Top 13 Books for October: Middle Grades, YA, and Adult

Okay, so this is more like the top  13 Reads for October from someone who isn't into scary/horror/mystery very much.  So there is no Stephen King in this list and maybe nothing you're really expecting to see.  Mostly these are fun to read.  That's why I picked them!

Middle Grade

  

Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
Beautiful tale of a young girl who can communicate with spirits.  I just loved how this was eerie and a little scary, but really about a girl who wants to know her mother. Review here.

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage
Mo LeBeau is on the case again!  This time she's solving the mystery of the ghosts haunting Tupelo Landing.  And her grade depends on it! Review here.

Doll Bones by Holly Black
Three friends must ban together when one of them claims to be haunted by a mysterious china doll.  The doll has revealed that she was made up of the ground-up bones of a murdered child and must be buried.   Creepy, sad, and hopeful at the same time.  Review here.

 

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
Love this book.  Not super creepy, but a little bit as Georgie follows the pigeoneers her sister supposedly ran off.  The sheriff found her dress, but not her body and Georgie just knows that her sister couldn't bed dead.  Review here.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
I am creeped out by this book and The Other Mother.  Ugh.  It's been awhile, but I'm still creeped out by her.

Gargoyle Hall by Angie Sage
A fun read about Araminta who is shipped off to boarding school, only to find out that a mysterious beast has scared all the other students away.  She's determined to help the school recover. Review here.


YA

 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The peculiar children in Ransom Rigg's book are inspired by old pictures of children in interesting poses.  Those pictures are used throughout the book.

Beautiful Creatures/Beautiful Darkness Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Supernatural powers and a girl who could choose the dark or the light. Review here.

The Enemy by Charlie Higsin
ZOMBIES!  And the only non-zombies left are kids.  Lord of the Flies meets The Walking Dead?  We all love a great Zombie story--right?

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
A power that is so great it must be kep out of the wrong hands.  Gemma Doyle has to learn and understand the powers that she has. Review here.


Adult

   

Under the Skin by Michael Faber
Super weird and super creepy.  I'm creeped out thinking about it still.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
So much fun to read!  To imagine Abraham Lincoln as a secret vampire hunter was awesome.  Grahame-Smith does such a great job of weaving the vampires into history that sometimes I had to stop and remind myself that Abraham Lincoln wasn't really a vampire hunter.  Or was he?  (Don't watch the movie.  It was awful!)

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

This was a great read.  Another Zombie book, but with a lovely young zombie as the protagonist.

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Book Review: Conversion

Conversion

by Katherine Howe
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2014
Source: Purchased
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Conversion takes place in Danvers, MA at St. Joan's Academy, and all-girls, Catholic school. The students here are highly competitive and most vying for entrance into the best ivy league colleges in the country. Colleen Rowley is almost at the top and she is determined to become valedictorian, when suddenly the girls in her school are coming down with a Mystery Illness. Each one is affected differently, but there is something that the school isn't telling them. Slowly less and less students show up for class, and Colleen is more and more determined to battle her way to the top.

In between the chapters about Colleen and her friends and how they are suffering from crazy symptoms (sudden Tourette's-like outbursts, sudden and complete hair loss, inability to walk, and spitting up pins), is the story of Anne Putnam and the Salem witch trials. So not only do we have a group of teenage girls with these sudden and very obvious symptoms, but a fictionalized historical account of how the young women in Salem faked the entire thing. All the while, Colleen has been given an extra credit assignment on The Crucible and someone is sending her weird messages about it.

At this part, if it don't want the book spoiled for you, skip down to the end where I tell you if you should buy it or not.

It's pretty obvious that the girls are faking it. They symptoms aren't real, but the school nurse and the media have pumped it up so much that everyone has some kind of wild and crazy theory about what's happening. Despite this, I felt like it was trying to lead me to believe that there was some witchcraft or a curse or something supernatural and mystical going on to cause all this, but it's not. They determine that it's all psychological and common in girls who are overstressed, and that although the symptoms will go away because they aren't "real," they're not faking it either.

