Unleashing Readers

Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 Releases We Are Dying to Read

July 27, 2015December 3, 2013 by Ricki

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. The feature was created because The Broke and Bookish are particularly fond of lists (as are we!). Each week a new Top Ten list topic is given and bloggers can participate.

Today’s Topic: Top Ten 2014 Releases We Are Dying To Read

We can’t wait to get our hands on these titles!

Ricki

1. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Shockingly grotesque coming-of-age story? Count me in. The plot description of this book looks awesome, and I love Andrew Smith’s writing.

2. The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

I will read any book written by this incredible woman. She only writes excellence. I will be pre-ordering this one.

3. Champion by Marie Lu

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I didn’t think Prodigy could live up to the greatness of Legend. But I might argue it was even better! I have high hopes for the third book in the series and can’t wait for its release.

4. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

I am very ready for the second book in The 5th Wave series. We don’t even have a cover yet, so I better be prepared to wait.

5. ___________ by John Green

Is this cheating? John Green, I am ready for your next book. Let’s do this, friend.

Kellee

1. ________ by John Green

I’m cheating too!

2. Ashes (Seeds of America #3) by Laurie Halse Anderson

I’ve been waiting and waiting for this book and it is finally going to arrive in 2014!

3. Princess in Black by Shannon Hale

Love a good princess to kick butt heroine story!

4. Sisters (Smile #2) by Raina Telgemeier

I cannot wait to hear more about Raina’s life (and my students will be so excited as well!).

5. The Summer of Letting Go by Gae Polisner

I’m a big fan of Gae, and the premise of this novel sounds very good.

Which 2014 releases are you most excited for?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/2/13

July 27, 2015December 2, 2013 by Kellee

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It’s also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…you just might discover the next “must-read” book!

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee decided to give It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – join us! We love this meme and think you will, too.

We encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Last Week’s Posts

**Click on any picture to view the post**

Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee: Over the last two weeks, as predicted, I did not read as much as I normally would—NCTE and ALAN leaves no time for reading. I did, however, get a few books in. Before I left for NCTE, I finished the newest book in Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series Donner Dinner Party and it was fascinating! I love all of the books in this series as they take historical events, add a bit of humor, put them in a graphic novel, and really make them accessible to anyone. At NCTE I was able to squeeze in a quick graphic novel, Squish: Game On! by Jennifer and Matthew Holm, and a picture book, This is the Rope by Jacqueline Woodson. Since returning, I read Threatened by Eliot Schrefer. I cannot tell you much about it yet as it doesn’t come out for 3 months, but I will say you will want to read this one.

Ricki: Hi, this is Kellee again. I have exciting news: This past week Ricki gave birth to her son Henry!!!! Congratulations Ricki! This may mean that she is a bit MIA from IMWAYR posts for a while, but she hopes to be back in the swing of things soon.

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee: I have already started my next book, Fat Boy vs. The Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach and am already loving the voice. After that I am not sure. I do have some graphic novels I want to read as well as all of the amazing novels I got at NCTE and ALAN. I also hope to start listening to audiobooks again as I have Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the World to listen to.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

So, what are you reading?

Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!

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Kellee’s 2013 NCTE/ALAN Reflection

January 12, 2023December 1, 2013 by Kellee

NCTE was a different experience for me this year than in the past. It is usually a conference filled with me soaking in the knowledge of the brilliance around me. This year, I was lucky enough to be part of two different presentations and then I had some ALAN duties I had to fulfill. Because of this I was not able to attend as many sessions as normal or spend as much time in the exhibit hall as normal, but after leaving, I feel that I got as much out of the conference, just a different something than normal.

Thursday

Day 1 of the conference! I jumped right in by attending a very interesting session: “What Research Suggests About Videogames and the Future of Teaching English.” Like the title states, it was mostly about research and not about actually implementing this research in the classroom, but the research was fascinating (Over 97% of youth play video games; Video games are associated with critical thinking, motivation, gratification, social capital, and academic material; Video games include complex literacies) and I took some emails so I could learn more about implementing. Following the session, I went to the “Elementary Level Get Together” where I ran into some Nerdy friends.

Yes, I know I am not elementary, but Jarrett Krosoczka was speaking at this get together and I wanted to hear him and I am so glad that I did! He was engaging yet thought provoking. He shared with us his reading journey which led to his writing journey (Jarrett shared a similar talk at TED which you can view: here).

