ATHLETE VS. MATHLETE - TIME-OUT by W. C. Mack

Owen would rather go to basketball camp than go on the annual family Spring Break trip, even if he has to manipulate his family to get what he wants. Since his twin, Russell, bombed at his Masters of the Mind competition (and even threw up on the competition), he's withdrawn from everything. Owen convinces his folks that camp will help Russ bounce back. But there's only one spot left for the basketball camp... Surely Russ won't care if he goes to a multi-sport camp instead so Owen can go the camp he wants. Everybody wins, right?

This series, told from the perspective of both twins, is great for exploring themes like teamwork, friendship, and family. The first two books focused a lot on issues of identity, too. This book adds the theme of responding to failure. The book really clicked for me when Russ says, "No, this camp was going to be a series of failures, one after another." After his huge failure, this camp is going to force him to face that experience and decide what he's going to do about it. This could be a great classroom read-aloud with opportunities to talk about perseverance and responding to failure as well as talking about the differences between the two main characters.

Owen is a self-centered jerk for blocks of this story. When he starts to get some personal insight, it doesn't last long. He has to keep learning his lessons over and over. Russell is a more likeable character and is a great balance to Owen. Both boys get to learn a lot in this book and watching that evolution is a lot of fun.

5 out of 5 stars.
No AR level at the time of this writing.

ABSOLUTELY ALMOST by Lisa Graff

Albie is a sweet boy who is just trying to figure things out. He's at a new school without his best friend, so he has to figure out how things work on his own - and he doesn't always get them right.

This is a hard book for me to describe. It would really be better to just experience it yourself. It's a character study. Albie tells his own story. The reader gets to see how Albie tries to figure things out, see his triumphs and his hurts in beautiful honesty. This is a lovely story. So many times I wanted to reach into the pages and hug Albie! Lots of educators have proclaimed themselves "Team Albie" after reading Absolutely Almost.

I think this would make an excellent classroom read-aloud. It would lead to excellent class discussions about friendship, name calling, what makes something "cool," doing wrong things for the right reasons, and creating of a culture of kindness, etc. This was absolutely lovely. My only caution is a reference to a minor character's "dads" that might raise questions for naive readers.

4 out of 5 stars
No AR level at this time

INGREDIENTS OF YOUNG OUTLIERS by John Shufeldt

This is written for teens and young adults to encourage them to develop character qualities that will help them stand out from the crowd. These qualities are highlighted to help students maximize their potential and become "an outlier" - someone who can achieve "extreme success." Qualities include integrity, gratitude, perseverance, guts, etc. Really, readers of any age could read this and find something for personal growth.

This was well done! It has a friendly tone and is story-based. Lots of inspirational quotes - I jotted a bunch of those down! The chapters are short which would make this a great small group or classroom resource. This would make a great graduation gift or a tool to use in a mentoring relationship or between parent and child.

4 out of 5 stars

* I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher for free in the hope that I would review it honestly on my blog. Regardless, I only review books I enjoyed. I don’t believe in passing on negative reviews. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

I AM ROSA PARKS by Brad Meltzer

This is book three in Brad Meltzer's fabulous Ordinary People Change the World series. I love these biographies because they focus on character qualities rather than just a recitation of life events. In this volume, the famous story of Rosa on the bus is just one example in a series of situations in which she stands up personally and/or publicly for what is right.

I highly recommend this series for school libraries and elementary classrooms. These are short enough to read aloud to a class. Perfect for close reading/active literacy and also for classroom units on kindness and other character qualities.

5 out of 5 stars
No AR level at the time of this writing

Future stories in this series:
     
   Sept 16, 2014             Jan 8, 2015