KCLS Recommends: Teens - Grades 6-7

Librarians at King County recommend books for grades 6 and 7:
Booklist for Grades 6-7

Adventure Books for Chris D.

After today's book talks with Carrie Bowman to 6th grade students, Chris C. and Chris D. from Ms. Moore's class helped me carry book bins to my car.  Chris D. mentioned that his favorite genre was adventure books.  Here's a great link from the KCLS (King County Library System) site for adventure books.
Adventure Booklist from KCLS

To explore specific genre booklists from KCLS children's librarians, check out this page:
Booklists by Genre 

To Kill a Mockingbird Read-Alikes

Ilene Cooper at Booklist shares nine titles for students interested in read-alikes for To Kill a Mockingbird:
http://www.booklistreader.com/2015/05/28/books-and-authors/nine-read-alikes-for-to-kill-a-mockingbird/

Summer Reading

Teachers and parents, don't miss this great post at Nerdy Book Club:

Top Ten Ways to Encourage Summer Reading

May is Mystery Month!

Check out this great list of the 100 best children's and YA mysteries of the past 10 years as selected by Monica Bertz of Booklist magazine:
http://www.booklistreader.com/2015/05/20/mystery-fiction/the-100-best-childrens-and-ya-mysteries-of-the-past-10-years/
The books are divided into three categories:  older readers, middle readers, and younger readers.  Please note that both middle readers and older readers have books suitable for middle school readers.

End-of-Summer Book Club - August 27

Our end-of-summer book club on Wednesday was a small group.   We think many of you were out of town or on the lake enjoying the last week of summer before school starts.  As I left the house for our two hour meeting, my husband asked me, "Do you have a book to read?"  Indeed, I did!  I had two boxes of books and one sack to share.   Plus, even if no one showed up, Ms. Bowman (KCLS librarian) and I love to share our reading lives with each other.  Our own Island Books bookstore supported the evening by providing free ARCs (advance reader copies)
for any students who dropped by.  

We brought in the KCLS rocking chair, a couch, and some chairs to create a cozy space in the meeting room.  Ms. Bowman had a table for her recommended books,
I had a table for my book choices, and we had a table for the free books.
And we had cookies and cookie bars for everyone
(with enough leftovers for IMS teachers on Thursday).  

Our evening began with Ms. Bowman and me sharing our books with each other.

We were joined by two incoming sixth grade students, Olivia and Liliana.

Each of them brought a book they had recently read.

We spent the next hour talking and sharing books.  

Olivia shared The Key and The Flame.

Liliana shared Half Brother.

I love adding to my WTR (want to read) list when I chat with fellow book lovers.

Near the end of the evening Callum arrived for a

quick book share and some cookie bars.  

Callum shows off his ARC of Badger Knight.

Although our numbers may have been few, our book love was mighty.

Anytime a few people gather to talk books, there is much book love!  

Sharing book love in the town center!

We  hope to hold this book sharing event several times a year.

We'll announce future meetings at IMS, through KCLS (King County Library System),
and on the blog, Sweet Summer Reads.  

Liliana reviews Half Brother

I read a book called Half Brother written by the author Kenneth Oppel. I found Half Brother captivating in so many ways. Every time I tried to put the book down I failed to do so and picked it back up again. The main character Ben Tomlin's life gets turned upside down when a chimpanzee named Zan unexpectedly becomes a so/called family member. Zan is part of his fathers experiment to see if animals can acquire language. He said in order for Zan to learn sign language they must treat him exactly like a human. Overtime Ben's relationship with Zan grows stronger and stronger, until Ben insists that Zan is his brother. Meanwhile Ben begins to truly hate his dad. He had said to Zan that he was his father but now Ben realizes that Zan was nothing more than a test subject to his father, and in his dads eyes Zan belongs to science. But Ben has bigger problems. Problems meaning he might lose Zan forever. This book was outstanding.