Thursday my roommate Mindi also arrived and it was so nice to have some company! She took such good care of me while we were in Boston (being pregnant and gallivanting around can be very tiring).

Friday

Friday was by far my busiest day! I was so exhausted by the end. First, I attended “Building Trust: Communication and the Teacher/Literacy Coach Relationship” to help with the transition into my new position. The speakers had had great success with coaching at their institutions, so I was happy to be able to hear some of the strategies that they employed. Directly following this presentation it was time for my presentations (back-to-back!). First was “Rethinking Picture Books: Harnessing the Power of Nonfiction for Older Students” with the amazing Beth Shaum, Jen Vincent, and author Audrey Vernick.

The room was packed, which was so nice to see!

We all had such a great time sharing our experiences with using picture books with older students. You can view our presentation here. Then I transferred my stuff to a room down the hall for the Nerdy round table session “Relevance, Relationships, and Reading Lives: Fostering Students’ Reading Engagement.” This session was also packed (nervous again!).

My round table presentation was titled “Helping Struggling Readers Find Their Inner Reader” and focused on strategies that can be used to help struggling readers find joy in reading. This presentation can be viewed here and I shared some other resources on my slideshare account.

I need to stop here just to say that I am so thankful for being able to be part of these presentations and for anyone who wants to hear what I have to say. Teaching is my passion and my heart and I am constantly trying to be the best teacher I can be. In these presentations I shared some of my teaching journey and I am so honored that there are educators who want to hear what I have to say. Thank you to anyone who was there or anyone who views the slideshares. I am just happy that I have you on this journey with me. After the presentations I needed a bit of relaxation so I went and visited the exhibit hall which is always filled with so much book love! Then later that night was the Nerdy Round Up! Although I spent only 30 minutes there (so tired!), it was so wonderful to see so many of my friends! My #ncte13 regret is not taking enough pictures of these great people.

Saturday

Saturday started out with a bang: the ALAN breakfast! At the ALAN breakfast, Judy Blume received the ALAN award and then Walter Dean Myers was our speaker—who could have asked for a better set of speakers?! They were so inspiring!

At the breakfast it was so nice to see many of my friends as well including Ricki (before she left!), the Walden committee, and Gae Polisner.

Following the breakfast, I tried to attend Chris Lehman’s closer reading or the rock star packed Skill and Will session, but both were too full, so I lived vicariously through Twitter (search #skillandwill or @ichrislehman on 11/23 for some of the goodies). Then I had some ALAN duties which packed my afteroon, but I was able to go to one more session that night: “Sifting Through Technology: Choosing the Best Tools.” I was happy to realize that my school is already using most of the tools they mentioned, but I did learn about Little Bird Tales for digital storytelling, Mindomo for mind maps, We Video to make and share videos, Make Beliefs Comix to create comics, and Voice Thread for sharing presentations—all which I can bring back to school. That night, following a lovely dessert with Jillian Heise, Sarah Anderson, Brian Wyzlic, and Mindi Rench, we attended Catching Fire hosted by Scholastic. MAN! What a movie! A nice end to Saturday.

Sunday

Sunday started with visiting the exhibit hall quickly (needed to touch base with some publishers also didn’t want to be there during the CRAZINESS that happens on the last day) and I had to make sure to see Kate Messner (and I am so sad I missed Jo Knowles!).

Then the Scholastic Literary Brunch. This brunch is always one of the highlights for me as it was the first publisher anything I was ever invited to and it has become a yearly event. At the brunch, authors do readers theater presentations from their books—just a pleasant way to start a Sunday.

Following the brunch, I had some more ALAN duties that went all the way to the ALAN Cocktail Reception. If you have never attended an ALAN workshop, the ALAN cocktail hour is really the red carpet time. Authors and publishers join us teachers and librarians for 90 minutes of mingling, food, and drinks. This is definitely the time that you can be a fangirl/guy and just go from author to author and chat and take photos. It is such a surreal experience! This year, I mostly just talked to Eliot Schrefer and my friends.

Following the reception, I was lucky enough to be asked to attend the Random House Dinner (two of the authors on my ALAN panel are Random House authors). The dinner was phenomenal and I truly enjoyed getting to know Mariah Fredericks and Adele Griffin who are such delights. At the dinner, I even got to introduce myself to Judy Blume and we took a fantastic photo together. What a day!

The ALAN workshop is such a special thing to attend! ALAN is the only organization that focuses completely on literature for adolescents and these two days celebrate that. It is such a fantastic experience.

