What's New? Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Hop on over there to ogle what other bloggers got this week.

Another quiet week, which is totally fine as I am trying desperately to catch up. Annual is in a month!

Gifted: I attended the first ever SLJ Innovator's Basecamp at Simmons College in Boston yesterday. Rita Williams-Garcia was the closing keynote speaker and each attendee received a copy of her latest book, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground. I was first in line to have mine signed to my students and whispered that I had the honor of writing the SLJ review of this profound and lovely story.

 


Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia. 166 p. Amistad/ HarperCollins Publishers, May 9, 2017. 9780062215949.

Publisher synopsis: From beloved Newbery Honor winner and three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner Rita Williams-Garcia comes a powerful and heartfelt novel about loss, family, and love that will appeal to fans of Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander.

Clayton feels most alive when he’s with his grandfather, Cool Papa Byrd, and the band of Bluesmen—he can’t wait to join them, just as soon as he has a blues song of his own. But then the unthinkable happens. Cool Papa Byrd dies, and Clayton’s mother forbids Clayton from playing the blues. And Clayton knows that’s no way to live.

Armed with his grandfather’s brown porkpie hat and his harmonica, he runs away from home in search of the Bluesmen, hoping he can join them on the road. But on the journey that takes him through the New York City subways and to Washington Square Park, Clayton learns some things that surprise him.

Also gifted: one of the conference organizers put out a selection of books for the taking. I chose this one:

Voyager's Greatest Hits: the epic trek to interstellar space by Alexandra Siy. 80 p. Charlesbridge, June 13, 2017. 9781580897280.

Publisher synopsis: 2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the Voyager mission as the twin space probes that traveled to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, now journey beyond our solar system into interstellar space, where no probe has ventured before.

Learn the fascinating story of the scientists, how the Voyager probes work, where the probes have been and what they’ve seen, and what they carry on board—including the Golden Record, a recording of sounds and images about life on Earth.

Critically acclaimed science writer Alexandra Siy chronicles the ongoing saga of the Voyagers in a lively story full of nail-biting moments, inspiring scientists, and incredible NASA images.

For review:

King of the Bench: Control Freak by Steve Moore. King of the Bench series #2. 214 p. Harper/ HarperCollins Publishers, September 12, 2017. 9780062203328.

Publisher synopsis: In the second book of this new, highly illustrated middle grade series by the nationally syndicated cartoonist of “In the Bleachers,” Steve reprises his role as perpetual bench-warmer. Perfect for fans of Timmy Failure and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, King of the Bench is an ode to teammates, underdogs, and bench-warmers everywhere.

Steve is King of the Bench. No brag. That’s just a fact. And this season, Steve and his friends are ready to sit on the sidelines of the Spiro T. Agnew Middle school football field. But then they stumble upon an old-school video game controller, and they become convinced it can control sports plays. With it, Steve might become King of Football too!

Oh, and if you’re wondering why Steve would write a book and tell complete strangers about a mysterious magic device that pretty much controlled his first season on the football team, too bad! It’s a strict rule when writing a book that you have to build suspense first.

That's what's new with me. What's new with you?