#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.