This made sense to me, but why then have this other story line about the witch trials? Just to shed light on the fact that teenage girls make stuff up so that they can get some attention when they're stressed. Let's give people a little more credit than that. I was actually hoping for something a little more mystical. At the very end, there is a hint that maybe it was due to something else, to a girl's inability to control her an emotional upheaval in her life. There is a hint that maybe there is something more to her and her family than anyone has ever really understood. But it's not hinted at enough. In fact, with everything else ending up so nice and neat and explained away by facts, that this moment was bizarre and confusing. What do I believe?

It's okay to read again!  

Despite some of these unsure moments, I was intrigued by the story and wanted to know what was happening to these girls. I'm not entirely sure that the story line of Anne Putnam was completely needed, but I did enjoy it. Conversion is worth a read, but don't expect too much of the supernatural.

Next week I'll feature Colleen Rowley in my Character Spotlight.  Keep and eye out for it!

Image Source: Goodreads

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Double Sunday Status: The Hired Girl and Circus Mirandus

Sunday Status is a weekly (ish) post where I let you know what I'm reading.  I'll usually share a quote from the page I'm currently on and let you know how it's going. 

The Hired Girl
Laura Amy Schlitz
Candlewick Press, 2015
Source: e-galley from Netgalley

Tonight's quote is about 60 pages ago, but I found it last night and highlighted it because I liked it so much.

"...and I sometimes wonder if every living thing doesn't need kind words as much as sunshine and water (142)."

Set in 1911, Joan's father has taken the fourteen year old girl out of school and burned her books so that she will work harder on the farm for him.  Joan has other ideas, though, and runs away to become a hired girl in Baltimore.  She's pretty clueless about the world, but has good intentions, despite her many mistakes as a parlor maid in the Rosenbach's house.  Told in the form of a diary, Joan chronicles her struggles to better herself in a world she is just beginning to understand.

I'm enjoying this, although it is rather long.  The first 50-60 pages were tiresome, but I think they are also that way for Joan as she's stuck at home, wishing to be somewhere else and to have the opportunity to learn and read.  It's only when she strikes out on her own that it gets a little more interesting.  I do wish it would pick up even more, though.  I still have 200 pages to go!



Circus Mirandus 
Cassie Beasley
Dial Books, 2015
Source: purchased

Circus Mirandus reminds a bit of Harry Potter.  Young Micah has grown up with his grandpa, hearing tales of Circus Mirandus, but now his grandpa is very very sick.  His Great Aunt Gertrudis has come to stay and help out until....well until it's over.  She is very unlike her brother and believes all the stories about Circus Mirandus aren't good for either Micah or his grandpa and she is determined to limit their time together to help everyone out.  She reminds me of the Dursleys in Harry Potter, and the threat of having to go live with her hangs over Micah's head, as Harry had to keep returning to his aunt and uncle's house.

So far this is great!  I wish I could have spent more time reading it, but the last few days at school have been crazy and I'm thinking that things won't get too much better. :)  I like Micah and I like the magical elements that are just starting to come together into something solid at this point in the book.

Top Ten Literary Villains

Now, usually I don't like calling a character a "bad guy" because often there's more to them just their bad qualities.  Some of the characters below are villains and some are characters that just drive me crazy!  Some are characters that I just can't stand.  Some are really evil and awful and do terrible things to others (and frighten me a bit).  And some are in between.


Unfortunately there are some spoilers within.  I'm sorry and I'm warning you right here and right now!  #7--Divergent Series,  #6--Wrath and the Dawn,  #5-- Hunger Games series, #4-- The Fault in Our Stars, #2--Gone Girl, #1--Harry Potter (whole series). So skip around as needed if you don't want to ruin it for yourself.


I attempted to put these in some sort of order, but I kept changing it so...yeah.  In kind of no particular order, but also kind of an order...

     

10.  The Darkling from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Ummmm....so I really LOVE to hate the Darkling.  He's hot--but evil.  He's intense and I kind of want Alina to just ditch Mal and go do whatever the Darkling says.  But not really.  Because he's evil. But still...

