#IMWAYR Labour Day 2022 Edition

The day before school starts, and as a result I fear this post will be a little late. We have been wrestling with the “gotta do this before summer is over,” activities and getting ready for the start of the school year. I meant to write this last night after doing a fair bit of the summer-to-school activities, but then I went to sleep instead.

Tomorrow is the start of my 24th year of teaching. I have a grade 5/6 class, as I have for most of the last decade, which I teach about 70% of the time. This is about my 11th year doing library, not consecutively though, and it accounts for about 30% of my time. I feel fortunate that I get to do classroom teaching and library. Nearly, all of the other elementary school librarians in my school teach prep, and that is a skill set (it’s usually art/drama/music to multiple grades) I don’t really have yet.

I spent the last few weeks reading books to recommend to the students in my class, but I have started ordering library books and now that they have been arriving I have more picture books this week. I am pleased to link-up this post with others at Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts, where you can find lots of great blogs to help you add to your To-Be-Read Towers.

Books I Enjoyed This Week

Last week I mentioned that I was reading this book, and I believe that I said it was a novel-in-verse, but its not. Like, Greenwald’s earlier book Game Changer, it is told in a mix of news reports, text messages, but mostly in prose. This book takes place in the same small town, football crazed world as Game Changer. Both are also about the culture of the sport of football, and not complimentary, but this one zeroes in a little bit more on the issues around concussions and the long-term impacts on brain health. Both books live in the gray area between loving these games, and seeing that they can be unsafe. They could be conversation starters for older kids who play contact sports.

Okay, honestly, this one really is a novel-in-verse. It is semi-autobiographical and has a lot going on. One thing that I am not sure will play to well with some students is that it is set in the 1980s. There are a lot of musical references and discussion about how to make mix tapes. Super fun for someone my age, but I am not sure how it will play with kids. I mentioned it to one of my children (12 and 15) and they said something to the effect of, so it’s like things you did, but in a historical fiction novel. Ouch! The Southern California setting is great though, and 13 year old Ava loves the chill surf and enjoy music with her friends lifestyle. Even though she seems to fit in really well here, she feels like she doesn’t because there is the pull of her Persian heritage. Her Mom wants her to be a doctor like her, and at family events she is supposed to hand out tea and appear to other Persian ladies as a potential wife. Sometimes, Ava doesn’t seem to fit in either world, and the absence of her father for most of her life plays a role too. Not to spoil things, but in the midst of this, there are also some health concerns for Ava (not really that developed though) and for one person in Ava’s life. Kids will relate to some of her experiences and enjoy others. I have lots of 12 and 13 year olds that love graphic novels and are likely to try this one.

Another novel-in-verse (I maybe should have saved these shorter books for while I was working), this one was an e-ARC from Edelweiss that is published on September 20. This cute little guy will be an easy sell to young readers thanks in part to the art from Charles Santoso, but also the story from Katherine Applegate. This book takes you through several parts of the life of Odder, a sea otter who is often very curious about things, and his lack of caution makes things tough for him. His life is not told in chronological order though, the book starts with Odder’s focus on play getting him into some trouble. He needs to be rescued by humans and readers learn not only a lot about sea otters and the creatures around them but about how groups like the Monterey Bay Aquarium rescues animals such as these. The book itself is based on their work. After Odder is rescued the rest of the book looks at his early years and about what he does post-recovery with the Monterey Bay Aquarium staff. I think kids will find it entertaining and educational similar to A Wolf Called Wander.

A great addition to this series, which I suppose does not have to be read in order, but I think is better if you have, this fifth Lady Pancake book is an homage to heist films like Oceans 11. When the light in the fridge is stolen, the friends find a way to get it back. With trademark wordplay, and fantastic worlds in the detailed illustrations, this won’t disappoint fans. I viewed this as an e-ARC and it’s scheduled to be published October 18.

Grumpy Monkey is a book I started reading with kids last year. They really enjoy it. It has humour and some lessons about social emotional learning (how to handle being grumpy, for one). Party Time is a picture book in which Jim Panzee, our title character, struggles accepting an invite to a party because dancing is not really his thing. He gives it a try though, and it works for a while. Eventually, Jim is ready to lose it, but when he finally shares his frustrations he sees that lots of other animals feel the same way and there are a lot of other things to do at this party. There is dancing scene with a baboon shaking “it” on the dance floor that will have kids laughing. The other two books here are early readers. I enjoyed Ready, Set, Bananas which had a hint of The Tortoise and the Hare in it. Get Your Grumps Out sees Jim think that he can get all his grumpiness out and then become a new person for the new year. His friend Norman reminds him to be himself after it just doesn’t work. I am sure there might have been a happy medium there, somewhere.

Lastly, a book that I first saw on Cheriee’s Library Matters blog. If you are Canadian, you know who Terry Fox is, if not you might need a crash course. He was a young man who lost a leg to cancer in the late 1970’s and then decided to run across Canada to raise money for Cancer research. His Marathon of Hope saw him run a marathon each day. Sadly, after about 140 days he had to stop because cancer had returned to his body. He passed before being able to finish his goal but schools and communities all over Canada run to raise money for Cancer research. This book is from the perspective of his best friend Doug, who supported him in the training for and during the Marathon of Hope. My library has a lot of Terry Fox books but this was still a necessary addition.

 

Thanks for stopping by to check out the books that I have read, have a great week, and if you have posted I look forward to stopping by your site as well.

 

The end of summer… sort of, #IMWAYR 8/29/22

This is the post that almost never was. I probably should have written this last night or early this morning but I was very anxious about organizing my school’s professional development today and so the post is very late. Also, I was travelling last week and I have this habit of reading without writing reviews as I go. Oops. I have a few very good books to talk about and will link this post up with other bloggers at Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, and will post this late for a few people that will see it.

Hope you all are enjoying some late summer vacation weather or a nice start to your school year.

Books I Enjoyed This Week

I accessed this book through Net Galley, it comes out September 6. It was an enjoyable, exciting MG thriller set in Toronto that details how a young girl, Rebecca Strand (I read a review that called her Rebecca Stead and all MG readers will understand that) and her father in the mid-19th century worked to be keepers that would use a special lens in a lighthouse to defeat ghosts. However, when the girl and her father are killed a “wakeful and wicked dead” named Viker, she enters a resting phase of existence until a young boy named Gabe, who tours people through the lighthouse in the 21st century, inadvertently wakes her and Viker up. This reignites their battle and Gabe has to get help from his friends to aid Rebecca, whom he develops a close connection with, to defeat Viker using their own created lights. A fast paced plot that I enjoyed.

