Wonderful!

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is simply an incredible book.  Set in the future, where poverty, diseases, and war no longer exist sounds like a utopia to beat no other.  However, immortality also exists, and to deal with population control, society has Scythes.

Scythes "glean" people (i.e. kill) in this world, and we meet two young people who become apprentice scythes in this first of what might be a trilogy. The book is told in alternating chapters from these two protagonists, as well as via reading journal entries from various scythes; each with their own viewpoint on their role in society, as well as showing how they determine who to glean.

This book in many ways could be a stand alone novel, but I am looking forward to future installments because the world building, character building, plot and current resolution are so wonderfully handled.

I truly loved this book; I can't rave enough about it.  Compelling, engaging, thrilling, beautiful, thought provoking and timely are all thoughts I had at various points.

I book talked the book, and read the first few pages; I have never had students literally run out of my room to see if our school library had copies, with any other book talk.  I have a long wait list for my copy, and many students I am sure ordered a copy of their own.

Suspenseful

I recently read Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky and liked it.  It deals with a young boy discovering, and addressing with family and others that in reality he is she.  It is well done, and can compare fairly well to George.  
I read Polonsky's other book Threads after Gracefully Grayson, and thoroughly loved it.  A young girl, Clara discovers a note in a purse written by a young girl in China, who has been kidnapped and forced to work in a factory.  The chapters alternate between both girls' stories.  Clara is also dealing with the death of her sister, which adds some depth to her story.

The reader anxiously awaits to hear if and how Yuming, the young girl in China, and Clara might meet up and/or how Yuming might be rescued.

The build up and suspense are handled well; I was truly anxious throughout much of the book.  YA readers interested in child labor issues, factory issues, work being done overseas to benefit Americans and other Westerners, will find this an intelligent, engaging read that explores these issues.

I felt the ending was realistic in many ways, and hopeful.  It might in reality be too hopeful, but I believe it is an excellent first read for those just encountering the serious issues raised. (22)

The Reader by Traci Chee is an engaging, mystical, intriguing and somewhat frustrating book.  I loved the story's premise, that reading itself is outlawed, or rather not many have the ability to read.

Those that can read also have magical powers, and some can "read" others or read/see the future, including our main protagonist, Sefia.

She is joined by a wonderful cast of characters including Archer and Captain Reed.  Archer and Sefia are mostly on the run in this novel; being chased and chasing others is huge part of the plot.

The nature of stories themselves is a theme, and there is fun scene in a bar where people pretend to be other people telling stories about those people as if they had lived them.  Captain Reed insight-fully states only he can tell his story, but what is the nature of stories and reading then, this reader asked herself.

There is quite a bit of violence and death in the story, and the desire to make one's mark is part of this.  Is it our nature to make our mark violently? To be a hero/heroine?

Essentially, Sefia has a book that has been hidden, and in the beginning she isn't even aware it is a book or what a book is.  As she discovers its powers, and learns to read, she sets out to find out who killed her parents, kidnapped her aunt, harmed Archer, and ultimately who is good, or evil.

This is the first of I believe a trilogy.  I will look for the second, to hopefully clear up some frustrating and perhaps conflicting story-lines. (21)

2017: A New School = A 40 Book Challenge

It has been quite some time since I posted anything here.  All of 2016 pretty much!

My new school has put up a 40 book challenge, asking all students and staff to attempt to read 40 books, or challenge themselves in some fashion i.e. trying a new genre, or Reading Without Walls

I have read many professional books since I started school, and will list a few of those:

1) Book Love
2) Falling in Love with Close Reading
3) Book Banning in 21st- Century America
4) Learning Personalized: The Evolution of the Contemporary Classroom

I have also read some YA titles that were wonderful including:

5) Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 2 The Hammer of Thor (first book in series was excellent as well).
6) Pax
7) 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East
8) Stars Above
9) Heartless (Stars Above is a short story collection dealing with the Lunar Chronicles, and Heartless is a stand alone at this point by Marissa Meyer: I blogged about Cinder and the Lunar Chronicles earlier)
10) I am Princess X
11) Shadow Magic
12) The Thing about Jelly Fish
13) Ambassador by William Alexander
14) Ghost by Jason Reynolds
15) Tiger Rising

And I read a few random adult books, including these:

16) Razor Girl
17) Pensionless: The 10-Step Solution for a Stress -Free Retirement
18) The Trespasser by Tana Frency
19) The Bookshop on the Corner
20) The Daily Show an Oral History

I am not going back and writing reviews of these first 20 (however they are mentioned because I thought they were good), and I am not including book titles that aren't coming to mind, or are coming to mind but not worthy of mention (in my opinion).   The final 20 (or more) books that I read this school year, I will write up a review and post it here.

The first is appropriately titled, The Reader by Traci Chee
The review should appear in a few hours.