9.  Piper in the Al Capone books by Gennifer Choldenko
Bratty and spoiled and so full of herself.  I just keep willing Moose and the other kids to stay away from her and shut her out.  Just cut her out.  And I know she has good in her and she'll grow up and she won't be terrible one day, but she still makes me angry.

   

8.  Felicity in A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Such a mean girl.  She lords her "power" over the other girls and pits girls against one another.  Even when she and Gemma are friends I still can't stand her.  I know there's more to her back story in the later books, but in the first we aren't aware of that and she just rubs me the wrong way.

7.  Caleb Prior from Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
Okay, so sorry if you haven't read the series yet and I'm spoiling it, but I did warn you.  I cannot believe that Caleb is so low.  I know she forgives him at the end and he does his best to make it right, but ugh.  Ugh.

   

6.  Khalid and Tariq from The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
So as I read, my dislike for Khalid waned and I too began to like him. At first I did not--at all. I despised reading the sections Tariq was in, though, and I just wanted to get through it so I could back to what was happening back with the rest of the story.  I know he's not truly evil, like many of my characters I'm naming, but I really disliked him from the start.  What did Shahrzad see in him to start with?

5. President Snow and President Coin from Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Can you decide who is worse?  I think maybe it's Coin.  At least President Snow didn't try and hide his evilness--not the way Coin does.  She's sneaky and she sets up the attack at the end and ugh.  I really really do not like her in any way shape or form.

  

4. Peter Van Houtten from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Hazel looks forward to meeting him so much and then he turns out to be a miserable human being. Miserable.  I know he tries to redeem himself at the end, but does he really?  Does it count?  No.  I understand that he is broken inside and that's what causes him to be as awful as he is, but I still have a difficult time accepting this.

3.  Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
I just finished reading Fairest a day or two ago.  She's evil and I considered moving her to a number 1 or 2 spot, but I like the following characters better.  But let me tell you that Queen Levana is terrible and if you've read the other Lunar Chronicles, but thought you could skip Fairest because it's kind of a side story, you're WRONG.  Don't skip it.  Read it.  But it might make you even more angry.  Just warning you.

   

2. Amy Dunne from Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I am frightened of Amy Dunne.  I know she's fictional, but I'm frightened.  I'm even more frightened of her than many other characters because she's a "real" person--no powers or powerful position in society to lord over people. If I were in that book, I'd be moving far away from her and going into hiding.  Maybe a name change?

1. Severus Snape from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
I want to start off by saying I love Snape--and not because he's a "villain."  Snape is such a sad and lonely man and his love for Lily is what saves him.  I seriously want to cry just thinking about all of this and how he does push Harry and yes, Harry hates him and believes that he just wants to ruin his life, but I don't believe he does.  Snape made some bad decisions, yes, but so do we all.  Snape sacrifices so much and if you look back at all the times where he help students or saves them, you can see this.  And it's his patronus that helps Harry in the woods.  Of course it is.  How could it not be his?  I still get so mad at him when I read the early books, because I try to pretend that I don't know what I know, but I can't forget that.  So the anger doesn't last very long.  It fades rather quickly and I just want to cry for this man who has made such great sacrifices for others, but no one ever realizes--not really.  I know I'm not doing him justice at all.

What characters do you love to hate?  Any that you would replace?

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Book Review: Fairest

Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles 3.5)
Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends, 2015
Source: borrowed from a friend
Rating: 4 out of 5

We've heard from Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress in their battle against Queen Levana and her desire to rule Earth.  Now we hear from Queen Levana's side.  We find out how she became the evil queen of Luna...and it isn't pretty.

I waited to read this.  I finished Cress earlier this year, but waited until now to read Fairest.  I wanted to have something to entice me a little more as I wait for Winter's release in November (November 10th to be exact and yes, I've already ordered and it will be shipped to school so I can start reading as soon as possible).

I'm not really a huge fan of villains.  I know some people love the villains in stories, but that's not often me.  However I do always try to see the reason behind a villain's evilness, because I like to think that in everyone there is something good--even villains.  I had hoped that Fairest would provide this form me so that I could find something that would make Levana likeable.  I had hoped.

