Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Hop on over there to ogle what other bloggers got this week.
Buckle up folks. It's a long one!
For review:
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| Image: Candlewick Press |
Sea Glass Summer by Michelle Houts. Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. upgd. Candlewick Press, May 14, 2019. 9780763684433.
Publisher synopsis: One summer, a boy named Thomas visits his grandmother at her seaside cottage. She gives him a magnifying glass that once belonged to his grandfather, and with it Thomas explores the beach, turning grains of sand into rocks and dark clamshells into swirling mazes of black, gray, and white. When his grandmother shows him a piece of sea glass, Thomas is transfixed. That night he dreams of an old shipyard and the breaking of a bottle. Could the very piece of sea glass on his nightstand have come from that bottle? For the rest of the summer, he searches for more sea glass and hopes to have dreams that will reveal more of the sea’s secrets. A stunning ode to stories and the seaside, this picture book invites readers to imagine the ocean of possibility that lives in every small or forgotten treasure.
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| Image: Candlewick Press |
Publisher synopsis: A young WWI soldier's unauthorized visit home has dire consequences in a haunting story reimagined in miniature tableaux.
About one hundred years ago, the whole world went to war.
The war was supposed to last months. It lasted years.
It is Christmastime, 1914, and World War I rages. A young French soldier named Pierre had quietly left his regiment to visit his family for two days, and when he returned, he was imprisoned. Now he faces execution for desertion, and as he waits in isolation, he meditates on big questions: the nature of patriotism, the horrors of war, the joys of friendship, the love of family, and how even in times of danger, there is a whole world inside every one of us. And how sometimes that world is the only refuge. Its publication coinciding with the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, this moving and sparely narrated story, based on true events, is reenacted in fascinating miniature scenes that convey the emotional complexity of the tale. Notes from the creators explore the innovative process and their personal connection to the story.
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| Image: Candlewick Press |
Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo. 241 p. Candlewick Press, September 24, 2019. 9780763694647.
Publisher synopsis: Beverly Tapinski has run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid. By now, she figures, it’s not running away. It’s leaving. Determined to make it on her own, Beverly finds a job and a place to live and tries to forget about her dog, Buddy, now buried underneath the orange trees back home; her friend Raymie, whom she left without a word; and her mom, Rhonda, who has never cared about anyone but herself. Beverly doesn’t want to depend on anyone, and she definitely doesn’t want anyone to depend on her. But despite her best efforts, she can’t help forming connections with the people around her — and gradually, she learns to see herself through their eyes. In a touching, funny, and fearless conclusion to her sequence of novels about the beloved Three Rancheros, #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a character who will break your heart and put it back together again.
Revisiting once again the world of Raymie Nightingale, two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo turns her focus to the tough-talking, inescapably tenderhearted Beverly.
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| Image: Candlewick Press |
The Little Grey Girl by Celine Kiernan. Wild Magic Trilogy #2. 209 p. Candlewick Press, September 3, 2019. 9781536201512.
Publisher synopsis: The old queen and her raggedy witches have fled Witches Borough, and Mup’s family has moved into the cold, newly empty castle. But the queen’s legacy lingers in the fear and mistrust of her former subjects and in the memories that live in the castle’s very walls. While Mup’s mam tries to restore balance to a formerly oppressed world, Mup herself tries to settle into her strange new home with her dad, Tipper, and Crow. When an enchanted snow blankets the castle, Mup’s family is cut off from the rest of the kingdom, and the painful memories of the old queen’s victims begin to take form, thanks to a ghost whose power may be too much for even Mup and Mam to handle. Celine Kiernan weaves a timely and essential truth into the second book of her trilogy: that dismantling oppression means honoring the pains of the past, and perhaps the most potent magic of all is encouraging joy and hope wherever possible.
Whoops! It seems I have missed book one in the trilogy. Must remedy that. Absolutely adored the author's Into the Grey.
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| Image: Candlewick Press |
Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain and Ireland by kevin Crossley-Holland. 341 p. Candlewick Press, October 8, 2019. 9781536209419.