Yesterday, Mindi and I shared our ALAN joy on the Nerdy Book Club blog by sharing the top 10 authors we were most excited to see at ALAN. I think this post really captures the essence of ALAN, so check it out.

Between the Nerdy post and my planned post on Thursday at my wonderful panel on Tuesday, I do not have much to add though I will share some of my highlights from each day:

Monday

1. Jack Gantos (see Nerdy post)
2. The “Celebrating Humor” panel: David Macginnis Gill was the moderator and he asked the most hilarious questions!
3. The “Celebrating Dystopia” panel: Although none of these authors (Neal Shusterman, Cristin Terrill, Jeff Hirsch, Kristen Simmons) ended up on our Nerdy post, they were definitely in the debate. Here are some quotes from their presentation:

Books that influenced them: How I Live Now, The Giver, House of The Scorpions, 1984
Shusterman influenced (for Unwind) by the idea that soon they will be able to use 100% of our body for transplants.
Hirsch was influenced by watching the news and getting more and more angry.
This isn’t a perfect world. The problem is a those who think it is. -Shusterman
The process starts with the concept, but what becomes most important are the characters. They have to be real. -Neal Shusterman
Cristin Terrill re-imagined the Terminator as the good guy–and a high school girl.
Dysopian novels are ultimately about hope. Characters are empowered to change the world. -Shusterman
Teenagers feel oppressed, so they connect to dystopian characters who survive and thrive and become a hero helps then through their own tough times. -Kristen Simmons

4. Chris Crutcher (see Nerdy post)
[standing ovation!]
7. Walden Panel with honorees Benjamin Alire Saenz, A.S. King, and Eliot Schrefer (see Nerdy post)

Tuesday

1. Laurie Halse Anderson (see Nerdy post)
[standing ovation!]
2. The “Celebrating Science Fiction” panel: The authors on this panel (Alexander Gordon Smith, Michael Grant, Anna Jarzab, Tom Leveen) were just very interesting.

Wrote horror to deal with the bad. Horror teaches us to survive. -Gordon Smith
Students: read whatever the hell you want to read. -Michael Grant

3. The “Celebrating Horror and Supernatural” panel: Another panel with a very clever moderator who asked questions like, “What was the recipe for your novel?”
4. The “Celebrating International Voices” panel: Always interesting to learn about the world
5. The “Celebrating LBGTQ” panel: A) Nancy Gardner, B) All of the other books sound fascinating! (If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan, The Summer I Wasn’t Me by Jessica Verdi, Branded by the Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington)
6. Ellen Hopkins: Always a great advocate for writing/reading about the hard stuff.
7. MY PANEL!!! “Celebrating Strong Females” with Mariah Fredericks, Tupelo Hassman, Paul Rudnick, Adele Griffin: My post on Thursday will go into more depth about these novels and authors

panel2

These 6 days are always a highlight of my year and this year, although different, is no exception!
I hope you can join us in 2014 in DC!!

Bogart and Vinnie by Audrey Vernick

November 30, 2013 by Kellee

Bogart and Vinnie: A Completely Made-Up Story of True Friendship
Author: Audrewy Vernick
Illustrator: Henry Cole
Published June 18th, 2013 by Walkers Children

Goodreads Summary: When Vinnie, a crazy-happy dog, gets lost while visiting a nature preserve with his family, he finds comfort in the company of Bogart, a big, lazy rhinoceros. Vinnie loves his new friend, but Bogart would rather just take a nap. A friendship soon blossoms-even if Vinnie’s definition of “friendship” is very different from Bogart’s-and when word of their unique situation spreads, Bogart and Vinnie are a worldwide sensation! But as soon as their fifteen seconds of fame ends, what’s left is a bond even Bogart can’t ignore.

Pairing picture-book veteran, Henry Cole, with up-and-coming author, Audrey Vernick, this clever spoof of the unendingly popular interspecies animal-friendship story is full of heart and humor.

My Review: I love Vinnie! He is one of the happiest, joyful characters in a picture book every. Just seeing him makes me smile. I mean, how could Bogart not want to be his friend. But the funniest part of the friendship is the opposite attracts aspect. Bogart is not happy and joyful. He is content with standing on his hill eating grass, but then here comes Vinnie to change his life. Vernick cleverly plays off of the unlikely friendship hype (which is so adorable!), but without making fun of it.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: This book would be so much fun to read after introducing say Owen and Mzee or other unlikely friendships (always an easy compare and contrast activity), but then what would take it to a whole new level is to ask kids to write their own stories about two animals that are unlikely friends—I think some hilariousness would come out of these stories.