This picture book was released at the beginning of August. No deep hidden meanings here, or moral lessons. But, if you are like funny books featuring cats, this is for you. I am a sucker for books illustrated by Lane Smith, to be honest, and also the cat’s behaviours in this book are often seen by my own cat, who lives in our house, and the two cats that adopted us about a year ago and mostly exist just outside our house. So much fun.

This is a very cute picture book that came out in July written by Canadian writer Casey Lyall and Caldecott Medal Winning illustrator Vera Bosgol. A witch is trying to show how to create her favourite recipe, for frog soup, but the frogs just won’t cooperate and be willing ingredients. So funny.

This is an upcoming Rick Riordan presents book that I accessed through NetGalley, it comes out on September 6. This book delves into the gray areas of “good” and “evil” as young Serwa deals with being left while her vampire hunting parents go after a witch that could threaten to reignite a war that threatens the whole world. What her parents don’t know is that there are other threats closeby Serwa and her cousin in the middle school she is attending. Serwa has to mobilize her new frenemies to battle the monsters and prove to her family that she is capable of dealing with the forces of evil, but Serwa discovers that not everything is so black and white. 

Currently Reading/On Deck Reads

I am reading these two novels in verse this week, and after that, I will have to see where the week takes me. Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been reading, I am looking forward to seeing what others have been up to.

#IMWAYR 8/22/22

This is the start of my last full week off. I have a three days of professional development sessions starting on Monday, next week and then the following week it is the start of another school year for me, with students in session. I have continued to focus on previewing books that I might purchase in the next few months for my school library with a couple that I just obtained thrown in. This week I noticed that I read a lot more picture books than usual.

I am happy to link my collection of books read this week with those of other bloggers at Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers, thanks to our hosts once again for setting us up this week. While I haven’t read as many books as normal this year, I have really enjoyed re-entering this community of bloggers and seeing lots of different viewpoints on books (some new to me, and some not).

Books I Enjoyed This Week

4.5 stars. I have read reviews, and promotional material suggesting this would be great for fans of DiCamillo or Applegate and I can see that. This is a warm hearted friendship story that takes place in a bizzare, colourful town. It’s a hopeful story. Things can change, they can get better, not everything, but even things that have been one way for a long time or seem inevitable. It also has one of the best exchanges between a father and a son, particular given that this relationship is not the focus on the story. I didn’t love the setting, when you read this one, you will know what I mean. But there are several passages that have really stuck with me since I finished it, parts that you will want to share with those people in your life that you immediately read to when you love something and want their opinion. I was able to read this through Edelweiss at it publishes on August 30.

More fun in the sequel to this new series from the author of Bird and Squirrel. Will Agent 9 succeed in his next mission and become Spy of the Month? Will his new partner spoil it for him or will he learn to work as part of a team? This is another book that I accessed through Edelweiss that is available on August 30.

Cute early reader, very early. These types of books tend to look a little like a graphic novel. This one is in a series and kids have loved the one that I had gifted to me last year. Over the summer I bought the first four and have read this one. It has full page colour art and a short story format.

Slight spoiler alert here. Kindness mattered but it seemed the egg only learned part of a lesson that helping, and organizing were his talents and he didn’t need an act at the next talent show. Not everyone has to be in a talent show. If you love the larger picture books in this series, there is more of the same here. Solid word play and humor leading to a message at the end. The art is always cute too.

If you love hockey and/or cliches on Canadian culture (pigs are referred to as Canadian Bacon and there is the obligatory poutine reference) this might be the one for you. The titular pigs avoid a more typical face-off with the Big Bad Wolf in favour of a hockey game against him, a bear and a moose. There are lots of hockey references mixed in like, “not by the (helmet) strap of my chinny-chin-chin,” Canadian food references in the art work as well. I accessed this one through Edelweiss but it already in stores.

The follow-up to The Most Magnificent Thing feels like it’s more suited to creators, I think it is dedicated to anyone who has had to look at an empty page, but the idea is one that I am sure I will be discussing with kids in the next few weeks. What to do when you do not have an idea. The young creator and her pet in this one certainly engage in a number of different strategies. This is a solid follow-up, but its also okay if you haven’t read the earlier story. This was another picture book I accessed through Edelweiss at is scheduled for release on my first day of school with students, September 6.

Ever since I started to work in the K-7 library, I have had lots of kids who declare David Shannon their favourite picture book author. One of the teachers at my school reads a lot of his stuff and that helps. So do pictures of kids running around in their underwear and/or involved in mayhem. They have made me familiar with his work and they are usually quite funny. His newest book is a spin on the tale of Midas. Max Midas is a kid who really only cares about gold. He gets very good at making money and acquiring more of it at pretty much any cost. He even sabotages another kids lemonade stand that was raising money for charity. When his love for gold goes too far, he is able to see what else he has been missing in life. I also obtained this from Edelweiss and it is also scheduled to be released on September 6.

Currently Reading/On Deck Reads

This is the book that I am about half finished as I write this. Kenneth Oppel’s newest arrives on September 6 and the cover tells a lot about the premise. That first sentence, “Rebecca Strand was sixteen the first time she saw her father kill a ghost…” kind of pulled me in.

I have some more e-ARCs in my options pile that come out in about two weeks…

And some physical books that I would love to preview before passing them to kids soon…

Thanks for stopping by to look at what I have been reading. Let me know if you have some ideas about what needs to be pulled off the options pile and into my hands. Hope you all had a great week and if you posted, I hope to see what you have read very soon.

Mid-August’s #IMWAYR Post

As a teacher on a Sept-end of June schedule, mid-August is kind of the marker that you are going back to school soon. For me, this has always meant me telling myself, you need to squeeze out any summer activities that you and your family wanted (needed) to get in. You might even want to start getting prepared (just mentally? or physically going into class/library) for the school year.

So, this week there was a fair amount of reading at the beginning of the week centered around what new books I might want to add to my K-7 library, or my 5-6 classroom, or to my School District’s Battle of the Books list. Later in the week, plans focused more on visiting family out of town, and virtually no reading. I am also shifting to more time spent on podcasts that are focussed on structured literacy. I am the Professional Development rep at my school and we have a session to kick off our school year that is two weeks from today (my District start with a three day Summer Institute for teachers and then student come the following week).

