#IMWAYR - Sharing The Week's Favorites

          Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.  

Finished! - From my #MustRead list:  Scythe - Neal Shusterman

         Two memorable characters, others as well, plus those despicable ones that make one nervous, hurrying past their scenes in order to calm down. This is a tough one to share without giving away the many surprises. It's a feat of world-building that hopefully will never happen, yet some of it, in the most gruesome of ways, has already happened, like the wars and murders of those "others" in countries where they are not wanted. This new world, in our world's future, takes science to a different level, for even when one ends up "deadish", off to the recovery center they go to be healed. Small wounds are healed by what are called "nanites". We now live in "the age of mortality" but population growth and extreme science cause over-population, thus a world that needs "scythes", those ordained to kill, to "glean" with compassion. It is a world of immortality.If you like science-fiction that takes what is "now" and gives it a nudge into future history, this is the first of the series. There is still good in this world, as we say about today, too. But there is also bad. "Nature deemed that to be born was an automatic sentence to death, and then brought about that death with vicious consistency." 

           Somehow when this book came out, I didn't read it, so months passed and it became one of those books I knew about but not one I needed to read, until last week. I took my 3rd-grade granddaughter to our favorite Indie store and she chose this one, plus the second one, too. Last week, she brought it to me saying, "You have to read this, Grandma, it's great." And so I did, and I loved it, too. Rozzum, or Roz, a female robot ends up a survivor from a shipwreck that dumped hundreds of crates of other robots in the ocean, but she washed ashore, and when curious sea otters pushing her "on" button, she came alive and decided she wanted to stay that way. Through years of work, which you can read about here, Peter Brown wrote an amazing tale of a robot that became beloved by the animals on a small island, when at first they were alarmed by a "monster". It's a different kind of survival story, but one that shows how much caring for others makes a difference in the way others think of you. There are moments of celebration, of sadness, but most of all, many moments filled with love. I can't wait for my granddaughter to finish The Wild Robot Escapes!

Celebrating The Quirky

      Celebrating today with Ruth Ayres and others who share. 

        I know not all of you see my FB posts. They are full of family, the bookstore, and when I become especially upset, politics. Most recently, I'm participating in a private poetry group, writing a poem each day to a piece of art shared by a group member. It's been joyful, educational and sometimes sadness creeps in when someone posts a particularly poignant poem. I also read a friend's post who takes lots of photos like Terje does and she shared that a photographer friend told her that whenever one sees something red, she should take a picture. Well, the quest is on. I've ignored the first thoughts--stop signs, Target, grocery signs. But in winter, much is brown (or white) and red stands out, and actually is rather rarer than one might think. Today I celebrate "Quirky" and the color "red" which happens to be my favorite color. You would know that if you visited my home.

from a clip-on wire thing in my
office, like a bulletin board

        It seems a good celebration since our loving Valentine's Day is Wednesday.

Here are the red photos so far! 

It's Monday - Books To Savor

         Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.   

       It's been a good week of reading. I finished Red by Liesl Shurtliff and started Home of The Brave by Katherine Applegate, strongly suggested by Ramona, a good friend and reader. And I'm nearly finished with Isabel Allende's The Japanese Lover, enjoying this adult book very much.

        Here's my review on Goodreads of a poetry book you need to know about, out for the last election, and so wonderful for this year, too. The Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for An Election Year by Janet Wong is filled with poems you can use to teach history, to discuss current events, to enjoy the entertainment value of them, too. 

Thanks to NetGalley for this advance copy of Red- out in April!

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood - Liesl Shurtliff

         I couldn’t help but think of the word “family reunion” as I read this new tale by Liesl Shurtliff. There are new things to learn about Red Riding Hood, but there also are reminders of her past adventures with Rump, good memories touched on. Red has inherited the strength of magic from her Granny, but early in the book we learn that Red stays away from it because of disasters that happened in her young life. Once she tried a small spell or two, which never worked, and one nearly became the end of Granny.  To Red’s dismay, one day she arrives to find Granny in bed, very ill, and sends Red off to find the ingredients for a strong medicine.  The ingredients are not all found, and Red’s path turns to a new idea: she begins to look for the spells that would mean eternal life so that Granny would never die. This leads to an adventure with dwarves, being followed by a wolf and a hunter, and conflicting experiences with a beast. There is also a new unwanted companion, the familiar one with blonde curls, Goldie. Goldie’s on a search too, and that porridge-loving girl we all love is both an irritant and a help to Red. Does this sound complicated? It is, wonderfully. I was surprised whenever I rounded a corner with Red, worried when she was in danger, commiserated with her feelings, admired her courage and rooted for her success. I loved every bit.

Ranger in Time: Rescue on the Oregon Trail - 

Ranger in Time: Danger In Ancient Rome

Kate Messner, illustrations by Kelley McMorris

          I have to admit I’ve never read any of Kate Messner’s Ranger In Time stories, and I won these two. Now I’m hooked. For time travel books for middle grade readers, these are terrific. Kate Messner moves the stories from today’s Ranger and family, into meeting the new setting with realistic people that need Ranger’s help. Adventures in time travel often show someone who is pulled back in time in order to save someone’s life, and Ranger makes a different kind of hero (dog, not human), but quite a wonderful one.