It's Monday! What are you Reading?

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

Such a fun read! It will be a perfect read-alike for kids who liked PICKLE.

Genre: Humor   

AR level: 4.5   

Grade appropriate: 3rd and up   

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- A fun book about the new kid in town and his competition to the be the number one prankster at his new school

Creativity: 5/5

Characters: 5/5-- Niles is genius. Goody-goody outside, prank king inside.

Engrossing: 5/5-- Less than 24 hours.

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- Kids, boys especially, will love it.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5-- quick read.

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none

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

 

This book has been on my shelf for about a year but I just never found the time to read it. I stumbled across an audio version through my public library and thought, “Why not?” 

I loved it! It was adventure and fantasy. I kept thinking this would be a great read-alike for the Ascendance trilogy. The Ascendance trilogy is adventure with no magical elements and Sky Raiders was high fantasy, but they had similar feels.

Genre: Fantasy

AR level: 4.4

Grade appropriate: 4th and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- A fun, fast paced story.

Creativity: 5/5-- Kids end up in another world after they are kidnapped from a haunted house on Halloween. In this world there are people who can create whatever they can imagine. As a result there are swords that help you jump ridiculous lengths, shawls that make whoever is wearing them do what you want, and more.

Characters: 5/5-- I’m a sucker for a main character with a hero complex (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson)

Engrossing: 5/5

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- Fans of high adventure and high fantasy will love it.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5--It’s a long one but doesn’t bog you down the way some heavy fantasy does.

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none

Violence: mild-- The kids are kidnapped and taken as slaves to this other world. A character dies trying to rescue others, but it’s not graphic.

Drugs/Alcohol: none

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

This is on the Texas Bluebonnet list this year and an easy choice for our Quest for the Crown for 2015-2016.

Genre: Fantasy/Graphic Novel

AR level: 2.2

Grade appropriate: 1st and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- Cute story about a witch who’s trying to fit in with her non-magical classmates.

Creativity: 5/5-- Salem thinks that in a spelling bee you cast spells. Cute!

Characters: 5/5-- For me it’s harder to get attached to characters in a graphic novel.

Engrossing: 5/5-- So short! The 2nd & 3rd graders are eating it up.

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 5/5

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none

Violence: none

Drugs/Alcohol: none

~~~

 

This book was a girl alternative to Adam Gidwitz’s A Tale Dark and Grimm series and perfect for fans of Sarah Mlynowski’s Whatever After series who need something a little more.

Genre: fantasy

AR level: 5.0

Grade appropriate: 3rd and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- I loved how Colfer took the traditional fairy tales a step further. We learn why the evil queen in Snow White does what she does. Why is she obsessed with the mirror and looking fair? We learn about the happily ever afters (or not so happily) of many fairy tale characters such as Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks.

Creativity: 5/5

Characters: 5/5-- The characters have a lot of depth as opposed to the 2 dimensional characters we are familiar with.

Engrossing: 5/5

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- These do not stay on my shelf. They are in constant demand.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 4/5-- a little long...

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none-- Goldilocks and Jack kiss passionately but there is not much else.

Violence: none

Drugs/Alcohol: none