There were a few books I enjoyed this week and I am hoping to squeeze in a bunch more this summer. I let my list of ARCs guide my reading choices quite a bit this week. I keep a spreadsheet with them listed by release date, and try to read books about 2-4 weeks before their release. Sometimes I get behind and read them just before they come out. When I get a bit ahead, I pick an older book I have been wanting to read and just not making the time for. I am curious how others figure out what to read next. I know most of the people that come here, particularly those that blog and post to the link-up at Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts (thanks to our hosts for keeping this going) have massive to-read lists and there are just so many great choices out there.

Books I Enjoyed This Week

The third installment of the Nico Bravo graphic novel series continues the fun adventures of Nico and friends going up against or alongside figures from mythology. The plot separates Nico and his friends from his boss at the “celestial supply shop”, Vulcan and we see alternating parts to a related “crisis” that needs to be solved to save the world. To tell more, would spoil the second book for those that haven’t read it. If you have, rest assured that this book picks up where the second one left off. The humor is good and the art is excellent as one who has read this series has come to expect. My twelve year old was eager to continue in this series and it has a following in my library at school as well. I almost missed reading this one, as I didn’t record the expiry date of the ARC I got through NetGalley. It published Tuesday, August 9, and my daughter and I both had to read it on the 8th.

A thought provoking novel that takes place in Indonesia, Berani deals with some of the complexities of environmentalism, local government, and the economy while showing readers that life is full of difficult choices that require us to go outside of ourselves and understand how our choices impact others. The story is told from three different perspectives.
Malia is a young girl whose family has roots in Canada and Indonesia. While living with her mother in Indonesia, Malia enjoys a relatively privileged life attending a private school. One of her passions is environmental activism, but when she provides information to her fellow students that is not in line with how the local government views the issue, it causes problems for her teacher, principal and friend. Malia needs to reconcile the consequences of her activism on those around her, and learns about the challenges local economies face.
Ari is a young boy who lives and works with his uncle while attending a better school than his tenant farming parents would be able to send him to. He recognizes this is a privilege that comes at the expenses of his cousin, as his family could not afford to send both of them. His uncle’s restaurant has an orangutan, Ginger Juice, as an attraction, and Ari begins to see that it is wrong to keep the animal in captivity, but is not sure how to make his Uncle see this.
We also get brief passages from the perspective of the Ginger Juice, who has some memory of living in the wild before being captured, and see the descent in his physical and mental condition.
Ari struggles with understanding the responsibility to his family back home to obey and work for his uncle but also to stand up to his uncle about Ginger Juice’s condition.
The strength of the book is how the characters are able to learn that even things that seem black and white are quite complex. The resolution to both plots are satisfying as is the look at how things work in a society that is quite different to what North American readers are used to.

I was fortunate to get an ARC of this book from NetGalley and it’s initial publishing date was tomorrow, I am pretty sure it was pushed to August 30.

I just read an e-ARC that I received from NetGalley of this very sweet picture book. In this book, a daughter begins to see the differences in the way that she and her mother look with respect to her hair and skin colour. Her Mom’s soothing, calm words tell her that they are both beautiful in their own ways, and that there difference is okay. While walking with her Mom, the young girl sees animals and their babies that are different in appearance and this helps her to learn that it is okay that she doesn’t look exactly like her mother. Tasha Spillett-Sumner biography on her website states that she gets strength from her “Inninewak (Cree) and Trinidadian bloodlines,” and that is likely partially the inspiration for this story. I was only familiar with her graphic novels in the Surviving the City series which are short, but more in the YA category. I plan to track down her first picture book which published last year, I Sang You Down From the Stars, I know a few of the regular bloggers, Cheriee and Linda have read it, but I totally missed it when it came out well after our book budget was spent for the school year. Beautiful You, Beautiful Me is her second picture book and is publishing in mid-October, I have seen the 15th and the 18th but believe the latter to be correct.

This is a book I actually read a couple of weeks ago and missed writing about. I couldn’t add it to my Goodreads account (I still can’t find it there) and forgot to mark it down elsewhere. I really enjoyed the picture book’s simple statements about aspects of our character that we hope to see in ourselves and others. It works with translations in Cree from Delores Greyeyes Sand and illustrations from Gabrielle Grimard. It reminded me of an earlier book by this author, When We Are Kind. That book was popular with young listeners in the library and I think this one will be as well. I read an e-ARC from NetGalley but this one publishes in September. My indie bookseller says it arrives on the 13th.

Earlier, I had mentioned that I have a lot of books that I just haven’t made the time to read but really feel I should, and this is the only one that fits that criteria for this week, the rest were ARCs. I also don’t think I read quite enough non-fiction (NF) at the MG level, and that was why I chose this one. I have been wanting to add more NF to my classroom library and added this one a while ago but only just now read it. I loved Soontornvat’s A Wish in the Dark and with the buzz and awards that this book was getting I should have read it much sooner. This is a well researched book that tells a story most adults heard about at the time that it happened but that many of the kids I teach now might have forgotten or did not hear about as they were pretty young. It is a thrilling rescue of 13 members of a soccer team from a cave that flooded in Thailand.

Soontornvat grew up in the U.S. but her parents are Thai, and she wanted the story told from a Thai perspective. Her family helped her interview people who were there, and one of the many interesting things is how many people were involved in this rescue: literally thousands, from the US, UK, and Thai military people and diving experts, to the locals who had knowledge of the area including where water needed to be diverted to help save the kids and allow the divers access. Christina Soontornvat tries to balance telling as much of this story as she can while editing for length and showing how the complicated pieces came together. It has short chapters that should pull kids in the way it pulled a NF adverse reader like me in.

Lastly, we have an ARC from Edelweiss that I started reading shortly before I was getting set to travel last week. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take the tablet I use for e-ARCs but once I started this I had to keep going so I decided to bring it. In reality, I finished it before traveling because I had to keep going. I think my students will feel the same way. I read and enjoyed this Canadian author’s The Skeleton Tree and used it for my District’s Battle of the Books, and this one has some similarities in that there are kids who are separated from their parents/adults that are trying to survive in the wild.

