These are the books I’m currently reading at the moment. Some are ARCs and others I just really wanted to read. I’ll be sharing updates on these books soon when I get further into them, and of course, I’ll post reviews of each.
Synopsis:
Garvey’s father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading—anything but sports. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased by bullies, and lonely. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey’s life changes. The chorus finds a new soloist in Garvey, and through chorus, Garvey finds a way to accept himself, and a way to finally reach his distant father—by speaking the language of music instead of the language of sports.
Review:
This story was about a boy named Garvey who is really into things like science, reading, math, and singing. His dad really wants him to be more tough and play football. Garvey doesn’t know how to communicate with his dad the way, so he turns to food as comfort. Garvey is gaining more weight and his classmates and his sister have all noticed. So he tries to do a crash diet which doesn’t work.
In the end with help from his friends Joe and Manny he learned to accept himself for who he is. Take control of his weight and learn to talk to his dad better. I really enjoyed this, especially because it was written in my favorite writing style – verse.
Rating: 4⭐
Synopsis:
Eddie’s Great-aunt Mathilda is sick and he has to help take care of her. But when Eddie and his friends visit Mathilda’s house, strange things start to happen. Howie sees someone staring at him from the attic window and, when his back is turned, his garlic potato chips are used to spell the word ATTIC on the ground. During later visits the kids hear noises from the attic, but Great-aunt Mathilda swears there’s nothing up there. Could the ghost of Eddie’s Great-uncle Jasper, who died years ago, be haunting his aunt’s home? The Bailey School kids will find out!
I remember reading The Bailey School Kids series when I was in grade school and I enjoyed all of them. I would normally buy them at my school book fair, I wanted to collect them all. I enjoyed reading this it was fast paced then I remembered. But it brought me back to when I little reading these chapter books. These are really fun and cute reads.
Rating: 3⭐
Stacey is a little girl who loves words more than anything. She loves reading them, sounding them out, and finding comfort in them when things are hard.
But when her teacher chooses her to compete in the local spelling bee, she isn’t as excited as she thought she’d be. What if she messes up? Or worse, if she can’t bring herself to speak up, like sometimes happens when facing bullies at school?
Stacey will learn that win or lose . . . her words are powerful, and sometimes perseverance is the most important word of all.
My thoughts:
Stacy’s Extraordinary Words is a children’s book written by Stacy Abrams who is a state politician, author, activist, and lawyer. This book was about Stacy’s love of words and how she grew to love words of all kinds, their meaning and spelling. She entered into a spelling bee at school but this only pushed her to learn new words. This was a fast paced book and I enjoyed the illustrations.
Rating: 4⭐