Athens Community of Readers

For this week's live booktalk on Google Meet, I talked about Birdie and Me .  This is a new book by a brand new author.  It's a middle grades book, which I've been reading a lot of lately for some reason.  I've found that middle grade authors have really stepped it up a notch to include characters and topics that could interest the YA and adult crowd, which I really love.  Birdie and Me is told from the point of view of the main character Jack.  Jack is the big sister to her gender creative brother Birdie.  The story begins with the two siblings waiting to be picked up on "moving day", which happens to be their second one in less than a year.  The two siblings lost their mother less than a year earlier and are currently being cared for by one of their two much older uncles.  This book is full of unique characters and is all about understanding and accepting one another as well as coming to terms with loss and grief.  I highly recommend...

I love, love, love the ELA teachers I work with at Clarke Middle School.  I was super lucky to have Ms. Frederking send me her booktalk, and now Ms. Sherman has sent me one on the book she just finished up reading.  If you have not read it yet, get a copy of On the Come Up   by Angie Thomas and read it now.  I enjoyed this book as much as Ms. Sherman did.  Angie Thomas announced her new book will be coming out next year and it's a prequel to The Hate U Give, so get pumped up to read more Angie Thomas soon.  Watch the video below to hear Ms. Sherman talk about this book.

One of my favorite things about working as the School Library Media Specialist at Clarke Middle for so many years is that I get to know families.  Over the years I have had lots of parents and grandparents of my students volunteer with me for several years in a row as all of their brood matriculates through CMS. One of my favorite grandma volunteers has stayed two year past her last grandchild being at CMS (this is the third grandchild at CMS, so she's been with me for a LONG time), and I am lucky enough to call her my friend.  It doesn't hurt that not only does Ms. Hester Meyers straighten books in the library for us she also is a former librarian and she is always bringing in book suggestions for me.  Since we've been out of school for the COVID-19 virus I've really missed her, so it was super awesome to get an email from her this week with, what else, but a book recommendation.  With her permission, I've published what she wrote to me in the email below....

This week in my live session I book talked Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed.   This was a book I'd had in my to read stack for a really long time so I was super excited to finish it up last week and got a chance to talk with some of our CMS Owls in Google meet during my Tuesday live session.  This book was set in modern day Pakistan and Amal and her family are farmers in a small village.  Amal is lucky enough to go to school unlike many of the other girls in her village as educating females in Pakistan is not a priority.  Her family does own the land they farm, but they are, by no means, wealthy.  She has several siblings and due to poor crop production for several years, her father is very much in debt to the wealthy family that basically owns the whole village and all the area around them.  Amal's mother has had another child and she is now expected to stay home and help out for several months from school and she is frustrated about this when she encou...

Today I had the opportunity to do a live booktalk with my students on this sweet new book that is set to be published in a few weeks.  Avid Bookshop was kind enough to lend me an advanced reader copy.  I just love the way this book, like George before it, has universal themes that any middle schooler can relate to yet very specific as well that might be just the right mirror that some students really need when they may be feeling all alone. I just finish the book Rick by Alex Gino, the author of the book George. This book comes out on April 21st, but I got an early copy of it from Avid Bookshop. It's a very quick read and it has some of the same characters in it that are from the book George. Just like the book George before it, Rick, has some universal concepts that are important to middle school age students. The idea of how it's OK to not have a clear concept of what your identity is at that age as well as the idea it's ok to change and seek acceptance and un...

My daughter Kate read one on the ARCs I received from Follett and did a review for me.  She really enjoyed the book When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed.  The book is due to be released April 14th.  Read her review below: “When Stars Are Scattered” Authors: Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed By: Kathryn Hinger “When Stars Are Scattered” is a wonderful graphic novel about friendship, hardship and love. It is a beautiful reenactment of the day to day life of Omar Mohamed from his journey in school and education to his brother, Hassan’s, story. I would recommend this book from 3rd grade and up. I Believe it has everything a good book needs to win a Newberry Honor just like “Roller Girl”which was written by the same author. Omar the main character and his younger brother, Hassan, have lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for most of their lives. The life of a refugee is hard and bleak due to the fact there is little food, it’s extrem...