Virgil is a twelve year old with some anxiety over being in an isolated forested area, especially without his mother who recently passed. However, he and his two older siblings are making the trip in their camper van to spread their mother’s ashes in a place that was special to their family. Their father just can’t handle making the trip but his older brother Josh (late teens? early 20s) can handle the driving and his sixteen year old sister is also an experienced camper whose sasquatch story inspire Virgil’s anxiety. The family has made this trip often. What could go wrong?

Just about everything, including the fire suggested in the title. To survive this ordeal, Virgil needs inner strength but also the science based teachings of his mother. Much of these are passed to the reader as flashbacks from Virgil’s memory. These flashbacks reminded me of the way Iain Lawrence told his main character’s story in The Skeleton Tree, as did the hint of supernatural, introspection and darkness. I have a lot of kids that love survival books and I will be adding this exciting story to my list of recommendations for them.

Currently Reading and On Deck Reads

It’s been a while since I have read a book by Dan Gemeinhart, whose writing I feel in love with while reading another survival story, The Honest Truth, so I was eager to start an e-ARC of The Midnight Children. I also have the second graphic novel in the newest series from the author of Bird and Squirrel, a popular early-mid graphic novel series.

That’s all I have to share this week. Thanks for stopping here to see what I have been reading. If you have a post to share as well, I hope to read what you have been up to. Have a great week, everyone!

#IMWAYR 8/8/22

Another week and summer is getting closer to an end. It’s hard to ignore that school is back in a month now that the calendar has turned to August and many educators are already back. I don’t normally feel this quite so deeply, but this summer was a very needed break. This past week, the family and I managed to make it up to visit my wife’s parents and that went well. We will head to my parent’s place soon as well, and plan to get some paddleboarding in. The weather has been warm, but not too much so, and we have been blessed with a lack of smoke in our skies. I feel for others who haven’t been as lucky this year. Also, a good summer for reading. I hadn’t finished nearly as many books in the first half of the year with demands at work being far more than in past years, but have been able to enjoy many more books in the last month or so.

I am happy to be able to share this post of a week of reading with other bloggers at our link-up at Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers. Check these sites out if you haven’t already and get loads of great ideas for your to-read lists. Thanks to Kellee, Ricki, and Jen for hosting.

 

Books I Enjoyed This Week

A board book that gives a little more detail on the parts and attachments on a tractor accompanied with rhyming, repetitive text about the purpose of the different parts. Lots of little ones that love tractors will appreciate this. I read an e-ARC of this on Edelweiss and it is supposed to be released tomorrow.

This picture book’s author had a familiar name, and it wasn’t until I marked it on Goodreads that I noticed she had a few series for teens including the Wicked Lovely series, which I recognize the covers, but no little about. I was drawn by the photos of the horses and I have a lot of kids that love horses, as I teach in a ranching community. These were photos of wild horses, and we have some of those near my school too. Photos are accompanied by poetry written by the author who clearly loves observing these horses in the wild. 

I mentioned this one last week, and I think it was favourite picture book of the week. A very subtle, wordless picture book that shows a cat waking up not really feeling up for the day. Cat’s friend Dog arrives and does his best to help. Through the pictures, readers can think about and discuss what it is like to feel the way that Cat feels, and what Dog can do to be a good friend. A good SEL title that came out on August 2.

This sequel to Nightbooks was even better than its predecessor. I loved the premise of a young author, Alex, having to sort through a graveyard of his old story ideas. I didn’t love the ending, to be honest (one of the characters made a decision that seemed too convenient for me) but the ideas in Alex’s stories were fun and a new, creepy villain was fun as well. If your students read Nightbooks, or watched the Netflix adaptation, they will really enjoy this next installment that comes out on August 16, I was able to get an e-ARC from Edelweiss.

I needed to read this 2013 release to find the connections to the author’s newest book, Drifters, which came out in May. This one was a good family read aloud in its own right, and I got the connections near the end of the book. This book is about a couple of kids who win a grant from the Fellowship for Alien Detection, they don’t know the work of the other until they come together with different pieces of the puzzle and a need to stop an alien plot that is controlling the mind of a small town.

This was a fun new graphic novel which, in the spirit of Roller Girl, describes how a girl deals with losing one of her best friends because their interests are not in alignment. Victoria likes horses, but her ex-bestie feels that competing in horse competition is the only way to go. Victoria can’t put that much of herself into it, even though she really enjoys riding.
Even readers who not into horses should be able to make connections to this, whether they think of another activity or sport (dance, hockey) where there is pressure to compete. Horse lovers will really appreciate the art and the parts of the story that take place at a stable.
The way that characters learn to handle having different interests from a friend or sibling made for a great resolution. I got an e-ARC of this from Edelweiss and it is out on August 16

I had heard that this might be the series finale, and I am not really sure from reading it. Could be. Anyways, fans of the series will enjoy this one, and the cover with the clowns will get the attention of kids looking for MG “scary” books.

This book took a little while to pick up on the cliffhanger ending of book three, it started to develop a plot of its own first, which eventually tied into the cliffhanger. However, the game between The Smiling Man and Coco and Brian picks up, as does the relationship with Ollie. The group gets a little more help from Phil and there is more interaction with their parents as well. This group has always used their brains to get the better of the evil Smiling Man and the resolution felt a little quick for me. There are also some interesting clues as to the past of The Smiling Man, and while I had heard this was the last book in the series, I think a prequel with his origin story might be even more interesting.

This is another picture book that I read an e-ARC of through Edelweiss. Like a few of the books here it comes out on August 16. This one, like Wild Horses, also has photographs. Each page has a photo of an animal with simple text for very young readers showing that the animals have the same body parts that the young readers do. I didn’t realize until the end pages that part of the point is to encourage positive body image. Not sure that young readers would either, but the pictures will please them for sure, and the repetitive, rhyming text probably makes it a good lap book for parents/guardians/grandparents and young readers.

Several years ago, I read and loved the book A Monster Calls, which is most often identified with the author Patrick Ness. I always remembered that the premise and idea for the book was actually conceived by Siobhan Dowd, but that she sadly passed away due to cancer before getting a chance to complete the book, and Ness wrote it based on the premise (they shared a publisher). As I really loved A Monster Calls, I thought it would be good to read one of the Dowd’s book and this was her second.

