Monday, December 14, 2020

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 12/14/20



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.



Recent Posts


      Middle Grade


      It's been months and months since my last #IMWAYR, but I wanted to get back into the swing of posting, although I'm only the monthly-goal track rather than weekly.

      My school has been virtual since early March, and this year's students are writing their first book reviews to share with each other and wider book-loving audiences. You can read the first two linked above in Recent Posts.



      The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling is a quick-read seat-of-the-pants style adventure and survival novel. Nora is still processing the traumatic events of her birthday a year ago, but she and her father are determined to make a new start ... they just weren't quite anticipating how quickly things would escalate.

      My students are huge fans of Dusti's cactus series (Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus and Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus), and while this is a very different style of book, I know many, many students will love it. 



      Twins by Varian Johnson and illustrated by Shannon Wright is an awesome addition to the graphic novel canon. If we were in-person right now, I know that I would never see this book on my shelves again. 

      Twins Maureen and Francine are entering middle school and trying to balance their separate desires to be seen as their own person and to still be best friends. When they both decide to run for Class President, it brings their personal conflicts out into the open. 

      This is a super-engaging and charming story about the realistic struggles of sisterhood and friendship. Author Varian Johnson is himself a twin, and brings that firsthand knowledge of how deep and how fragile twin-relationships can be, especially at this age. My student beta-reader declared this book "Great!"

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      5 comments:

      1. I've been reading so much about Twins in the last few weeks I decided to finally see if my library has a copy of it. Hurrah they do!

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      2. Twins is fantastic. I agree that it will not last on shelves once students know it exists.

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      3. Twins sounds fantastic—I need to get a copy! The Canyon's Edge sounds great as well! Thanks for the great post!

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      4. I need to find Twins considering your review, Katie, & the comments above. I just bought The Canyon's Edge for a Christmas gift for a granddaughter who loves all her books. Thanks, and nice to see you back!

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      5. Thanks for sharing -- those are both books I want to read!

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