It’s late in the

afternoon because I wanted to finish  The Windy City – IQ 5 before I wrote the post.  I wanted  to see if it was something you’d like reading.  I think it is!  IQ is a series of six books by Roland Smith.  The series is full of action, mystery and excitement.  Q (short for Quest) and Angela have recently become step-brother and sister.  Their parents are musicians  and their new songs have rocked to the top of the charts.  The band is touring the United States.  Q and Angela are traveling with them, but something is up.  A terrorist ghost cell seems to be following them wherever they go.  Philadelphia to Washington DC to Kitty Hawk and San Antonio and now Chicago.  Somehow Boone, who manages the roadies, takes care of things.  He’s not what he seems.  Is he FBI, CIA, something else?  Is he who he says he is?  He shows up in the strangest places and in the strangest ways.   Can he be trusted?   It will take until the last book to know. (I’ll be starting that one tonight!)  The six books are all one story, so you do need to begin with the first and read on.  IQ is fast paced and exciting, full of espionage and gadgets. If you’re up for an action-packed adventure make sure you give IQ a try.

Kelsey, in Kelsey Green Reading Queen by Claudia Mills loves to read.  She reads whenever she can, especially when the principal announces a school-wide reading contest.  If the students from Franklin School can read 2000 books in one month he says he’ll shave off his beard.  That’s pretty amazing.  It is sort of his trademark.  Kelsey wants to be the top reader, but she also wants her class to be the top reading class and that leads her to do some amazing things – some good and some not so good.  You’ll have fun reading this first book in the Franklin School  Friends series.

Annnika Riz, Math Whiz is the second title in the series.  Just as Kelsey loved to read, Annika loves math.  She sees the beauty of the patterns and the usefulness of numbers.  She loves fractions and decimals.  She knows that numbers or precise and dependable.  Annika hopes to win the city sudoku contest and she hopes to contribute to the school carnival.  Some things work out and some things don’t.  You’ll have to read it to see how it goes.  The kids in this class are like kids everywhere – they have their strengths and their weaknesses – but they are totally better together!

Suzanne Selfors writes the Imaginary Veterinary series that some of us are reading in book clubs this month. I wondered if her other books would be just right too. That’s why I got Smells Like Dog. This is a great story is great ~ the first book in a trilogy. It begins with a letter from the author letting you know it isn’t a sad dog book so you don’t have to worry about that. It also begins on a Sunday morning at the Pudding (that’s the family’s last name) goat farm in Milkydale where no one it seems is particularly happy.  It just is, what it is. And then everything changes. First here is untimely death of Uncle Drake.  Then Homer inherits his prize possession, a basset hound.   And next, the delivery of a silver invitation from the Museum of Natural History pulls Homer from his ordinary, boring, farm-life into a treasure hunting life in The City. Coins, cloud machines, lairs, allies and villains. It’s quite an adventured a series, you won’t want to miss.

Last week I read some interesting and different books.  The  first book was The Silver Gate by Kristin Bailey.  Set in medieval times, when superstitions run high, and anything different is seen as an omen or curse, the people of the village are on edge.  They’ve been dealing with one unexplained hardship after another.  Perhaps there is a fairy curse set upon them – perhaps a changeling lives so far unknown in the village.  The child must be left to die so the rest of the villagers can survive – at least that’s the rumor running through the town.

Elric is running to the village church to get out of torrential spring storm.  The whole village is gathered there for warmth and safety.  Elric is the keeper of the village sheep and he’s lost them all in the storm.  He knows he has muddy cold work ahead of him as he talks to Hereward the keeper of the pigs.  Everyone is crowded, uncomfortable and on edge, and then a baby starts wailing.

“Shut him up,” the townspeople yell.  “We’ve been cursed.”

It’s a changeling.”

“Cuthburt take the child and leave it outside where it belongs.  The fairies can just take it back if it’s supposed to live.”

“What does it matter, it’s just a halfwit,” yells Hereward. That’s all Elric can take.  No one should live in fear of losing their child, half-wit or not.  He helps the mother of the crying baby escape the church mob by throwing a punch at Hereward, the one who has claimed that halfwits have no reason to live.  The brawl is ended by the priest. Elric can’t explain himself, nor will he apologize so he leaves.