Discussion Questions: What makes Bogart and Vinnie unlikely friends?

We Flagged: “Way in back, rarely visited, stood Bogart, a square-lipped rhinoceros. He breathed in the grassy peace of the rhino range—his alone. He cherished the quiet, his tail curled with happiness.

Vinnie raced straight toward Bogart as though reuniting with an old friend.
“I love you! I’m Vinnie! Hi!”
Nobody knew what attracted Vinnie to Bogart. Was it his color? His shape? His horn? His other horn? THe way he completely ignored Vinnie?” (p. 6-7)

Read This If You Loved: Owen and Mzee by Craig Hatkoff, Elephant and Piggie (series) by Mo Willems, Penguin on Vacation by Salina Yoon, You Will Be My Friend by Peter Brown

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Julie at Bloomsbury for providing a copy for review!!**

Millie and the Big Rescue by Alexander Steffensmeier

November 29, 2013 by Kellee

Millie and the Big Rescue
Author and Illustrator: Alexander Steffensmeier
Published August 13th, 2013 by Walker Childrens

Goodreads Summary: A game of hide and seek on the farm goes awry when Millie gets stuck in her hiding place at the top of a tree. But when the farmer and all the other animals try to help, they get stuck as well. Who will rescue Millie and her friends?

Millie’s charming comedy of errors is back in full effect, guaranteeing this new installment in the series will be a hit among young readers as it introduces essential members of the community: firefighters!

My Review and Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: The farm is full of animals that just want to have fun, but one interesting choice by Millie causes havoc. This book would be great for a read aloud. Students will have so much fun predicting what is going to happen next and guessing the effects of the different events.

Discussion Questions: Why was the tree a bad hiding place for Millie? Where else could she have hidden?; If you could have a picnic anywhere, where would you choose?

We Flagged: “Millie loved to play hide-and-see. So did her friends on the farm. even when all the good hiding places were taken, Millie somehow managed to find the best spot. Ready or not, here come the chickens. Millie was nowhere to be found.” (p. 2-3)

Read This If You Loved: The Night Horses by Anaka Jones, Fire Fuego! Brave Bomberos by Susan Middleton, Chicken Dance by Tammi Sauer, Click Clack Moo by Doreen Cronin

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Julie at Bloomsbury for providing a copy for review!!**

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

July 27, 2015November 28, 2013 by Ricki

If You Find Me
Author: Emily Murdoch
Published: March 26th, 2013 by St. Martin’s Griffin

GoodReads Summary: There are some things you can’t leave behind…

A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

Review: It has been a while since I couldn’t put a book down. This gut-wrenching tale captivated me from the very beginning. When authors try to portray emotions, they can feel superficial for readers. But Murdoch’s writing feels effortless. I connected with Carey in a way that reminded me of how I understood Melinda in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. My hands shook with anger in response to her pain, and as she felt overwhelmed and scared, I cried along with her. The backwoodsy dialect made the story feel real and authentic. It constantly reminded me of where Carey was coming from. Murdoch expertly unfolds the plot for readers, which adds a level of complexity but also makes readers feel as if they are coming to terms with Carey’s life right along with her. This is a beautiful, compelling story that I won’t forget.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: One of the strengths of this book is the special bond between the siblings. Carey’s love for her 6-year-old sister, Jenessa, fills the reader with comfort and sureness. It would be interesting for students to consider this bond and what holds these two sisters together. I could also see students researching more about child abuse and neglect. Carey and Jenessa have to make a dramatic adjustment to life on the outside, and I imagine that students will want to learn more about this struggle and its potential difficulties.

Discussion Questions: Why does Carey keep secrets? Do you agree with her decisions?; Why does Carey have difficulty forming a relationship with her father? Do you think she has been brainwashed?; What are the long-term effects of abuse? What kinds of abuse are there? Will Carey ever heal?

We Flagged:

“I answer her with my silence, understanding the full power of it for the first time. Words are weapons. Weapons are powerful. So are unsaid words. So are unused weapons” (p. 24).

“We make attachments to what’s familiar. We find the beauty, even in the lack. That’s human. We make the best of what we’re given” (p. 169).

Read This If You Loved: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Room by Emma Donoghue, A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (for the sibling bond and the woodsy setting), Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher

Recommended For: