So Sorry

Oh my gosh, I'm really sorry about not posting last week about my favorite authors. I'm still so new to this that it hasn't become part of my actual routine yet. I actually haven't been on my own computer in almost a week!!

So let me think, there are so many authors that I love and would love for you to try out. I think the easiest way would be to make a quick list:

Suzanne Collins - she wrote The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games Trilogy (the final book is coming out in August). Her writing is action and science fiction. I have a hard time putting down her books because I get so engrossed in them.

Wendy Mass - she has written A Mango-Shaped Space, Every Soul A Star, Finally, and 11 Birthdays just to name a few. I always look forward to a new book from Wendy Mass, her characters are always so endearing.

Kate Dicamillo - she has written The Tale of Despereaux, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and the Mercy Watson series. These are just a few. My girls love the Mercy Watson series. It is about a pig who loves hot buttered toast and her adventures. My personal favorite is Despereaux; it won the Newbery Award and was made into a movie.

Brandon Mull - he has written the Fablehaven series which has five books and The Candy Shop War. His books have adventure, magic, mythical creatures. They are amazing!! A friend at school also read them and we have quoted from them many times.

Ingrid Law - she has written Savvy which won the Newbery Honor last year. She is also coming out with a companion book called Scumble in August. I read this book to my students early on in the school year and they loved it!!

Rick Riordan - I have mentioned him in previous posts. I am still reading his most recent book, The Red Pyramid. I have about 100 pages left, so I hope to write about it later on in the week. He has also written the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I had the first three books of this series for a long time before I picked them up to read. Once I did read them I had to finish the series.

There are more, but I think that is all for now.
Happy Reading!!!

Celebrate Books

It's National Children's Book Week!!! There are so many wonderful children's books out there waiting to be discovered! I think this week I will focus my posts each day on one or two authors that I really enjoy. For tonight though, I will keep it very short because I am really getting into some good parts of The Red Pyramid. More about that later.

Happy Reading!!!

Book Nerd

I am truly a book nerd, I'm not going to lie. I love the smell of books, going into a bookstore in the prospect of buying a new book, and snuggling down with a blanket to read that book. I have always been that way. I can remember getting excited about new book orders coming out at school when I was a kid. Ok, I still get excited about book orders, my girls come home with them and we order every month.

As much as I love a hard copy of a book, I absolutely love my Kindle. My husband bought me one for my 30th birthday last year. At first I wasn't sure how much I would like it, I mean it is different than actually holding a book in your hand. However, I adjusted just fine. I now go back and forth between a book book and the kindle books. I am truly convinced I can read a book faster with my Kindle, don't ask me why.

Anyway, being the book nerd that I am, I don't just have one book in the reading realm I usually have multiple books on the back burner to read. I just can't help it! I buy a book or two and add them to the pile then read something else and then buy a couple more books. Did that even make sense? I'm sure you know what I mean. Right now I think I have at least 15 new books waiting for me to crack them open. That's not even counting the ones I had previously owned. Oh well, I will get to them all eventually. Funny thing is my literacy coach at school told the ELA teachers today that she just received a huge shipment of new books and wants us to take some home over the summer to read. Ok, my pleasure, you don't have to tell me twice!!! More books for the pile!!

I haven't gotten too far into The Red Pyramid yet, but I would like to suggest a series of books. they are called The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins. There are five books in the series starting with Gregor the Overlander. This book had been sitting on my book shelves at school for years and I had never read it. Awhile back it caught my eye, mainly because I had read another book by the author. I became hooked, I read the other four pretty quickly and then started reading them outloud to my two classes. One of my classes just started the final book today and have become deeply invested in the characters. The series is science fiction, basically the stories take place in a world deep under the surface of the earth. In this world, lives giant rats, cockroaches, bats, mice, spiders, and of course humans (human-size not giant sized). A boy from New York City, Gregor and his two-year old sister, Boots, fall through a grate in their laundry room to this underland. Gregor becomes the humans' "warrior" and helps them through many sticky situations.

I know I am not doing the series enough justice. I just don't want to give too much away. I know the idea of giant cockroaches, rats, and bats may seem like a strange series to get excited about, but truly the series is wonderful. My friend at school told me the book had the three things she most hated (bats, rats, and spiders) and she still really liked the book. If you choose to gve the series a try, let me know what you think.

That's it for tonight, The Vampire Diaries, will be on soon. Maybe I shouldn't admit I watch it. Oh well, HAPPY READING!

So Nervous!!!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I have never done anything like this before!! I am so nervous that I will bore people to death with what I write! My husband, Aaron, is the one who suggested that I try and write a blog about the books that I read. So, here I am giving it a try.

I spend my days teaching reading and writing. A goal I have at school is to expose my students to good literature. Therefore, I read a lot of books. I mainly try to read children and young adult books, but I also enjoy my murder mysteries and vampire stories.

I am by no means a literary critic. I read books for sheer enjoyment. My goal for this blog though is to give my opinion of the books I read so that others may want to read it too.

Ok, I feel as though I am rambling, so that's it for now. I just started The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan and will post in a day or two with some of my intial thoughts. Until then, I hope you keep reading a book you enjoy!