This book features an interesting main character Ted, who is on the autism spectrum, knows that he is on the higher functioning end of it, and feels that his brain runs on a “different operating system” from most people. When Ted’s cousin Salim goes missing, Ted and his older sister Kat are the last two people to see him. Their parents and Salim’s Mom (their Mom’s sister) are quite upset and do not want to listen to their theories to help solve the mystery of what happened when Salim did not appear to get off of the London Eye when he was supposed to. Eventually, they do have some ideas that might bear fruit if they check them out on their own, and one police officer is also very understanding. This pulls them into the heart of the mystery, and Ted is able to use his strengths to help out, and even his usually grumpy sister is an ally.

Currently Reading/On Deck Reads

I am currently reading this e-ARC that I got from Edelweiss. It publishes on August 16, its set in Indonesia and I enjoyed the beginning. It is tackling the complexities of environmental activism when it comes up against a needed part of the local economy, and does so from three perspectives.

After this book, I have a lot of e-ARCs to read but also want to try some books that are in paperback recently or about to be in paperback soon. I typically do this in August to find books to use for my school district’s Battle of the Books for the 2022-2023 year. I have a few good candidates that I have already read. If you have one that you think I should try, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Also, thanks for reading this far and for visiting my blog. If you posted as well this week, I plan to get to your site soon. Have a great week! 

 

#IMWAYR August 1

Um, what? August? How did this happen? It really snuck up on me. Not teaching for the month of July, I don’t always have a handle on the calendar, but as the month got close to turning it really struck me that about half of the summer is already over. Last week, I was travelling throughout my home province of BC. We made a loop from where I live to Vancouver and up the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler, stayed four days with some biking and hiking, and then drove home through Pemberton, and the Duffy Lake Road. The timing was likely perfect with the mountains being a good place to survive a heatwave, and the forest fire risk has crept up now to the point where travelling may be more difficult.

If you haven’t heard of Whistler, BC, it is basically a large ski resort but there is lots to do with the hiking and biking in the summer. We stayed about a kilometer outside the main village and that suited us as we are still not used to bigger crowds and the main village can be busy. We did walk through it a few times and my family and I were able to find a nice little indie bookstore with a well curated selection of PB, MG, and YA. I purchased an MG book by a BC author whose YA book is one of the books I will post about here. I am happy to link my post with others at Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers. Thanks to our excellent hosts for providing this space.

Books I Enjoyed This Week

This is a YA about an alien invasion of Earth, written by a BC writer. I picked up her MG book Pandas on the Eastside at Armchair Books in the Whistler Village. Zero Repeat Forever is the first of two books in a series. Cheriee at Library Matters posted about this one in her first post in July. It reminded me that I had read about it several years ago and just had never gotten around to reading it. I even passed it to my oldest and said, I think this will be a good book, you should read it. As the book is set in the Canadian Rockies, I thought it might be a good book to read while in the Coastal Mountains at Whistler. 16 year old Raven is an interesting character. Along with her boyfriend, and his twin, they are employed as part of  a court order, due to some mistakes they made, at a summer camp in the Rockies. When the ruthless Nahx invade their goal seems to be to shoot any human with a dart that will kill them. This story is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of Raven and a Nahx soldier called Eighth (his rank in their army). The humans decide to “shelter in place” waiting for the situation to improve. It only becomes more interesting as we read the perspective of the Nahx, who doesn’t speak and only knows some human language. Raven’s group becomes more split about what to do and she is not the type who obey’s authority, official or otherwise. There is a lot of interesting and subtle details about the invaders that drew comparisons to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Cheriee, which I found valid as well. I have also heard some comparisons to Beauty and the Beast and there are also several references to Poe, including the title. This is a very contemporary book, but has a bit of a classic feel at times. There is a mix of action and a lot of character development. 

This cute picture book is the follow up to How to Give a Cat a Bath. I didn’t like this one quite as much as that one, but it gave me a few chuckles for sure and cat people will really identify with the plot of this book. It is scheduled to be published September 27. The dog is also a bit of a show stealer.

This is another picture book that I got an early copy of from attending Picture Book Palooza (as was the case with How to Train Your Cat). It is scheduled to be published on the 23rd of this month. Fans of this duo’s Creepy Carrots and Creepy Pair of Underwear will really enjoy this book. The plot reminds me of the Kate Messner MG novel All the Answers. The title character is a crayon that does have all the answers and wants to be a big part of Jasper’s life. At first, Jasper loves it, but then it gets to be a bit much. I loved that Jasper feels better earning mediocre spelling marks compared to the easy A’s that the crayon can get him. There are some funny moments when the crayon insists on playing a big role in Jasper’s life.

I got this early chapter book for the library this year, but didn’t make the time to read it until a couple of days ago. The title character does a great job of explaining a lot about her traditional language and culture. I have a lot of students at my school who are about that age and involved in a language revitalization program at our school and they might appreciate reading about a character that is also doing so. In this first of a series, we get to see how Jo Jo struggles a bit at school and a misreads situations with her friends, but how when everyone demonstrates kindness, things work themselves out just fine.

I waited far too long to read this one. I saw lots of praise for it when it was published about three years ago. Last year, my classroom neighbour (grade 4/5) read it with her class and they all loved it. I teach 5/6 and have the school library about 30% of the time (small cut in time this year, don’t get me started! Grrr!) so I bought Rosanne Parry’s next book A Whale of the Wild for them, and promised them I would read this one over the summer. This book is for students who prefer non-fiction and are just getting into chapter books. It is based on the real events of a wolf who travelled a great distance from his home. Young readers will learn a lot about wolves. The story is told from the wolf’s perspective and I loved the parts where you learn how he feels about events that necessitate his travels. This one gets into the dirty details of the wolf’s life. It was a really good read.

Currently Reading/Up Next

My family and I are finishing what might be our last read aloud this week, The Fellowship for Alien Detection. We have been finding it harder to manage finding titles that everyone wants to listen to and times that everyone wants to sit down to do it. We are discussing a family reading time. It’s a fluid situation but I was hoping this would last a little longer (my kids are 15 and 12). I am going to be starting Gravebooks later today, the sequel to Nightbooks, an MG novel that was also adapted into a film on Netflix. I also have some picture books I will be reading, one of which, Blanket by Ruth Ohi, publishes tomorrow. Thanks for stopping here, have a great week, and if you posted your reading week in review somewhere I hope I get to read it soon.

