Monday, June 26, 2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 06/26/17


It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.



Last Week's Posts

  • #DiverseKidLit: books with multiracial characters. Share a link or find the latest diverse book recommendations here.

Middle School



House Arrest (2015) by K.A. Holt. I love a good novel-in-verse, and this one did not disappoint. Timothy is forced to keep a court-ordered journal as part of his year-long stint under house arrest. He goes to school, he goes home, and he sometimes goes to see his probation officer and counselor. That's it. In between, he has plenty of time to vent his feelings in his journal, especially as things continue to keep feeling out of control with his baby brother's trach and continuing health issues. A real gut-punch of a book! (Click here for a whole listing of great novels in verse.)


The Gauntlet (2017) by Karuna Riazi, from the new Salaam Reads imprint. I liked this book, but I didn't love it. Which is too bad. Things I did love about the book: I loved the characters, I loved how Farah's Bangladeshi background permeated the story in so many ways, and I loved that this was an #ownvoices author. But I didn't find the plot particularly innovative, and the characters were a bit flat.

Full disclosure: in sixth grade I wrote a fantasy story surprisingly similar to the premise of The Gauntlet: a group of four kids discover a mysterious game, the youngest one gets somehow sucked into the game, and the older three have to try and rescue him. (Mine was a magic set gone awry and its "gauntlet" was more inspired by the movie Labyrinth, but still.) But when I went back to revisit this story I was so proud of at the time, it was clear to see that my story suffered from a lack of planning and plotting. I wrote whatever I could come up with and just kept plowing ahead. Unfortunately, for me, The Gauntlet felt quite the same. I had a tough time visualizing how the game itself fit together, the challenges seemed random and unrelated, and it wasn't really building to anything bigger or meaningful. I was waiting for the "aha moment" when loose pieces from everywhere would suddenly snap into place in a meaningful way, but I didn't find it. Would love to hear differing thoughts.

Happy Reading! (PS I am traveling right now and will get to comments when I get back.)

7 comments:

  1. I really want to House Arrest, and will definitely get to it when I conquer some of my books on my shelf first. I am glad to hear it was so good. I love novels in verse. Happy reading and travels!

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    1. Thanks, Alexis! House Arrest is a quick read too, so it should definitely pop up towards the top of your list.

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    2. Definitely! Thank you!

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  2. House Arrest has been on my list for ages. I even purchased a copy for the school library, but never got around to reading it.

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    1. As a novel in verse, it goes fast - find a good afternoon and let 'er rip!

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  3. House Arrest is one of my very favourites. Such a book. I have a reluctant reader reading it right now and he even asked if he could borrow it over the summer!

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