#IMWAYR July 4, 2022

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. I just returned from a trip to Vermont where the weather was beautiful and the fireworks were extraordinary. Being away also gave me plenty of time to read and write. I am currently working on revising a story about a girl who is starting middle school so this week I reread a couple of my starting middle school favorites to see how they handled pacing.

It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted each week by Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts. If you are a person who loves kidlit, all you need to do to join is to blog about books you are reading on Monday, add your link to either of those two blogs, and post using the hashtag. I hope you will join in!

Now on to what I've been reading!

Middle Grade

When Shayla starts middle school, she wants everything to stay the same between herself and her two best friends. But it isn't easy to have a United Nations of friends when world events force different perspectives. When a police officer is found innocent of shooting a black man, even though there is video showing that man had his back to the officer, was unarmed, and couldn't be a threat, Shayla has to think about what it means to be a Black girl in this world. The book does an excellent job of explaining the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests that follow events like this. It is a well written story about the challenges of identity children face at this age. It was also, unfortunately, timely, because as I was reading it another of these incidents was in the news. 

Lucy would rather be working on graduate level math equations than starting middle school. After a lightning strike, her brain was wired to see math in a way that others might imagine a movie in their mind. Until this year, she has been homeschooled because her wicked smart math ability and OCD made it difficult to be understood and accepted by the other kids. But while Lucy has conquered high school math, she has yet to conquer middle school friendships so her Gran sends her "for her own good." Now she just has to survive for a year. This is one of my favorite all time books. Not only is Lucy a lovable character, there are dogs.

Young Adult

Technically this book might be adult, but it reads as a YA book to me. When Addie is forced to marry a man she doesn't love, she makes a deal with the devil for freedom. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details and Addie finds herself living a never ending life that only she will remember. In order to grant her freedom, the devil has made it so that once someone leaves Addie's presence, they forget her immediately. Until one day, one boy remembers her. Told from different points in Addie's never ending life, we see how she learns to leave her mark upon a world that would forget her face.

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Stacy Barnett Mozer is a teacher and a middle grade author. If you like what she's been reading follow her on Goodreads. Please leave a comment below.

#IMWAYR June 27, 2022

It's my first day of summer vacation, so what better way to celebrate then talking about books? I had a grand plan in September to blog throughout the year, but once again COVID and the world's attitude towards teachers and schools got in the way, so TGIS!

It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted each week by Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts. If you are a person who loves kidlit, all you need to do to join is to blog about books you are reading on Monday, add your link to either of those two blogs, and post using the hashtag. I hope you will join in!

Now on to what I've been reading!

Middle Grade

I loved this new fantasy by A.F. Steadman. Skandar lives in a world where unicorns aren't the pretty, white, rainbow filled creatures of peace we are used to seeing in other fantasies. In Skandar's world, unicorn's are vicious creatures who can cause chaos if not tamed by a Unicorn Rider -- and everyone hopes that they will be one of those riders. So when Skandar shows up for his Unicorn Hatchery test and is told to go home before he even goes inside, he thinks all hope is lost. When a mysterious figure shows up at his door offering another chance, he takes the risk, no matter what the cost. Lovers of middle grade fantasies such as Eragon and Keeper of the Lost Cities will love this book. I can't wait for the next one.

Imagine that you can open any lock with just a thought. Melanie Gate has had this power as long as she can remember, and it sets her apart from the other boys and girls in the orphanage where she has grown up. When a Traveler (a gearling automatron) shows up at the orphanage looking for help, it makes sense for Melanie to be the one to join him. But the Traveler is not what he seems, and it turns out, neither is Melanie. An exciting adventure with magic, adventure, and a mysterious cat. Fans of The Girl Who Drank the Moon will enjoy this one.

Young Adult

The last unit of my school year was fractured fairytales, so I was excited to find this series of fractured Disney movies. These are not Disney stories for kids. A Whole New World asks the question, "What if Aladdin had never found the lamp?" or put a different way, "What if Abu never stole the lamp out of Jafar's hands when he locked him in the cave of wonders?" The answer, according to Liz Braswell, is that you would have a kingdom in turmoil and a princess who would need to step out of her comfy existence to become a rebel leader. Young adults and adults who watched Disney's Aladdin as a kid will enjoy this version.

Here are some of the other books in the series. So far I have read Once Upon A Dream, Part of Your World, and Mirror Mirror. All are done a bit differently and are a bit dark, but a lot of fun.

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Stacy Barnett Mozer is a teacher and a middle grade author. If you like what she's been reading follow her on Goodreads. Please leave a comment below.

#IMWAYR September 20, 2021

It finally feels like school is starting to hum along. With masks and social distancing, but still humming. In writing news, my agent loves my manuscript revisions (yay!) and so I should be out on sub soon. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's what happens after a writer finishes a book and the agent sends it to editors at publishing companies. Sometimes they get back to you right away. More often, it's a time of waiting and writing something new. And of course, lots of reading!

This middle grade book has been on my TBR list since it came out. It's every bit as wonderful as people have said. It's the story of Zoey, a 12 yo whose family situation makes it challenging for her to succeed in school. Her mother's verbally abusive boyfriend has made her mother somewhat absent in the life of her children and Zoey has had to step in. When her teacher notices her throw her homework out in the trash rather than turning it in, she decides to force Zoey into the debate team. Ms. Rochambeau sees herself in Zoey and through her pushing, Zoey is able to not just see herself in a different way, but help her mother and her friend's mother to find their self-worth too. I will admit to being particularly fond of books with great teachers. I hope that Zoey and her teacher find their way into the hands of real kids who need to adjust their own self-view.

I love middle grade fantasy, and Thirteen Witches is a really well done story. It's about a girl named Rosie whose mother has always been distant - almost to the point where sometimes she doesn't know who Rosie is. Her best friend, Germ, is the only one who really knows her, but lately Germ has been acting different, wearing makeup and caring about her clothes, and Rosie feels like she is losing the one person in her life that cares about her. When Germ makes a comment about the happy ending stories Rosie tells, Rosie decides to burn them and grow up. Little did she know that this act will be life changing because it opens Rosie's eyes to the magical world around her full of ghosts and witches. Rosie learns that she is the last in a line of witch hunters and now that she has this knowledge, her life is in danger from the witch who stole her mother's memory long ago.

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Stacy Barnett Mozer is a teacher and a middle grade author. If you like what she's been reading follow her on Goodreads. Please leave a comment below.