#IMWAYR July 25

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. My family is enjoying getting caught up with things that we don’t make time for around the house during the school year (this is a lie, but these things are totally necessary). We are also enjoying the warm, but not too hot weather (although it is supposed to be way too warm this week), mixing some social times with some travel and a this week some fun reading.

I am pleased to link my post up with those at Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts. Once again, thanks to our hosts, Kellee, Ricki and Jen for running this fun link-up that is a great place to see what new (and sometimes older) books people have been reading.

Books I Enjoyed This Week

This is the third book of Dusti Bowling’s early chapter series that is a spin-off of her MG duology starring Aven Green, a spunky heroine who hilariously deals with life including some of the challenges she faces as a result of having no arms. In the original MG books, the thing that really makes the books work is her sense of humour. While I also like the chapter books, younger Aven does not have quite the same snarkiness, although she does have an interesting personality. Most of these books feature Aven making mistakes and learning how to fix them. In this one, the school talent show is coming up and Aven thinks it will be really easy to learn any musical instrument and perform a song, maybe Mozart? Well, she learns that musical instruments take time to learn and even more to master. I was lucky to get this from Edelweiss and I think it is scheduled to come out on August 9.

Just so you know, since reading Jeff Zentner’s The Serpent King, I read everything that I can get my hands on by him. This was the last one on my list until he publishes something else (it’s only four so far). His books are filled with great characters, changing relationships and lots of feelings. This was probably the most funny of his four novels, and that might be because the two young ladies in this book have kind of a kooky job while being best friends at high school. They host a public access TV show called Midnite Matinee which screens cheesy old horror movies alongside their campy skits and commentary. As they finish their senior year, they know that if the show does not hit it big soon they may have to change their plans in order to follow their respective dreams. Delia has to deal with looking after her Mom and her own mental health challenges, and deciding if she wants to follow-up on the private investigator’s report that she commissions to find out where her long estranged father is. Josie doesn’t want to let Delia down because she knows the show is the best thing in her life, but also feels pressure from her family to take advantage of another opportunity in TV.

This is a simple and cute book about a boy obsessed with dinosaurs, and his imagine running a little wild as he pretends to be one. The rhyming text takes us through the boy as he is supposed to be getting ready for bed but can’t find any clothes that fit him (as a dinosaur). The images that show his shadow and his image in the mirror juxtaposed with what he is really thinking are fun as well.

This is the third book in the author’s “Indigenous Narnia” series called the Misewa Saga. It started with The Barren Grounds, and then came The Great Bear, which was oddly challenged by a school district in Ontario last school year. I still can’t understand that one. Hard to tell you too much about a third book without spoilers on the first two, but I will say that in this story two young Indigenous kids in Manitoba are placed in foster care with a white family in Winnipeg. They are well meaning people but they sometimes try too hard and just annoy Morgan, a teenaged girl who has been through a lot of foster homes and has no connection to her family or her culture. Also in the house, is the younger Eli. This is his first foster home, and he has a much stronger connection to his people and the land, but something happened to have him taken into foster care as well. The children find a portal that leads them to another world through the attic of the home and embark on a series of adventures with animal characters that embody some of the traditional ways of living for Indigenous peoples in Manitoba, partly based on the author’s experiences with his father. I was able to get this one from NetGalley and it is scheduled to be released on August 2.

I think this was my favourite of the three. It picked up right where the cliffhanger in the second book left us, there were some interesting and nasty creatures. At one point, I wondered how the book would carry through the last half as one of the issues was basically solved but a setting change made for an interesting connection to one of the author’s other books, and sets up possibilities for more books in the future.

I read about this one at Literacy on the Mind, by Lisa Maucione last week. Branches books can be a big hit at my school and she sold me on this one. It was a quick download from Edelweiss and a very fast early chapter read. I agree with her assessment that it is a lot of fun, and I think kids will enjoy the many different animal characters involved in the conflict for the neighbourhood between our full of himself main character, Ember and the squirrel that the other animals says runs the show on this street. Ember makes friends and enemies and his views on life are funny. There is an overt set-up of the next book in this series that I think I will need to purchase next year.

Currently Reading

I just started Zero Repeat Forever, a YA sci-fi that I am inspired to read by a review that I read so long ago I don’t remember whose it was. It is an author from my home province and that is also part of it. The book had an X-Files vibe to it and I enjoyed that TV show. I have had it for so long that I was able to recommend it to my now 15 year old daughter who read it about a year ago. I also saw the sequel on Cheriee Weichel’s blog Library Matters quite a while ago, and then recently she tackled this book as well. This was the final kick in the pants to start reading it. My wife and my 12 year old are working through Kevin Emerson’s The Fellowship for Alien Detection. There have been a lot of mysteries in this one and we are starting to get some of them solved. Both of my books have a lot to do with aliens on our planet. That was not planned.

I was going to read Kara LaReau’s Revenge of Zombert, but my ARC expired and I am not able to download it again. That is too bad for me, I should pay better attention. I look at the publishing date and try to read an ARC a couple of weeks before they release. The expiry dates are sometimes a little hidden but I should pay more attention to them. I enjoyed the first book in that series. 

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been reading this week, I hope to get to read about what others have read this week in the coming days.

#IMWAYR July 18, 2022

Happy Monday to everyone! I spent most of my weekend watching the BC Softball Provincials (kind of a niche sport, but I played it so much growing up). My Dad was one of the coaches of a team, and his team made a deep run in the playoffs before finishing third (great result for a young, inexperienced group). We were a dusty, slightly sunburned group at the end of the three days, and as a result I didn’t write this post Sunday night, as I had intended. Lucky for me, summer vacation means I can write in later Monday.

I am happy to link this post up with Kellee and Ricki’s link-up at Unleashing Readers and with Jen’s at Teach Mentor Text. Thanks to the hosts for giving us a great place to share our reviews and read others.

Books I Enjoyed This Week

Some of this I wrote last week about this book before I had finished it. This is a Peter Parker as Spiderman story that slides into that multiverse comfortably with the other stories with familiar villains and mostly familiar love interest MJ. This is clearly MG though and the love interest stuff is mostly around their crush, so far. Peter is a sophomore in high school trying to juggle school, his nightly rounds as Spiderman, and a new job as a photo intern for the Daily Bugle. As the title indicates, there is a quite an emphasis on social media here. Instagram and Twitter specifically, which made me wonder- do younger MG readers use Twitter? Was this a good idea? Mine are pretty much only using Snapchat. At any rate, the ending of this was leads into the next book of this planned three part series in a way that is somewhat satisfying but also leaves you wanting more. In other words, quite the way the first book in a series should.

