I had such a busy weekend being a wonderful bridesmaid to my favorite cousin that I didn’t have the chance to blog about last week’s lessons. With my third graders, I read “Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman” by Marc Tyler Nobleman.

This is another one of the LYRC award nominees. As I’ve said before, the kids love true stories and this is one. They liked this one pretty well, but I think it was a little beyond some of them. They look for funny, sweet, or exciting and neither of those really describe this book. We did like the illustrations and the comic-style of the book.

With second grade, we read “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Joffe Numeroff. This is one of those books that I can read over and over and over and never get tired of. We start by taking a picture walk and describing what we see in the pictures. After I read the story, we play the Mouse Memory Game in which the kids list all the things they can remember that the mouse asked for…a sparkly pencil for the winner! They love this lesson and will be asking me for weeks if we can do it again.

I’ve been doing some reading, too! Here are the books I’ve read and a quick comment/impression of each:

I absolutely adored this book! It’s one of the best multi-perspective stories that I’ve read. When I finished the first section, I had VERY strong feelings about the characters, but Mackler did an amazing job of really digging into the feelings of all the characters in ways that’s easy to relate to. This is a great book to recommend to kids who are having trouble relating to some of their peers — it could open up some great conversations on seeing things from a different perspective.

For some unknown reason, this is the first “Alice” book that I think I’ve ever read! The middle school librarian told me that she recommends this book frequently to girls that are reluctant readers. This story has lots of turbulent middle school relationship issues, which girls can definitely relate to. It also has enough sex talk to make a middle school reader feel like they’re getting away with something without being graphic. It’s a quick, easy read with lots going on to draw the reader in, so I can see why it’s a go-to rec for her!

This book by Meg Cabot was originally published under the pseudonym of Jenny Carroll. I was hesitant in picking up this book. Although I love my sci-fi, fantasy, and occasional vamp fiction I’m not generally into the paranormal genre. Namely because I’m extremely paranoid. But, hey, this is by Meg Cabot who was in the same fab Banned Books Week blog series by the Snoops with me (and don’t ask how many times I’ll bring that up, because the answer is as often as possible). I finished this book this morning and had to go to the library on my way home from work to get book two in the series. I loved it that much. Awesome characters and great storyline. I can’t wait to see what happens with Suze throughout the series!

At this point, that’s all I’ve got. Life is chaotic and I’ve got too much on my plate so my stress level is through the roof. Keeping up with things at the library ( & video announcements & yearbook & upcoming book fair). Grad school ( & endless homework). Car problems ( & my extreme disappointment with Audi). And life. It’s all very exhausting. It’s beyond me how people do everything AND have children. Yikes.