Happy Birthday Lucy Maud Montgomery!

Today is L.M. Montgomery's birthday.  Growing up I LOVED Anne of Green Gables, in fact I still do.  I absolutely love this Google image for today.  It just makes me happy to remember Anne Shirley.  Check out this post from earlier in the year that wrote about Gilbert Blythe.  Here's the character spotlight for Anne Shirley.



Image source:  Google.

2015 Book Challenge Update

Well here it is.  The end of November and I have 8 more books to go in order to meet my goal.  I'm thinking it will not happen, but I'll end up pretty darn close.

2015 Reading Challenge

Meghan has
read 52 books toward her goal of 60 books.

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52 of 60 (86%)

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I hope to have two more books finished by next weekend and if I can do that for the next few weeks, I will make it.  However I have a few books I promised myself I would finish reading before the new year and they aren't all the easiest.  Check out the post that I listed all my Must Read Before 2016 post.  There are five books on that last and I've only read one!

If I stick to those I'm hoping that I won't get too stuck.

How are your reading challenges going?  Will you make it?  Do you need to rethink your goal for next year?

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Sunday Status: The Son of Neptune and The Water Knife

Sunday Status is a weekly (ish) post where I let you know what I'm reading and what I'm thinking about it as I go along.

This week was rough on reading time. You would think that with a five hour drive on Wednesday and Saturday, plus all this time off that I could have gotten at least two books read. However that doesn't take into account a two year old who didn't nap in the car on the way there and visiting a house with very nice furniture and other items that meant constant supervision and when it wasn't my turn, it was time to visit. Plus she slept with us at the hotel. No time to read. I felt lucky to get to shower alone this week. But I'm thankful for family who is generous with food and hospitality and finding places to take our two year old so she could run off all the sugar and carbs. It was a lovely time with family. 

So with little time to read I'm not much further in The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is not an easy read, but I'm still interested. I will finish this week. 

I'm also reading The Son of Neptune Rick Riordan. I'm not too far into it, but in this Heroes of Olympus book, we're back with Percy who has lost all memories of his past but his name and an image of Annabeth. Looking forward to finding out what's going on. 

What are you reading now? 

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Book Review: Winter

Winter
Marissa Meyer
Feiwel and Friends, 2015
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I may or may not have had this book delivered to school and then carried it around with me all day, even to go make copies and to refill my water during my plan time.  I did not have much time to read it during the school day, but it did not leave my line of sight.  It would be an understatement to say that I was excited about reading Winter.  I was looking forward to this so much and really needed something to pull me out of my not wanting to read state of affairs.  It worked.

In this last installment of The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and her friends wage their battle on the Lunar queen Levana.  It's epic and full of emotional ups and downs as you watch her friends separate and reunite and separate, and never know if they will ever again find themselves together.  Also, in this book we're introduced to Winter, Levana's stepdaughter who is said to be the most beautiful girl on Luna, despite the scars Levana forced her to carve into her own face.  Our final fairy-tale princess is Snow White, but she's not the Snow White you'll remember.  Instead Winter is a little crazy.  She suffers from a condition caused by the disuse of her Lunar gift.  Her stepmother sees her as weak and just wants to be rid of her, but she underestimates her stepdaughter.

Meanwhile Cinder has brought the fight to Luna.  Along with her friends, she is determined to find Levana's weak spots and expose them to her people and the people of Earth, saving her friends, her planet, Luna, and Kai from a devastating future.

My favorite characters are Thorne and Cress.  Thorne reminds me of Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, so it was a little difficult not to completely follow Cress's giggling over him.  Sometimes I wanted to be annoyed by Cress because she does seem so naive, but I never was.  Maybe because I felt that I would be the closest to Cress (except for the whole technological genius thing).

I even started to like Scarlet a little bit.  I haven't really been a fan of hers at all until this book.  I can't really put a finger on it, but I didn't like her during her first appearance in Scarlet and I continued to just want to get back to Cinder's story during most of Scarlet.  She disappeared early enough in Cress that I wrote her off.  I didn't worry too much about her, even though we were shown that she was alive.  But here she stepped up in my mind.  Scarlet has jumped in and become a leader of this band of heroes.  I began to like her more than I liked Cinder, who kept making stupid decisions.

Okay, here comes the part I don't like and, out of necessity, SPOILERS.

***TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY MAJOR SPOILERS!!***






Issue #1) No one dies.  How is that possible?  Someone should have died.  Yes, tons of Lunars died fighting Levana and her thaumaturges.  Many Earthens also died from the mutant soldiers.  One of the group should have died.  It just made sense.  Scarlet should have died from letumosis when she got it.  Thorne should have been killed when captured (although I may have stopped reading altogether had that happened, so it's a good thing he wasn't killed).  Kai should have been killed by Levana.  Cinder should not have survived.

I know, you think I'm crazy.  I do love these characters--even Scarlet who I didn't really like that much, was important and I would have sobbed at her death. I just don't understand how can so many people die in this book and it never is one of the main characters.

Issue #2) They all get their man.  Sigh and roll of eyes.  Stifle a groan.  I love a good romantic vibe and was ALL OVER Thorne and Cress's scene when he confessed his feelings for her.  In fact, I am thinking of going back to read it again, but is it that easy?  Maybe I'm just a big old crab and need to lighten up.  I mean if I'm really going to take on a feminist reading of this, there are lot more issues that I should be focusing on, but I enjoyed this book too much to even pay attention to those details.

