#IMWAYR October 10, 2022

 

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!

It was a very nice beginning to the Jewish Holiday season. This week we will be eating outdoors in our Sukkah, a hut we build outside our house that has three walls and a see-through roof. I love this time of year, but I will also be glad when the holidays finally come to a close next week.

Middle Grade

Ravini Foster is lonely. Every day he has to deal with trouble from the town bully and bringing his father lunch at the Slaughterhouse where he works. Then one night a truck delivers seven mysterious kids to the empty house across the street and once Ravini meets the kids, especially Virginia, a girl his age, his life will be forever changed. A slightly creepy, but very well-done story about the magic of finding friendship and family.

Everyone loves the big tree in the back of Marisol's house. Everyone but Marisol. She has named the tree Peppina and Peppina is not Marisol's friend. Each day of summer, Peppina taunts Marisol with her branches that are easy to climb for everyone else. But Marisol has fears and sometimes those fears get in the way of living her life. Will this fear of Peppina ruin Marisol's summer? A lovely story about friendship and anxiety. Great for kids in 1st - 3rd.

Young Adult

Everyone knows the story of The Little Mermaid who gives up her tail and voice to walk on land and win the heart of the handsome prince. But what if the Mermaid was not a mermaid at all, but a siren who sings princes to their death. And what if the prince were a siren killer? A well-done twist on this well-known tail.

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

#IMWAYR October 3, 2022

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!

It's October. I am now a month into school and at the start of the Jewish Holiday season with Yom Kippur coming up next. I will be fasting all day on Wednesday, but it does often give me a few hours to read.

Middle Grade

After reading the first two books in the Billy Miller series, I was so excited to read this companion novel from Sal's point of view. Sal is a great character. In this book. she is dealing with the birth of her new little sister and feeling ignored as a middle child. But Sal's big personality cannot be ignored. 1st - 3rd graders will love reading this book or sharing it with an adult they love.

When five kids who have little in common other than the fact they speak varying levels of Spanish and stuck together to complete their community service hours, they are not happy. But when they discover a little girl and her mother living in a van outside their school, the five of them find out they have a lot in common in their heart. My niece, who is in fourth grade this year, recommended I read this book and it's my new favorite graphic novel. I will definitely be picking this one up for my classroom. I love how the author included Spanish and English in connecting bubbles. 

Young Adult

When Ning's mother dies from poisoned tea she feels it was her fault. She makes a vow to save her sister, who is dying from the same poison. The only way to do this is to leave her home in the country and travel to the imperial city where the Princess is holding a competition for the next Shennong-shi - master of the art of magical tea making. But the competition is for Shennong-shi apprentices and while Ning has watched her mother for years, it is her sister who became her apprentice. Ning will have to prove her worth in order to get the favor of the princess and avoid dying along the way. A wonderful story of magic and good and evil. I am close to the end of the second book because I just couldn't put these down.

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Stacy Barnett Mozer is a third-grade 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 19, 2022

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!

Is it really mid-September already? It's been so nice having the weather turn a bit colder (not actually today when it is 86, but last week and the rest of this week anyway). I'm definitely looking forward to the leaves changing. The only problem is as the mornings get darker, I do sleep later so it is cutting into my reading time. Here's what I read this week.

Middle Grade

After a fall leaves him with a bump on the head, Billy Miller is not so sure second grade will be his year. His fears are realized right away when the girl sitting next to him turns out to be quietly mean. Fortunately Billy has good friends, a great teacher, a caring family, and lots of opportunities to make his year great. Fans of Ramona Quimby will enjoy this one. It would be a fantastic read aloud for any second grade class. I'm looking forward to the companion book to the series coming out next month about Billy's quirky little sister Sal.

Young Adult

Isla Crown has always known that the day would come where she would have to fight for the right of her people to exist. Years ago a curse was cast and a riddle was spun. Now every 100 years, the rulers have to fight to the death to try to break the curse and not be the kingdom that will perish. But nothing is as it seems, and Isla will have to figure out who to trust. A twist on the Hunger Games concept, I enjoyed the first book in this series. I am looking forward to finding out what happens next.

From the moment Avery was named the heir of one of the most powerful and richest men in the country, her world turned upside down. In addition to dealing with the press, and all the people who are out to get her, Avery has to deal with the moody, dashing Hawthorne boys. The plot definitely thickened in this third book. I'm excited that Jennifer Barnes has left opening a possibility for new challenges. I would love to see more of these.

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