Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai My rating: 4 of 5 stars A beautiful verse novel about a young girl’s move from war-torn Saigon to Alabama in 1975. I read this right after Dogtag Summer. They are nice companion books, both providing a glimpse into what it was like for children during the [...]
Do you like scary? Then this one’s for you. Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tom, the youngest brother in a big family, is never going to inherit his father’s farm. However, as the seventh son of a seventh son, he is qualified to become the Spook’s apprentice. [...]
I love reading aloud in October. The only problem is that I don’t have enough time to share all my favorites with my students!
So, it was Father’s Day last Sunday. Per usual, I’m approximately 4 days behind the rest of the world’s calendar. That’s not to say I didn’t give my dad a hug on Sunday (we had him over for a cookout), but I didn’t exactly get his gift to him that day. I delivered it last [...]
According to my bookshelf on Goodreads, I read 143 books in 2009. It’s actually more than that because I didn’t start adding to Goodreads until partway through the year. The rest of my list is here. But anyway… I gave 18 of them 5 stars. They are: So you’d think these would be my favorites [...]
I know, school’s already out for most of you, so this post is a little too late. But most of these books are not actually Christmas stories. Instead, they have broader themes of what it means to give and receive. So they can make wonderful read alouds any time of year, right? (All titles guaranteed [...]