This month's reading was a bit anticlimactic after last month's reads, and it was surprising, too, since I had a two week break from homeschooling, which mean playdates! every! day! for the kids. Somehow, even without our regular classes, responsibilities, and routines, I read nothing. Nada. All these were finished before the middle of March. Egads, it feels like a waste now that I write that out!Ah, well, such is life sometimes. I finished a book club book, a blogger's book, and a great YA pick. See which one was which below:
*The Break by Katherena Vermette - This book was recently defended on CBC's Canada Reads, only to get voted off in the first round. It's the first book by Vermette and it was really good. It's a look inside a broken Native family tree, with resilient characters, tales of past hurts, and future hopes or despair, depending on who tells the story. Similar to the novel Homegoing, it jumps from different viewpoints, but keeps the same 4 or 5 voices throughout, until the end. I really enjoyed this book, though at times has some graphic and tragic parts, and I look forward to what Vermette writes in the future.
*Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner - This book has been all over blog-land and even popped up in a few magazines I read, so I decided to give it a try. The book has a very modern design and that should have been my first flag-I don't always like things that have too much hype around them. This book will surely hit a lot of homeruns with people, but it wasn't one for me. I couldn't overly tell if this was a 'pretty' book (see: styling) with a buzz phrase attached, a memoir, or a how-to. Or maybe it's all of those things? I didn't know the author beforehand (she had an HGTV show awhile back) but it just wasn't my thing. It's a quick read, but not the right time.
*One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia - This is a YA novel, perhaps even middle-grade, set in the 1970s in California, where 3 sisters who visit their estranged mother spend their days not bothering her, but instead going to a Black Panther summer camp. It was a great read, and I'd happily read it to my kids if we study that time period when they're between 9-13 years of age. I enjoyed the humor, the detailed description of the culture in California at the time, and the gentle handling of divorce and abandonment by a parent. This book has won numerous awards and I can see why. I just found out there are two sequels, so I'll be putting those on my booklist, too.
Read Aloud with the Kids
*Sophie Mouse: The Great Big Paw Print (#9) by Poppy Green - The newest sweet 'saga' in the Sophie Mouse series, I read this to the kids in maybe a day (2 sittings). They are easy, the illustrations are so cute, and the stories are always a bit mysterious with a happy ending. Nothing much else to report here other than if you have a child who doesn't like super scary plot lines, but you're wanting solid-friendship-type books, these are a great and easy read.
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