New Release Spotlight: March 20, 2018
Two more weeks of school before our spring break, and I cannot wait! We do not plan to go anywhere this time, and we are looking forward to staying in Shanghai. In the meantime, I will be very busy at...
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New Release Spotlight: March 27, 2018
I knew this week's New Release Spotlight would be a scramble to prepare on time. It's the week before spring break, and work has just been a mess this week. I thought about just skipping this week, but...
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New Release Spotlight: April 3, 2018
Aah, finally spring break! Time to open the windows, take 90-walks, enjoy my coffee while it's still hot...and work on massive textbook order for school? And complete an IB online class? Sadly, yes. I...
View ArticleReview: The Lake Effect (McCahon)
When I was a kid, I sometimes watched The Cosby Show with my parents. While I thought it was funny, I remember also thinking that "funny" was all it was. There was no seriousness, no real conflict, no...
View ArticleReview: Bad Romance (Demetrios)
Years ago, I read a book called Go Ask Alice. You've probably already heard of (and maybe read) Go Ask Alice, which was originally published as an anonymous diary of an actual teen runaway and drug...
View ArticleNew Release Spotlight: April 10, 2018
Phew! Lots of YA amazingness on this week's (slightly late) Spotlight! April is seriously kicking my butt! We have so many activities happening at school that I can barely breathe. I am really looking...
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Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers Edition (Pollan)
Okay, so this is a book review, but there's a lot of story behind why I read this book, and I very much want to share it. I started to include the story of how I went from "I'll eat anything if it...
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Review: Mr. 60% (Smith)
What teens can learn from this book:Cancer is horrible, messy, and painful.If you are poor and get sick, no one in the medical community wants to help you. Don't even bother to ask.Dealing drugs is the...
View ArticleNew Release Spotlight--April 17, 2018
Last week's Spotlight was heavy on YA and light on MG books. Though this week is pretty light on new releases overall, it's the middle grade books taking the spotlight. One in particular to notice:...
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New Release Spotlight: April 24, 2018
I've almost made it through April! This week is especially busy because my 13-year old son got to show off his drama skills in the Language and Literature Festival on Monday. I also have a slam poet...
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Professional Resource Review: The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan (Foss)
The 2017-2018 school year is my seventeenth year in education. I started teaching seventh grade English and literature in 2001, six weeks before 9/11, when I was 26 years old. In all that time, you...
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New Release Spotlight: May 1, 2018
Happy Chinese Labor Day! We were off school today and yesterday, so I am nice and refreshed for the rest of this three-day week. Last week, we had two fabulous authors visit our school. Harry Baker is...
View Article"My Silence Does Not Mean Yes": YA Books That Support the #MeToo Movement
With the recent (not so shocking) guilty verdict in the Bill Cosby rape case, I finally made time this week to read Louise O'Neill's Asking For It, a book that has been on my TBR since in came out a...
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Review: Asking for It (O'Neill)
This book has been on my TBR for awhile now. I've heard lots of talk about it, and that front cover just says it all, doesn't it? While it was a good read and mostly engrossing, it's not a "feel good"...
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New Release Spotlight: May 8, 2018
It's a long Spotlight list this week, and about a third of them are shaded in purple. Last week was big for the Middle Grade books, but this week, the Young Adult titles look incredible! YOUNG ADULT...
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Can schools legally withhold report cards due to nonpayment of fines?
When I lived in Texas (up to 2014), my school held student report cards for nonpayment of lost/damaged library books and unpaid cafeteria charges. I had to turn in a list of students who had not paid...
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Review: Saving Red (Sones)
I'm once again on the prowl for holiday books for teens! Saving Red came out last year, but I've only just gotten around to reading it. What I loved most about this one is its Jewish protagonist, whose...
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Wanna Stop Drinking Soda? Read on...
Happy 2018! Today, I'm not going to talk about anything book-related. If you are just here for bookish fun, please feel free to tune me out. Today, I am talking directly to my soda drinkers. Did you...
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New Release Spotlight: May 15, 2018
What's going on this week in Shanghai? Not much! We still have six weeks left of school, the temperature (and humidity!) has cranked up considerably this week, my 13-year old son has started a homemade...
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Retro 80s Flashback: 14 Books I Read As A Middle-Grader and Their Modern-Day...
*I have updated this post from 2012 to include modern-day equivalents of the books I loved so much in the mid-1980s.*Ah, 1985. You gave us Garbage Pail Kids, "We Are the World," New Coke, Back to the...
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