How evil is this woman?  I kept waiting for her redeeming quality, or one redeeming act of kindness--but it never happens.  That's just a warning to those of you who are expecting this.  You won't get it.

Could I put it down?  No.  I needed to know what she would do, and although I was waiting for her do something good, something kind, something right in her life, I knew it wouldn't happen.  I cannot like her at all.  I cannot feel sorry for her one little bit.  And I cannot wait to see how she will (I hope) be defeated by Cinder.  Maybe she won't--but Marissa Meyer won't do that to me, will she?  The anxiety settles in now as we wait to find out what happens in Winter.

Image source: Goodreads

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Character Spotlight: Gemma Doyle

Gemma Doyle
A Great and Terrible Beauty
by Libba Bray

In the late 1800's, Gemma Doyle feels by the demands of Victorian England on its women.  She is intelligent and full of confidence, but also has to fit into a mold that requires her to follow certain social rules.  In her boarding school, she and her fellow classmates are being trained to be wives--dancing, deportment, the painting of bowls of fruit, and French.  Girls are chastised for speaking their minds because it will not be beneficial for their season and will not help them to find a husband.

We all groan inwardly at this and so does Gemma.  At the same time, Gemma's confidence waivers when she thinks of her mother (whose death she is certain is her fault) and a new-found power that brings on mysterious visions.  She speaks freely to the mean-girls in her new school, but then frets about being within their circle.

Gemma often angers me.  She angers me because she is smart and sees through the game that Felicity, the ring leader of the mean-girls, is playing.  Felicity plays the girls against one another, and Gemma knows this, points this out.  However it does not stop her from wanting to please Felicity at the expense of others, or feeling happy that another girl has been put in her place.  It's as if Gemma sees this trap ahead of her, is well aware that if she goes towards it, she will fall in--yet she still does.

There are two other books that accompany this one and I vaguely remember them, but re-reading A Great and Terrible Beauty 10 years after I originally read it, I'm a bit over the queen bee type of thing going on here.  Even Gemma who is supposed to be our heroine and painted in a kinder and more enlightened light than her friends isn't that great of a person.  I'm trying to figure out what I originally liked so much about her--should I continue re-reading the series?  Probably, but I'll take my time with it and get to it sometime in the near future.

Check out my review of A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray here.

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Double Sunday Status: Conversion and See You At Harry's

Sunday Status is a weekly (ish) post where I let you know what I'm reading.  I'll usually share a quote from the page I'm currently on and let you know how it's going. 

See You at Harry's
Jo Knowles
Candlewick Press, 2012
Source: Library

See You at Harry's is the book I'm reading at school.  I picked it up from our school library on a whim and started reading it earlier this week.  I check out the back and it mentioned an accident.  The beginning of the story was great.  Fern and her brother Holden are dealing with huge bullies on the bus, her parents are always busy at the restaurant they own.  Fern's mom is constantly escaping into her meditation room and her older sister is a little lost as she takes a year off from school before college.  Fern is just trying to figure things out.

I wasn't ready for the tragedy.  I don't want to ruin it for you, but it was intense.  Intense.  I have been crying at my desk for two days.  My students seemed a little concerned at first, but then they asked me what was wrong and I told them that my book was really sad.  And it doesn't stop!  But it's good.

I brought this book home so I could finish it, but I'm not trusting myself to read it here where I can then just sob out loud through the ending--but I need to know.  I need to check on them.  I may finish it tomorrow.  Or I might finish it on Monday if I can't bring myself to do it while at home.  At school I will allow myself to cry, but keep it in check a bit.  Not at home.  It'll be full on ugly crying that brings on a headache.  I may risk it.  I think it'll be worth it. :)

Conversion
Katherine Howe
Publisher: Speak by Penguin Group, 2014
Source: purchased

"I pushed the book across Ms. Slater's desk and pointed at a long excerpt of trial testimony, with this one little girl right in the middle of it, talking about yellow birds and all kinds of craziness (263)."

