The Many Hats of a School Librarian

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book was much more violent than The Maze Runner. It was interesting to learn what the Maze was all about and how the Gladers got there. I liked it, but it didn't have the mystery element of not exactly knowing what is going on. View all my reviews

The Death Cure by James Dashner My rating: 3 of 5 stars I needed to read this to find out what happens with Thomas and the Gladers. It was good, but I found myself skipping passages on many pages to get to the resolution. The details of the violence and never ending problems get a little repetitive. I do think that it's enjoyable and I was glad to see what happened at the end. View all my reviews

by Tim Green If you understand or like football you will love this book!!  I enjoyed reading this because the story was pretty good, though all of the descriptions of complex football plays went over my head.  If you love to dream about meeting football players and being part of a professional team, you will be in your happy land reading this book.

by Gordon Korman I liked this book, but I wasn't sure about it when I read the description if it would be ok for my Elementary students.  It's about three boys that found themselves in Juvenile Detention for committing major crimes.  A man who wants to start a program to help these young men turn their lives around, takes them from their jails and brings them to an apartment in New York City to live with him.  The boys each have very different ideas of why they have made bad choices, and this book helps to share the struggles that go on in their heads.  This book really shows that every kids want to do well for themselves, sometimes, they just don't know how.  I think that 6th grade students could read this book and pull out the morals of the story and enjoy the reading at the same time.

by Markus Zusak This book is about a 12 year old girl that lives in Germany in 1942 - during World War II under Hitler's reign. It is a Nazi Germany story like you have never read before and it gave me just a little taste of what it would be like to live in a little town with a war in my country. It's narrated by Death, which seemed very strange at first, but as I got further into the book, I appreciated the point of view because of the lack of grief when deaths were explained.  This is not a happy book, but there are lots of happy parts.  If you like historical fiction or beautifully written novels, I definitely recommend this book to older readers. I have to admit that it took great discipline for me to finish this book. I started it last year and had read a few chapters here and there, but it mainly sat untouched on my night stand. It seems fitting that I would decide to finish it and read about war on Memorial Day. (Though the German soldiers in the book were the sol...

by Claire Vanderpool - Newbery Award Winner 2011 I really prefer mysteries and suspense, and so I read this historical fiction novel simply because it won the award.  I struggled a bit to get into it - not because it isn't a "good" book - but because I like more action right from the beginning.  I am so happy that I stuck with it all the way to the end.  As I read, I began to really get to know the characters and while it seemed a little disjointed at the beginning, it all tied together in a way I never could have imagined (yet seemed so perfect) in the end.  By the time I was finished, I knew exactly why it won the highest young adult novel award in the country.  It's a story about a young girl in 1936 who's dad sends her to live with an old friend from his past for the summer.  She spends the summer looking for clues to her dad's past with a couple of friends and finds herself reading old newspapers, old hidden letters, and hearing stories from an old Div...

by Roland Smith I love everything to do with the Federal Government's Witness Protection Program. It's a real program where the US Government will hide any one who's life is in danger by giving them a new identity. This book is about a boy named Zach whose Dad does some illegal things and now some mean men are after them. They enter the Witness Protection Program and have to move and change their names and even wear colored contacts to change the color of their eyes! You will see how hard it is to change your identity and be a normal boy in 7th grade.

by Patricia Reilly Giff This book is about a boy named Sam that is turning 11 and has a lot of questions about where he came from after he finds a newspaper article with a picture of him as a little boy with a different last name. The number 11 pops up throughout the book and Sam struggles with reading so he finds an unlikely friend to help him solve the mystery of his past. This book kept me wanting to read to the very end to find out who Sam is!

by Margaret Peterson Haddix This book is about a future time in the world where only 2 children are allowed per family. Unfortunately, Luke is a 3rd child and has to live in total secret or he will be taken away. See what happens when Luke spots another 3rd child in his neighborhood. Will he get caught in the yard by the population police? This is the first in a series about Shadow Children. I liked this book and am excited to read the next one in the series. It ends in a bit of a cliffhanger, so get ready to be hooked to a new series of books!

by Wendy Mass This book is about 3 people who all end up in a campground to watch an eclipse. The three main characters are very different from each other, but they just might find common interests around this major celestial event. I loved this book and am excited to recommend it as part of 2010-2011 Maud Hart Lovelace Contest.

by Katherine Applegate This book written in verse (poetry) tells the story of a boy who moves to Minnesota from Africa. He is a refugee and he is living with relatives because his mother couldn't come with him. Applegate uses great language to describe life in Minnesota. I loved this book and it was my favorite among the 2009-2010 Maud Hart Lovelace Nominees and it won 2nd place.

by Trenton Lee Stewart When four misfit geniuses pass mysterious tests and find themselves in a crazy house, you know you are in for a great story. Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are asked to find out who is sending subliminal messages from an island school. Can they find the message sender before the whole world is brainwashed?

by Lynne Jonell Imagine if your mom was killed in a tragic chemistry accident where her lab blew up and your dad was so scared he would lose you too, that he never lets you leave the house. That's the life that Christina lives until she sees some interesting things happening at the orphanage across the street. See how Christina and her new orphan friend Taft solve mysteries that they didn't even know existed.

by Gordon Korman This book made me laugh out loud. It's about a boy who is sick of reading books where the dogs die at the end so he convinces his class to perform a dog play with a slightly different ending.

by Rick Riordan The first in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is pretty good. It mixes a current story with ancient greek mythology. I was never a fan of mythology, but this story kept me reading until the end. I enjoyed the twists and turns and would recommend it to any age 3rd grade and up!