Summer Reading, Week Two

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
 Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

This past two weeks, I haven't traveled anywhere without a book in my bag, just in case I get stranded with a few spare minutes. Waiting rooms are my new favorite places. And my workout routine has become even more boring than it was (did not know this was possible), as I now head for the stationary bike the second I walk through the door of the gym and read the entire time I'm there.

This binge (sanctioned, but a binge, nonetheless) has been bringing back memories of my childhood, when I spent most of my free time with my nose in a book. When I got in trouble, the consequence -almost always- was being grounded from reading. No books, no newspaper, no mail, no cereal box at the breakfast table, even. Since I was usually disciplined for reading instead of washing dishes or doing my homework, I guess the punishment fit the crime.

Not grounded yet (I'm trying to keep up with other aspects of life in a fairly adult fashion), but I'm looking over my shoulder, still. Didn't make it through quite as many this week, though my page count is similar to last weeks. Oh, and click here for a refresher on my starring rationale.

Picture books:

**The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin. Grace Lin is one of my new favorite children's authors. My class loved all her stuff this year. I think The Ugly Vegetables is one of her first books.

*Betsy Who Cried Wolf by Gail Carson Levine. This will be a fun read-aloud. Twist on the original fable, of course.

Intermediate books:

**Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry. Very cute. Set entirely in a second-grade classroom, and not too far off from reality. I've had students who could probably give Gooney Bird a run for her money. Would connect well to a unit on story writing.

Mercy Watson, Princess in Disguise by Kate DiCamillo. Beginner-level "chapter" book with lots of pictures. A five-year-old I know loves all the Mercy Watson books. Compared to anything else by DiCamillo, it's disappointing...but it was cute, I guess.

Teen/Young Adult Books:

** The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. My favorite read so far. I was mesmerized by the story.

** Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. Not at all as fluffy as it sounds, though it still would be categorized as a girl read. A great girl read.

* Deadline by Chris Crutcher. Eighteen year old boy (who's 5'3", 123#)  finds out he has a terminal illness and decides to live his senior year to the fullest, going out for football, dating a girl who's eight inches taller than him, etc. There's a decided political undertone which I didn't love (didn't love the language, either), but the idea is interesting, and Crutcher makes it work.

Page count this week: 1,162 (not counting the picture books)