Growing Bookworms Newsletter: February 1: Book Reviews, Narrative Voice, and the Joys of Reading with Kids

Today, I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on growing joyful learners, mainly bookworms, but also mathematicians and learners of all types. The newsletter is sent out every two to three weeks.

Newsletter Update:  In this issue I have four book reviews (picture book and middle grade) and a quick post about the importance for me of narrative voice. I also have one post linking to an article about reading with kids, two posts with links that I shared recently on Twitter, and a post with excerpts from and responses to three #JoyOfLearning related articles that I read recently.

Reading Update: In the past two weeks I read three middle grade and three adult novels, as well as two adult nonfiction titles. I read/listened to: 

• Gabrielle Kent: Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief. Scholastic. Middle Grade Fiction. Completed January 23, 2017, on Kindle (UK edition). Another fun book in the Alfie Bloom series. I look forward to Alfie's future adventures. 
• Lisa Thompson: The Goldfish Boy. Scholastic. Middle Grade Fiction. Completed January 28, 2017. Review to come. 
• Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins: Upside-Down Magic #3: Showing Off. Scholastic. Middle Grade Fiction. Completed January 28, 2017. Review to come. 
• Frank Furedi: What's Happened to the University? A Sociological Exploration of its Infantilisation. Routledge. Adult Nonfiction. Completed January 18, 2016, on Kindle. I found the subject of this book interesting (the state of free speech at universities these days being a concern of mine), though the book itself is a bit of a slow read. 
• Jennifer Lehr: ParentSpeak: What's Wrong with How We Talk to Our Children, and What to Say Instead. Workman. Adult Nonfiction. Completed January 20, 2017, on Kindle. This book had some ideas that resonated with me, but not much I hadn't seen elsewhere. It's a nice, light read, though, and worth a look. 
• William R. Forstchen: The Final Day (John Matherson trilogy). Forge Books. Adult Thriller. Completed January 22, 2017, on MP3. I was satisfied with this conclusion to the John Matherson series about an EMP-induced apocalypse. 
• Charlaine Harris: The Julius House (Aurora Teagarden, No. 4). Berkley. Adult Mystery. Completed January 25, 2017, on MP3. This series is just fun. Unlike most of Harris' books, there are no supernatural elements (so far, anyway). I think I just like the character's voice. 
• Charlaine Harris: Dead Over Heels (Aurora Teagarden, No. 5). Berkley. Adult Mystery. Completed January 29, 2017, on MP3.

I'm currently listening to W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton and reading The Most Frightening Story Ever Told by Philip Kerr. I have some travel coming up and have a couple of adult novels saved up on my Kindle. 

My husband and I are still reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling to our daughter. She's also listening to The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright when we're in the car. We went for a couple of weeks without reading any picture books because she was so consumed by Harry Potter, but she has recently started asking for picture books again, which I think is a good thing. She's showing some interest in nonfiction, and enjoyed Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History by Walter Dean Myers and Floyd Cooper. She is trying to get the Revolutionary and Civil Wars straight in her head. You can find her 2017 reading list here. I'm working on a full post with a bunch of mini-milestones in her reading, and you can expect that to be in the next newsletter issue. 

Thanks for reading, and for growing bookworms. 

© 2016 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.