Weekly Reads: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Anytime Dan Gemeinhart writes a new book, I have to read it. He writes such amazing stories for grade school and young teen aged readers (and the mid-30s librarian readers who also pick them up). Also this cover? Perfection.

I got an e-ARC of The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise but didn't have time to read it before it came out, so I was excited to get my hands on the very copy that our library bought. I started it, and I couldn't put it down. It was phenomenal. And I lied, I did have to put it down when I knew I was going to be a pile of waterworks and was reading at a restaurant for lunch on my break. READ IT.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary From Goodreads:

Five years.

That's how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, criss-crossing the nation.

It's also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash.

Coyote hasn’t been home in all that time, but when she learns that the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished―the very same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box―she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days...without him realizing it.

Along the way, they'll pick up a strange crew of misfit travelers. Lester has a lady love to meet. Salvador and his mom are looking to start over. Val needs a safe place to be herself. And then there's Gladys...

Over the course of thousands of miles, Coyote will learn that going home can sometimes be the hardest journey of all...but that with friends by her side, she just might be able to turn her “once upon a time” into a “happily ever after.”

Weekly Reads: The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is a really sweet new book from Stacy McAnulty. I picked it up because I had heard great things and I thought it might make for a good option for the teen book committee I'm a member of. And it did not disappoint. It was such a sweet book about friendship and being different, and I think a lot of 4th-6th grade students would love it.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Lucy Callahan was struck by lightning. She doesn't remember it, but it changed her life forever. The zap gave her genius-level math skills, and ever since, Lucy has been homeschooled. Now, at 12 years old, she's technically ready for college. She just has to pass 1 more test — middle school!

Lucy's grandma insists: Go to middle school for 1 year. Make 1 friend. Join 1 activity. And read 1 book (that's not a math textbook!). Lucy's not sure what a girl who does calculus homework for fun can possibly learn in 7th grade. She has everything she needs at home, where nobody can make fun of her rigid routines or her superpowered brain. The equation of Lucy's life has already been solved. Unless there's been a miscalculation?

Weekly Reads: Sidetracked

Sidetracked made its way on to my TBR pile based on the cover alone. A track book? Sign me up! But it was even more than that,  for one it was about cross country, and for two it shows how great and terrible youth can be, but that good can usually always prevail. Quick great read.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

To Joseph Friedman, middle school might as well be the Running of the Bulls. He’s friendless and puny, with ADD to boot, so he spends most of his time avoiding class bully Charlie Kastner and hiding out in the Resource Room, a safe place for misfit kids like him. But then, on the first day of seventh grade, two important things happen. First, his Resource Room teacher Mrs. T encourages (i.e., practically forces) him to join the school track team, and second, he meets Heather, a tough, athletic new girl who isn’t going to be pushed around by Charlie Kastner—or anybody else.

At first, track is as much of a disaster as everything else in Joseph’s life. But slowly Joseph hits his stride, and instead of running from the bulls . . . he’s just running.

Weekly Reads: Auma's Long Run

I don't know why there are so many middle grade books about running, but I'm not mad about it. I had heard good things about Auma's Long Run, and despite it being historical fiction, I was really interested in reading more about the AIDS epidemic within the Kenyan village. This is a must read!

My rating: 3.5 stars


Summary from goodreads:

In her small Kenyan village, she's a track star with big dreams. A track scholarship could allow her to attend high school and maybe even become a doctor someday. But a strange new sickness called AIDS is ravaging the village, and when her father becomes ill, Auma's family needs her help at home.

Soon more people are getting sick -- even dying -- and no one seems to know why. Now Auma faces a choice. She can either quit school and go to work to support her struggling family...or leave her loved ones behind to pursue her own future. 

Auma knows her family is depending on her. But leaving might be the only way to find the answers to her questions about this new disease.

Weekly Reads: Slider

Slider is the newest middle grade novel by Pete Hautman. I have never picked up a book from Hautman, but the description of this book plus the PHENOMENOL COVER drew me in. I'm obsessed with competitive eating, and even think I could've made a good competitor back in my day! This book was cute, clever, quirky, and made me really hungry (which I don't think was the point, I will surely be in the minority on that front). It's a great book for 5-8 grade kids, or adults who are young at heart!

My rating: 5 stars

Review from Goodreads:

Competitive eating vies with family expectations in a funny, heartfelt novel for middle-grade readers by National Book Award winner Pete Hautman.

David can eat an entire sixteen-inch pepperoni pizza in four minutes and thirty-six seconds. Not bad. But he knows he can do better. In fact, he'll have to do better: he's going to compete in the Super Pigorino Bowl, the world's greatest pizza-eating contest, and he has to win it, because he borrowed his mom's credit card and accidentally spent $2,000 on it. So he really needs that prize money. Like, yesterday. As if training to be a competitive eater weren't enough, he's also got to keep an eye on his little brother, Mal (who, if the family believed in labels, would be labeled autistic, but they don't, so they just label him Mal). And don't even get started on the new weirdness going on between his two best friends, Cyn and HeyMan. Master talent Pete Hautman has cooked up a rich narrative shot through with equal parts humor and tenderness, and the result is a middle-grade novel too delicious to put down.

