Day 48-64: 10 books short of the goal

Well it is the last day of summer vacation and I had 16 more books to write about but I have run out of time! Here is the short, short version. I wanted to make sure they count. Over all it was a good summer experience reading! And I ended the summer just 10 books short. Next summer I will finish!


Day 48: Torn by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This is book four the Missing series.
Day 49: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. I really funny, gross, scary retelling of Grimm's tales.
Day 50: Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) by Lisa Yee. Cute, good for younger readers who like Andrew Clements.
Day 51: Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger. So funny!! Give to kids looking for funny books and those who love Star Wars
Day 52: Call Me Hope by Gretchen Olson. Sad book about verbal abuse by a parent. For fifth graders and up.
Day 53: Sidekicks by Dan Santat. Funny graphic novel about the pet sidekicks of a superhero.
Day 54: Big Nate On a Roll by Lincoln Peirce. This is the third book in the series. Funny, similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Day 55: Bad Kitty Meets the Baby by Nick Bruel. I love these books about a crazy, selfish cat. Very funny. First graders love to have them read to them and older kids love them as well.
Day 56: Knights of the Lunch Table, The Battle of the Bands by Frank Cammuso. This is the third book in the series. It is a funny, graphic novel based on the King Arthur legend.
Day 57: Shredderman: Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen. Story about bullying and one boy who is determined to fight back,
Day 58: Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow by James Rollins. Great adventure series. Give it to kids who loved Percy Jackson.
Day 59: Olympians Hera by George O'Connor. Graphic novel about the god. Great kids into mythology and looking for information about the Greek gods.
Day 60: Other Goose by J. Otto Seibold. Cute, reworkings of Mother Goose rhymes. Some of funny, some are a stretch and the original is better.
Day 61: Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. This is an adult book that is set during World War II in Paris. It is a good book but sad.
Day 62: Into the Unknown by Stewart Ross. This is a great non-fiction book about explorers. Good for fifth grade and up.
Day 63: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. Really wonderful nonfiction work about Berlin in the early 1930's as Hitler was coming to power.
Day 64: The Reinvention of Bessica Lefter by Kristen Tracy. Book about a girl moving onto middle school and trying to reinvent herself. Very similar to a lot of other books out there that cover this storyline but girls are always looking for books like this.

Day 47: The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters

All the trouble started with Mr. Melville’s Special Project! Mr. Melville’s Special Projects were legendary.  For this assignment students had to solve a mystery in their own lives. Bethesda is determined to have the best project ever and she knows just what mystery to solve, Ms. Finkleman. She is the Music Fundamentals teacher and Bethesda knows there is more to Ms. Finkleman then meets the eye, for one there is the mysterious code on her desk and the tattoo! Ms. Finkleman might not be as boring as she seems, she might just be a rock star! What Bethesda uncovers set a series of events in motion that affects everyone at Mary Todd Lincoln Middle School. Bethesda soon learns that there is more than one side to every story and sometimes things and people are not what they seem.  This is a fun story with great characters and a bit of a surprise ending. I would recommend it for fifth graders and up. 

Day 46: Another Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup

This is the sequel to A Whole Nother Story.  Another Whole Nother Story  picks up where the readers left the Cheeseman family and friends. Ethan Cheeseman, his three smart, polite and relatively odor-free children and their hairless psychic dog, Pinky along with the six members of Captain Jibby’s Traveling Circus Sideshow are headed back in time to make things right in history and lift the curse. They hope that this will allow them to solve the problems of the future and save Olivia Cheeseman, Ethan’s beloved wife and the loving mother of the Cheeseman children. The story is just as funny and enjoyable as the first book, I reviewed that one earlier in the summer. It is full of crazy villains, sea voyages, evil number 5, and a sock puppet. I really loved the first book and enjoyed the second just as much. The ending leaves it open for the story to continue in a third book and I am very excited to read that one as well. I would recommend this book for fourth and fifth graders. 

Day 44 and Day 45: The Sherlock Files #3: The Case That Time Forgot and The Sherlock Files #4: The Missing Heir by Tracy Barrett

Earlier in the summer I read the second book in this series so I decided to finish reading the rest of the Sherlock Files books that are out so far.

In The Case That Time Forgot. Xander and Xena’s classmate Karim asks the sibling detectives to help him solve a family mystery. Karim’s grandfather told him a story that had been passed down in his family about an Egyptian artifact that had been stolen from the British Museum by Karim’s great, great, great uncle. The artifact was the Thoth Clock, an ancient artifact recovered in one of the famous pyramids. But the clock wasn’t the most valuable item, hidden in the clock was the Thoth amulet. The amulet was made by Thoth, the god of time. The legend says that every fifty years the amulet can make all time stop. The fifty year mark is coming up and Karim needs help finding the artifact. Xena and Xander consult Sherlock Holmes’s unsolved case file and find the famous detective’s notes from the theft of the amulet. Soon they are on the hunt all around London to try and find the amulet but someone else is also on the hunt to find it. Does the Thoth amulet really stop time, will Xena and Xander find it in time and who else is looking for it?

