It's Monday, What Are You Reading? Oct 8

Welcome back to another wild and wacky installment of my reading life! If you enjoy getting great book ideas from other readers, head on over to Teach Mentor Texts (the hosts of this feature) and read some of the other wonderful posts that highlight kid lit from picture books to YA.







This week I decided to add in a few books specifically because they are frequently challenged and/or banned.



I Read Banned Books, and I can not lie.... (I never did write that parody song)

Bridge to Terabithia is a long standing favorite AND I got a "double whammy" because I needed to read it for the Newbery Challenge anyway. I was impressed all over again with the beautiful language and got chills as I read many of the lines. As always, I cried. Now, I'm not a big fan of "crying books"... but this one I adore. Also - for those keeping count - this makes 51/91 for Nerdbery!

Brave New World is a book I adored in high school. I was annoyed because the class I read it for just didn't seem to "get" or like it very much. I felt, at the time, like it was simply ground breaking in it's themes. Reading it now, I was mostly surprised (and impressed!) that my very conservative high school required us to read it. I didn't find it nearly as amazing as I did back then, but maybe that's because I've read so many dystopian books since then. I felt like the ending was really abrupt, too.


Science Fiction: I took a pause on my "sci fi for kids" jaunt and read one for grownups. Don't forget to go peek at my Sci Friday post from this past week where I review Cosmic - a science fiction tale for middle grade readers.

Redshirts - was wonderful. If you know anything about Star Trek, you know that the infamous "red shirted" members of any away team are doomed. What happens when those red shirts start to figure out what is going on? Redshirts was both incredibly funny and had a surprising depth. I highly recommend it (and high school on up could handle it. There was language and some mature content)


Graphic Novel:
The Drained Brains Caper - my son insisted I read this one. When I realized the author was Trina Robbins (who is very well known in comics circles, though I haven't personally read much of her work), I dove in. The story is a bit cheesy, but I enjoyed it. The main character is wonderfully individualistic, and that comes through clearly. I have the second in my bag to read this week.

On Deck:

The second Chicagoland graphic novel.

Finishing Seraphina for my final Batty About Books post. (Come chat with us this week. I'd love to get more insights into what you see as "the line" between books appropriate for upper middle grade readers and young adult. Kathy and I discuss this as I try to decide if I could bring Seraphina into my classroom filled with very strong readers, but who are not yet in middle school.)

Two Mal and Chad graphic novels - as I prepare for my Skype with Stephen McCranie

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