So I'm really enjoying Conversion.  I love the way the history of the Salem Witch trials is being woven in with the modern day story of high school students at St. Joan's succumbing to a Mystery Illness.  Told mostly from the perspective of Colleen Rowley, a senior at St. Joan's who is vying to be valedictorian, Conversion also takes moments to jump back in time to 1706 where Ann Putnam is also telling her own story.  So while the girls at Colleen's school are suddenly coming down with weird symptoms (vibrating, losing all their hair, Tourette's-like outbursts, and much more), she's also receiving odd texts about The Crucible and her teacher has assinged her paper on the history behind the play as well.

There's a lot going on and I'm not sure how it all ties together just now or what is really going on.  I haven't come up with a viable explanation.  Witchcraft?  A curse?  I don't know.  It doesn't seem like either of those can truly be the reason behind it.  At this point it doesn't make sense.  I have some ideas and already a few of my guesses about plot twists have panned out, but I'm out of guesses.  And there are 150 pages to go still.  We'll see!  Hopefully I'll have this finished by Monday and review up soon.

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Book Review: Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone

Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Square Fish, 2013
Source: Purchased
Rating 4 out of 5 stars

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo introduces Alina, a soldier in the First Army, who has never been very good at anything, but has been lucky to have her best friend Mal by her side since they were kids in the orphanage. Now they're headed into the Black Fold, a band of darkness and evil that separates Ravka from the sea.  While traveling through the Fold, they are attacked and Alina (as well as everyone else) discovers that she has powers--powers only the Grisha have. Suddenly she's pulled away from everything and everyone she's ever known and thrust into the high society in which Grisha live. In a world completely different from her own, Alina must find out how to control her own powers so she can help save her country from the evils of the Fold.

I'm not sure where I've been that I never knew Shadow and Bone existed until recently, but I saw the cover and instantly wanted it. This was an excellent purchase because almost immediately I was pulled into the story. We're introduced to our main character, Alina, and her best friend Mal as young children about to come before three examiners, but then it cuts to the "grown up" Alina and Mal who are soldiers in the First Army. I was a bit annoyed because, even though it was a short introduction, there was so much that had been introduced here with Mal and Alina being orphans and completely devoted to one another. When that foreward was over, though, I kept wanting to fill in the pieces from their past because it was obvious as they grew up their relationship had changed.  Also, now here we were with Alina pining over Mal who is completely oblivious to her feelings.  Ehhhhh....

My problem with this wasn't that she was pining over her best friend, but that so much of her observation of others was focused on his or her beauty, especially female characters. This continued for awhile and it honestly was quite annoying, and is still somewhat bothersome.  It definitely ties into the themes of appearance vesus reality that are woven throughout the book, but I never felt as if this idea of beauty and it being so valued was ever addressed.  When Alina becomes more beautiful, she notes this and is happy about it and we don't hear much more about it, but it's because now she's one of the beautiful.  It feels like this was the resolution for her character's struggle with beauty.  Become beautiful.  Alina also became more interesting to me when she stopped worrying about how beautiful everyone else was and how she wasn't.

 Now onto other characters:  I've always liked my male characters a little rougher, dirtier, and darker.  A bit brooding perhaps, with some secrets of their own that aren't exactly innocent. The bad Angel wins out over the good Angel, and Spike wins out over any Angel, but only when he's being bad.  In Hunger Games I wanted Peeta to be okay because he was nice, but I didn't really like him until the third book when...you know. The Darkling takes the cake! The Darkling is INTENSE.  INTENSE.  INTENSE (yes it warrants three intenses in all caps).  Maybe a little too much of the cake, but BAM!  It's this character that really allows the story to move on and become one of those reads where you just can't wait to find out what happens next.  He pushes Alina to change and grow and there are things I cannot say without giving it away, but WOW!

I ended up pouring through Shadow and Bone, surprised when it ended so soon.  I'll definitely be buying the next book in this trilogy by Leigh Bardugo soon so I can see what becomes of Alina.

Image source: Goodreads

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Thursday's Teaching Moment: Text Dependent Questions

One of the big ideas of Common Core is that students are able to support their ideas with evidence from the text.  This means that you've got to make sure that your questions are dependent upon the text--not opinions or previous knowledge.

