Sunday, September 17, 2017

I'm Back And So Are These Stories!

I'm back to blogging! I took a full month off from my blog to focus on my family, back to school preparation, enjoying the last days of nice weather and everything else the end of summer brings! I have certainly kept reading, and I'm excited to share some new titles. All of the books I read this week are the second in a series. I'm not a huge fan of sequels, because like the movies, they sometimes disappoint, but I simply must find out what happens to my favorite characters.




                                                               

I don't think this one is so much a sequel as it just shifts focus to another character in the Charm Girls club series by Jenny Lundquist. The first book about the girls is The Charming Life of Izzy Malone. There we meet Izzy and her friends and learn of their delightful club. The charm girls earn charms for their bracelets by completing a variety of  different tasks. In The Wondrous World of Violet Barnaby, we learn more about Violet, who in the first book, recently lost her mother. It's now been a year and a half since her mother's passing and Violet's father has remarried. He could have dated and married any eligible female on the planet but instead chose "The Hammer," the strictest and most difficult teacher at Violet's school. As she is packing her belongings to move into The Hammer's (Melanie's) house, Violet finds a letter addressed to her that her mother wrote before she died. Her mother compiled a Christmas Wish List full of experiences that she wanted Violet to have such as making a snow angel and baking Christmas cookies. Unfortunately, Violet is NOT in a holiday mood and moving to a new home surrounded by someone else's belongings (someone who is NOT her mother), isn't helping her Christmas spirit. Violet must rely on her friends, her new crush, and her new step siblings to find some holiday joy.

I haven't read the first book, but I ordered it immediately because I really liked this one! Violet is heartbroken, and she's trying to navigate her new surroundings and deal with her grief at the same time. The entire blended family struggles with combining old and new traditions, and I think that's a relatable topic for many children today. Violet is a likable character and her friends will show readers what true friendship among tweens should look like. They aren't mean girls obsessed with material goods or any of those typical stereotypes. Great book for grades 4 and up!



                                                              

I adored The Littlest Bigfoot by popular adult author Jennifer Weiner. I'll admit I was nervous to read the second installment, Little Bigfoot, Big City because I was afraid it wouldn't be as great as the first. I found it to be better than a typical middle novel because there were answers to some of the questions but there was another cliffhanger at the end. Many readers love this kind of thing, but I like instant gratification! While I want a resolution ASAP, it's such a unique story that I will hang in there until the end.

Alice learns at the end of the first book that she isn't human so she is searching for answers about what she might be instead. We do get an answer to that question, but a good bit of the story is about her changing friendship with Millie. Like any pre-teen females, they have hit a rough patch and become a little insecure about their bond. As Alice is searching for answers to her past, Millie is focused on achieving her dream of becoming a future singing superstar. Each girl is on a very different path, but they still need each other for support.

Like all of  Ms. Weiner's novels, this book is engaging and fun to read. The Yare lifestyle is simply fascinating to me and I actually gasped out loud when Millie took the potion to remove her fur!! The story moves quickly and as new mysteries are revealed, we get answers to questions from the first book. I really like this series and I hope I can encourage more students to give it a chance!



                                                              Swing It, Sunny by [Holm, Jennifer L.]

First let me start by writing that I really liked the first book in this series- Sunny Side Up. Jennifer Holm certainly has a talent for writing children/YA books. I think most young readers can find themselves represented in her characters and their stories. Swing It Sunny picks up shortly after Sunny returns from her grandfather's home in Florida. The main conflict of the story remains Sunny's struggle with her brother's troubles. In this book, Dale has been sent to boarding school to try and get his life back on track. Sunny is disappointed that it's taking longer than she would like and she is unsure of where she stands with him. Luckily she has her best friend and also a fun new neighbor to keep her smiling.

I liked this story, but I wanted much more. I finished reading it in fifteen minutes. I know my students will love the style of short chapters and of course, the pictures are awesome, but I found myself wanting more conflict and plot twists. I kept reading waiting for something big on the next page, but then it ended. Sunny does get a resolution to her problems with her brother and she gains a lot of self confidence from her baton twirling older neighbor. Maybe I am missing the point. I often gripe that graphic novels are too mature for young readers. Perhaps Sunny's conflicts are just enough for the 9-12 age group. The quick turnaround of her problems and lack of any major drama are what elementary age students are looking for. Maybe I spent this summer reading too many complicated novels with twists and turns. The 70's references of Six Million Dollar Man and Gilligan's Island etc., are really fun to read and it certainly makes me nostalgic! No matter what I think, I DO believe my students will pick this up and it will get checked out every week!