He does this  to keep his biggest secret.  His mother is hiding and living with his disabled, “halfwit” sister in the forest.  With all the talk or curses, he must go and warn them and in doing so he set out on a quest bound by love and duty to his mother, to keep his sister, Wynnfrith, safe.  How can you stay safe when the place you seek is a place in a fairy tale.  How can can trusting in fairy tales help them survive?  Read The Silver Gate  to find out ~ sometimes you have to bring magic of your own to open doors.

It’s summer on Woodlawn Street and all the neighborhood kids have the whole summer before them. Minty Fresh and Pax a Punch (their derby names) are practicing their roller derby routine in the 4^th of July Parade.  Their older teen-age sisters are talking about music, babysitting jobs and offering advice about how to survive middle school.  Lennie, Pax’ s younger sister wants to join in the skating moves, but she’s lumped in with her “not-old-enough” younger brothers and so she’s moping.  Of course the “Mean Boys” – David and Troy – come by.  They are always playing pranks that no one thinks are funny.

It’s all pretty ordinary until Paz get’s a terrible cramping stomachache, there is an unusual rustling and some sudden flashes in the woods.  Lennie is convinced it is the Man-Bat – a local legend said to attack and eat it victims. On her way home to get her dad, a doctor to check on Pax, Minty chases the source of the flashes.  She can’t catch the person but discovers a note in Crazy Ike’s tree:  The Secret Tree.  And just like that, Minty’s summer was centered on discovering which secrets belong to which of her friends.  There’s a lot of spy work involved and Minty “…was learning this thing about secrets:  Even if they’re not about you, once you know them, they feel like they could be about you.  Every secret connects to something inside of you, whether you know it a first or not.” (p. 148) There are good secrets and bad secrets – The Secret Tree has both.  Here are just a few:  I put a curse on my enemy.  And it’s working.  I’M BETRAYING MY BEST FRIEND IN A TERRIBLE WAY. No one loves me except my goldfish. Which secrets do you tell?  Which secrets do you keep?  Read The Secret Tree to find out what Minty does with the secrets she discovers – you’ll be glad you did.

The Special Survival Issue ~ Mooch is the 13 book in the Aldo Zelnek Comic Novel series.  If you know anything about Aldo, you know that is does not like the outdoors and he definitely does not like anything that makes him sweaty.  His mom’s a nature health nut and she’s planned a four day backpacking trip hoping to help Aldo become more mature so he will be successful in middle school.

She planned it with Mrs. Shoemaker and her son Marvin.  Things begin interesting enough with stops at Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde National Park and Four Corners.  The last stop in the forest in Utah to find the rare Mexican Spotted Owl is where things turn for the worse and Aldo finds that he has to hike for four days with a “50 pound” frame pack on.  It heavy and it’s hot…

Can he do it?  You’ll snicker and chuckle, maybe, even laugh out loud, as you read to find out what Aldo will do to stay mature, win the sling-shot and keep his dog alive. You can start with this book, but you may want to begin with Artsy-Fartsy, Bogus, Cahoots…and so on through the alphabet until you get to Mooch.  Aldo and his friends are great!

We’d love to know what you are reading and what you recommend.  Leave a comment to lets us know.  Happy Reading!📖

I’ve been having a lot of fun reading all kinds of books.  I’ve shared some with James and Madeline. (I know they’re not reading in this picture, but I thought you might like to see them.) I’ve shared other books some with my daughters and lots with other teachers too.   Here are a couple I think you’ll like.

Did you know there is magic in New York city?  The real dragon, unicorn, fairy type of magic? When you read Dragons in a Bag and its sequel, The Dragon Thief by Zetta Elliot you’ll discover more.  After a freak accident, Jaxon finds himself without a dad or an apartment.  He’s forced to stay with a cranky old woman named Ma.  It doesn’t take Jaxon long to learn that she is a witch who has one last mission before she retires.  Jaxon decides to help.  This mission will bring stability to both the real and magical realms.  Jaxon finds every turn of this adventure to be extraordinary, exciting and overwhelming, but still successful –  until his best friend’s sister turns out to be a thief.  Kavita disrupts the mission and leaves everything in chaos.  Jaxon alone has to solve the problem and restore balance to the worlds, but how?    Read the books to find out.

I like the story – it’s a fun adventure set in the city.  That’s not the usual setting for a story with dragons and fairies.  On top of that, the main characters are of African-American and Indian descent.  I like that too and appreciated the cultural and historical information that was woven throughout both stories.  Best of all, this mission may be done, I have a feeling the Jaxon, Vikram, Kavita, and Kenny will be back.  The world needs more of them!