Ms Rush Reads

copyright date: January 5, 2021 primarily marketed for: Middle Grades Unplugged  by Gordon Korman overflows with humor, action, and heart. If you are a Korman fan, this is a perfect addition to your collection. If you are new to Korman, this will be the perfect gateway book. Jett Baranov is the son of a Silicon Valley tech genius. To call him spoiled would be a massive understatement. After a particularly risky stunt, from which his dad had to bail him out, Jett has been sent to spend a rehabilitative summer at the Oasis with his father's right hand man as a caretaker.  At the Oasis, Jett is forced to exist completely unplugged from the devices, social media, and entertainment he has come to rely on. Instead, he is invited to meditate, eat healthy, and relax in natural hot springs.  Of course, Jett is much more interested in finding a way out of the Oasis than he is in participating in any wellness activities. However, as the summer unfolds, Jett becomes entangled in a de...

  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: February 2010 primarily marketed for: intermediate and middle school readers (5 th -8 th ) A Mrs. Rush-Levine confession:   I had to wear headgear when I was in middle school (thankfully, not to school, but I did have to wear it overnight).   I am wondering if the fact that I feel like this is a book about my own youth might not be the reason I am madly in love with RainaTelgemeier ’s graphic text Smile.   Somehow, Smile made me see the humor in my own humiliating past.   Smile is an autobiographical story of the author as a young girl.   It is drawn in full-color comic strip style illustrations and tells the story of Raina’s dental woes, beginning when she knocks out a tooth in a nasty spill.   The initial damage causes a large gap in the front of her mouth and leads to multiple dental procedures.   The rest of the book continues to follow the story of perfecting her now imperfect smile at the ...

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...

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) This is Geoff Herbach 's sequel to Stupid Fast and continues Felton Reinstein’s story in true Felton fashion.   This is definitely a smart guy book—a book for smart guys, who definitely love a good chuckle. The story opens at the end of summer with Felton typing a letter to his girlfriend Aleah while flying in an airplane on his way to retrieve his younger brother from Florida.   The entire book is written as one giant letter to Aleah explaining how his summer led him to this moment in time.   After Felton and his brother Andrew got some help with their mother’s issues, Felton went right back to throwing himself into football and track—because he is stupid fast.   However, Andrew did not cope quite as well as Felton did.   Felton ignores his brother’s cries for help and continuously lets him down.   His brother ends up cooking up an elaborate plan to run ...

copyright date: September 2011 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (age 10 and up) I bought this book prior to the announcement that it won the 2012 Newbery Award.  I have to admit, once I heard it won the award I was less interested in actually picking it up to read it.  I mean, sure an award of that caliber denotes a certain standard of literary quality, but it doesn’t always ensure the same high standard of interest.  In short, I expected Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos to be: boring.  Luckily, I was wrong. What finally nudged me to pick the book up was seeing Jack Gantos speak in Springfield at the Illinois Reading Council Conference.  He is a master storyteller, and he is filled with stories to tell.  He spoke to a room filled with us teachers about how to get our students to turn their personal journals into stories the way he did.  Here he is with his current journal of choice: This is the map he drew of his childhood ...

copyright date: June 2011 primarily marketed for: (young adults, 8 th grade and up) This is what I call a “smart guy-book".  When you guys are ready to move away from fantasy into realistic fiction about teenage guy issues, Stupid Fast is one of the books you will have to turn to.  This is a book for you guys who read Invisible and Godless by Pete Hautman, Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, Shift by Jennifer Bradbury, Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman, anything by Chris Crutcher or John Green, and especially About a Boy by Nick Hornby. Stupid Fast is the story of Felton Reinstein.  He is a Jewish teenager who was fiver years old when he discovered his father had hung himself in the garage.  That was the beginning of a lot of years of instability for Felton and his family.  Now that he is a teenager, Felton is struggling to grow up, take care of his younger brother, reach his newfound athletic (not to mention social) potential, and escape the dis...

copyright date: 2001 primarily marketed for: grades 4-8 In honor of No Name-Calling Week, the idea for which originated with this book, I thought I would post a review of The Misfits by James Howe.    This book has one of my favorite leads: "So here I am, not a half-hour old as a tie salesman and trying to look like I know what I am doing, which have got to be two of the biggest jokes of all time, when who should walk into Awkworth & Ames Department Store but Skeezie Tookis. " I think I like it because it is such an inviting introduction to Bobby and Skeezie, two of the four friends referred to in the book’s title.   Bobby, Skeezie, Addie, and Joe are seventh graders who decide to create their own political party to run in the student council election.   Their goal is simple: to put an end to name-calling.   Who doesn’t think that is a good idea? The wonderful things about this book aren’t limited to the positive messages about acceptance and k...