In the fourth installment of the series, The Missing Heir Xena and Xander’s shy classmate Alice turns out to be royalty. On her thirteenth birthday she will be crowned the queen of Borogovia. Alice is not too happy about it, what she really wants to be is a famous singer on Brits Got Talent. Her guardian Aunt Penelope doesn’t think that is becoming of a royal. Xena and Xander find information about Alice’s great grandmother in Sherlock’s unsolved case file. Princess Sofia was kidnapped and as a child and mysteriously returned to her parents a week later. Sherlock Holmes suspected that there was more to the incident. When Alice goes missing a few days before her coronation, Xena and Xander also suspect that the two cases are linked. They set out to solve the mystery and save Alice.

Barrett continues the enjoyable mysteries of Xena and Xander Holmes in the latest installments. Kids who love mysteries will like this series. It has the right mix of mystery and adventure. What I also like about these books is that there are enough clues to solve the mystery on your own. I don’t like what I call Scooby-doo mysteries where the mystery is solved at the end with a piece of information that the reader was never given. Barrett provides enough clues to the readers to be able to solve the mystery along with the characters. I would recommend the series for third and fourth graders. 

Very Behind!

I know that I am behind. I have a stack of books that I have read, I just have to write about them. I wanted to post this Glogster that I made for the start of the school year. Glogs are a really cool digital posters that you can make with web links, videos and audio files. This is my first!


http://mccoleman.edu.glogster.com/great-new-books-/

Day 43: Missing On Superstition Mountain by Elise Broach

Simon, Henry and Jack and their parents have moved to Arizona. Their great- uncle passed away and left his house to the family. It is the middle of the summer and they don’t have much to do and don’t know anyone in the small town of Superstition. The boys’ new house is at the base of Superstition Mountain. When the family cat escapes from the house the boys follow the cat up into Superstition Mountain. While up in the mountain the boys have the strange feeling that they are being watched. Things start to get weirder when they find three skulls up on the mountain. By the time they find their way home the boys’ parents are worried and the police are at the house. The boys are warned never to go up in the mountain again but the adults won’t tell them the whole story about Superstition Mountain. The brothers are determined to find out what really is going on and find out who the skulls they found might belong to. They are soon joined by a neighborhood girl, Josie and the group is off solving the mystery. The book ends with a cliffhanger so the hope is Broach will continue the mystery is the next book. This is a good mystery book and is a good fit for kids that are looking for scary books but not too scary. I really like Broach as an author. She creates good characters and her mysteries are interesting and suspenseful and unique. I would recommend this book for good third grade readers and fourth graders. 

Day 40, 41, and 42 Very behind and ended up desperate for some books to read

I know that I am a bit behind in my reading but I have been catching up. Before I list the three books I read here you need a little back story. I was in Jamaica for a librarian conference. Before you start thinking how great that sounds let me tell you not so great! I was staying at the University of the West Indies, in the Caribbean style dorms. If anyone tells you the room is Caribbean style, say no! That means that there is no A/C, no fans and no screens on the doors or windows. August in Jamaica is 90 degrees and 100% humidity and tons of bugs. While I was there for a week I read all of the books I brought with me so I had to buy a book at the school bookstore and some more books at the Kingston airport. Both places had very slim pickings. So I ended up with three romance novels. I usually am a closet romance novel lover but these three were just okay.

The first was Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown. This is a “thriller” romance. Burke Basile is a New Orleans cop who watched his partner die and the killer go free. He decides to take matters into his own hands and get justice. This includes kidnapping the wife of the mob boss/ killer. You can guess where this story is going, the wife is really a beautiful wonderful person who is trapped in an abusive marriage. Burke and the lady fall in love, plot together to bring the evil husband down and live happily ever after. It’s not a bad book, predicable and a little cheesy.

Next up is Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn. This is a story set in Victorian England. Honoria just wants to get married. She has been out in society for two years and no husband yet. It turns out her brother’s best friend has been keeping an eye on her and scaring away any unsuitable suitors. In the end they realize that they love each other and end up living happily ever after. Again an easy read and ends the way that you think it is going to. If you are stuck at the Kingston airport this is a good book to read.

Final one is a Nora Roberts book. If you say you have never read a Nora Roberts romance novel I would say you are probably lying. Everyone has read at least one at some point. I read Inner Harbor. This is the third in a trilogy. I didn’t know that when I picked up the book but it doesn’t really matter. The story is the same as all Nora Roberts books. The girl and the boy fall for each other in a matter of days, it’s like a season of the Bachelor. There is a big misunderstanding, or secret that comes out. The couple breaks up for about a minute but realizes they need each other and end up living happily ever after. You read a Nora Roberts book when you want a predictable, easy read. The huge issue I have with Nora is the way she dresses her characters in her books. It drives me crazy! It is like she is stuck in 1981. Every time I read one of her books I am completely thrown off when she gets to describing what her characters are wearing. I have to stop and mentally redress them in something that is not hideous. I wish she would work on that part of her books.

Mainly, I’m counting these books because I did read them and I need the books to try and make my goal! I will be getting back to the children’s books now!