Welcome to Litsy!

This was a wonderful read. Quinn(ie) is an eighth grader trying to figure out exactly who she is. Her seemingly perfect brother just left for college, and now her parents are fighting more than ever. She‘s been friends with Jack for years, but things change after Jade joins their class. Then her home is hit by a tornado. As she learns to write poetry, she works through all of these things and grows in her own direction.

I‘ve slowly read some not so great books recently, so I picked this up for a quick read. It reminds me a bit of Love that Dog in the way it‘s written as Quinn is learning about and writing poetry, as well as dealing with some tough aspects of life. Her parents‘ relationship is rocky and her neighborhood is hit by a tornado. I‘m enjoying it and really liked this bit about personification.

#MiddleGrade #NovelInVerse #MsDsLibrary #TRS2023

My aunt gifted my class library the Missouri Truman Award Nominees for next school year! I spent some time this morning getting them labeled to put on the shelves. I‘m taking the tagged home to hopefully read soon.

#TeachersOfLitsy #MsDsLibrary #TRS2023 #MiddleGrade #YA

Years after civilization collapsed, people are working to bring back the technology that allowed connection. Yoly plans to take advantage of education to become one of those with technological knowledge to help herself & her sister escape their subsistence farm life. Yet, as she learns about the control involved in the tech and the truth about animals such as bees, she begins to make different plans to help her community.

#TRS2023 #MiddleGrade

I have an online snow day today, so I had a few Zoom meetings this morning but also time to finish this magical story. I thoroughly enjoyed the world building and characters in this story. It‘s very much about friendship and prejudice as well. I could see some of the events coming but there were still plenty of interesting twists. It‘s clearly the beginning of a series, but it also contained a complete story.

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #TRS2023

I fit in one more audiobook this afternoon to round out my end of year stats. This is a middle grade novel about bullying, the ones being bullied, the ones participating as a method of self protection, and the ones bullying. I liked it and I think it has a good message, but I‘ll be curious as to whether the girls it‘s intended for will appreciate and learn from it as well.

#MiddleGrade #TRS2023 #audiobook

This would be a perfect fall read, and Luthien thinks I‘ve stayed up too late reading the rest of it! Anna is a teenager in a family with psychic powers that also run a bed & breakfast. She meets Colin, who is just now learning his own connection to magic after the murder of his parents. Together they work to find the killers. The book has a sequel, but it also works very well as an independent story.

#MiddleGrade #TRS2023

After reviewing this yesterday evening, I thought about it a bit more and decided to share these panels. The story gives some clear insight into what it can feel like for the kid or teen with ADHD, to which I feel several of my students could relate. Then, I connected personally with and loved the cultural references included while also wondering how many of them my students would get.

#memoir #nonfiction #GraphicNovel #MiddleGrade #TRS2023

This is a graphic novel memoir of the author‘s experiences from the time of his ADHD diagnosis at age 8 through his high school graduation. It seems to be set mostly in the late 1980s into the 1990s and focuses quite a bit on counseling and the use of Ritalin. Additionally, it deals with the family‘s struggles. It includes several pages of factual research interspersed through the story.

#Nonfiction #GraphicNovel #Memoir #MiddleGrade #TRS2023

Caleb is the son of a former NFL player and the star quarterback of his high school team while still a freshman. He deals with the pressure of football, a girlfriend who‘s not really a football fan, and his father‘s increasingly erratic behavior which seems to be caused by his football career. Greenwald wants readers to think about the potential dangers of football at all levels, but he also clearly expresses the joy and intensity of the game.