Monday, August 27, 2012

It's Monday! What are you Reading?




There's a new meme on the block, an offshoot of that seasoned meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  The newbie is called It's Monday! What are you reading? - from Picture Books to YA and it is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.  The purpose is the same: to recap what you have read and/or reviewed and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week but with a focus on kidlit.

Well, after two weeks of vacation at the shore, I can't say I managed to read as many books as I would have liked to, but what with great weather and four kids around, it was also a little hard to focus.  And of course, my recently returned from China daughter was home for a few weeks before heading out to San Francisco and naturally, I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her.  

Nevertheless, I did manage to do some reading:



Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion and Betrayal by Mal Peet.  A sophisticated YA novel in part about two men in the Dutch Resistance towards the end of World War II and in part about the granddaughter of one of them in contemporary London.



Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert.  A sequel to The Ark, this YA novel continues the story of the Lechow family, refugees from Pomerania, in post-war Germany









Black Radishes by Susan Lynn Meyer.  The suspense story about an 11 year old French Jewish boy and his family trying to avoid the Nazis and survive in Vichy France until their American visas arrive.  Great for middle grade readers.








T4 by Ann Clare LaZotte.  A YA novel in free verse, it tells the story of a 13 year old deaf girl living in Germany when the T4 law is passed, the Nazis so called Euthanasia program that let they do whatever they wanted to people with disabilities.   







Little Orphan Annie and her Junior Commandos by Harold Gray.  A retelling of the comic strip the helped mobilize thousands of kids around the country to collect scrap for the war effort.  An interesting piece of history.  









Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen by Donna Gephart.  In this middle grade/young YA novel, a young east coast girl dreams of becoming a kid contestant on Jeopardy, in part to be able to see her divorced father living in California with his new family, her former best friend and her mother.  A nice coming of age story.








I was hoping to be able to read the following:
The Absolutist by John Boyne
Madhattan Mystery by John J. Bonk
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Becoming Clementine by Jennifer Niven

10 comments:

  1. I've read Tamar-a good read, but don't know the others, & they all look good! I will look especially for Little Orphan Annie. What an interesting book it will be. Thanks!

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    1. Tamar was good and the LIttle Orphan Annie book was old, but fun to read. I wil probably blog about it soon.

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  2. Wow. This is my first time visiting your blog, and I am delighted. My children aren't quite old enough to study ww2, but I'll probably start compiling the list now, for books to read when they are.

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    1. Hi and welcome. I had hoped when I started this blog that people would use it as a teaching/learning resource, even though I sometimes do other things besides review. But no matter what I do, I try to make it kid friendly and WW2 related. Hope you find lots of good stuff here.

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  3. Looking forward to what you think about Moon over Manifest- it is a very controversial book. It is either loved or hated.

    As for everything else on your list- I haven't read any of them! Off to Goodreads to look them up.

    Happy reading this week! :)

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    1. I remember the big hoopla about Moon over Manifest when it came out and then won the Newbury, so I am belatedly looking forward to reading it.

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  4. It looks like you did get some good reading done! I want to read Black Radishes- it sounds so interesting. Awesome that you got to spend time with your daughter back from China. :) Happy reading.
    ~Jess

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    1. Yes, I did get some good reading don and Black Radishes is indeed a very interesting book. And it was fun to see my kiddo again, but now she is off in San Francisco so it will be a while before I see her again.

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  5. Tamar is one of my favourite books of all time and I had to pleasure to meet Mal Peet in Sydney and tell him so. I have just finished When We Were Two by Robert Newton which has just been awarded the Prime Minister's Literary Award in Australia. While this story is set during the time of World War One, it is one I would recommend to all those interested in children and war. The relationship between the two brothers is brilliantly depicted.

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    1. It must have bee fun to meet Mal Peet, I don't know that he has ever been in the US. When We Were Two sounds very interesting and I would love to read it but sometimes we have trouble getting books from Australia and New Zealand without the postage being prohibitive. But I have it on my desperate to find list and will keep on looking for it. Thanks for the suggestion, I am always open to them

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