Shooting the Moon

This is another of the books that I picked up from the Book Fair last week simply because I had written it on my list at some point, but I couldn't really remember why I had been interested in it. When I left the next Percy book at school instead of taking it home over the weekend and I needed something to read, I figured that this one was short and would do the trick. And honestly...it took me a little bit to get into. Not because it wasn't interesting or engaging, and not because I didn't bond with the characters, because it is and I did. It took me a little bit to get into it because it isn't really filled with adventure or far-fetched plot devices that surprise and twist and turn, and while I thought that was a shortcoming at first I now disagree. The characters in this book are real, and feel real. Readers get to spend 163 short pages watching a 12-year-old girl deal with the complexities of her brother going away to a controversial war (Vietnam). She watches as her father contradicts so many things that she has spent her whole life believing about him. She finds an escape in a new hobby that also gives her the opportunity to feel much closer to her brother who is so far away. And even though there aren't the complexities of some adventure novels or the latest mind-bending movie, Shooting the Moon is simplistically true, and wholesome in its illustration of the bond of family. By the time I reached the concluding chapter, I had turned from feeling bored and fairly uninterested in the plot to feeling as if I am a part of this fictional family.

Smile

I finally got the opportunity to dive into my very first graphic novel this weekend. After hearing lots and seeing the interest that kids have in them as a genre, I've been pretty interested in trying them out for a while but hadn't really made the time. A kid in one of my classes read this one last week and loved it; he would bring it to me every day and tell me what was happening and show me all the bloody pictures that he thought were awesome. He had my interest level pretty high, but then when the Book Fair came and I saw it there, I figured it was probably fate and I should get it. Despite the fact that it's about 215 pages long, I managed to read this entire book on Saturday night in about an hour and a half or so (yes, I know that it's a graphic novel written for pre-teens and I am a grown adult, but let me savor this accomplishment). I am officially a fan of graphic novels, and of this one in particular. It's an autobiography, which is pretty cool, and follows the author through her middle school years as she battles the normal issues and turmoils of those ages while also dealing with repeated and prolonged dental surgeries that come as a result of an accident that happens towards the beginning of the book. Middle schoolers should find this book really interesting because A.) it's a graphic novel, and they're pretty much all about them these days, B.) it's got a lot of blood and graphic dental trauma (makes it much more interesting and cool for boys who typically wouldn't choose a story about a girl), and C.) it's a true story that describes someone's real life struggles and issues and horrors that came with being in middle school. There's something very comforting about reading about other people discovering that their friends are cruel and switching crushes from day to day and realizing their crush doesn't know they exist and dealing with the trauma of awkward phases that inevitably happen in middle school. All of that is extremely relevant to kids this age, and this book provides a realistic and comforting view of all of it. I highly recommend this one.

Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse

I'm cruising right along with my Percy obsession, but this third book in the series actually disappointed me a little bit. It wasn't bad and I didn't hate it, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the preceding two. Adventure and excitement was still there, and it wasn't really lacking in plot, and there were plenty of new characters and twists and turns to keep me interested...but for whatever reason, I just wasn't. I think a lot of this reason actually had to do with Annabeth - one of my favorites - being M.I.A. for almost the entire book. I also just honestly think this one might be that necessary and unavoidable transition book, right smack dab in the middle of a five-book series. The plot has to mellow at some point so it can climb back up again and end with a bang. My opinion is that this is where that happened, and that's okay. I've got a lot of faith in Book 4.

Book Fairs are Pretty Swell

Nope. Haven't finished the book I'm reading yet and I don't have a new one to review yet, but I wanted to share that I spent a small fortune at my middle school's book fair today. Apparently that's the problem with being a teacher: you get take your kids to the book fair three different times, and you get to stare at all those books you want all day long. So regardless of how strong I felt during 1st block this morning...I was a goner by 4th block. I didn't resist the book fair's power, but I am pretty darn excited about these books (besides, my boyfriend said I was allowed to buy books. So there.)

Here's what I got:
-Tears of a Tiger - Sharon Draper
-Shooting the Moon - Frances O'Roark Dowell
-Antsy Does Time - Neal Shusterman
-Smile - Raina Telgemeier
-The Wednesday Wars - Gary Schmidt
-Smiles to Go - Jerry Spinelli

Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters

As promised, I read the next Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters, next. And I loved it just as much as the first one. Honestly, I laugh out loud when I read these books. They're so clever and witty and...hilarious. Even for me, someone quite a bit older than the target audience. This one launches right into a new plot, finding Percy at the end of the following school year at a new private school. It's his last day of school and he's gone completely accident and expulsion free for a whole school year (a first for him), until he goes to P.E. and....weird things start happening. And that's all I'll say about that, because it's a fun opening scene and I don't want to spoil it. Just like the first book, Sea of Monsters has a lot of twists and turns and fun new mythological stories to keep you guessing and appropriately confused. Fun new monsters come into the mix, and some interesting and problematic issues from the first book carry over into this one. New developments between Percy and Annabeth are hinted at throughout the book, which made the middle school girl in me pretty excited. We'll see what happens there, though, because a surprise cliffhanger of an ending may mess with that a little bit...which would make the middle school girl in me fairly put out. Despite being slightly shorter, Book 2 is just as exciting, fun, and engaging as Book 1, and I can't wait for the developments that take place in Book 3. (Yep. I'm continuing in this Percy rut 'till the bitter end. Diary of a Wimpy Kid will just have to keep waiting.)

Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief

Before this book became a movie, I had never heard of it. After it became a movie, I felt like it was all I heard about. To be honest, Fantasy/Science Fiction has never really been a genre that interested me, but I saw so many kids reading these books and saw them on so many classroom bookshelves that I figured it would be smart to have an opinion about them if I'm ever asked. And honestly, my opinion is that I love this book. It's immediately interesting and confusing in a way that you can't put it down because you'll be bugged as you go throughout the rest of the day wondering why the toilet exploded or how the bully ended up in the fountain. It is very well written...clever and catchy and it sucks you right in. I also really appreciated that it's not obvious. I'm not a young adult or a middle school student, and sometimes when adults read books written for younger people the twists and turns don't really seem too twisty or turny. This book, though, kept me guessing and thinking and trying so hard to remember something about Greek mythology or put together a piece of the puzzle before Riordan revealed it...but I usually wasn't able to and ended up being as surprised as he had intended. This book is good. So good that I have abandoned the plan and am not reading Diary of a Wimpy kid next. I'm sure that that book is great too and I'll have all kinds of encouraging and interesting things to say about that series...but for now, I'm starting Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters.