Reading Ahead

We Belong

We Belong 

I’ve seen many ques­tions on social media, ask­ing which books teach­ers will read aloud to their class­room dur­ing the first week of school. I don’t teach in a class­room but I’ve thought about this ques­tion anyway.

The Genius Under the Table

The Genius Under the Table 

Eugene Yelchin grew up in Stal­in­ist Rus­sia, the Cold War Sovi­et Union. We grow to love his par­ents, his grand­moth­er, his broth­er Vic­tor, but most espe­cial­ly Eugene. His mem­o­ries are at once sad and humorous.

Samira Surfs

Samira Surfs 

 I don’t think I’ve ever read a nov­el about surf­ing before Sami­ra Surfs. I was fas­ci­nat­ed by the set­ting, the sport, and the cul­ture, dif­fer­ent than my own.

Finding Junie Kim

Finding Junie Kim 

The author unfolds the sto­ry in a way that young read­ers will find mes­mer­iz­ing, imag­in­ing her char­ac­ters in real life, turn­ing the page again and again to learn what will hap­pen next, both in mid-cen­­tu­ry Korea and in the Unit­ed States today.

Good Luck Gold & More

Good Luck Gold & more 

This book will make you feel, many dif­fer­ent feel­ings. It is filled with poet­ry and a short essay about the poem on the fac­ing page. There are two or three ques­tions at the bot­tom of each essay that encour­age dig­ging deep­er … into your own experience.

Girls Solve Everything

Girls Solve Everything 

Read­ing this book, I jumped up and down with excite­ment. I kept turn­ing the pages until I had read every one of the true sto­ries. My brain revved into high speed as I learned about girls and women, prob­lem solv­ing and innovating.

Loyalty

Loyalty 

Leave it to Avi to find a way to help me look at the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War from a new per­spec­tive. Make that two. Young Noah is the son of a Loy­al­ist and min­is­ter, pledged to the King. When local rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies tar and feath­er his father, the fam­i­ly flees to Boston. Need­ing work, Noah finds a job as a British spy

Ten Ways to Hear Snow

Ten Ways to Hear Snow 

When you grow up in Min­neso­ta, snow is a part of your world. From play­ing in it until your feet are so cold and wet that your grand­moth­er will scold while you drink hot cocoa to lift­ing your feet high as you trudge through knee-deep snow to a bus stop that’s far­ther away than it has ever

Love is Powerful

Love is Powerful 

This book will lift you up in its arms and make you believe that “Love is Pow­er­ful”! It’s the right choice to help us under­stand what a group of peo­ple can accom­plish if they are unit­ed in their pur­pose and mov­ing toward treat­ing all peo­ple with love and kind­ness. Writ­ten by Heather Dean Brew­er from Michigan

Planetarium

Planetarium 

My fas­ci­na­tion with out­er space is well-doc­u­­­men­t­ed. I had star charts on my child­hood bed­room walls. But this book would have enthralled me … in fact, it still does. The illus­tra­tions by engraver and print­mak­er Chris Wormell are detailed in a way that aids under­stand­ing. Scale is a tough con­cept for our com­pre­hen­sion but this book tack­les that with

The Range Eternal

The Range Eternal 

I am delight­ed by the re-issue of The Range Eter­nal, a pic­ture book that reach­es back into his­to­ry and con­nects with our sens­es, our fam­i­lies, our fears, and our reas­sur­ances. I have read all of Louise Erdrich’s books for adults and chil­dren. She nev­er fails to bring me new ways of look­ing at the world. So it

You Are (Not) Small

You Should (Not) Read These Books 

I remem­ber my neigh­bor­hood friends stand­ing on oppo­site sides of a dri­ve­way, angry, yelling loud­ly at each oth­er. I don’t recall why, but I can still feel those emo­tions. That’s how strong feel­ings are. Our chil­dren deal with a mul­ti­tude of emo­tions every day. You were prob­a­bly remem­ber­ing sim­i­lar instances from your child­hood. And what hap­pened after­ward? Most like­ly you

Wild Girl

Wild Girl 

WOW!*!&! I want to car­ry a back­pack with me wher­ev­er I go, hand­ing out a copy of this book to every per­son I see. I loved every dare­dev­il, detailed, aston­ish­ing minute of read­ing this book. I believe you will, too. Mind, I grew up at a time where I heard two phras­es con­stant­ly: “Sit still” and “Ladies don’t rough­house.” Rough­house meant any kind of run­ning, climbing,

The Book Rescuer

The Book Rescuer 

I have had The Book Res­cuer on my desk for sev­er­al months. I imme­di­ate­ly knew I want­ed to write about it because I feel such a strong attrac­tion to this sto­ry (a true sto­ry) but I had a hard time putting into words how deeply I am moved by the actions of this book hero. The sto­ry begins this way: “Kum aher. Sit down.

Yasmin the Zookeeper

Yasmin 

Once I fin­ished read­ing Yas­min the Zookeep­er, I was charmed. I want­ed to find out more about this young Pak­istani Amer­i­can girl who is curi­ous about everything.

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