Middle Grade Book Review: Something Like Home

 

Lauren goes to live with her aunt after her parents are required to enter rehab. They can't stop using drugs and neglecting Lauren. Lauren called the police and feels responsible for their time in rehab.

Lauren's aunt isn't the most welcoming. She just wants to go home, but that's not an option. Moving to her aunts means moving to a new school. It's not easy being the new girl in school. How is Lauren supposed to make friends when she's going to be back with her parents before too long?

When she finds a puppy who needs recusing, Lauren comes up with a plan. If she can train Sparrow to become a therapy dog, they can visit her parents. She misses them more than she can say. 

My Thoughts: A wonderful heart wrenching story about Lauren's family life. She feels heartbroken that she's responsible for splitting up her family. I love how she became a family with Sparrow. She trained him. Even though she rescues him, they saved each other. Because of Sparrow, Lauren makes a friend. Together, they train Sparrow to become a therapy dog. I wanted to wrap Lauren up in a hug. For me, the ending, was a little too good to be true, but it did wrap everything up nicely. 

Cover Thoughts: Adorable

Source: My Library

Library Recommendation: A great novel in verse for middle graders. 

* Nothing bad happens to the dog after it's rescued. 

Middle Grade Book: Louder Than Hunger

Of course, as soon as I heard about this book, I wanted to read it.

First because of the author: John Schu.

Second: Novel in Verse

Third: Anorexia from a male perspective

@yabooknerdlibrarian Louder than Hunger is a must read book - its about struggles. It made me cry 😭 but it was so so good! @Candlewick Press #booktok #poetry #poetrytok #novelsinverse ♬ original sound - Jennifer @YA Book Nerd 📚📚📚

                                                           Happy National Poetry Month! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Novels in Verse

 This week's topic is one I don't tend to read, so I'm changing it up. It's National Poetry Month and I just read a novel in verse that was really good. So here's a list of other great books written in verse.

Here's the book from yesterday:

Read and Enjoyed:

Want to Read:

What other novels in verse have you read and enjoyed?

Review: Iveliz Explains it All

 

How do you speak up when it feels like no one is listening? One girl takes on seventh grade while facing mental health challenges, and must find her voice to advocate for the help and understanding she deserves.

Listen up:
The end of elementary school?
Worst time of my life.
And the start of middle school?
I just wasn't quite right.
But this year?
YO VOY A MI.

Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz's year. She's going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school . . .

Except is that what happens? Of course not.

...summary from the publisher

My Thoughts: I read this book because it's a Newbery Honor Book. But I confess, it took me some time to get into it. And then I was hooked. I will say that I was confused about the father. Once I understood what was really happening, everything made sense. I loved the novel in verse - it is one of my favorite forms. I felt terrible for Ive; I just wanted to wrap her up in a big hug. There was so much going on in her brain. I loved the conversations about mental health - with her grandmother, with her friends, and with her therapist. This book gave me ALL the feels, I cried at the end.

This is one of my favorite parts of the book:

And I do love the set up - how it looks like a journal AND the illustrations on some of the pages.

Cover Thoughts: I understand it after reading it, but it doesn't do much for me

Source: My Library

Star Rating: 4.5 Stars (Mostly because I almost put it down)

Library Recommendations: A must have book for your library collection. 

Happy Poetry Month: Novels in Verse

 I quite enjoy reading novels in verse. I wrote up a column for VOYA about novels in verse in 2016. But I confess I haven't read many novels in verse lately. And I'm not sure why.

I did just finish this one:

Here's one of the poems, that I enjoyed:

Last Year I read:

I wrote up this blog post with some early favorite novels in verse (this was my version of Top Ten Tuesday before that was a thing)

Any novels in verse that you would recommend me?

On a personal note:

But first attempt at writing a book was a novel in verse. It's up on Swoon Reads if you're interested. It's about a girl during her first year of college. 

I like to dabble in poetry now and then. I haven't written much lately, but here are few older poems that I added to the blog.

Poem for National Library Week

Poetry and libraries collide!

Here's a poem I wrote last year:

Not a day goes by
when I don't read.
Reading is the air
I breathe.
Words transport me to other worlds.
Words wrap themselves around me
in a warm hug.
Words make me feel
like I'm never alone.

