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 Vietnam War. Our biggest minority at the school where I work is Hmong. Their relocation to Wisconsin was directly related to what happened during the Vietnam War. Both these books, and the ones below, would be valuable reads to all my older students.
                  . (Not all are about Vietnam, but the themes are similar, and HOME OF THE BRAVE is also written in verse.)

View all my reviews

p.s. I definitely felt a twinge of oldness when I stuck the historical fiction genre labels on both DOGTAG SUMMER nd INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN. Sigh.

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. The Spook is a feared man who rids the County of things that go bump (and worse) in the night. Tom works hard for the Spook, learning how to bind boggarts in pits of salt and iron, the different kinds of witches (benign and malevelant) and how ghasts are mostly harmless, even if they were murderers during their lives.

But Tom ignores the Spook’s instructions to stay away from girls with pointy shoes when he meets Alice. And this little mistake sets off a chain of events that has Tom fighting not only for his life, but for the lives of those he loves as well.

Want more scary? Try these:

Revenge of the Witch is also the first in the Last Apprentice series. Here’s a link to the rest of the series.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the Littlest Ones (that’d be K-1 at my school)

Wolf’s Coming by Joe Kulka
Quick! Run and hide, wolf’s coming! One of my favorite read alouds; I swear the kids are so tense they are holding their breaths at the end–and what a fun ending!

Pumpkintown, Or, Nothing is Better or Worse Than Pumpkins by Katie McKy
Five brothers, too many pumpkin seeds, and a windy night cause problems come fall.

The Teeny Tiny Ghost by Kay Winters
Did you know? Being scary doesn’t come easily to every ghost.

The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Scared of Anything by Linda Williams
A brave woman is followed by mysterious haunted clothing in the woods. The repetition and possibilities for students joining in and acting it out means it’s one I never skip reading.

A Beasty Story by Steven Kellogg
Mice venture into a dark, dark house. I love to stop and have the students say the colors and/or finish the rhyme. Pair this one with Wolf’s Coming (above) to talk about surprise endings.

If You’re a Monster and You Know It (paired with There was an Old Monster) by Rebecca Emberley
Monstery versions of the well-known songs. Listen to musical versions here.

Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
Witch wants pumpkin pie but that pumpkin just won’t come off the vine. Another great one for students to chime in.

Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler
Skeleton-hic!-tries everything, but can’t get rid of those darn-hic!-hiccups!

Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara
A little witch has a plan for those ghosts in her new house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Those in the Middle (grades 2-3)

Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini
Gritch the Witch needs some fresh piggies to make pumpkin pie. Too bad those farm animals are so sneaky.

Alpha Oops! H is for Halloween by Alethea Kontis
Yes, it’s an alphabet book, but the humor with the letters (poor B!) gets the older kids giggling.

The Halloweiner by Dav Pilkey
The underdog saves Halloween night from those nasty cats.

Only a Witch Can Fly by Alison McGhee
A little witch looks forward to her first broom flight.

Dirk Bones and the Mystery of the Haunted House by Doug Cushman
Skeleton reporter Dirk Bones sleuths out a pun-laced mystery.

Frankie Stein by Lola M. Schaefer
Poor blond-haired Frankie! He doesn’t fit in at all with his monster parents.

Once Upon a Twice by Denise Doyen
Nonsense words create an atmospheric, suspenseful story of something lurking in the night.

Lost Gatos Black on Halloween, Just a Minute, and Just in Case all by Yuyi Morales
Great on audio, so students hear what the Spanish is supposed to sound like!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Big Kids (grades 4-5)

Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness by Calef Brown
Funny/creepy poems that beg to be read out loud.

The Widow’s Broom by Chris Van Allsburg
The widow, Minna Shaw, has a magical broom, much to the ire of her neighbors.

Aliens Are Coming! by Megan McCarthy
A nonfiction account of the 1938 Halloween night panic by Orson Welles’ radio production of The War of the Worlds. Listen to snippets of the Orson Welles’ broadcast here.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
After toddler Bod’s parents are murdered, he wanders into a graveyard, whose supernatural inhabitants decide to raise him. Listen/watch to the first chapter of this Newbery winner online here.

Goodnight Goon and The Runaway Mummy by Michael Rex
Silly parodies of the classics students remember from when they were “little.”

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex
Hilarious poems featuring well-known monsters and villians in preposterous situations, like making sandwiches. Be prepared to sing for full effect.

Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
A spooky poem for every letter of the alphabet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, I can’t mention October in the library with linking to this:

Carve a Pumpkin

Image from BarelyFitz's Flickr Creative Commons

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 night.

What do you give a dad who has everything? Who is retired and financially comfortable enough that he has the time and money to get and do whatever he’d like, when he’d like it*? Well, I’ve been giving him booklists. A few years ago, desperate for a gift, I gave him a bookmark with a list of books that sounded “like him.” He carried it around for a year and when he’d come in to volunteer at my school library (yes, he’s that great of a dad), he’d often have one of the books on the list under his arm. He wondered out loud to me once how I had compiled a list of so many great books that tickled his interest.

Ha! Finding books for readers is kinda what I do for a living, Dad. Probably my favorite part.

So, this year, it was time for a new list. And here it is: The Super-Long Father’s Day List of Books. It IS long, in no particular order, a strange mix of nonfiction, mystery, and science fiction/fantasy, and it includes some series halfway through because that’s where my dad is in them. I don’t know why I’m posting it here, except it’s books and it’s a list and I’m a librarian, so pass it on I must in the hopes that someone else somewhere might find their “just right” book.

Enjoy! (And please, I’m always looking for suggestions for next year’s list. Send them my way!)

* Not that he necessarily does. He’s pretty frugal, my dad. Which only makes gift-giving harder because if you give something too extravagant, it might be construed as, well…extravagant.

* I’ve already waxed on about my dad and reading here.

So you’d think these would be my favorites of 2009, right? Um, kind of. While I do still really like all of these books, when I consider my favorite-favorites, I always think about how much the book stuck with me. How much I remember it later. How much I’ve thought about it since I finished it. To me, those are the Truly Best Stories. And those are here:

And just in case you can’t read the covers, that’d be…

All the World

The Mistress of the Art of Death

One World, One Day

The Frog Scientist

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

When the Whistle Blows

Beka Cooper

The Dunderheads

Heart of a Shepherd

Ain’t Nothing But a Man

Ways to Live Forever

Home of the Brave