It's Monday - Sept 24th

It's Monday - which means it's time to reflect on my reading for the week. I love this chance to share what I've read with my friends who link up at Teach Mentor Texts (so stop over there to read other posts) as well as my many other friends who just stop by to check out the bookstacks.

Whew - I guess THIS is why I don't get other things done, right? Ah well, at least I always have good books to recommend to my students (and the adults in my life)


First, let me celebrate finally finishing the 40s for the Nerdbery challenge! I thought I was done before, but I missed Adam of the Road along the way. So that's another decade down. I have 49 done so far - and I'm aiming to find a short one to read this week so I can round it out to 50!

Adam of the Road was a medieval historical fiction book. I preferred Door in the Wall, personally. Adam was nice, but slow in places. I can see using some of the chapters in conjunction with a unit on the middle ages!

Archers, Alchemists, and 98 other medieval jobs you might have loved or loathed. For a lovely pairing, try this funny nonfiction treat. My sons have read it so many times one of the pages is falling out. Silly, with just the right "ewwww" factor that draws kids into the time. 

Science Fiction:

Human.4 was a great suggestion from @TLT16 - I grabbed this one and started it last week. I'll feature it probably this week for Sci Friday. Cool premise, and it is a low violence no sex book that I'd be able to have in my classroom! The second book comes out in November, and I hear that one is also MG appropriate. Yay! 

Eve and Adam  was an interesting read. It was a quick one, action packed. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been longer and the characters had been developed in more detail. It handled the idea of genetic engineering. Definitely not MG appropriate, but not overly graphic about the mature themes. This book is due out October 2, but I won a copy on the Fierce Reads Facebook page. 

Fantasy: 

What Came From the Stars: 

Kathy (the brain lair) and I finished this book and had our second chat posted on Saturday. Check it out! The consensus between us what that we really enjoyed it, but there were some things that didn't quite do it for us. Overall, though, I thought Schmidt did a great job creating characters I cared about, and I loved the storytelling risks he took (even if they weren't all perfectly executed). 

Comics / Graphic Novels

I read Batgirl #0 by Gail Simone. If you like superheroes at all, this is a great series! This is part of the "origin month" run, where each series does a bit of the original story of the hero. 

I also got my hands on Drama finally! I was, I admit, a theater geek. I did the on stage stuff, mostly. Though I did get a turn to be the assistant director. This was a nice realistic fiction tale about middle school drama - on and off stage. I respect how Telgemeier handled the topic of the gay characters. It was just part of the tale. Like it was just part of moving through middle school. I'm just trying to decide if I can put it out on the shelf in my 1st - 5th grade classroom. I'm thinking no. Maybe if my classroom was just upper elementary. 

Up next:

Seraphina as my next Batty About Books! (Thank you, Hannahlily!)

Cosmic (looks like a fun science fiction)