Ms Rush Reads

copyright date: August 3, 2021 primarily marketed for: middle grades I have been a fan of Jerry Spinelli's work for a long time, and  Dead Wednesday  did not disappoint. The narrative style in this one struck as me being similar to Loser, but not just because of the third-person point of view. The protagonist of Dead Wednesday , Worm Tarnauer, will tug at your heartstrings the same Zinkoff did in Loser. Dead Wednesday is a tradition the whole town gets behind in an attempt to help 8th graders avoid potentially fatal decisions as they head into their high school years. Each 8th grader is assigned the name of a local teen who passed away due to avoidable reasons (mostly accidents involving risky behavior). Students were black t-shirts and are ignored by others for the day to encourage quiet reflection. However, for most 8th graders being ignored by adults is more of an invitation to act out than to turn inward.  Worm approaches the day expecting to celebrate his freedom in ...

copyright date: February 2014 primarily marketed for: young adults (high school) Reading Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith felt like being let in on a secret.   The flap copy had me completely baffled as to why I wanted to read a book about an unstoppable army of hungry, horny, giant praying mantis creatures.   However, after reading Winger , I was sure Smith’s writing would be brilliant, and the buzz amongst my social media connections was that the book kept people thinking long after they finished reading.   There was no way to know for myself other than to jump right in and start reading, to hear the secret firsthand.   From the very start I was equally shocked, amused, and charmed by Austin Szerba and his friend Robby Brees. They are pretty typical teenage boys living in a small town in Iowa.   Austin is struggling with typical teenage boy things, like confusion over his feelings for his girlfriend and his best frie...

  copyright date: May 2013 primarily marketed for: Young Adults (high school) Have you ever read Looking for Alaska by John Green?   I never thought I would ever read another book that I could recommend as being just as good as Looking for Alaska .   Until I read Winger by Andrew Smith .   I laughed audibly at fictional characters while reading this book.   My heart ached for fictional characters while reading this book.   I had tears streaming down my face over fictional characters while reading this book.   It is a good book.   Great book.   Incredible book.   It is about a brilliant fourteen-year-old kid at a boarding school with sixteen-year-olds.   After getting into some cell-phone trouble, this self-proclaimed runt is thrust into living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troubled students.   The kind of troubled students who would love to squash a fourteen-year-old boy.  ...

copyright date: 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (teens) The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow opens with this quote: “There is one kind of sport which should be especially encouraged, although many people . . . consider it brutal and vulgar, and that is boxing . . . There is no other sport which equals this in developing the militant spirit, none that demands such a power of rapid decision or which gives the bod the flexibility of good steel . . . But, above all, a healthy youth has to learn to endure hard knocks.” -Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf As an opening, it is a perfect representation of Sharenow’s ability to craft a story that is at once rooted in history and grounded in contemporary relevance.   Karl Stern is a young boy growing up in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power.   He is Jewish by descent, though his family does not identify with or practice Jewish religion or culture.   His Jewish identity serves as t...

copyright date: January 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) After reading a few heavy books, I picked up The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith from my shelf of to-be-read books expecting a light, fluffy romance.   I should know better by now.   I wouldn’t have purchased it if it were just a light, fluffy romance.   Of course I was completely sucked in by the premise that everything happens for a reason, even if the reason is not apparent at first.   Hadley is on her way to London for her father’s wedding—the beginning of a marriage to a woman Hadley has never met because why would she want to meet the source of the affair that broke her family apart?   Anyway, she misses her flight because of a series of choices and mishaps.   Now, having changed her path to London, Hadley encounters a guy.   An attractive guy.   A charming guy.   A guy who insists...

BOUNCE by Natasha Friend copyright date: August 2007 primarily marketed for: young adult (7th grade up) Bounce by Natasha Friend has sat on my shelf for years.   Because it is nominated for the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award this February, I finally picked it up and cracked open the cover.   And, boy, am I glad I did.   In its pages I not only discovered reasons to laugh and reasons to get choked up, I also discovered a new favorite author.   Since reading Bounce , I have been on a mission to read all of Natasha Friend’s books. Bounce is the story of a girl named Evyn , who, although her mother died years ago, is not ready to see her father move on.   While she and her brother were away at camp for the summer, her father has met a new woman and plans to marry her.   To make matters worse, Evyn’s future stepmom has 6 children for Evyn and her brother to embrace as siblings.   With hilarious scenes th...