Reading and challenges and reading challenges

I love to read. I've often said that I am one of the luckiest people around to find a job where my skills are in play - a love of books, understanding of technology integrations and a dash of nerdiness. Unfortunately, my job will be changing a bit next year - reassignment within the school - but that does not mean I cannot keep up with some of my loves.

I recently completed the Hub Reading Challenge. It was a joy and a pleasure to be a participant in this challenge and opened my eyes (literally I guess!) to so many books. For this challenge you had to read or listen to 25 books taken from the YALSA award list. The list can be found here. I had read several of the books previous to the challenge and had read all the Non-Fiction and Morris nominated books for a separate challenge. The ones I'd read independently I had to reread - the Non-Fiction and Morris nominated ones counted towards my list. I am waiting for some to come back from students to reread, but that's just icing on the cake - I have my 25 (28 actually, 30 if you count my reading some that were supposed to be audio books!). I read the following (goodreads list):

1. Love and Other Perishable Items
2. The Miseducation of Cameron Post
3. After the Snow
4. Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
5. We've Got a Job: The 1962 Birmingham Children's March
6. Wonder Show
7. Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thoughts Different
8. Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95
9. Seraphina
10. Titanic: Voices from the Disaster
11. Prom and Prejudice
12. My Friend Dahmer
13. Every Day
14. In Darkness
15. Enchanted
16. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
17. The Name of the Star
18. The Fault in our Stars
19. The Diviners
20. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol 1
21. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
22. Where'd You Go, Bernadette
23. I Hunt Killers
24. Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb
25. Code Name Verity
26. October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard
27. The Running Dream
28. Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am

If you go to my goodreads list it will link you to the covers, author names and general reviews by those who have read the books. If I can I will be trying to read seven more before the deadline (June 22nd). Some of these will be easy - there's at least three on the list that I just need to get back. Others I might have to pick up - worth it for a good book!

I've committed myself to the Nerdy Book Club Fifth Annual #bookaday Challenge. One book for every day of the summer. I can do it! 73 books in 73 days is not a bad thing. Some will be rereads but sounds like it's about the pace I read anyway!

At this point, I won't be a librarian next year. But that doesn't mean I can't continue my loud librarian ways. Resource units, book resources, reading challanges - it's all still part of being an educator! The challenge will be, of course, finding the time to continue what I do as a full time job, while I do a different full time job. I suspect I'll be the teacher who goes to the library with her classes the most!

And to end, my new lego minifig. If only this girl had bright red hair!

Book Review: 'See you at Harry's' by Jo Knowles

I had planned for ages to read 'See You at Harry's'. One of those books that kept coming up in my twitter feed and in scholastic orders, I planned to pick it up, but kept putting it off. Finally, I've read it. And I'm still thinking about it.

'See you at Harry's' is the story of twelve year old Fern. She's got a crazy family - as so often happens in Young Adult literature. Her Family are the owners of 'Harry's' a family ice cream restaurant. Ferns dad is always trying to find ways to boost business, her mom just wants to go off and meditate, her sister Sara is busy finding ways to not work, her brother Holden has a secret and a new friend. And there's Charlie - her younger brother and the three year old center of the universe. Fern is always trying to find time to be herself and to not be lost in this big, crazy family. While her friend Ran keeps saying "all will be well", Fern has not yet found evidence to support this calming mantra. She believes it when Ran says it - but then returns home and finds the chaos that surrounds her. And then it happens and the world is forever changed.

So, what is it? I can't say. It will ruin things for you. But it is what gripped me. I could picture this family - picture the three year old little boy saying 'See you at Hawee's' in the inane family commercial the dad made them film. I can see the conversations between Holden and Fern discussing his secret life. I can feel the trepidation of Fern as she enters High School. This family is well drawn and through that, drew me into their pain when it happens. Knowles went there and I wish I'd known that (I should have stopped wanting to read the book and instead read about the book). This book examines the feelings that each family member has when a major event happens to them and does so in a realistic manner - grief, guilt, forgiveness, blaming - it's all there. This is a realistic story of a girl who is trying to find her place and what happens to her and her family during this time.

If you're easily upset, read some reviews that give spoilers.

Goodreads Page