Snow Day Book Birthdays

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S (as told by his brother)

Last weekend everything came to a stop. All I did was read David Levithan's first middle grade novel, The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told by his brother). Nothing else got done.  Don't tell me I didn't warn you. I also could not stop talking about it. I'm glad my 18 year old daughter was still home from college and humored me as I filled her in on Lucas and Aidan's story.  "Did you find out any more details?" "What do you think happened?" She was as much into it as I was. I even told my 5th and 6th grade "Newbery Navigators" about it and they were hooked. I'm happy it is out in the world today.

As you can imagine, the search parties are out in full force when 7th grader Aidan disappears. Day after day, they keep looking.  He reappears on Day 6 with an unbelievable story. Page after page, I wondered. Is it true? Could this happen? I seriously questioned reality. I tried to genrify the book. Is it fantasy? Realistic fiction? I needed to know and therefore could not stop reading.  And to this day, I am still wondering.

It's a story about brothers, believing the impossible (or the possible), family, accepting who you are and what you have. I wish it the happiest of book birthdays and promise me if you read it that you will get in touch with asap so we can talk.

HILO: Gina the Girl Who Broke the World

It is so sad to have a HILO book birthday without a party.  But dear, Judd Winick, know that I was thinking of you and Chase today and cannot wait for your "Author Fan Face-off" next month! YES! The 7th HILO comes out into the world today and as always, we welcome it with big open arms. Hooray! Stay tuned for mid-March when Chase's challenge will be up on our AFF YouTube channel.  I already know it will be a good one. Go Chase! 😉

Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11

I know little about this book except that because it is by Alan Gratz, it will be gripping and one that kids will devour.  It's hard to find a middle grade reader (and librarian) who doesn't love anything that Alan writes.  While you are waiting for it to arrive in your mailbox or SORA shelf, check out our Author Fan Face-off with Alan vs. 8th grader Evan, a former student of mine.  Evan was a huge fan of Alan's since, I believe 4th grade.  I knew when we got Alan confirmed that Evan had to be his challenger.  You won't see it in the video, but I actually cried during our filming because it was so cool to connect Evan to his favorite author. (See above: I will have Kleenex nearby for Chase's challenge, too).

ICYMI here the Grenade challenge:

And a few more that I am either completely intrigued about from social media (Red, White and Whole by Rajani LaRocca), love the duo (Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena and Christian Robinson), always want to support the author (EngiNerds Strike Back by Jarrett Lerner) and ANOTHER Yasmin book to add to the already fabulous collection (Give it a Try, Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi and Hatem Aly). Yay! Happy Book Birthday all!

YOU MATTER

I wish many of us didn't need to be reminded often of the message of Christian Robinson's newest book, but we do.  We all matter.  In his signature fun style, he gets the point across so well.  The small ones, the ones who are first to go and the last to go, old and young ones, lost ones, alone ones. We all matter.

This page may make you chuckle and squeeze in a science lesson, too:

"Even if you are really gassy. You matter." I love the multiple meanings.

We squeezed in a belated celebration for the book today. As always, we read the book, sang "Happy Birthday", blew out the candle and had a drawing for a copy of the book.  I changed it up and stuck the candle in an ice cream sandwich.  I wasn't too upset that I had to eat it when the party was over.  Just sorry I couldn't share it with all my friends who matter.

Here are some activity pages to pair with the book. One of the kindergarteners sent one back this afternoon.  Five reasons why she matters? She has a family, she's nice, she's generous (spelled jenerise), she loves her family and 

xoxo

(Don't you love the girl on the bottom left who is "blowing" out the candle?)

Don't miss the dedication in the book:

💗

"For anyone who isn't sure if they matter. You do."

I'll try not to forget that and neither should you. xo