Publisher synopsis: A handsome, cocky young man is swept up by a dark horseman and cast into a life-or-death adventure. A pair of green children emerge from a remote hollow and struggle to adapt to a strange new land. A dauntless farm girl finds that her fearlessness earns her a surprising reward. Dark but often funny, lyrical yet earthy, the folktales presented here have influenced our landscape and culture. This definitive collection of forty-eight stories, retold by master storyteller and poet Kevin Crossley-Holland, opens a doorway to a lost world and shows the enduring power of language and imagination.
Ancient, rich, and strange, these magical and eerie tales from across Britain and Ireland have been passed down from generation to generation.
Purchased: I am out of money in my budget but have a fair number of students chomping at the bit for these two books, so I used an AZ gift card to buy these as a gift for my library:
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| Image: Simon & Schuster |
Publisher synopsis:In the sixth book in the New York Times bestselling middle grade series inspired by the life of iconic New York Yankee Derek Jeter, young Derek bites off more than he can chew when he decides to enter the school talent show and try out for the basketball team.
Between promising Vijay that he’ll compete in the school talent show and promising Dave that he’ll try out for the basketball team, Derek Jeter has a lot he’s trying to juggle. A commitment is a commitment, and Derek is determined to work hard and try his best, but he worries he might be in over his head and fears he’s going to let his friends or himself down. How can Derek do it all?
Inspired by Derek Jeter’s childhood, Fast Break is the sixth book in Jeter Publishing’s New York Times bestselling middle grade baseball series that focuses on key life lessons from Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation.
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| Image: Simon & Schuster |
Spy School: British Invasion by Stuart Gibbs. Spy School Novel # 6. 309 p.Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, April, 2019. 9781534424708.
Publisher synopsis: Superspy middle schooler Ben Ripley is finally going to take SPYDER down, once and for all, in this latest addition to the New York Times bestselling Spy School series.
Stranded in Mexico after nearly capturing the leaders of SPYDER, thirteen-year-old Ben Ripley desperately needs to take a shower. But even more so, he and his spy school friends need to come up with a new plan to defeat their enemies, their only clue a key that opens…something.
The Mission: Go rogue from the CIA, join up with the British MI6 to locate the leader of SPYDER, the enigmatic Mr. E, and bring down the evil organization once and for all.
Only it won’t be easy. They’ll have to deal with rival evil splinter factions, devious double-crosses and learning to drive on the opposite side of the road. But they have no other choice: this is their last and final chance to crack the code on SPYDER.
We also hosted Lynda Mullaly Hunt courtesy of Books, Bytes and Beyond on Monday, May 6. I bought 23 books to send to Never Counted Out. Turns out that Lynda is familiar with the organization, which was started by author e. E. Charlton-Trujillo and gets books into the hands of at-risk youth. So we bonded over that.
My review of Shouting at the Rain is here. My review of Fish in a Tree is here. And, my review of One for the Murphys is here.
If you leave a comment, I will definitely stop by and try to comment back - unless commenters have to sign onto Discus or Wordpress or FB or anything that makes commenting difficult and gives my data to miners. But I will check out your stack!
My review of Shouting at the Rain is here. My review of Fish in a Tree is here. And, my review of One for the Murphys is here.
If you leave a comment, I will definitely stop by and try to comment back - unless commenters have to sign onto Discus or Wordpress or FB or anything that makes commenting difficult and gives my data to miners. But I will check out your stack!
Nice haul! I haven't heard of any of these books before, but they do look good :)
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful weekend and happy reading.
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Hmmm...I never seen these books before, but they look great! Great haul!
ReplyDeleteHere’s my Stacking the Shelves!
Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog
I read a Kate DiCamillo book last year and loved it. I need to read more of her work. I hope you enjoy all these!
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Between Worlds looks really interesting. I love learning about folklore, and I would love to know more about English and Irish tales. Have a wonderful week.
ReplyDelete