It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Niether of these books are on our Mock Newbery list but both are 2014 publications. 

This book was so intriguing I couldn't pass it up.

This book was wonderful. I too, am skeptical when I see that a celebrity has written a book, but I was very pleasantly surprised with Nightmares! It’s just scary enough to keep a reader hooked, but not so scary as to cause him/her actual nightmares.

Genre: Scary    

AR level: 4.8

Grade appropriate: 3rd and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- I truly loved this book. I can’t wait to tell our fans of Doll Bones and Dead City about this book!

Creativity: 5/5-- Charlie must venture into the nightmare world to save his little brother.

Characters: 5/5-- Charlie is really struggling with his new stepmother and it is very relatable even if you do get impatient with him at times. Jack is absolutely wonderful, as are Charlie’s friends.

Engrossing: 5/5-- I read it in 2 days.

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- It’s going to fly off the shelf!

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none

Violence: none-- The nightmares threaten violence like battling animals gladiator style or a witch wanting to eat children, but in true nightmare style the child wakes up or is saved before any actual harm comes.

Drugs/Alcohol: none

~~~

This is a beautiful story that does deal with the issue of race post civil war, but it does not dominate the story. It is only part of the story. 

Genre: Historical

AR level: 5.7

Grade appropriate: 5th and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 4/5-- Fantastic and beautifully handled.

Creativity: 5/5-- What an interesting way to bring two boys together who come from different towns and different backgrounds.

Characters: 5/5-- Loved Red a lot. Benji started out quite hateful but grew throughout the story into a brave and noble person.

Engrossing: 4/5-- Historical fiction is not always the most engrossing. There will be plenty of kids who lose interest before finishing.

Writing: 4/5-- There was quite a bit of confusion at the beginning of the book when both boys’ stories were running parallel and they hadn’t met. It was hard to keep straight who was who.

Appeal to kids: 3/5-- See comments on “Engrossing.”

Appropriate length to tell the story: 4/5

CONTENT:

Language: mild-- Grandma prays for a man who wouldn’t serve her family “That the Lamb of God stirs his hoof through the roof of heaven and kicks your father square in his ass straight down to hell.”

Sexuality: none

Violence: medium- The madman gets shot by a drunken towns person and the boys find him in the woods.

Drugs/Alcohol: medium-- one of the secondary character’s father is an alcoholic and is abusive. (He also ends up shooting the madman…)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

This book is on our Mock Newbery list.

I was intimidated after hearing another teacher from our school talk about this book. She said it was a book for thinkers and compared it to A Wrinkle in Time (which I have read twice and still don’t like!) But I did pick this book up eventually and... I really enjoyed it! I will say I enjoyed the first half better than the rest. Once they ended up in the south and the torture began and the really far out there fantasy kicked in, I was less into it. Overall, very enjoyable and I’m glad I read it.

Genre: Fantasy

AR level: 6.0

Grade appropriate: 5th and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 4/5

Creativity: 5/5-- Very unusual! Maps of memories. I cannot even imagine how you would come up with this!

Characters: 5/5-- I loved Sophia and Theo. Shadrack was almost too good to be true but I loved him!

Engrossing: 4/5-- It was totally engrossing in the beginning. Like I mentioned earlier, the end got really into really deep fantasy and it wasn’t quite as engaging for me as the beginning was.

Writing: 5/5-- One of my biggest pet peeves about Fantasy is when the author takes a ton of time to explain the world they’ve built. It drives me crazy. While the world in this book was very different from our own I never felt bogged down in explanation. It was handled very naturally!

Appeal to kids: 3/5-- I’m afraid this will only be engaging for our big readers. If a kid has not read fantasy or if they are not an expert reader already they will lose interest.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 4/5-- It did get long...

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none

Violence: medium-- The villain is very evil at points in this book. She tortures people with a mask that cuts their faces when they struggle and steals memories by practically drowning people in sand.

Drugs/Alcohol: none