Non-Fiction

The next reading project that I'm highlighting is our 7th grade unit: Non-Fiction. Always a favorite of mine, and I'm very excited to be on this year's Excellence in Non-Fiction Award committee (a national award under YALSA/ALA). 

For this quarter, you can find my book list of suggestions, as well as a copy of my presentation, here.  (To see past non-fiction titles that I've reviewed on the blog, click here. You can see that I haven't reviewed as much non-fiction in the past two years because of my service on the YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults award committee. So many fiction books that I've read!!) 

If you are also a fan of the library's Facebook page, you will see I posted my favorite recommendations from all the titles listed. I will be recommending them here over the next week.

Let me know which book you choose...and I can't wait to hear how you liked it. Not a 7th grader? Tell me what your favorite non-fiction title would be.

Survival Stories

It's the beginning of 3rd quarter at school and I'm still out on leave. I miss being there...well, maybe not the getting up early part...but I do miss talking to the kids about books!

And since it is the beginning of several big reading projects, I have been compiling suggestions from afar. I hope that your teacher's have been passing along the lists!

First up, our 8th graders are doing one of my favorite units: Survival. (To see past Survival stories that I've reviewed on the blog, click here.) 

For this quarter, you can find my book list of suggestions, as well as a copy of my presentation, here. 

If you are also a fan of the library's Facebook page, you will see I posted my favorite recommendations from all the titles listed. I will be recommending them here over the next week.

Let me know which book you choose...and I can't wait to hear how you liked it. Not an 8th grader? Tell me what your favorite Survival title would be.

Trailer Tuesday: Legend & Prodigy (Lu)

Today is the day that I have been waiting for since I first picked up Legend by Marie Lu. The sequel, Prodigy, has been released!

Now, to be honest, I read an advanced copy of Prodigy before today. But I wanted to share the excitement with you so I thought that I'd use today's Trailer Tuesday to introduce you to both books. If you haven't read them yet, run right now and check them out from the library! You will not regret being introduced to June and Day.

Trailer Tuesday: Tiger Lily (Anderson)

Oh my gosh, I LOVE this book.

Love it!

Couldn't get enough of it! And completely regret not reading it in time to put it on my "holiday gift books" list.

Trailer Tuesday: Breathe (Crossan)

This week's Trailer Tuesday is more of an author interview. Sarah Crossan, author of Breathe, tells us where she got her inspiration for the book...and some good advice for wannabe writers out there!

If you are a fan of dystopian/sci-fi books and you haven't read Breathe yet, I highly recommend it (and not just because her inspiration for the story was a trip she made to Washington). 

In this post-apocalyptic world, there is a shortage of air, and the government controls who gets to breathe it. I enjoyed that this story is told from the alternating perspectives of the three main characters, and that it leaves room for the story to continue (in a planned trilogy). Great, suspenseful writing.

Trailer Tuesday: What's Left of Me (Zhang)

While I've been away from school, I have been reading, but chemotherapy has kept me from posting reviews. So, for the next several Tuesdays, I thought that I would use Trailer Tuesday to get you excited about a book that I enjoyed, but haven't mentioned here yet.

This first one is for the first book in a new series: What's Left of Me from The Hybrid Chronicles by Kat Zhang. 

Eva and Addie are sisters that share the same body. Over time, one of them was supposed to settle and the other would become the dominant one. Except Eva won't settle...and only Addie knows that she still exists.

A unique and intriguing sci-fi story! I can't wait for the next book in the series...