Poetry (4)

My first novel I wrote was in verse. Every now and then I like to play around with words and form poems. It started mostly after my college class. So I thought I'd share a few with you this month. Happy National Poetry Month!

Not a day goes by

when I don't read.

Reading is the air

I breathe.

Words transport me to other worlds.

Words wrap themselves

around me

in a warm hug.

Words sooth me, so I'm never

alone. 

Poetry (3)

My first novel I wrote was in verse. Every now and then I like to play around with words and form poems. It started mostly after my college class. So I thought I'd share a few with you this month. Happy National Poetry Month!

Dreams have a way of disapointing you

the bigger they are

the harder you fall

And you fall down

                           down

                                   down

into the darkness

where it swallows you up

Poetry (2)

My first novel I wrote was in verse. Every now and then I like to play around with words and form poems. It started mostly after my college class. So I thought I'd share a few with you this month. Happy National Poetry Month!

My heart's in pieces

it's not you

it's not me

maybe we just

aren't meant

to be

Broken hearts 

can be mended

in time. 

Broken dreams

never heal.

Time can't heal

all wounds.

Poetry

My first novel I wrote was in verse. Every now and then I like to play around with words and form poems. It started mostly after my college class. So I thought I'd share a few with you this month. Happy National Poetry Month!

Sometimes I take a trip

down memory lane

to relive past choices

and to see what I would change

but I'd do it all 

again

so I can be here

in this moment

Spine Poetry

For National Poetry Month, I thought I'd try my hand at a few spine poems out of the books sitting on my bookshelf. Hope you Like them.

Poem 1

POem 2

Poem 3

Poem 4

Poem 5

A poem

A memory caused me to write this poem. I found it fitting to share during the last day of April 

in celebration of National Poetry month.

Memories

I saw a pair of red shoes
just like the ones she used to wear.
I wanted to buy them even though
I knew I'd never wear them.
I miss her.

I wanted to show her the photo
of the huge tree decorated
with hundreds of Easter eggs
just like the tree we used to decorate
but I can't.

I want to tell her so many things
and share so many stories.
I want to laugh with her.
I'll never be able to again,
because she's gone.

Ten Things: Songs of Poetry

What I love about songs is the story told by the singer and it's even better for me if I know the singer wrote the song. These are the songs that get stuck in my head and I can't stop listening to the story.

Here's ten songs that have that quality for me:

Ten Things: Novels in Verse

Celebrating Poetry Month with Novels in Verse.

For my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, I wrote a novel in verse about a girl in college:

Emily has spent her entire life waiting for something to happen. Now that she's off to college, she expects her life to completely change. Only nothing does. Luckily, her new roommate is spunky and outgoing, the kind of person who makes things happen and Emily and Lauren become fast friends. The girls struggle to balance class, work, romance and their own friendship during that tumultuous first year of independence. Emily must stop waiting and find happiness on her own terms.

Here's the first page:

I’ve been waiting
my whole life
for this moment:
waiting for the escape
waiting for the independence
waiting to find myself.
And now that it’s here,
I’m waiting to figure out
what to do first.

I wrote this novel because I've read such great novels in verse and because the beginning of the novel came to me in a poem.

For the librarian side of me, novels in verse are great sources for reluctant readers. I often hand these out to people who say they hate reading. Often, they come back for more happy to have finished a book.

What My Mother Doesn't Know: the first novel in verse that I read and adored. I really do like her other books too.
Song of the Sparrow: A beautiful historical fiction from the King Arthur era.
Far From You: I think this might be my favorite of Lisa Schroeder's novels, but it's hard to pick one. She writes amazing verse novels. This one is so haunting - so real.
Seeing Emily: A girl struggles to come to terms with her culture and her heritage.
Sold: I hated reading this book because it was such a horrible subject, but it's such a moving tale and so worth the read.
Hold Up: A thrilling tale based on several perspectives
Crank: A powerful read by Ellen Hopkins - a good, but incredibly powerful read.
Dead on a Town Line : a unique mystery, probably my second verse novel read.
On Pointe: A heart breaking story of a dancer who stops dancing.
A Bad Boy can be Good for a Girl: A great read for girls, reminds me of the movie John Tucker Must Die