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: May 2013 primarily marketed for: young adults (middle/high school) What a treat to find an unexpected sequel to a book I love!   Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham is the sequel to Shark Girl .   Both books are written in poetry form, which means each chapter(poem) uses sparse language to pack an emotional punch. Formerly Shark Girl tells what life is like for Jane now that over a year has passed since she lost most of her right arm in a shark attack.   Although she has already faced the initial struggle to heal and face life without the talent of her drawing hand, Jane’s struggles are not over.   She has to decide where to go to college, has to choose whether to study art or nursing, and has to make up for precious time in the dating scene that was lost while she focused on her physical recovery. The same thing that struck me when I first read Shark Girl struck me while reading this book—how real the chara...

copyright date: September 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) I am a sucker for a novel told in verse.   I am a sucker for anything having to do with Mexican culture.   I am a sucker for a metaphor involving a tree.   I am a sucker for a novel that makes me feel .   So, needless to say, Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall has found its way into my heart. The protagonist, Lupita, is the oldest of 8 siblings!   She is used to caring for her brothers and sisters and almost has a friendship with her mother as opposed to a mother-daughter relationship.   But there are still some things her mother doesn’t think Lupita is ready to hear.   When Lupita hears her parents whispering and realizes they are keeping something from her, she demands to know the truth, and finds out that her mother has cancer.   From that point forward, Lupita’s life will never be the same.   She does all she can to keep...

copyright date: May 2011 primarily marketed for: from 5 th grade up What if your parent’s car was stolen and you were in the back? OR What if your dad was a car thief and the car he stole contained a young girl? At first, I thought the plot was reminiscent of April Henry’s Girl, Stolen .   However, Helen Frost takes the premise in a whole new direction.   As usual, Frost tells a fascinating story from multiple viewpoints through a beautiful form of poetry that she invented especially for this book. Wren Abbott is accidentally kidnapped when she is 8 years old.   Her kidnapper, Darra’s father is unaware that she is in the car, even after bringing the car home to his garage.   In fact, Darra is the only one other than Wren who figures out she is there.   The kidnapping is told through each girl’s eyes, in two different poetic forms.   However, the kidnapping is only the beginning of the story of Wren and Darra.   The real truly juicy part o...

I had to post these two books together.  They are both about Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War.   (You know I love a good war story.)  They are both told in verse.  And they are both REALLY good.  ALL THE BROKEN PIECES by ann e. burg copyright date: April 2009 primarily marketed for: grades 6-8 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award Nominee 2012 Tells the story of a 12 year-old-boy whose mother is Vietnamese and father is an American soldier that never returns.  When life becomes too dangerous in Vietnam, Matt’s mother seizes the opportunity to send him to America as soon as she is given the chance.  Matt is adopted by a loving couple, but that doesn’t mean the memories of a war-torn Vietnam and the family he left behind don’t haunt him. Although it is not likely all the experiences would happen to the same kid, it sure makes for a moving story.  Matt not only battles his past, but he also struggles with bullies on h...

  copyright date: January 2008 primarily marketed for: young adults I love poetry, so books in verse are always appealing to me.   I picked this one up because of the poetry, even though ghost stories are not my thing (I like books about dead people, but not ghost stories, go figure).   At the opening of the story, Ava’s boyfriend Jackson has already died.   She is trying to figure out how to go on with her own life without him.   But he won’t leave her.   Although the verse in the book is dead on (no pun intended) and often gut-wrenchingly powerful, the way Jackson haunts Ava is very unsettling to me.   I was more drawn to the way Ava struggles to embrace the new shape her life has taken on since Jackson’s death.   Ava’s struggle is universal—the struggle to deal with loss.   Not all of us have lost a loved one due to death, but all of us have experienced loss of some kind—loss of a best friend, loss of a boyfriend or girlfriend,...

copyright date: 2009 primarily marketed for: middle school and up Helen Frost is one of my favorite authors.   I have adored every book I’ve read by her.   In fact, the copies of some of her books in our school library have disappeared because I am apparently not the only one who appreciates her work.   Her stories, told in poetic verse, are always moving and then I am always amazed to discover there is a specific format she follows when writing the poetry for each book.   You might remember her book Diamond Willow , which was a recent Caudill nominee.   Crossing Stones is the story of four teenagers during World War I (two sets of brothers and sisters who are neighbors).   The boys, Frank and Ollie, end up going off to fight in the war, while the girls, Muriel and Emma, each face their own struggles at home.   The voices of all four characters are threaded throughout the book with grace.   The poetry alternates viewpoints and includes...