Stranded by Nikki Shannon Smith

Genre: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

Source: Purchased

Ava loves the outdoors. With only two days of school left she is thrilled when their class takes a trip to Central Park. Her friends on the other hand don’t care for it too much. They are into sports, reading and posting online or playing video games.  Ava knows she will be stuck at home with her family unless she can convince them to let her go to her Aunt Ravens cabin in the Adirondack Mountains.. Ava knows it will be an uphill battle convincing her mother to let her go. Her mother doesn’t agree with her twin’s decision to live in the middle of no where. Her brother calls her crazy because “black folks don’t do nature.” What she assumes will be an impossible task, turns into the possible. She never expected her dad to side with her. Just like that they are making plans for her to spend her summer with her aunt.

Ava and her Aunt get along great. She knows a lot about being outdoors, but her aunt has so much more she can teach her. When her aunt is called away and she is left alone, life becomes very real.  I loved this book. I loved how passionate Ava was about being outdoors. I loved that she didn’t try to conform to her family’s ideas of what you should be passionate about. I loved the realistic relationship throughout the story. This is a book I want my students to read. I highly recommend it.

The Little Book of Quotes by Women edited by Kathleen Welton

 

Genre: Nonfiction

Source: I won a copy from LibraryThing. The opinions expressed here are my own.

 The author has filled this book with quotes from women who were on postage stamps.  According to the introduction she has included 365 quotes from women who have made a difference in some way. She has also broken them categories.  What you will find in this review is at least one quote that spoke to me from each category she has created. This book is going on my shelves at school as a reference for my students to use. Here are the quotes I have chosen, and in some cases my thoughts about them. I highly recommend you read this book. She has several quote books out and I will be reading them all.

Beauty:“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough you don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.” ~ Toni Morrison
For me  being out in nature is more beautiful than any picture or painting.

Courage: “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face… You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
This one was very important to me. I was always the shy one in the family. I have always moved ahead because others believed I could step out. They had courage for me when I didn’t yet have it for myself.

Freedom:“Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.” ~Laura Ingalls Wilder
I believe we all have our own idea of what freedom is. If fresh air and sunshine were taken away from me I would feel like I had lost my freedom.

Friendship: “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
I like to think of those who walk in and out of my life as acquaintances. Eleanor Roosevelt was correct about true friends and they are few in our lives.

Happiness:“Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well lived. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
One of my favorite quotes. I believe we make our own happiness out of whatever life has given us. It is a choice.

Lessons: “Think as little as possible about yourself. Think as much as possible about other people. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
I have tried to live my life this way. I hope that in the end God will tell me well done.

Life: “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect. ~Margaret Mitchell
This is so true. We have to go after what we want. It isn’t just given to us.

Love: If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” ~ Mother Teresa
This goes right along the Biblical line of “Judge not lest ye be judged.”

Possibility: “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land.” ~ Helen Keller
When I read this I immediately thought back to the story of a young boy place in a room full of horse manure. He was flinging it everywhere because he was sure with this much manure there had to be a horse in there somewhere. That is the power of positive thinking.

Service: “That’s what we’re here on this Earth For, to help others.” ~Betty Ford

Not serving or helping others makes us a very selfish person in my opinion.

Strength: “I believe in prayer. It’s the best way we have to draw strength from heaven. ~ Josephine Baker

This sums up my life in this one quote.

Work: “Work, I know that someday I will die, but I will never retire.” ~ Margaret Mead

I read this and knew I had to choose this one. My students used to ask if I was ever going to retire and I would tell them no. They would walk in one day and find me dead at my desk with a pen in my hand. I have put off retiring because I love teaching. However, when I retire from teaching in a couple of years it will be to move on with the next part of my life. I will never retire from life.  

Behind all these wonderful quotes is a section for you to write down your favorite quotes, make a gratitude checklist and an area for journaling. All of this is followed by an area that gives you the biographical information about the women whose faces adorned stamps.

I loved this and can’t wait to read the other five quote books she has written.

The Bully Mission: Solving Damian Dermite by Christopher Francis

 

Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction

Source:  Purchased

 

I have read all of this author's books.  While cleaning up files, I realized that I had never written a review of this one. So I reread it. Like all of his books, Christopher Francis takes a prominent issue and creates a story that not only shines a light on that issue but helps the reader see a way through it.  Alex's best friend has moved away. Now, he has to face his first year of middle school alone. In his first-period class, he sees the biggest kid he's ever seen. Henry is large with red hair.  He is also new to the school. He was constantly picked on at his previous school because of his size. Over the summer, his dad remarried, and that is why he had to change schools. Alex is having a very rough first day after hitting Henry in the back of the head with a slice of pizza and getting sent to the principal's office. It was at the end of the first day that Henry and Alex had their first run-in with the school bully, Damian Dermite. As Alex is leaving, he sees Henry on the ground, and Damian is trying to force him to eat a worm.  Alex steps in.  This time, he gets suspended and is on the bully's radar.

If he can figure out why Damian is a bully, maybe he can survive middle school.  A great book about bullying, finding friendship, and, most of all, surviving middle school.  Unfortunately, as a middle school teacher, I see things like this play out all the time. It is unfortunate. Maybe if more people were willing to step up we could diminish the bullying issue.