Revolution | Literacy Love

I’m baaaaaack! It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve posted here, but today my students will be posting their first IMWAYR posts, so I have no excuses! While I am 22 books behind my Goodreads reading goal right now, I have had read some pretty good books lately, and here are a few of them!

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys and invites bloggers to recap what they’ve read this week while planning ahead on what to read next! Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers added their own twist by focusing on kidlit, from picture books up to YA.

Be sure to click on the covers for an in depth synopsis and others’ reviews

A Night DIvided by Jennifer Nielsen

MG Historical Fiction, August, 2015
384 Pages

My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars

Everything Jennifer Nielsen writes is awesome. The False Prince trilogy is probably my favorite middle grade series. She writes characters so well and A Night Divided is another example of a book with characters that jump off the page. I haven’t read a lot of books about the Cold War and Berlin Wall so I was intrigued by the interesting subject matter. This story is told from twelve year old Gerta’s perspective and centers around the Wall being put up one night when her father and brother are away, and now half of her family is on the East side and 2 others on the West. The conditions on the East side are terrible and Gerta and her brother Fritz long to be reunited with their father and escape to the West. Time is running out and they are forced to make some big decisions. Highly recommend this book!!

Crossing Stones by Helen Frost

Historical Fiction Novel Written in Verse, 2009
184 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 4/5 Stars
My seventh graders will soon be undertaking a very big study of novels in verse (Surprise, 3rd and 6th period!) and I am still looking for good titles. I love Helen Frost’s structured verse and am in awe as I read her books. She is very talented! This novel takes place in a rural setting around two families that live near each other. Their lives are intertwined and World War I and the Women’s Suffrage Movement force the family to face an ever changing world. The whole story takes place around nine months of their lives. I wasn’t sure the subject matter and time period would be interesting, but I fell in love with these characters and Helen Frost’s beautiful words. Timeless themes of family, war, and growing up are relevant to all readers.

Hello, Goodbye and Everything by Jennifer E. Smith

YA Contemporary Fiction, September, 2015
246 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 4/5 Stars

Jennifer E Smith is another favorite author of mine. I highly recommend The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and The Geography of You and Me. Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between is another great book about teen relationships and this one centers around one night, which I was a little hesitant about at first. 250 pages about one night? It definitely works. Clare and Aiden, the golden couple, are headed off to college the next morning. Two different colleges on opposite sides of the country. While Clare has prepared a walk down memory lane for the couple, both have bigger things to figure out. Should they make a clean break or should they continue their relationship, long distance? This book had me laughing out loud at times and is pretty adorable!

I’m hoping to pick up A Night Divided and Hello, Goodbye and Everything In Between at our school’s upcoming book fair in November. Not sure I can wait that long to get them for our classroom, but we’ll see.

Here’s what I’m reading next:

Have a great week! ♥

(All pictures are from goodreads.com)

Guess what? For the most part, I am all caught up on beginning-of-the-year paperwork, grading and planning and am BACK IN MY READING GROOVE! It feels really good to be able to say this!

Here’s what I read last week:

(Click on the book covers to add these titles to your Goodreads TBR piles)

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Ember Publishing, 2011
High YA Historical Fiction / Mystery
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
It took me awhile to get into this one, but once things started happening I seriously could not put it down! I read the last 250 pages or so in one sitting and was so enthralled with the smart storytelling. Excellent book for older students and even adults!

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
HMH Books for Young Readers 2006
YA Realistic Fiction
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
A coming of age story that takes place mostly on a farm in rural Wisconsin? Count me in! Loved the setting and plot of this book and plan to get my hands on #2 and #3 very soon.

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett Krosoczka
Knopf, 2009
MG Fantasy Graphic Novel
My Goodreads Rating: 4/5 Stars
This book had me smiling and laughing out loud! Held a raffle to see which student would get to read it first and it was a big hit. Funny series for grades 4-6.

Here’s what I plan to read this week: (Click on the cover for more info from Goodreads)

I’ve started FANGIRL and am not at all surprised that I LOVE it. It’s a great story already and I am desperately trying to finish this post so I can go read it! It’s no secret that I love Rainbow Rowell’s books. Have you read Attachments yet? What are you waiting for? Read my review here. A Long Walk to Water is another book I picked up this summer at the Scholastic sale, and I’ve seen a lot of chatter about it on Twitter lately. The last two books are PD and look pretty good so far. Hoping to add poetry and some more critical thinking into our routine.

But wait! There’s MORE!!!

I am also going to start my Divergent reread this week. I am BEYOND EXCITED for Allegiant to come out on 10/22 and want to dive back into Tris’ world to get ready for book number three! Anyone else out there excited for Allegiant?

Happy Reading!

Lesley ♥