Book Notes

Sahara has to repeat the 5th grade. With her father gone, and her being too shy to answer questions at school, the teachers think she needs special attention. Lucky for Sahara this year the 5th grade has a new teacher. Miss Pointy, as she likes to be called. Miss Pointy is a pretty cool teacher who likes everyone for who they are, and thinks each child has the ability to be something great. By the end of the year, Sahara might just show people how special she really is, and maybe make a new friend or two.

This wasn’t my favorite book ever. But maybe it will be one of yours?

This is a sweet and very quick read. It is a novel in poems about Josie, a girl with Celebral Palsey. It takes place during one summer in which Josie makes a friend, her grandmother has a stroke, and Josie’s relationship with her mother reaches a nice, new level.

Watch the bottom right hand corner of the  pages. What starts off as a little bud grows into a beautiful flower at the end. A nice read, especially if you enjoy poems.

This was our 6th-8th grade book club pick for November. One of my perennial favorites, I enjoy ever opportunity to re-read this. It’s the story of 11 going on 12-year-old Hattie Owen who discovers one summer that she has an uncle she has never heard of. Adam has been in an institution for mentally disabled adults, and with the advent of that school’s closing, he is returning to live with his parents. The characters and the situation are so beautifully drawn. Adam’s parents have always prided themselves on living a perfect, socially approved existence. Hattie is often at odds with how to treat Adam, he is an adult, and her uncle, but he often seems and acts more like a child.

The book is so beautifully written, and the personalities of the characters are so perfectly drawn. I recommend this to anyone who wants a quiet, sweet, and thoughtful story. Have tissues near by at the end.

Attention fans of Bras and Broomsticks! This new book by Lily Archer is similar to Bras, and tons of fun.

Three girls from three separate backgrounds are all attending a boarding school in Massachusetts for the first time. And all because they have something new and unwanted at home: a new stepmother. After a few false starts, the girls discover their commonality and form a tight friendship, calling themselves “the Poison Apples”. A group dedicated to the eradication of their stepmothers. What better time to make that happen than Thanksgiving break. Think Penguin stealing, itching powder and sibling affection redistribution and you begin to get the idea.

It’s an easy read, each chapter being told from one girls viewpoint. And the ending left it open to a sequel….

This is our second pick for 4th and 5th grade book club. I love Cynthia Rylant’s books, and this one in particular.

Ob and Summer are grieving from the loss of May, Ob’s wife and Summer’s foster mother. They neither one want to get out of bed in the  morning or go on and live their happy lives without her. Enter Cletus Underwood, the Bat Woman, and an owl flying through on silent wings. Life just may go on after all. Different, but just as precious as it was before.

It’s a small book, but has such a big story in it with lovely writing with a folksy narrative. A great book for sharing.

Fabulous. Where do I even begin? It’s been awhile since I have read an adult book that I really loved. The writing is lovely and evenly paced. The story is just sweet and complex enough to give it substance, but not to

make it too saccharine.

The story is set in Boston and takes place over a 24 hour period. The lives of two mixed families are irrevocably changed during the course of events around a snowstorm. Ann Patchett doesn’t tell a story so much as she lets us briefly into the lives of these characters. Characters that she knows so well, and that we get to know a little too. A beautiful book, one of her best.