It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

To learn more about It's Monday! What Are You Reading? visit Mentor Texts

This book is not on our official short list for the Newbery this year, but it is a 2014 book and as I am always telling my book club members, any book from 2014 could win.

 

A middle school boy tries to buy the election for student council president. With the feel of a heist movie, Jackson Greene assembles a team of “experts” to steal the election from a fellow student who has paid off the principal to ensure a win. Such a clever and witty story. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Genre: adventure

AR level: 4.6

Grade appropriate: 4th and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- With the characters constantly referring to stunts pulled in the past, I kept double checking to make sure this wasn’t a sequel. It’s not, but I still felt like I was missing something because I didn’t know about the previous events they referred to.

Creativity: 5/5-- I love the idea of a heist book that doesn’t actually have to do with stealing a physical thing. I’m a huge fan of Loot and The Gallagher Girls series, this had a different feel because it was much more realistic.

Characters: 5/5-- I loved having a character to root for (Jackson) and characters to hate (Keith and Mr. Kelsey.) All were well developed enough to inspire strong feelings.

Engrossing: 5/5-- It’s a book you want to keep coming back to.

Writing: 5/5-- I will say some of the Star Trek references were lost on me although it didn’t really detract from the story as much as the references to previous shenanigans did. Even after I was 100% sure that this was not a sequel I just kept thinking, “Surely there’s another book I missed!”

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- They’ll love it!

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: mild-- the main character kisses a girl to make a fellow student mad. (nothing graphic, just a brush of lips) There is talk of dating and going to formals together but all very innocent and clean.

Violence: none

Drugs/Alcohol: none

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

To learn more about It's Monday! What Are You Reading? visit Mentor Texts

 

Genre: Fantasy   

AR level: 4.9

Grade appropriate: 5th and up   

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5--I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I will say it’s for a more mature reader. There’s a bit of language (see my note) and in the beginning the children are taken from their loving parents for their safety. Being an expecting mother (and pretty emotional right now) that was a hard part for me to get through. But once I got past that part I was sucked in!

Creativity: 5/5--Nothing like any other fantasy book I’ve read before.

Characters: 5/5-- Loved the characters. They seemed very real, likable and believable.

Engrossing: 5/5

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 4/5-- Kids who are fantasy fans already will eat it up. Not for kids who are new to fantasy.  

Appropriate length to tell the story 4/5-- Longer than I expected.

CONTENT:

Language: mild--several instances, “damn” “hell” “bloody”

Sexuality: none

Violence: mild-- heros fight the evil characters

Drugs/Alcohol: mild-- the main villain drinks wine and brandy (maybe vodka at one point?) but it is not discussed at length. 

 

 This book is not on our mock Newbery list because it was on last year's list. And it won an honor!! We were thrilled that a book from our short list got an award.  

(Actually 3 of the 4 honors were on our list, not that I'm bragging or anything!)

I just never got a chance to read it last year when we were frantically reading the list books and I just now got my hands on an audio version.

Genre: Historical        

AR level: 4.8

Grade appropriate: 5th grade and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 4/5-- I truly enjoyed this book and really wasn’t expecting to. I’m not all that into Historical fiction at this point (loved it as a kid) but I knew this was an honor from last year and wanted to be able to say I read it. I’m so glad I did! It was a good one.

Creativity: 5/5

Characters: 5/5-- Realistic and likeable.

Engrossing: 4/5-- At the beginning several books came across my desk that I wanted to read and I kept thinking about quitting this one before I really got started. But I’m glad I stuck it out. Once I was into it I kept wanting to come back to it.

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 3/5-- It’s not an easy one to convince kids to pick up. Historical fiction is not the most popular of genres in our library and this book is a bit harder to sell than some others.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: mild--The main character’s sister kisses a boy and the character observes it. She also sees a boy in his “union suit” (long underwear) and admires him, nothing graphic or inappropriate mentioned.

Violence: mild-- The main character hunts and at one point has to decide whether or not to kill 2 men who are hurting her friend.

Drugs/Alcohol: none