have been honored because of its use of color. On the page where the character smashes the box, all the colors appear to fly away. The illustrator also made a good use of the space, showing small scenes on the side and making the pages feel big, for instance when the characters are in the ocean. The illustrator also added small details that were unexpected. We were pretty amazed at how the Aaron Becker was able to tell the story without words.

Henry and Leo written and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski: We thought this book should have been honored because its use of space. We liked how on some pages there is a white border so it seemed like the characters were stepping out of the book while on other pages the scene took up the whole page. We also like how the illustrations tell a piece of the story that isn't written in the words to show the magic in the book when Leo, the stuffed animal, comes alive. He sits on the bear's back and points out of the woods so we knew it meant Leo was going home.

From Wolf to Woof written and illustrated by Hudson Talbott: We thought this book should have been honored because of the use of color. We liked how the illustrator used light and dark and had shapes and images in the background to add to the scene. The colors show the mood of the story. We also liked how the illustrations add details to the words.

Ada's Violin written by Susan Hood and illustrated by Sally Wern Comport: We thought this book should have been honored because the pictures were very bright even though the illustrator was drawing a pile of garbage. The garbage pile itself was very detailed and so were the expressions on the characters' faces. The book did a great job using space and the backgrounds were made of small pieces from the garbage pile.

This is not a Picture Book! written and illustrated by Sergio Ruggier: I thought this book should have won because each page shows a different mood. For instance, on the last four pages it was very bright and wild, you felt carried away. On other pages you had a feeling of sadness, like when I was looking at the broken houses. The mood shown in the pictures matched the words of the story.

We watched the ALA announcement this morning. It was very exciting even though none of our top choices were selected. Congratulations to Radiant Child and honor books Leave Me Alone, Freedom in Congo Square, Duz Iz Talk? and They Saw a Cat.

What do you think of our choices? Leave us a message below.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Goodreads Giveaway for The Perfect Trip

I can't believe my new middle grade novel, The Perfect Trip is releasing in March! You can win a review copy during the month of January. Just enter below. And don't forget to click "Want to Read" when given the option!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Perfect Trip

by Stacy Barnett Mozer

Giveaway ends January 31, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

About the book: Sam Barrette’s life is finally going in the right direction. She’s made the boys’ travel baseball team, her friendship with Mike is turning into something more, and she’s even connected with her stepmother. But a cross-country family camping trip filled with secrets and surprises challenges everything she thought she knew about what the future will hold. To save her dreams, Sam must find a way to fix her perfect trip.

Monday, January 9, 2017

#IMWAYR January 9, 2017 #MockCaldecott

Each week I try to join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers to share all of the reading I've done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. It's #IMWAYR!

Last week my class started a mock Caldecott unit. We spent the first week learning about the Caldecott Medal and looking at past winners. While students were learning, I was gathering books. Here are 12 of our 13 nominees:

We are also are looking at Ada's Violin but since I couldn't find a physical copy of the book, we explored it together:

What do you think of our nominees? What books do you think the committee should consider for the Caldecott?

Monday, January 2, 2017

#IMWAYR January 2, 2017 Vacation Week Part 2

Last week I made a list of the books I planned to read. I read almost all of them, plus two I wasn't expecting. Here's what I read this week:

Middle Grade

This book has been on my TBR list for a while and I'm glad I finally had a chance to read it. It is the story of a village that has been held hostage by a witch that claims one baby each year, a witch that finds new families for those babies, a man who decides there must be another way, a broken mother, a lovable swamp monster, a tiny dragon, and a girl who drank the moon. I loved the way the lives of these multiple characters entwine together. It is a beautiful story filled with magic and love.

Young Adult

You know you are reading a great fantasy series when your dreams start taking place in the series setting. This imagined world has fantastic characters, redeemable villains (at least some of them), magic, betrayal, adventure, and a spunky female main character to follow through the pages. I enjoyed the way different points of view were weaved in and out of the narrative.

At high school orientation five strangers are grouped together and write letters to be opened the last day of school. For the next four years we follow their lives through twists and turns until they finally meet again at graduation. A really enjoyable read that brought me back to high school.

Currently Reading