Unleashing Readers

Oakley the Squirrel: The Search for Z: A Nutty Alphabet Book

June 20, 2021June 10, 2021 by Ricki

Oakley the Squirrel: The Search for Z: A Nutty Alphabet Book
Author: Nancy Rose
Anticipated Publication: June 22nd 2021 by Workman Publishing Company

Goodreads Summary: The letter Z is missing! Help little Oakley find it in this charming picture book with photos of real squirrels!

Oakley the Squirrel: The Search for Z is an alphabet book like no other. In it, we meet Little Oakley as he embarks on a quest to find the letter Z. He searches through an alphabet of human objects—looks beneath the Bed, claws through the Closet, digs through Drawers, examines his Easel, and so on. By the time he gets to a basket of yarn, Oakley starts to yawn, and soon falls asleep. And Z—as in, Zzzzzz!—appears!

Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation:I wish I had recorded my two-year-old giggling on each page as we read this book. It is a clever way to engage kids and make them think about each letter individually. The photographs are just hysterical. I love squirrels, so I was laughing right along with my son. I’d love to use this book with kids to take photographs to generate their own alphabet books. This would be an incredibly fun class project!

Discussion Questions:

Where are some of the places that Oakley looks for the letter z?
Which is your favorite letter page and why?
Choose one image and rewrite it. What does Oakley do differently in your alphabet page?

We Flagged:

Read This If You Love: Nonfiction books about animals; Alphabet books

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Sara at Skyhorse Publishing for providing copies for review!**

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 6/7/21

June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 by Ricki

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Sharing Picture Books, Early Readers, Middle Grade Books, and Young Adult Books for All Ages!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop co-hosted by Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts which focuses on sharing books marketed for children and young adults. It offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

Happy reading!

Thursday: Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe

Saturday: Sofia’s Kids’ Corner: Top 5 Graphic Novel Girl Power Books for Intermediate Schoolers

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

Kellee

As I’ve shared, I am taking the rest of May and the beginning of June off. I plan to be back on June 21st–see you then!

To keep up with what I am reading, check out my 2021 Goodreads Challenge page or my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

My 7yo just finished reading Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke to me. I enjoyed this book a lot, and I looked forward to reading it each night. I am excited to read the second one!

I just finished April Baker-Bell’s Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy. My department did a book study of this book in preparation of the National Writing Project Rocky Mountain Regional Conference this June 11-13, 2021. If you haven’t registered, I know they are accepting late registrations: https://www.nwprmrc.com/. I am looking forward to hearing her speak at the conference. The book is incredible.

Ricki

I am reading Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian and liking it very much!

Thursday: Oakley the Squirrel: The Search for Z: A Nutty Alphabet Book by Nancy Rose

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!

and

Sofia’s Kids’ Corner: Top 5 Graphic Novel Girl Power Books for Intermediate Schoolers

June 5, 2021 by Ricki

Sofia is an 9-year-old brilliant reader who aspires to be a book reviewer. On select Saturdays, Sofia shares her favorite books with kids! She is one of the most well-read elementary schoolers that we know, so she is highly qualified for this role!

Dear readers,

Today I have gathered my top 5 favorite girl power graphic novels. I really hope that you enjoy them! These books are all surprisingly different so there is still hope that if you don’t like one you will still like another. These books are probably for ages 7+.

El Deafo by Cece Bell is a really funny and sad book at the same time. It is a true story about the author but everybody is drawn as a rabbit. Cece is only four when she gets meningitis, an illness that swells the brain and can make you deaf. When her parents figure out she can’t hear, they send her to get hearing aids. At first at school she gets sent to a school for people who are hard of hearing. Then they move to a different place after her first year of school. This school is not specialised so when school starts she has to get a much bigger hearing aid called the Phonic Ear. It is big but it helps Cece understand her teacher much better. Cece always finds it embarrassing to give her teacher a microphone for the Phonic Ear.

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neil is the complete opposite of El Deafo. It is a very calm and peaceful book and for the record the characters are ADORABLE! This is an anime kind of graphic novel. Greta is a little goblin whose mom is teaching her how to be a blacksmith. Greta saves a tea dragon from a pack of hungry wolves. Greta wants to keep the dragon but her father knows who the dragon belongs to. She returns the dragon to her owner and gains respect from him. She meets a humanlike unicorn called Minette. Minette has a tea dragon too, her dragon’s name is Chamomile. They soon become friends and play together and Greta finally learns more about her mysterious friend, Minette.

Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani is an amazing book even though it is really sad. It makes you question the world you live in. Priyanka is a girl of Indian heritage who grows up in the US. She does not have a father but she has a very overprotective mother. Her uncle, Jatin, plays the role of her father. Her mom never ever tells Priyanka about India or her father. When her uncle’s wife gets pregnant Priyanka starts to become jealous because she always had her uncle to herself and she has always been his favorite child. Priyanka is so jealous that she goes downstairs in the middle of the night and makes a prayer to the Indian god Shakanti so that the baby dies. When she makes the prayer right after she feels really really guilty. When she wakes up the baby becomes sick. She thinks it is all her fault and she tears open her mom’s suitcase. There she finds a pashmina, a scarf, which will soon turn everything around!!!

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson is a Newbery award winning book! It is hardcore fun for everyone, especially Raina Telgemeier fans! Astrid is a girl who has a friend named Nicole. Astrid is not a good friend, she only cares about herself and wherever she wants to go or what she wants to do is happening. She never considers her friends’ ideas. She always expects Nicole to like what she likes so when Astrid’s mom takes them to roller derby Astrid falls in love with it and Nicole gets scared. When Astrid hears that there is a roller derby camp she signs up instantly. But when Nicole doesn’t go Astrid gets MAD! It gets worse on her first day of camp. Astrid realises she is terrible at roller skating and tumbles into the outside of the practice arena and starts to cry. Read to see what happens to Astrid and her terrible life!

The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner is THE BEST-BOOK-EVER! It is a bit sad because her father is dead but also very funny. Moth thinks she is a regular girl. She is oddly fascinated by witches though and loves everything witchy. But the tables turn when she realizes that she IS a witch. She completely freaks out (in a good way) and begs her mom to teach her everything about magic. Her mom refuses and says magic can cause terrible things to happen. What she means by that is that there used to be a witch hunt. It was kind of like the real life Salem Witch Trials, just less scary. What Moth does not know is that her mom is also referring to her dad and how he is gone now. When Moth finds a cat and she notices it is a talking cat, she realizes that this must be her witchy companion. One night Moth sneaks into her mom’s room to snatch her diary so she can read it because she figures if she can’t get her mom to tell her about witch stuff her diary will. Read this book to see if Moth gets caught and to see what dark secrets she uncovers!

**Sofia, we love this compilation! Thanks for sharing it with readers!!!**

Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe

June 20, 2021June 3, 2021 by Ricki

Charming as a Verb
Author: Ben Philippe
Published October 13, 2020 by Balzer + Bray

Summary: Henri “Halti” Haltiwanger can charm just about anyone. He is a star debater and popular student at the prestigious FATE academy, the dutiful first-generation Haitian son, and the trusted dog walker for his wealthy New York City neighbors. But his easy smiles mask a burning ambition to attend his dream college, Columbia University.

There is only one person who seems immune to Henri’s charms: his “intense” classmate and neighbor Corinne Troy. When she uncovers Henri’s less-than-honest dog-walking scheme, she blackmails him into helping her change her image at school. Henri agrees, seeing a potential upside for himself.

Soon what started as a mutual hustle turns into something more surprising than either of them ever bargained for. . . .

This is a sharply funny and insightful novel about the countless hustles we have to keep from doing the hardest thing: being ourselves.

Review: This is one of the best examples of characterization that I’ve read in a book. I fell in love with so many characters (even minor ones!), which drew me into the story even more. Henri reminds me of some of my favorite students that I’ve had. He’s charming, driven, and likable. There’s a lot that happens in this book that I don’t want to spoil—but I should write that it teaches an incredibly powerful lesson. There’s one scene that made my stomach do flips, and I will think of that scene often. This would be a great text to use to explore concepts of ethics. It also offers a lot of insight about the college prep experiences for teens. I highly recommend this book to readers. It’s a powerful story and one that will stick with me.

Discussion Questions:

How does the characterization of the text add to the story? Who were your favorite characters, and why?
Which minor characters really stand out to you? How does the author make them so noteworthy?
What did you learn from this book?
What does this book teach us about ethics? About humanity?

Flagged Passage:

“There’s no use complaining about it and wishing the world was different. This isn’t how we change things for ourselves.”

