It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

 

I was worried that this book would be too mature for elementary but it really wasn’t too much. There’s running from a bad guy but it’s not too intense. There’s not much boy/girl drama which seems to be the most rampant maturity issue in middle grade stuff.

Genre: Adventure

AR level: 4.3

Grade appropriate: 5th grade and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- A typical Ally Carter book. Just as fun as her Heist Society and Gallagher Girls series.

Creativity: 5/5-- The characters are children of dignitaries from all over the world. They all live in Embassies in a fictional country, “Embassy Row.”

Characters: 5/5-- Great characters we get totally attached to and will look forward to meeting again in future installments of the Embassy Row series.

Engrossing: 5/5-- I blew through it. I love Ally Carter. I have since before I was a librarian. I read her stuff just for me.

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- Fans of Adventure books will love it.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none

Violence: mild-- Grace's mother dies before the story starts. Grace dwells on it throughout the book. It turns out in the end that it was more disturbing…

Drugs/Alcohol: mild--Grandfather hosts poker night & she assumes they smoke cigars & drink good whiskey. Grace & her grandfather have a fight & he pours himself a drink.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

 

I was kind of on the fence about this book all the way through hoping that it wouldn’t make people of faith seem stupid or try to convince readers that God is not real. That was not at all the case. 

Ivy’s mom runs off to join a church in Florida & leaves Ivy & her daddy to fend for themselves. This leaves Ivy questioning God and the faithfulness of her parents. Her friend Paul convinces her that they need to go find her mother and have an adventure along the way.

In the end, Ivy learns a lot about faithfulness, God, friendship and herself.  

I anticipate this book getting some Newbery attention...

Genre: Realistic

AR level: none yet

Grade appropriate: 4th and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- I ended up loving this little book. Ivy learns so much about herself and her inner strength and also comes to a peace with the mystery of God.

Creativity: 5/5--

Characters: 5/5-- Ivy and Paul! Love them!

Engrossing: 5/5-- Walked around the house reading and trying to do other things. It doesn’t work well...

Writing: 5/5--

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- Easy to read. Perfect for fans of Absolutely Almost and Because of Winn-Dixie.

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

CONTENT:

Language: mild-- “Oh my God” twice. Ivy gets scolded for it.

Sexuality: none

Violence: none

Drugs/Alcohol: none

There is a lot of questioning of faith, but that’s a product of maturing in faith. Ivy comes to decide that God’s ways are unknowable.  “God is really more like space. Big, wild, mysterious space.” Ivy’s good friend is basically an atheist and the woman she babysits for is a buddhist. The topic is skirted so often because so many people have different takes on faith. Scanlon handled this beautifully! 

 This is a book that's been on my to-read list for a long time. I'm so glad I made time to read it! 

 Genre: Realistic

AR level: 3.9

Grade appropriate: 3rd and up

A sweet book about dealing with disappointments, handling changing friendships, and dealing with imperfect parents.

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 5/5-- Sweet book! Deals with real life issues but is not SO heavy like so many middle grade books I’ve read recently.

Creativity: 5/5

Characters: 5/5-- LOVE these characters!

Engrossing: 5/5

Writing: 5/5

Appeal to kids: 5/5-- This has been a favorite of kids and teachers for a while now. I can’t wait to recommend it to realistic fiction lovers.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5-- Perfect! (Not even crooked)

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

 

It took me about a year to fully read this book. That sounds horrible and really it doesn’t do this book justice. I was reading it in little snippets while my children were bathing or doing other things that I was supervising and reading. This is not one of those books. It needs your full attention or you just don’t get it. 

I started it because of our Mock Newbery club and I just finished it because it was on the Bluebonnet list. 

It’s super creepy/scary and I won’t be recommending this book to any child specifically. It is on the Bluebonnet list so we have several copies, but it’s just a little too much.

As far as scary stories goes, it feels like a classic, Edgar Allen Poe or Dracula. It’s perfect for classic horror fans.

Genre: Scary

AR level: 4.9

Grade appropriate: mature 5th graders and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 2/5-- I just don’t even know. It’s just… scary and when I was finished I looked back and liked it better than I ever did in the middle of it. The ending is good, by the way.

Creativity: 5/5-- Totally unique but with the feel of a classic horror story.

Characters: 5/5-- Love Molly and Kip. Hope I would be as brave in a similar situation.

Engrossing: 2/5-- It takes time and full concentration to get through it. LIke I said, it took me a year…

Writing: 5/5-- It’s beautifully written.

Appeal to kids: 2/5-- I’m not going to be recommending it to any kids because I don’t want to be the one who handed a kid the book that was way too scary.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 3/5-- did I mention that it took me a year?

CONTENT:

Language: none-- euphemisms

Sexuality: none

Violence: medium-- I only say medium in comparison to other middle grade novels. The ghost/night gardener is truly frightening and kills several people in the story. The murder is never extremely explicit though.

Drugs/Alcohol: none

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

It's officially SUMMER TIME! I don't know if it will be easier to read during the summer than during the year considering that I have 3 BOYS THIS SUMMER! It's going to be an adjustment that's for sure! 

But I will be reading. And I'll keep you posted. 

Genre: Mystery/Fantasy

AR level: 5.4

Grade appropriate: 5th and up

RATING BREAKDOWN:

Overall: 4/5-- Very enjoyable! I’ve been reading this series since long before my librarian days.

Creativity: 5/5-- This series is about missing pieces of art and children who investigate and solve the crime. This book is based on an actual art theft that is still unsolved.

Characters: 5/5-- I loved that Balliett brought in characters from other books that are not in this series.

Engrossing: 5/5

Writing: 4/5-- While I love these books and have for years, they are not the easiest of reading. That is the main reason I think 5th and up are the best fit. The storytelling is beautiful but a little dense.

Appeal to kids: 3/5-- This is not light-middle grade reading. It will take a serious reader or mystery fan to tackle this series.

Appropriate length to tell the story: 5/5

CONTENT:

Language: none

Sexuality: none

Violence: none

Drugs/Alcohol: none

There is a ghost in this book. The children communicate with it through a ouija board.

Quest for the Crown

 Quest for the Crown Competition is coming! 

When I took the job of Library Director I asked what were some things that were sacred, things I needed to continue no matter what. Quest for the Crown was it!

I've mentioned Quest for the Crown several times on this blog, but I've never fully explained it. I plan to remedy that today!

Quest for the Crown is a competition that was invented by Nora Kay Holmes. She was the librarian here at Fort Worth Christian before I came. (I've recently learned that Liberty Christian School & Brazos Christian have since started their own Quest competitions.)

She took the Triple Crown lists and wrote questions about the books. The kids read these books like crazy and take a test in February, written by Nora Kay, or now written by me. (My test is about 30 questions long and includes questions about every book from the list.)

 The students who perform the best on the test are invited to be on one of our Quest for the Crown teams. There are always 4 teams but the number of students on the teams varies from year to year. The kids choose team names and dress up to fit their name. Basically we have a blast!

The teams come to the library twice a week to review the books they've read, practice answering questions and to trade books with others on their teams.


I have changed Quest a little over the 3 years that I've been here at FWC. I now use the Bluebonnet books. (I choose 15 of the 20 so that I can leave out some of the more objectionable ones. But we still have all 20 in the library and the kids still read them.)

You guys, it's so much fun! The kids work hard all year reading the books and start before summer getting ready for next year. Then they really ramp it up when they make the teams. They know these books forward and backward before our competition in May.