One thing I've had to do when writing my text-dependent questions is to pull back on the number of questions I'm asking.  If they need to not only answer my question, but find evidence to help prove that, then it's going to take a little longer and a little more critical thinking before they finish the question.  So consider what's really important to teach/review/assess.

Why text-dependent questions?  Why do you need evidence from the text?

1) Text-dependent means that the student must have read the passage in order to actually answer the question.  If I ask them to tell me about a time they also went to the circus, then they don't even need to have read the story to answer this question.

2) Text-dependent means that students are looking at a text more critically.  They have to think about what's important from the passage to answer the question.  How does the character show he understands his mother's situation?

3) Text-dependent means more time spent with the text.  You have to dig out time for your students to explore the text and delve into it with your guidance.  That's where close reads come in!

I also try to use Blooms Verbs when writing my questions.  Sometimes it's difficult to make sure I get a variety of higher level thinking questions, but if you can, your students will become much better thinkers and readers.  I have a unit that I teach at the beginning of the year based on Blooms Taxonomy.  My students become familiar with the words and understand what they mean as we use them throughout the year.  If you'd like to check out my unit, it's for sale on TPT here.

After the past few years of really working to focus in on my questioning, I believe I finally feel extremely confident in the types of questions I ask my students.  If you have questions that I might be able to answer about how I make sure that questions are text-dependent, please let me know!

I hope all my teaching friends are off to a great start this school year.

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My Top 18 Book Covers

I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover.  I get it.  Let's get real here, though and admit that book covers mean a lot.  It doesn't mean I won't read it if I'm not loving the cover, but it's a way to get me drawn in.

Here are some books whose covers made me want them.  Some of them I haven't even read, but the cover was the first thing I saw that made me want it.  I tried to narrow it down, but couldn't bring myself to cut any of them out.

In no particular order:

I was introduced to The Golden Compass in my Children's Lit class in college.  I fell in love with this cover.  NOT the movie version cover.

Haven't read Serafina and the Black Cloak yet, but I absolutely love this cover with her climbing up a tree limb and the house in the background.

One Came Home is a somber read and I loved the way the birds (a major part of the novel) are at the center of this cover. Review here.

It's been too long since I read A Northern Light, but I think this cover is so pretty.

When I was in high school, my aunt brought White Oleander with her while she stayed at our house for a week during her annual visit.  I saw the cover and decided I would read it.

All the Light We Cannot See is not only beautifully written, it has a beautiful cover to accompany it.  Gorgeous! Review here.

The Lunar Chronicles have absolutely STUNNING covers.  Cinder is probably the best, but Cress is a close second.  As for the best book, I vote Cress, then comes Cinder and I wasn't much of a fan of Scarlet at all.  Review of Cinder here.  Review of Scarlet here.

I saw the cover for Shadow and Bone and it went directly into my TBR.  I haven't read it just yet, but it's coming up for me.  Love this cover!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is so eerie that you can't help but be intrigued by it.

This version of A Great and Terrible Beauty has stuck in my mind for the past ten years.  Absolutely love it. Review here.

If you put a picture of a ballerina on a cover, there is a good chance I'll buy it.  Not certain, because I haven't purchased The Art of Forgetting yet, but that's why I stopped to look at it.  

Navigating Early is sweet and sad and this cover of two boys rowing down a river into the mist is beautiful.  

I love the simple cover of Our Endless Numbered Days.  It'll be read soon, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

How creepy is A Curious Tale of the In-Between?  Creepy, yet beautiful.  Dark.  Just like the story itself.  Review here.

 Can I even express how much I LOVE The Wrath and the Dawn cover?  I read it on my nook and am upset that I did that because I don't have a hard copy.  As soon as my book buying ban is up, I'll be buying one!  Review here.

I picked up An Ember in the Ashes because of the coer.  The glowing letters against the dark cliff and the swirling dust or ash or whatever it is at the bottom.  Hmmmm.  Best purchase based purely on the cover this year.  Review here.

So what do you think?  Did I miss anything important?  What are some covers you have been blown away by?

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