This week’s book talks 12/10-14

Monday

The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamoro by Pablo Cartaya

 

Tuesday

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Wednesday

Untwine by Edwidge Danticat

Thursday

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten

Friday

Girl Rising by Tanya Lee Stone

 

 

This week’s book talks 4/9-12

We are half way through semester two, which means no kids today as teachers update grades and send out progress reports. I joked with my students that they shouldn’t really be worried that we were sending progress reports home on Friday the 13th. Bwahahaha!

Here are the books I booktalked this week.

MONDAY

The Night Diary
by Veena Hiranandani

TUESDAY

Fault Lines in the Constitution
by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson

 

WEDNESDAY

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B
by Teresa Toten

 

THURSDAY

Shoe Dog: Young Readers Edition
by Phil Knight

2016 Hub Challenge Check-In #3

It’s been a slow reading week. I worked two twelve-hour days for conferences then had a day off in which I was so tired I couldn’t concentrate t read. The only book I read, though not quite finished yet, is  The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B  by Teresa Toten.

My sister sent me this book last year and I’d not yet gotten around to reading it. I can see why it won a Schneider Family Book  Award that recognizes a book “that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.”

One of the things I really enjoy about the book is the narrative voice. I keep thinking it is narrated in the first person because the details about Adam’s thinking are so precise, but it actually has third person omniscient narration. This could be something that annoyed me, but Toten really got it right.I wonder if she and her editor considered writing in the first person. I’d like to ask her that question.

Publisher’s Summary: Filled with moments of deep emotion and unexpected humor, this understated and wise novel explores the complexities of living with OCD and offers the prospect of hope, happiness and healing. Perfect for readers who love Eleanor & Park and All the Bright Places.

ADAM’S GOALS:
Grow immediately.
Find courage.
Keep courage.
Get normal.
Marry Robyn Plummer.

The instant Adam Spencer Ross meets Robyn Plummer in his Young Adult OCD Support Group, he is hopelessly, desperately drawn to her. Robyn has a hypnotic voice, blue eyes the shade of an angry sky, and ravishing beauty that makes Adam’s insides ache. She’s also just been released from a residential psychiatric program—the kind for the worst, most difficult-to-cure cases; the kind that Adam and his fellow support group members will do anything to avoid joining.

Adam immediately knows that he has to save Robyn, must save Robyn, or die trying. But is it really Robyn who needs rescuing? And is it possible to have a normal relationship when your life is anything but?

#alamw16 It’s all over but the reading

In addition to getting to know the members of the Morris committee, I got to know some people on other committees because we all moved in similar conference circles. Although we couldn’t tell each other details about what went on in the rooms where our decisions were made, but we could talk about some things we shared, like what we’d read now that our committee work was over.

At the end of our deliberations, we, like most other committees, talked about two things:

• what we thought might win an award at the Youth Media Awards
• what we plan to read, now that our committee service is over.

One person related that two members of her committee were going to spend two months reading nothing but Regency romances!

Another person said she was going to spend the next two months watching TV.

A person I met from the Great Graphics committee was going to take a break from graphic novels.

Most members of my committee expressed a real interest in the 2K16 debut authors that next year’s Morris committee will be reading.

Some people planned to catch up on all the books they missed in 2015, but most are just going to move on and not try to get “caught up”.

A lot of us, regardless of committee membership, planned to read some of the winners of other awards. few of us were able to make many predictions because it was hard to read anything that didn’t fall into our committee’s purview.

I have a two things sitting on my shelf that won awards and they will be among the first things that I read.

 The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B is written by Teresa Toten .   It was the Winner of  the Schneider Family Teen award which honors a book for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. 

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely was Coretta Scott king honor book.

And that’s all I know for now. I also have some personal knitting I want to do, which will involve listening to an audiobook or two, but I am just not sure what yet. I am looking forward to whatever 2016 brings me.