Read this if You Loved: Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson; The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe; I Crawl Through It by A.S. King

Recommended For:

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 5/31/21

May 31, 2021 by Kellee

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Sharing Picture Books, Early Readers, Middle Grade Books, and Young Adult Books for All Ages!

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Happy reading!

Thursday: Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson

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

Kellee

As I’ve shared, I am taking the rest of May and the beginning of June off. I plan to be back on June 21st–see you then!

To keep up with what I am reading, check out my 2021 Goodreads Challenge page or my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

Hear My Voice / Escucha Mi Voz: The Testimonies of Children Detained at the Southern Border of the United States, Compiled by Warren Binford for Project Amplify

This book was gut-wrenching. It is a compilation of words from actual court records and features the voices of children at the border. If you flip the book over, you can read the English/Spanish versions. The middle of the book is packed with important information for readers to discuss and consider the ways they might act for justice.

We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell, Illustrated by Frané Lessac

I read this book with all three of my children, and each of them found the book to be accessible in different ways. There is so much information in this well-research text that kids from all ages will appreciate. Traci Sorell is simply brilliant.

Ricki

I am currently reading Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian. I am not very far into the book, but it’s really good so far.

Thursday: Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe

Saturday: Sofia’s Kids’ Corner: Top 5 Graphic Novel Girl Power Books for Intermediate Schoolers

and

Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson

May 27, 2021 by Ricki

Love is a Revolution
Author: Renée Watson
Published February 2, 2021 by Bloomsbury

Summary: From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Renée Watson comes a new YA–a love story about not only a romantic relationship but how a girl finds herself and falls in love with who she really is.

When Nala Robertson reluctantly agrees to attend an open mic night for her cousin-sister-friend Imani’s birthday, she finds herself falling in instant love with Tye Brown, the MC. He’s perfect, except . . . Tye is an activist and is spending the summer putting on events for the community when Nala would rather watch movies and try out the new seasonal flavors at the local creamery. In order to impress Tye, Nala tells a few tiny lies to have enough in common with him. As they spend more time together, sharing more of themselves, some of those lies get harder to keep up. As Nala falls deeper into keeping up her lies and into love, she’ll learn all the ways love is hard, and how self-love is revolutionary.

In Love Is a Revolution, plus size girls are beautiful and get the attention of the hot guys, the popular girl clique is not shallow but has strong convictions and substance, and the ultimate love story is not only about romance but about how to show radical love to the people in your life, including to yourself.

Ricki’s Review: There is so much to write about this book! First, I loved the way it elevated body positivity. The comments (implicit and explicit) about Nala’s size felt, at times, infuriating. I was so proud of the way she handled these comments. I also loved the idea that everyone doesn’t need to be a loud activist to be doing amazing work. Nala was keenly focused on her family, and the work that she did was important work. I admired her greatly. The book made me think a lot about my own convictions and what I value most. This is a book that belongs in all classrooms, and I recommend it highly.

Discussion Questions:

How is Nala different from the other characters in the book? What do we learn from her?
What does Tye value? What do we learn from him?
How is Nala and Tye’s relationship perceived?
How do different characters in this book perceive family? Which characters reflect your own values, and why?

Flagged Passage:

“I can’t stand when people don’t follow through. Make a plan, stick to it. Say what you mean and mean what you say.”

Read This If You Love: Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson; Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

Recommended For:

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 5/24/21

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 by Kellee

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Sharing Picture Books, Early Readers, Middle Grade Books, and Young Adult Books for All Ages!

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Happy reading!

Thursday: Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Sunday: Author Guest Post: “7 Ways to Get Your Child Who Reads Less Frequently to Read More” by Paul Lonardo, Author of The Goblin Pitcher

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

Kellee

As I’ve shared, I am taking the rest of May and the beginning of June off. I plan to be back on June 21st–see you then!

To keep up with what I am reading, check out my 2021 Goodreads Challenge page or my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

I finished listening to Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson and loved it. There were so many great themes to think about in this book. I’ll be giving a full review with teaching tools this Thursday!

Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo is a stunning book in verse. I was captivated by the story and couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend this book and will be reviewing it in the upcoming weeks!

Ricki

I just got my hands on Sisters of the Neversea by Cynthia Leitich Smith last night and started reading. It is a reinterpretation of the Peter Pan story. So far, I LOVE IT.

My oldest son and I are reading a story each night in Black Boy Joy, which is edited by Kwame Mbalia. We really look forward to reading it each night—the stories are very engaging!

Thursday: Love is a Revolution by Renée Watson

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