Welcome to Litsy!

Years after civilization collapsed, people are working to bring back the technology that allowed connection. Yoly plans to take advantage of education to become one of those with technological knowledge to help herself & her sister escape their subsistence farm life. Yet, as she learns about the control involved in the tech and the truth about animals such as bees, she begins to make different plans to help her community.

#TRS2023 #MiddleGrade

I have an online snow day today, so I had a few Zoom meetings this morning but also time to finish this magical story. I thoroughly enjoyed the world building and characters in this story. It‘s very much about friendship and prejudice as well. I could see some of the events coming but there were still plenty of interesting twists. It‘s clearly the beginning of a series, but it also contained a complete story.

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #TRS2023

I fit in one more audiobook this afternoon to round out my end of year stats. This is a middle grade novel about bullying, the ones being bullied, the ones participating as a method of self protection, and the ones bullying. I liked it and I think it has a good message, but I‘ll be curious as to whether the girls it‘s intended for will appreciate and learn from it as well.

#MiddleGrade #TRS2023 #audiobook

This would be a perfect fall read, and Luthien thinks I‘ve stayed up too late reading the rest of it! Anna is a teenager in a family with psychic powers that also run a bed & breakfast. She meets Colin, who is just now learning his own connection to magic after the murder of his parents. Together they work to find the killers. The book has a sequel, but it also works very well as an independent story.

#MiddleGrade #TRS2023

After reviewing this yesterday evening, I thought about it a bit more and decided to share these panels. The story gives some clear insight into what it can feel like for the kid or teen with ADHD, to which I feel several of my students could relate. Then, I connected personally with and loved the cultural references included while also wondering how many of them my students would get.

#memoir #nonfiction #GraphicNovel #MiddleGrade #TRS2023

This is a graphic novel memoir of the author‘s experiences from the time of his ADHD diagnosis at age 8 through his high school graduation. It seems to be set mostly in the late 1980s into the 1990s and focuses quite a bit on counseling and the use of Ritalin. Additionally, it deals with the family‘s struggles. It includes several pages of factual research interspersed through the story.

#Nonfiction #GraphicNovel #Memoir #MiddleGrade #TRS2023

Caleb is the son of a former NFL player and the star quarterback of his high school team while still a freshman. He deals with the pressure of football, a girlfriend who‘s not really a football fan, and his father‘s increasingly erratic behavior which seems to be caused by his football career. Greenwald wants readers to think about the potential dangers of football at all levels, but he also clearly expresses the joy and intensity of the game.

This is my current book to read while my students have independent reading time. Tommy Greenwald describes the intensity of football games well and doesn‘t shy away from the serious aspects of sports culture either. In this one, Caleb is a young and impressive quarterback for his high school team while also beginning to realize the after effects of playing professional football on his father. 🏈

#YA #TRS2023

I so appreciated the perspective and reality of this story. Jillian lives in a small town in Louisiana where the residents are used to water. Most of the houses are on stilts and almost everyone has a boat. Yet, after a rain that floods the school and damages bridges, things don‘t go back to normal. Jillian fights to save her school and learns more history of her community, including how much of it has already disappeared under water. ⬇️

This story has a fun premise of kids with supernatural powers going on an adventure to find missing parents in a world where they have to hide their abilities. However, it‘s also very much a setup for a series. There is a lot of build up and and quite a bit of kid drama in order to get to a big event in just the last few chapters. The results of that event set up plenty more questions for the next book in the series.

#MiddleGrade #TRS2023