So I loved it.  Despite those issues, I'm still giving it 5 stars.  It was that good.  Really and truly.  It fits in with the entire series so well and ends in a place where I feel confident for our characters futures.  And I still love all my characters, even Jacin--with whom I would probably get along well seeing as we both seem to be crabs and easily annoyed.  Happy reading!

Check out my other Lunar Chronicle reviews:
Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress
Cinder
Fairest

Image Source: Goodreads


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Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Academy, The Phantom Bully

Star Wars: Jedi Academy, The Phantom Bully

Jeffery Brown
Published by Scholastic, 2015
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I absolutely love this series.  My father introduced my sister and I to Return of the Jedi when were little and mostly we were taken by the Ewoks (what 7 year old girl wouldn't be!) but as I got older and watched the series again and again, I fell in love with the story and characters.  There was even a point during my middle school years where I tried to write Star Wars books.  They were awful and the evidence has been destroyed, thankfully.

When I discovered Jeffery Brown's series about a young Roan who is not admitted to flight school, like he wanted, but is requested to join the Jedi Academy instead, I was pulled in right away.  Roan struggles with being the new kid at school and not only trying to fit in, but to catch up.  In each book he has had to deal with typical middle school issues: fitting in, bullying, stress from school, girls, friendships, difficult teachers.

In this third installment, Roan should be having a great year.  He has a maybe girlfriend and they're starting their individual studies.  Unfortunately, Roan's advisor is non other than Mr. G, the teacher who has had nothing but negative things to say to him from day one...and he'll working with him one-on-one for the entire school year.  Plus someone is messing with him and he's pretty sure it's Cronah, but no one can prove it, so Roan will just have to figure out a way to deal with it.  Plus, there's a new girl at school and she's spectacular at everything!

Once again, Jeffery Brown has created a highly engaging story for our more reluctatnt readers (or for those not so reluctatnt readers who just love love love Star Wars).  With the mixture of graphic novel and diary entry format, the story is highly accessible for many readers.  It's an excellent middle grades books that focuses on what kids are dealing with in school--just with wookies, droids, and mastering The Force thrown in there as well.

I'm excited to read more about Roan's adventures in the future!  Check out more reviews about the other Jedi Academy Books here and here.

Image Source: Goodreads

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Sunday Status: The Water Knife and Pieces of Why

Sunday Status is a weekly (ish) post where I let you know what I'm reading and what I'm thinking about it as I go along.

It's been a month!  I've been out of commission for the past month or so as I struggled to get ahead of my school work and back on track.  I'm still not there, but I'm getting there.  So I have a couple of reviews that I need to write as I start to get back into my reading and writing routine.  

The Water Knife

by Paolo Bacigalupi

Publisher: Knopf, 2015

Source: purchased

I've been waiting to read this and started it a few weeks ago, but have had a difficult time really motivating myself to read much of anything, much less something so heavy.  However, I'm finally getting into it and it's terrifying.  Set in a future where water is like gold and the southwestern states are basically in war with one another over the rights to what water there is, I've met three characters who are all tied to this water war in their own way.  

I love post-apocalyptic books, but I'm afraid that this is just way too real!  I will finish it, but I'm terrified of what I will find when it's over.  I'm hoping that there will be some bit of hope at the end, but I'm not so sure that will happen and I'm only about 50 pages into a 400 page book!  

Pieces of Why

by K.L. Going

Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books, 2015

Source: student suggested

A student of mine wrote about this book in her responses recently and I responded that I was curious about the book and she let me borrow it.  So far I'm finding it really interesting as we following Tia who has just learned the truth about her father's incarceration, and she's reeling from it.  With her best friend by her side, though, she might be able to work her way through all these emotions and find out the real truth.

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Book Review: In Defense of Read Aloud

In Defense of Read-Aloud: Sustaining Best Practice

by Steven L. Layne

Stenhouse Publishers, 2015

Source: Purchased

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I recently read Steven Layne's book Igniting a Passion for Reading and felt so in tune with what he was saying that I picked up In Defense of Read- Aloud and found myself in the same spot.  Only this time it's the middle of the school year and I'm thinking--crap! I did all of this wrong.  How to fix it?

I love reading aloud to my students and I have always tried to pick quality books that are newer and hopefully not many students have heard of or read before.  After reading Igniting over the summer, I already knew I was going to schedule read aloud time into my routine.  I believe I have been pretty successful at keeping up with this routine and following it.  We're reading Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin and my kids love it! They have begging to find out what happens to Rose Howard and her dog. However I've realized how incorrectly I'm going about this.

"Incorrect?" you ask. "It's a read aloud.  Just read it.  Aloud.  Done." Since I'm pretty confident in my ability to read books aloud and pull kids in, I thought I was doing great.  But I've realized that I haven't really been utilizing it to its full potential.  Instead of really using read alouds as a teaching tool, I've been using them as just "this a time to enjoy a book being read to you, kids." Sure we discuss ideas that come up and I stop to ask questions, but I never thought of planning those around my other lessons. I am embarrassed to admit that it didn't cross my mind earlier.  

I agree with so much of what Steven Layne says about reading aloud to kids--of all ages. There are so many books I want to share with my students, but they won't necessarily choose them, or they might be too difficult for them.  Problem solved with the read aloud.  

Teachers, please read this book--or any other Steven Layne book.  He's brilliant and hilarious and his writing comes across in an easy style that makes you believe he might be your best friend--or at the very least a good friend.  It's easy reading, but with so many ideas and content packed in that you're left wondering what it is you've been doing with yourself all these years of teaching!  Reading his work will make you think more about your habits and your expectations.  You'll start looking at the structure of your class and how you can incorporate some or all of his ideas.  

Images: Goodreads

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