FAMILY FRIDAY Reading Fest is a weekly update showcasing the wide variety of books our family is reading. Due to our different ages and reading preferences, I hope blog readers will find something that interests them. Enjoy a dip into the Millis home of books!
RAE--THE ELEVEN-YEAR OLD REALISTIC FICTION READER
Bloomability by Sharon Creech
My husband and daughter started this book together about a girl who moves to Switzerland to attend an international school. There is a possibility that our family might be overseas next year and our daughter's top country to visit/move is ...you guessed it-SWITZERLAND!! And as you may remember from last week, Rae's favorite author is Sharon Creech.
Goodreads Summary:
When she is whisked away to an international school in Switzerland, Dinnie Doone discovers all the "bloomabilities" that life has to offer. From Newbery Award-winning author Sharon Creech is a story about everyday joys.
bloomability
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Yep, Sharon Creech. again. I love that Rae is searching everywhere...public library, school library, bookstores, friend's bookshelves, thrift stores, crack in the sidewalk ( : for her favorite author's books. This is her read to self book which she is devouring like that hot chocolate we had at Timberline Lodge...rich hot chocolate topped with cascade of whipped cream, caramel and fudge sauce and broken bits of a toffee bar on top. Oh my!!
Goodreads Summary:
Newbery Medalist Creech ("Walk Two Moons") masterfully weaves this story, told in free verse, about a young girl finding her identity and learning how it fits within the many rhythms of life.
Run run run.
That's what twelve-year-old Annie loves to do. When she's barefoot and running, she can hear her heart beating . . . thump-THUMP, thump-THUMP. It's a rhythm that makes sense in a year when everything's shifting: Her mother is pregnant, her grandfather is forgetful, and her best friend, Max, is always moody. Everything changes over time, just like the apple Annie's been assigned to draw. But as she watches and listens, Annie begins to understand the many rhythms of life, and how she fits within them.
Twelve-year-old Annie ponders the many rhythms of life the year that her mother becomes pregnant, her grandfather begins faltering, and her best friend (and running partner) becomes distant.
REID--THE 13-YEAR OLD SCIENCE FICTION FANATIC WITH A MOM FORCING A HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK
Fahrenheit 451 Graphic Novel by Tim Hamilton
Reid LOVES Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Graphic Novels...that's about it when it comes to books. So, while subbing at a middle school I came upon this fantastic combination. With To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hobbit and now this book, he is getting his Classic food oops book group also.
Goodreads Summary:
For Guy Montag, a career fireman for whom kerosene is perfume, this is not just an official slogan. It is a mantra, a duty, a way of life in a tightly monitored world where thinking is dangerous and books are forbidden.
In 1953, Ray Bradbury envisioned one of the world’s most unforgettable dystopian futures, and in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the artist Tim Hamilton translates this frightening modern masterpiece into a gorgeously imagined graphic novel. As could only occur with Bradbury’s full cooperation in this authorized adaptation, Hamilton has created a striking work of art that uniquely captures Montag’s awakening to the evil of government-controlled thought and the inestimable value of philosophy, theology, and literature.
The Devil's Paintbox by Victoria McKernan
The teacher and lover of history in me chose this one for our reading time. We are both enjoying traveling on the Oregon Trail in a higher level book. A few years ago, we read Westward to Home and Apples to Apples which inspired us to follow the trail through Oregon.
Goodreads Summary:
When orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson in the spring of 1865, they’re struggling to survive on their family’s drought-ravaged Kansas farm. So when Jackson offers an escape—a 2000-mile journey across the roughest country in the world—Aiden knows it’s their only choice.
They say there are a hundred ways to die on the Oregon Trail, and the long wagon journey is broken only by catastrophe: wolf attacks, rattlesnakes, deadly river crossings, Indians, and the looming threat of smallpox, “the devil’s paint.” Through it all, Aiden and Maddy and a hundred fellow travelers move forward with a growing hope, and the promise of a new life in the Washington Territory. But one question haunts them: who will survive the journey?
ED--THE LIVE VICARIOUSLY THROUGH ANOTHER ADVENTURER'S LIFE
In Search of Captain Zero by Allan Weisbecker
Our nonfiction reader is thoroughly enjoying the Outdoor Adventure book award choices. He reports that "they tell about an adventure with some soul and depth attached to it."
Goodreads Summary:
In 1996, Allan Weisbecker sold his home and his possessions, loaded his dog and surfboards into his truck, and set off in search of his long-time surfing companion, Patrick, who had vanished into the depths of Central America. In this rollicking memoir of his quest from Mexico to Costa Rica to unravel the circumstances of Patrick's disappearance, Weisbecker intimately describes the people he befriended, the bandits he evaded, the waves he caught and lost en route to finding his friend.
In Search of Captain Zero is, according to Outside magazine, "A subtly affecting tale of friendship and duty. [It] deserves a spot on the microbus dashboard as a hell of a cautionary tale about finding paradise and smoking it away."
AND ME--
Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker
I am trying to return to my former habits of reading a kid book and then an adult book. Pickle was a quick read about some middle schoolers who join together to perform pranks. Clever storyline...would have loved to have seen some recipes for the pickle and other preserved veggies.
Goodreads Summary:
This is the story of THE LEAGUE OF PICKLE MAKERS.
Ben: who began it all by sneaking in one night and filling homeroom with ball-pit balls.
Frank: who figured out that an official club, say a pickle making club, could receive funding from the PTA.
Oliver: who once convinced half of the class that his real parents had found him and he was going to live in a submarine.
Bean: who wasn't exactly invited, but her parents own a costume shop, which comes in handy if you want to dress up like a giant squirrel and try to scare people at the zoo.
TOGETHER, they are an unstoppable prank-pulling force, and Fountain Point Middle School will never be the same.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
I just started this book that has received tremendous reviews. I am hoping it will lead me to my serendipity!!
Robin Sloan, the author, stayed up for 24 hours when the book was launched.
Goodreads Summary:
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco Web-design drone—and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he’s embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore.
Happy Reading,
