It’s Monday – What are you reading? June 11th

^{Big thanks once again to Teach Mentor Texts for hosting this each week.} 

First, let me welcome you to my SciFi Summer! My goal is to seek out new life and new civilizations…. No, wait, that’s Star Trek… Seriously, though, I adore science fiction and I want to have newer titles I can recommend to those around me. I’ll be posting an “old classics” post to recommend some of my favorite older titles, but this week I started reading some more recently released books. I’ll be posting the titles in a separate post that also includes other information…

First Light – Rebecca Stead

Two storylines collide as a boy visits Greenland with his parents on a scientific expedition and a girl longs to explore the "wider world" and leave the confines of her village below the ice. 

Old Man’s War – Scalzi   The human race is struggling to snatch up worlds to colonize, but it’s a constant struggle for survival out there. Where can Colonial Defense find eager new recruits? Retirees. Promise them the chance to be young again, and they’ll fight to the death.

Let me state quite clearly that this is NOT a book for kids. There is a lot of cursing and a decent amount of sexual activity, especially right after the new recruits have been rejuvenated.

(You can follow along with the tag #SciFiSummer on twitter, if you’d like!)

Fantasy:

Dragon Castle - Complete! Visit my weekly posts where I discuss my thoughts with my Batty About Books partner, Kathy (aka @thebrainlair) 

Graphic Novels:

Lunch Lady 1-3

Okay, I have a confession to make. These were purchased for my son’s friend for his birthday. Yes, I took the time to read them before wrapping. They are fun, and I think they’d make an interesting study for older students on stereotypes (both what they are and how authors can use and defy stereotypes in a series). There’s a little bit of each in this series. I’ve also read 6 and 7.

Fangbone

My ten year old picked this one up at the bookstore and then insisted I read it. A barbarian boy from another world enters ours and has to learn how to deal in a third grade classroom. Yes, it is filled with the typical “boy humor”, but it’s a pretty fun read.

Anthology:

Womanthology: Heroic.  This is a compilation of short (2-5 page) comics written, drawn, inked, colored and edited by women. Women of all ages, from all around the world. It was the very first Kickstarter I ever backed, and I loved it. Are all the comics fabulous? No, but there are a ton of really good ones. The point was to show that there are women out there eager to join in creating content, and it is amazing.