What Ms. Moore is Reading

I hope everyone is having a fun summer ... and that you are finding fun things to read! My goal is to read a book a day - even if said book is a 28-page picture book (I'm starting to put together our Mock Caldecott list for 1st and 2nd graders).

Here are some books I've read over the past month that I think students would enjoy. All book covers and plot summaries are from Goodreads:

Picture books

Who knew that cakes were so rude?! In this deliciously entertaining book, a not-so-sweet cake—who never says please or thank you or listens to its parents—gets its just desserts. Mixing hilarious text and pictures, Rowboat Watkins, a former Sendak fellow, has cooked up a laugh-out- loud story that can also be served up as a delectable discussion starter about manners or bullying, as it sweetly reminds us all that even the rudest cake can learn to change its ways.

Younger readers

Lights! Camera! Action! Jules is back to take center stage! Jules is a third grader at last! But so far, the reviews aren't good. Her new teacher makes her feel totally tongue-tied. Charlotte shows up on the first day wearing the one thing Jules really wants but will never get. And she already has homework-researching a famous person to become for the class wax museum project. But how will she decide who to be?

Even worse, her after-school sitcom rehearsals are harder than ever-especially since the TV show is about to air for all the world to see. Jules needs to find her inner superstar if third grade is ever going to be a smash hit.

Middle grades

It's the summer of 1969, and Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit Big Ma and her eighty-two-year-old mother, Ma Charles. Pa can't remind them enough that the South's not like Brooklyn, and that you can't get more southern than Alabama.

Across the field, through the pines, and over the creek is the Trotter home, where Ma Charles's half sister, Miss Trotter, lives. The two half sisters haven't spoken in years, each determined to hold on to her version of the truth. Dramatic Vonetta plays middleman to the two warring, elderly sisters, while Delphine struggles against her to bring the family together. ... When a tragedy comes to the farm in Alabama, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.

Do you believe in magic? Micah Tuttle does. Even though his awful Great-Aunt Gertrudis doesn’t approve, Micah believes in the stories his dying Grandpa Ephraim tells him of the magical Circus Mirandus: the invisible tiger guarding the gates, the beautiful flying birdwoman, and the magician more powerful than any other—the Man Who Bends Light. Finally, Grandpa Ephraim offers proof. The Circus is real. And the Lightbender owes Ephraim a miracle.

With his friend Jenny Mendoza in tow, Micah sets out to find the Circus and the man he believes will save his grandfather. The only problem is, the Lightbender doesn't want to keep his promise. And now it's up to Micah to get the miracle he came for.

6th graders

Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure. Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her.

Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window. Princess X? When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There's an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online.