Week of March 23

Get a book for spring break!

 

Fiction Book of the Week:

Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bacigalupi
Lexile:  925-1185
Horror, Humor, Realistic Fiction, Sports

Summary:  Rabi, Miguel, and Joe are playing baseball near the towns meatpacking plant when the zombie apocalypse begins.  The feed the cows are eating is toxic and turning the cattle into flesh eating zombies.  The boys become zombie investigators with their baseball bats to uncover the sinister corporate plan to sell tainted zombie meat across the country.

Why you should read this? "Much of the story delving into issues often overlooked in youth fiction: the capricious treatment of immigrant workers, the absence of options for the poor, and the questionable record of the USDA. Simultaneously smart, funny, and icky, this book asks a tough question: Is it worth looking the other way in order to save yourself" from Booklist- AND it is a baseball zombie story!

Non Fiction Book of the Week:  

Stubby the War Dog by Ann Bausum
Lexile: 925-1185
Biography, Nonfiction

In 1917 at Yale, Private Robert Conroy informally adopeted the stub tailed terrior who would later become a war hero.  Conroy ends up smuggling the dog onboard when he ships of to France for the Great War and teaches him how to salute, which when Conroy gets caught with the dog saves the dogs life.  Stubby becomes the troops mascot (like Moose!)  Stubby goes on to be more than a mascot but an actual hero.

Why you should read this? "Bausum uses Stubby as a conduit to talk about WWI warfare in general, and indeed the dog does suffer injury, live through horror and fear, and return home a decorated hero (who meets no fewer than two presidents). The speedy story is surrounded by evocative period photos, including plenty of the goofy-faced Stubby, and leads up to his later careers as a vaudeville star and a football mascot, and his eventual taxidermied inclusion in the Smithsonian. A triumph on three fronts: educational, emotional, and inspirational. For older teens, suggest Bausman’s adult title, Sergeant Stubby. Grades 4-7." from Booklist. 

 

Graphic Novel of the Week

IN Real LIfe by COry Doctorow and Jen Wang

Lexile: 925-1185  

Adventure, Science Fiction, Graphic Novel, Tech, Gaming
http://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=40899

Summary:  Cory Doctorow is a great author that incorporates tech, hacking, and teen issues.  In this book, gaming is a good thing for the main character, Anda who enjoys playing the massive multiplayer games.  Everything is good until Anda's avatr befriends a gold miner in China.  Then it all turns wrong and is no longer a game.  

Why you should read this?  What is a gold miner?  Massive multiplayer games?  Learn about the world of gaming.  It also deals with gender and ethnicity issues in the gaming world at times a little heavy handed but interesting all the same.  

 

 

Week of March 9

Fiction Book of the Week:

Counting by 7s  by Holly Sloan

Lexile Level 925-1185 

Reading Interest Level:  5-9

Twelve year old Willow might be one of my favorite YA characters of the past year.  After a tragic accident (YA is FILLED with tragic accidents by the way) Willow finds herself alone.  Willow is extremely bright, a gardener, sweet, and can learn languages amazingly fast- not the qualities that make a middle schooler popular but it endears her to the Nguyen family that helps her through her rough time.  Willow is a person that brings people together and finds the best in everyone.  The story ends too well (another YA trait) yet the characters in the book are authentic and grow in meaningful ways throughout the story.  The story is set in Bakersfield and features a diverse cast without feeling like a checklist.  

Why you should read it?  Willow is a very interesting and unique character.  She learns Vietnamese to be friends with Mai Nguyen and when 8th grader Angela saw this she said, "This character has my name!  Hey there is Vietnamese in this book!"  She was so excited.  When a student is excited for a book- go for it!  The Nguyen family struggles with poverty and the issues Mai and her brother fight through daily might resonate with students.  The metaphors to botany are also particularly striking and beautiful.  

Non-Fiction Book of the Week

World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky

Lexile Level 925-1185 

Reading Interest Level: 8th grade

Big deal fish!  This is a story of the sorry state of our oceans- a depressing story- and how students can do something for the oceans.  This fast paced story, highlighted  with engaging graphics, breaks down very complex concepts: evolution , climate change, biology and economics  in a very accessible way.  Intermixed into the story is a graphic novel of a fictional story that complements World Without Fish.   The text layout is gorgeous.  It is a sad story but a beautiful book.  

Why you should read this book?  This book explains the domino effect of what will happen if we loose the ocean's fish. The story is bleak but asks students to act.  I think the difficult aspect of Climate Change is the lack of hope and the feeling of hopelessness.  What are we to do?  This book offers a call to action for teens.  

Week of March 2

Best Fiction Book of the Week:

Rhyme Schemer by K.A. Holt

Reading Lexile: 925-1128

Interest Level:  5-8

Genres:  Humor, Poetry, Realistic Fiction

Kevin Jamison is a bully. And the entire school knows it. But when Kevin’s jerk of a brother, Petey, chucks Kevin’s poetry notebook (the whole book before that point) through the car window, a kid that Kevin had been bullying, Robin, finds the notebook. Now Robin is using it to blackmail Kevin and Kevin has to do everything Robin says. Now Robin begins to bully Kevin and Kevin is powerless. What’s even worse, is that the teacher is turning a blind eye to the situation! What can Kevin do? (from goodreads).

Kevin is not a nice kid- he is a bully- yet he is likable.  This is a a good book to start a discussion of what does the word bully mean and can a person change.  The word bully gets thrown around so much, it can lose meaning and this book reminds you that often victim and bully are interchangeable.  

This book is written in verse a good choice for a student who says, "too many pages".  

Best Non-Fiction Book of the Week

March Book One by John Lewis

Lexile: 925-1128

Reading Interest Levels: 7-12

Genres: Historical, Nonfiction, Graphic Novel, Biography

This is John Lewis's personal story of growing up as a share cropper's son, in a segregated school, attending the 1963 March on Washington, and his great participation in the Civil Rights Movement.  Book One focuses on Lewis's upbringing, his meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and his participating in ending segregation at lunch counters.  

Why should read this book:  

1.  There was a comic book called, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story that introduced the ideas of passive resistance and non-violent action in the 1960s and had a great influence on the movement.  Yeah graphic novels!

2.  It will challenge you to think and could change you a little.  

3.  The other day, I did a non-fiction book talk for Mr. Major's class.  On boy said, "I dont like books.  Only short ones with pictures!" Bam- I have a book for you- March Book One!  Not long and has pictures.

4.  Book One means (like all YA Books it seams) there will be a Book Two and Book Three.