Ms Rush Reads

copyright date: March 2014 primarily marketed for: middle grades (4 th -7 th ) I didn’t expect to fall in love with this book.   I was hoping it would be worthy of recommendation to some of the less enthusiastic readers in my classroom.   I guess I did not expect much beyond an engaging basketball story and a fast-paced poetic rhythm.   Not only does The Crossover by Kwame Alexander deliver on all aforementioned accounts, but it is also a beautiful story of the bond between a father and son, the power of cultural history to shape a person, and the evolution of brotherly love as young men come of age.   It is the story of 8 th grader Josh Bell and his twin brother Jordan, who have inherited their father’s talent for basketball.   On the court, they are a lethal combination, teaming up to lead their team to the championship.   Off the court, Josh struggles with growing distance between his brother and him since a gi...

copyright date: January 2014 primarily marketed for:   young adults “Leaning against my father, the sadness finally broke open inside me, hollowing out my heart and leaving me bleeding.   My feet felt rooted in the dirt.   There were more than two bodies buried here.   Pieces of me that I didn’t even know were under the ground.   Pieces of Dad, too.” -from The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson is undoubtedly her most powerful work so far.   And that is saying a lot.   Somehow this story managed to charm me, break my heart, coax me to giggle, steal my breath away, and fill me with hope.   From the moment I began reading, I allowed little else to interfere with my path to the last page.   Hayley has traveled the country with her war veteran truck driver father for years before finally settling down to attend high school and lead a ‘normal’ ...

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:   September 2013 primarily marketed for:    middle grades (3 rd to 7 th ) One day John and Marta find a young boy fast asleep on their porch.   Should they wake him?   No, he looks like he needs the sleep.   They decide to wait.   As they wait, their curiosity grows.   However, when he finally awakens, they discover the boy does not speak and the only information they can get is from a note that was left alongside him.   In Sharon Creech’s charming story of The Boy on the Porch , it turns out the main character is not really the boy at all, but instead the role is shared by the selfless caretakers, John and Marta.   Although they are unlikely and unexpected parents, their ability to open their minds and hearts proves to reach far beyond the simple needs of the boy on the porch.        This simple twist on the age old tale of a baby left in a basket on a doorstep i...

copyright date: February 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (14 and up) I started Dead to You by Lisa McMann one night before I went to sleep.   I also finished   Dead to You by Lisa McMann before I went to sleep that night.   I just couldn’t close the book without knowing the end. Dead to You is the story of Ethan, who was abducted when he was only seven-years-old, returning to his family as a teenager.   As he tries to adjust to his current life at home as a teenager with his younger brother Blake and new younger sister Gracie, Ethan struggles to make sense of his past.   Blake pushes him to find out why he got into that car with strangers and challenges Ethan’s memory every chance he gets.   Gracie is too young to understand who Ethan really is, since she grew up in their family without him.   Ethan fights to remember the family he left behind and struggles to understand his need to protect Ellen, ...

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (8 and up) This is another book for younger readers.   So, although the time you spend actually reading Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli won’t be long, the time this story spends traveling around in your heart will be immeasurable. Spinelli is a master at getting straight to the heart of what keeps people from accepting one another: differences.   Through the story of young twins Jake and Lily, he tells a story of tolerance, acceptance, and ultimately friendship.   Jake and Lily have a very special relationship.   They are able to connect with one another through dreams and across distances.   In fact, as they write their stories for us in alternating chapters, they don’t even need to read to know what they other has written.   Conflict settles into their lives when growing up threatens to come between them.   As Jake begins to spend more time with a g...

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (5 th grade and up) I sort of expected One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt to be one of those overly sappy books with unrealistic, sickeningly sweet characters.  However, although the storyline might make it sound sappy, the characters are realistic and dynamic.  After a traumatic incident that lands both she and her mother in the hospital, Carley Connors is taken away and placed in foster care with the Murphy family.  The only life Carley has known is one of put-downs, food scraps, and shopping for clothes in Salvation Army drop boxes.  Until she meets the Murphys.  The Murphys are too good to be true: Julia, the mom, happily makes home-cooked meals for her three boys and firefighting, sports-loving husband.  In fact, Julia isn’t even rattled by Carley’s rough around the edges attitude.  At first, Carley despises the Murphys and the way they make he...

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: middle school (age 10 and up) Everything you have heard about this book is true.  It is one of those books that will find its way into your heart and nestle in for a good long while. See You at Harry’s by Jo Knowles is filled with endearing characters far beyond the protagonist: twelve-year-old Fern.  Fern’s family is made up of a (much) younger brother Charlie, (who only pronounces his /r/ sound when calling Fern’s name), an older brother Holden (who is struggling with his own identity), an older sister Sara (who wears her hair in dreadlocks and torments her siblings as much as she adores them), a mother (who is juggling attending to her husband’s passion for the family business and a house full of children with varying needs), and a father (whose love of his restaurant often comes at the cost of family embarrassment).  The story largely takes place at Harry’s, the family restaurant, which hosts...

copyright date: June 2011 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (5 th grade and up) Three things I cannot get enough of are: 1.      books that take place during WWII (there is so much to know about this important time in our history that these stories never get old) 2.      books told from multiple viewpoints (I love the layers of story this reveals) AND 3.      books about elephants (I am in love with these emotional creatures) An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo (author of War Horse ) satisfies my craving for all three kinds of books.  The story is initially told from the point of view of a nurse whose son comes with her to work at an assisted living facility.  Her son, Karl, bounds into the room of one of her most challenging patients.  Upon meeting Karl, the patient begins talking about an elephant that lived in her garden when she was a young girl.  ...

copyright date: September 2011 (2010 in UK) primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (5 th grade and up) Growing up, I was familiar with Roddy Doyle .  My sister read his books for grown-ups and convinced me to watch a couple of her favorite movies, which were based on those books.  Years ago, I discovered his hilariously clever book for younger readers, The Giggler Treatment , a story about creatures called Gigglers who place dog poop in the paths of adults who’ve done wrong.  So, when I saw he had a new book out for young readers, I couldn’t wait to read it.  A Greyhound of a Girl is a book unlike any other I’ve read.  Roddy Doyle is a genius.  Life is a bit of a struggle for the protagonist, twelve-year-old Mary O’Hara.  Her granny is dying and she lost her best friend when her family moved away.  Now, she has to walk home down the hill from the bus stop alone before heading home to join her mother on a visi...