A perfect Mercy Watson Christmas story in picture book form bringing back lots of beloved characters from the original Mercy Watson books and the Tales from Deckawoo Drive chapter books combined with Kate’s trademark use of language. Also, toast! If you know this series, you know what that means. I got this e-ARC from Edelweiss and it is expected on September 27.

This will make a great Global Read Aloud (GRA) book and it’s selection and setting begs comparisons to The Bridge Home with the hopefulness of Amal Unbound (two previous GRA titles). Global Read Aloud is a reading phenomenon started by Pernille Ripp, an educator formerly based in Wisconsin, but now in Denmark. It encourages classes around the world to read the same book and discuss.

This book, set in Mumbai, with its focus on such an important issue as the absence of clean drinking water as a basic right for everyone, will create great opportunities for discussion. But not only that, this book is a great view into a life that for many readers will seem both impoverished and rich. Minni’s family has a lot working against them. They live in a poor area of the city with no running water. But they live with pride, work hard, support others, and the way that their community supports them through tough times is a great part of this story.

Finally, I have this graphic novel that like Spider-Man’s Social Dilemma is the first in a series. The Lightfall series became one of my go-to books to hand kids that were waiting for the next Amulet book. In this first book, there is the typical amount of world building as Bea, the girl meets her new friend Cad (although Bea is not sure about her at first). Bea lives with her grandfather, a Pig Wizard and helps him find ingredients for healing potions. On one of her journeys to gather supplies she runs into danger and meets Cad, an adventurer and one of the last of his species of Galdurians. When they return to her grandfather’s place he is gone and there is a mysterious note telling them not to follow him, but giving them enough information to do so if they wish. These two characters are classic opposites with Cad treating every problem like a new adventure to attack and Bea feeling anxiety over the uncertainty. As it becomes clear that their once prosperous world might plunge into eternal darkness, this pair heads out to prevent it. The art is excellent, and draws in a lot of the fantasy graphic novel readers. I plan to read the second one soon, it came out in the Spring and hasn’t been in the library much since. I have kids already asking for the third at school.

Currently Reading

My family is still making our way through the middle grade sci-fi The Fellowship for Alien Detection by Kevin Emerson in which two kids earn a Fellowship grant to pursue evidence of alien life. They work separately but there is always a chance that their efforts might come together later in the book. I am reading Jeff Zentner’s YA novel Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee because I love Zentner’s writing. The humour, characters and dialogue always pull me in. I am about half finished both of these.

On Deck Reads

These are two e-ARCs I am considering reading in the next two weeks or so, and I have some picture books from SLJ’s Picture Book Palooza, which was last week. I wasn’t able to attend live and online, but was able to check out some of the stuff after the event ended. Thanks for stopping by this week, and I hope you all have a great week of reading.

#IMWAYR, July 11

This is likely to be one of the shorter posts that I write. It seemed like I read a fair bit this week, considering I am off work for summer break maybe not, but I didn’t finish many books. However, I still wanted to write a post as it gives me a nudge to check out the other great posts that link-up at Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts. Thanks to Kellee and Ricki at (UR) and Jen at (TMT) for hosting an excellent link-up each week for readers of picture books, MG, and YA (for the most part).

The relatively mild summer weather is quite welcome here as it makes for a quieter start to what has become known as forest fire season (I preferred the term summer growing up). It also means we can do more outside and maybe that accounts for less reading time. Truth be told, sometimes I would read a couple books quickly to have more to post, or not post at all. Here is the book I really enjoyed this week and some that I am in progress with.

Books I Enjoyed

This is the last book in the series Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan in which the god Apollo is punished by Zeus, who strips him of his godly powers and forces him to inhabit the body of Lester Papadopoulos, a very ordinary teen. Through this five book series, Apollo/Lester has to learn some humility and build relationships with mortals and demigods. Initially, of course, his goal is to gain his powers back, but he certainly learns that listening to others, and making time for/with them is more important. In some spaces, this book is referred to as the fifteenth Percy Jackson book, but the series really stands on its own with brief cameos from characters in that series (with one exception). It’s a little like all those Marvel movies. You can spend too much time figuring out which order to view them all in or just enjoy one. This series is maybe not as great as Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus but it blends action and humour in Rick Riordan’s trademark style with a little more heart through in via Apollo/Lester’s character arc.

Currently Reading

These are the two books that I am currently reading. Spiderman’s Social Dilemma comes out tomorrow. My e-ARC will likely expire but I am more than half finished, so I hope to complete it today. This is a Peter Parker as Spiderman story that slides into that multiverse comfortably with the other stories with familiar villains and mostly familiar love interest MJ. This is clearly MG though and the love interest stuff is mostly around their crush, so far. Peter is a sophomore in high school trying to juggle school, his nightly rounds as Spiderman, and a new job as a photo intern for the Daily Bugle. As the title indicates, there is a quite an emphasis on social media here (Instagram and Twitter- do younger MG readers use Twitter? was this a good idea). The plot has my interest, and I have lots of readers interested in Spiderman, however, they are usually younger, and not yet ready for 300+ page novels. This is what made me want to see if this first book of a three book series is going to work for my patrons.

I am reading The Fellowship for Alien Detection with my youngest (12) and my wife. My wife and I recently devoured Kevin Emerson’s Drifters and there is a loose connection between that new book, his series Chronicles of the Dark Star and this older one that we hope gets more clear by the end. There are kids working with a grant to discover more about alien life on earth.

Thanks for stopping here this week. Next week, I hope to have a review of Spiderman’s Social Dilemma, which is out tomorrow, and one of this year’s Global Read Aloud books. Happy reading, and if you are blogging this week, I hope to check out your stuff in the next few days.

The First Monday of Summer #IMWAYR post

I wasn’t sure how to spend the first few days of my summer break. It wasn’t the greatest school year. If I am being honest, it’s probably in the bottom 3 (out of 20+) years. The way things went, my reading time, and consequently my time writing about reading really took a hit, so about ten minutes ago I decided that writing this post, and reading what others write is the best way to spend my Monday (which just started). I just started vacation and am reacquainting myself with the device I use to read e-ARCs. All of these came from Edelweiss at some point.

