Growing Bookworms Newsletter: September 6: Picture Books, Grit, and Graphic Novels

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 brief issue I have four picture book reviews. I also have two posts with links that I shared recently on Twitter and one post with more detail about four joy of learning-related articles that I came across recently concerning academic pressure on kids, reading aloud, and grit. 

Reading Update: In the last two weeks I finished two middle grade, one young adult, and two adult novels. I read/listened to: 

• Ellen Oh: Spirit Hunters. HarperCollins. Middle Grade Fantasy. Completed August 25, 2017, library copy. This is an extremely well-done ghost story, with a nice mix of supernatural elements, diversity, and family drama. Recommended, especially for fans of Mary Downing Hahn. 
• Holly Black and Cassandra Clare: The Silver Mask (Magisterium, Book 4). Scholastic. Middle Grade Fantasy. Completed September 1, 2017, review copy. Review to come. 
• Craig Falconer: Not Alone. Amazon. Adult Science Fiction. Completed August 26, 2017, on MP3. This near-future science fiction novel contemplates the exposure of a long-term conspiracy to hide the fact of a visit from aliens. I liked the story, which focuses extensively on the power and manipulations of the media, but found the plotting to be a bit slow-paced for an audiobook. It might have benefitted from tighter editing. But I did enjoy it. 
• Eileen Cook: The Hanging Girl. HMH Books for Young Readers. YA Fiction. Completed September 4, 2017. Review to come. 
• Sue Grafton: Y is for Yesterday. Marion Wood Books/Putnam. Adult Mystery. Completed September 4, 2017, on MP3. Hard to believe that this is the penultimate book in the Kinsey Milhone series. It marries an extortion attempt connected to a ten-year-old murder with the stalking of Kinsey by a serial killer from a previous case. The storyline is a bit complex, with scenes shared from the viewpoint of other characters, including scenes depicting the 10 year old murder. But I thought that Grafton juggled these aspects well, and I had no difficulty following it. I was sorry when the book ended. 

I'm currently reading In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan and listening to Glass Houses by Louise Penny. My daughter and I are still nominally reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire together, but we've been interrupting that for more picture books in our breakfast table reading. For her own reading, she's now read Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier twice since we checked it out of the library a couple of weeks ago, and is on her second reading of Drama. She asked for her own copies of both as part of this month's Scholastic order. Given her propensity for re-reading, and her deep attachment to Raina Telgemeier's work, I think this will be a worthwhile investment. You can find my daughter's 2017 reading list here. 

Thanks for reading, and for growing bookworms. 

© 2017 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.