Weekly Reads: Scar Island

Scar Island is the newest book by Dan Gemeinhart, a phenomenal middle school/middle grade author. This book was being described as Holes meets Lord of the Flies. Yes please! It was a super fast read, and fast-paced novel. I flew through it. I've been doing summer reading promotions to 5th and 6th graders and many of them loved this just as much as me.

My rating: 4.5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

Jonathan Grisby is the newest arrival at the Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys -- an ancient, crumbling fortress of gray stone rising up from the ocean. It is dark, damp, and dismal. And it is just the place Jonathan figures he deserves.

Because Jonathan has done something terrible. And he's willing to accept whatever punishment he has coming.

Just as he's getting used to his new situation, however, a freak accident leaves the troubled boys of Slabhenge without any adult supervision. Suddenly the kids are free, with an entire island to themselves. But freedom brings unexpected danger. And if Jonathan can't come to terms with the sins of his past and lead his new friends to safety . . . then every boy on the island is doomed.

Weekly Reads: Me and Marvin Gardens

I absolutely love A.S. King so I was thrilled when I found out that she had written a book for a younger audience Me and Marvin Gardens. It was just as wonderfully weird as her other books were, and I loved it. I also enjoyed the environmental message that was strung through the story.

My rating: 4.5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

Obe Devlin has problems. His family's farmland has been taken over by developers. His best friend Tommy abandoned him for the development kids. And he keeps getting nosebleeds, because of that thing he doesn't like to talk about. So Obe hangs out at the creek by his house, in the last wild patch left, picking up litter and looking for animal tracks.

One day, he sees a creature that looks kind of like a large dog, or maybe a small boar. And as he watches it, he realizes it eats plastic. Only plastic. Water bottles, shopping bags... No one has ever seen a creature like this before, because there's never been a creature like this before. The animal--Marvin Gardens--soon becomes Obe's best friend and biggest secret. But to keep him safe from the developers and Tommy and his friends, Obe must make a decision that might change everything.

Weekly Reads: Book Scavenger

I received an e-ARC of Book Scavenger earlier this spring to read and provide feedback. It has been reviewed as a read-alike for Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, so I was more than excited to get my hands on it.

I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't a "can't-put-it-down" read for me. Full disclosure: I read this in the weeks leading up to Kyle and my wedding, so my scattered brain at the time may have had something to do with it. Regardless, I enjoyed it enough to plan a tween library programming featuring it, and will recommend it to many of our middle grade library kiddos.

My rating: 3.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

A hidden book. A found cipher. A game begins . . . .

Twelve-year-old Emily is on the move again. Her family is relocating to San Francisco, home of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger, a game where books are hidden all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles. But Emily soon learns that Griswold has been attacked and is in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold and leads to a valuable prize. But there are others on the hunt for this book, and Emily and James must race to solve the puzzles Griswold left behind before Griswold's attackers make them their next target.

Weekly Reads: The Center of Everything

There is a group on Goodreads that discusses Newbery potential books on a monthly basis.  I coerced a couple of my co-workers in to reading the same books they have suggested and having a mini lunch time book club to discuss them.  The Center of Everything was June's book to read and discuss.  So far of the books I've read with Newbery potential, this one is my favorite.  It was a very quick read, I read it on the couch in between fever induced naps, and it took less than two hours.

The story follows Ruby Pepperdine as she prepares to read her Bunning Day speech atop a float in her city's annual parade celebration of doughnuts.  The story weaves back and forth between her present nerves, waiting on the sidewalk for the floats to pass before she steps on her float to read, while also taking us back the past few months to explain how she came to be there.  This was a great realistic fiction story for middle grade students that deals with a loss of a grandparent, trying to rectify friendships and relationships and just trying to understand life by figuring out the center of everything.  While I'm unsure if this is actually a Newbery contender (my guess is no) it's still a must read for children ages 9-12.

My rating:  4 stars.

Goodreads summary:
For Ruby Pepperdine, the “center of everything” is on the rooftop of Pepperdine Motors in her donut-obsessed town of Bunning, New Hampshire, stargazing from the circle of her grandmother Gigi’s hug.  That’s how everything is supposed to be—until Ruby messes up and things spin out of control. But she has one last hope. It all depends on what happens on Bunning Day, when the entire town will hear Ruby read her winning essay. And it depends on her twelfth birthday wish—unless she messes that up too. Can Ruby’s wish set everything straight in her topsy-turvy world?