Weekly Book Report

May I report about my to read pile first? It's way bigger than the books I have read this week.

My "bedside" pile - the quotes are there because they are not all on my bedside - includes;

This Promise of Change by Jo Ann Allen Levy and Debbie Levy    This is a memoir of one of the students who integrated Clinton high School in Tennessee in 1956. I want to read it but I am afraid of the hurt she will reveal. 

A Monster Like Me by Wendy S. Swore    What kind of monster is Sophie? The hemangioma - or blood tumor - on one side of her face convinces Sophie that she is not quite human.

Normal: One Kid's Extraordinary Journey by Magdalena and Nathaniel Newman   Nathaniel New- man has a cranio facial syndrome that deforms his face. His story is true. 

Extraordinary Birds by Sandy Stark-McGinnis    She is in foster care and she is sure that she is really a bird. She has scars on her back where her wings will surely grow back. Can a new placement help her?

Also, the ARCs that I received today from Candlewick Press and Chronicle Books and the titles I received from Abrams.  I may keep one or two or a few of these titles but most of them will end up in the hands of teachers and librarians who attend this year's KUCLC (Kutztown Unversity Children's Literature Conference) which is coming up on April 18th.

From Chronicle

And the books I read this week??

Caterpillar Summer By Gillian McDunn   Cat and Chicken travel all the way to North Carolina when their summer plans fall through. Their mother must work, so she takes them to her parents who live on an island off the North Carolina shore. Cat worries that Chicken, whose real name is Henry, will not adjust to these grandparents that they have never met.  Chicken is a worry, with his sensitivities to touch and noise and his penchant for running away.  How can Mom leave them both with strangers?
Charming,

Leaving Lymon by Lesa Cline-Ransome    From the time Lymon was very small, people have left him. First, his mother left. Then, his father went to prison. When his grandfather died, Lymon and his grandmother felt truly abandoned. They moved from Mississippi to Milwaukee, then Lymon's mother took him to Chicago. But he belonged nowhere and to no one, except his father, a wandering musician after he was freed.  Set in the same time period that Finding Langston occurred, Cline-Ransome snatches Lymon's character from one small incident in the earlier book and gives Lymon a story, a talent and a quest.

Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw by Gina Loveless and Andrea Bell    Robin Loxley is the best basketball player at Nottingham Elementary School and right now she is the loneliest. Her "best" friend hasn't spoken to Robin since the Spring. When another fith grader starts "taxing" kids to play on the playground equipment, Robin has something to take her mind off her troubles. She will take the stolen goods from the "Taxer" and give them back to their rightful owners. It's a good plan. She has a new friend to help, Little Joan - the other best basketball player at Nottingham. But it all goes haywire when their principal goes to a conference.
It's a series, in large print and with clever drawings, about normal kids getting into normal trouble. Thumbs up!  AND Gina Loveless will be at the Kutztown University Children's Literature Conference or KUCLC.

I am reading - not finished yet but not waiting in the wings either - Running With Wolves: Our Story of Life with the Sawtooth Pack by Jim and Jamie Dutcher.  Though I haven't met many wolves yet, I enjoy Jim's and Jamie's storytelling styles. They add just the right amount of description to give the reader a feel for the mountain range and pastures without getting bogged down.