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.