I am happy to link up this post with others at Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts. Thanks to Jen V., Kellee and Ricki for hosting this link-up.

Books I Enjoyed This Week

I wasn’t really sure what to think of this one. It tells a story that is based on Greek mythology but there is a fair bit of artistic license, more than I am used to on this topic. Part of me wanted to be critical of that (it does change some of the message, but maybe its a positive one?), and part of me wants to recognize that some of it will make this more accessible. It’s an interesting story that tells the role of Gaia in many different events such as the Trojan War. This book is scheduled for release on August 9.

As a librarian, I usually have more trouble selling early chapter books than any other type of book. Maybe it is that I don’t love too many of them. I tend to find the period of time in which readers are able to read these books, but not wanting more satisfying plots to be very small indeed. I wanted to love this book because it is by the author of a series of Anne of Green Gables early chapter book, and I really love those. This one wasn’t quite as good for me though. Some things I liked was that it put a witch that lived in the country into a city, specifically, an old fashioned department store. I liked how the book examined some of the differences in the way Crimson sees the world compared to the others in the department store. I just thought that the way problems were solved were a little simple. Maybe some young readers will appreciate this book which has a little bit of magic and some nice sketched illustrations. It comes out on July 12.

There is a lot to like here from Wesley King, in a novel that in many ways resembles his excellent OCDaniel. As was the case in his Edgar Winning MG novel, he draws from his own (family) history, this time to show us the story of a neurodivergent boy named Green. Another similarity is that there is a mystery in the background along with some really great character development. Here, Green and his brother Cedar need to find out who has committed a crime that Green is suspected of. The portrait of Green, who is on the ASD spectrum is well written, including the explanation and use of the term Aspberger’s, which is where the novel gets its bizarre name (not going to lie, I am curious how that name helps/hurts the book with kids). There are a number of other characterizations I really enjoyed. Green’s older brother having to learn that Green is different but okay, while also managing his overuse of social media as a wannabe TikTok star. Their basketball coach learning to deal with mistakes he makes and his temper. A great add to any MG library and if you were a fan of OCDaniel this will certainly be a must read. It was great Canada Day read for me. It is scheduled to come out on August 23.

Another two pack of funny tales featuring Batpig, a character I have a soft spot for since his first appearance as a cartoon character drawn by the protagonist of Rob Harrell’s novel Wink. The first of the two stories here had lots students can relate to, having a class that feels like it could last forever. Only Batpig can figure out how to get time going again to stop a never-ending fractions lesson. In the second, our hero meets his hero and needs his help thwarting an alien attack from a taco restaurant. Zany actions abound to stop the super villains. This second Batpig graphic novel came out on June 28.

This was a novel in verse that seemed partly autobiographical. Claire is a smart fifth grade girl that dreams of attending the state championships in gymnastics and she has never been afraid of working hard to nail a skill. But one obstacle to making state championships is how much trouble she gets in at school. She arrives at the principal’s office so often that she knows exactly what food he has there each day for hungry children. It is slowly revealed that one of the reasons she refers herself or gets sent there is that she is unable to read. She is smart enough that she has been able to develop strategies to get by in school without the ability to read.
The book reveals a large network of people that are willing to support her and get her the help that she needs. There is a bully that never helps her (I wish he were dealt with) but the very last person that come on board to support her is a little bit of a twist, and I wonder if this part was autobiographical. A story that seeks to inspire kids to overcome obstacles and use the people around them as support. This book arrives on July 12 and will be great for fans of books like Starfish and BenBee and the Teacher Griefer.

Cheating, I Didn’t Enjoy These This Week But in an Overworked-Non-bloggable Week Earlier This Year

 

Anne of Green Gables meets Terminator? What??? Well, actually it’s just two old friends that you used to know going through something a fair bit worse than Covid 19. If you loved Anne of Green Gables, well, you will be in from the dedication. The strength of this book if you didn’t love the original two characters that the main characters here seem to be based on (Anne and Gilbert)? Well it has Gabe and Renne’s search for hope and something to look forward to during a period of time they refer to as the After (as in after the end of the world, as they knew it). Two things that are familiar, but not together, will it work? I think it does. Sweet with some nice messages for kids that are navigating a different kind of After, but one that is also very impactful. This book was published on June 28.

I am a sucker for A.S. King novels. I make that known whenever I talk about them because I find hers not to be for everyone. They are sometimes just not someone’s cup of tea. But I find something to love in all of them, including this MG book (she uses the name Amy Sarig King for her MG). This is a book that lives in the grey areas of life where there is uncertainty, where things might be a little less comfortable to talk about. It stands there, waving its arms in the air so you see it and hang out with it for a bit. There might be, well let’s be honest, there is, uncertainty in life, but more importantly, there is still truth and we need to find it and display it for all to see.

Sixth grader Mac, and his friends Denis and Marci have to fight their teacher, their principal and even their school board after a Lit Circle novel is censored because someone does not feel that kids their age can handle certain truths. Mac’s family (a mother, father and grandad) also teach him, in very different ways, about the importance of truth.

This feels like a really important message in our times, and could have ended up a little preachy, but Amy Sarig King handles it with her typical wisdom exposing some truth and letting you, as Mac puts it “make your own mind up.” Her twelve year olds are searching for truth and knowledge to learn everything about their world so they can keep being themselves while making the world a better place, and you’ve got to love showing that to young people.

Currently Reading/Next Up for me

My family and I are reading The Fellowship for Alien Detection because my wife and I have recently enjoyed Kevin Emerson’s Drifters and we wanted to read up on any connections that might exist between his other time travel books. I am about to start another e-ARC, this one about Spiderman. Honestly, I had so many requests for Spiderman books this year that I needed to check this one out for a possible purchase before next school year. Lastly, I need a book that is not on my e-ARC device and I realized the other day that I had never finished the fifth Trials of Apollo (or 15th Percy Jackson- if you would rather) book. It seemed wrong to read so much of a series and not finish it. Even if it has been two years since I read the preceding one. It feels like about that long since I finished writing a blog post, but that school year… Thanks for checking this out, and have a great week of reading. Happy Belated Canada Day to my Canadian friends (did you notice several of these were written by Canadians?-probably you did), and Happy Fourth of July to everyone south of the border.