Are you looking for a new book to read?
Lucky you, I have some here for you to read up on!
Every Friday I recap what I’ve read during the week.
I post the picture of the book
that I took when I finished reading it,
and underneath, my thoughts.
This was a good reading week; I read a lot on Sunday and plugged away the rest of the week reading more and more.
RULES FOR STEALING STARS
By Corey Ann Haydu
Priscilla “Silly” is the youngest, at 11, of three sisters. Marla is 12 and the twins, Eleanor and Astrid, are 14. They’re back at the New Hampshire house, like they are every summer but this time it’s a permanent move. Their mother is not doing well; drinking more, yelling at them more, and spending her nights wandering into and out of the closets.
Their Dad acts like everything is fine, and the older girls seem to have some secret fun that Silly doesn’t know about. She finally gets them to let her in on the secret, and it’s a bit of magic that lets them escape the harsh reality of their lives. It’s the closets, and there may even be the secret to helping their mother in there. Silly hopes the magic can save her family, but it also threatens to divide them.
I really liked the magic in this book. It was wonderful and fun to get transported to imaginary worlds, and I liked the dark side of the magic too.
The girls were well done; each one so different but also similar. It’s an intense book. It’s hard for these girls to deal with having a mother like they do; it’s sad to see how they act around her, how much hope they have that she’ll get better and how their hope is shattered each time she relapses. It’s a good commentary on escapism and made me think about the things I do to escape.
Even though it’s heavy, I think it’s a great book.
These things happen in the world, and kids can interact with them in a safe way through stories. The sister relationships are strong and complicated, and there is always an undercurrent of hope running through the story,
even if it’s a very small one. 
EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING
By Nicola Yoon
18 year old Madeline has only ever known the world of her house. She has an autoimmune disease that keeps her inside and away from people, unless they’re decontaminated of course. She’s happy though; she has her books, her nurse Carla, her tutors and Internet pals, and her mother. Her father and brother died in a car crash when Maddy was young, so she’s very close to her mother.
Things get shaken up when a new family moves in next door, and one of those new occupants is a parkour enthusiast who also happens to be handsome, funny, and brave. Oliver catches Maddy’s eyes right away and they chat nonstop online, until Maddy can convince Carla to sneak him in to see her. But can this last? They can’t touch. Or they’re not supposed to.
Will Maddy risk everything to be in love, or keep her distance and stay safe? The book also has cool illustrations (by the author’s husband!) and includes pages of Maddy’s journals and some medical reports.
I read this straight through, in one sitting last night, and I even knew the twist at the end. I loved Maddy and Olly, and especially Maddy’s outlook on life. The dramatic reveal is quite a twist, but believable. I liked the very very end too. I only wish everything would have been a bit more of a struggle at the end; it seemed to wrap up a little too nearly. I really liked Maddy’s one sentence reviews of famous books too.
A really good read and look at a first romance.
The story felt really fresh to me too. 
SECRET CODERS
By Gene Luen Yang
Illustrated by Mike Holmes.
Hopper is not thrilled to be going to a new school, especially such a weird one! Stately Academy has mystery written all over it, and she tries to crack some, but doesn’t have much luck until she solves something with her earrings of all things!
They are the number 7, and they affect these strange birds that live around the academy. Her new friend Eni figures it out: the birds are robot and react to numbers in code! He and Hopper learn code, find a robot, and uncover more mysteries!
This is so cool! I love graphic novels first of all. If they can teach you something, even better. If they can teach you something cool like coding, AND carry a great story and mystery, I’m officially hooked! And that’s the case with this slim book. I read it and started thinking in code and got so interested in programming. I would have geeked out about this as a kid!
I love that there are parts where the characters ask you to stop reading the book and see if you can figure out what will happen or what’s next, using the programming that you’re learning.
Seriously, this book is so cool. I already recommended it to a elementary school librarian who is so excited to have it in her library! More are coming in this series (the next in August!)
BUDDY AND EARL
By Maureen Furgus and Carey Sookocheff
This is such a cute picture book! Buddy is an adorable dog, and when his human beings in a box with something prickly inside, he decides to investigate.
He finds Earl, who is full of imagination and adventure. Together the two have great fun in the living room. I like how Earl gently pulls Buddy out of his comfort zone onto the land of more imaginary play. Then they make a mess, and Buddy is blamed. Earl shows what a great friend he is in the way he reacts. By the end of the book it is hard to believe Buddy and Earl weren’t always friends.
It a quiet sort of book, but powerful. I love the friendship and the illustrations are so playful you can’t help but want to join in on the fun. The colors are bright and inviting. I wouldn’t mind seeing more adventures with these two!
A school librarian friend of mine said this was her favorite book of the year, and that all babies that are born in her family are getting this book. A fun read!
CARRY ON
By Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow is the chosen one, but he’s not very good at magic. First of all he’s a Normal; he had no idea he was magical until he was plucked out of an orphanage at 11.
He sets things on fire a lot, can barely get his wand to work, and has the roommate from hell, Baz, who is most likely a vampire and has tried to kill him multiple times.
Luckily the Mage, the head of his magical school, is looking out for him. And he has his good friend Penny too, and his girlfriend but mostly likely ex girlfriend Agatha. He just wants to have a good last year at school; is that too much to ask?
Probably. There’s a war going on against the Humdrum, this mysterious force that sucks magic out of places. Baz didn’t come back to school, which worries Simon; is he planning some elaborate way to kill him? And there are ghosts that visit him with important, confusing messages.
I loved the characters in this book SO MUCH! You’ll recognize them from Rainbow’s book FANGIRL; it’s the series that Cath writes fan faction about. I loved seeing them have their own story. Simon’s journey is complicated, messy, and real. I loved the love story, the multiple points of view we get, how the magic works, all of it.
I read this book in almost one sitting, and it’s over 500 pages! I loved this book! I was swept up in the story immediately, and I’m still thinking about it. There are great families, loves, and friendships in here; people figuring things out in easy and difficult ways. It’s got everything you need in a book, including and awesome cover!
ARCADY’S GOAL
By Eugene Yelchin
Arcady is twelve and here’s what he knows: he’s good at soccer, and he can earn extra rations by winning. He’s not allowed to be on a team, so he always plays one on one at his orphanage. All the orphans are enemies of the Soviet state because of crimes or supposed crimes their parents committed; they’re not supposed to be team players.
Life is rough in the orphanage, but Arcady has a dream: he wants to get out and play for the Red Army Soccer Team, the best team in Soviet Russia. No one would hate him for being an enemy of the state then. But he’s not sure he’ll ever get out of the orphanage.
Until he meets a kind orphanage inspector, and things change for him. Arcady gets a new shot at life, but there’s a lot to figure out. Can he be part of a family, part of a team? Only time will tell.
I think this is a very important story. I love books that bring me into places and situations I’ve never experienced, and this is one of them. You can feel the uncertainty Arcady feels, his confusion about what his parents did wrong, how things are denied to him unfairly. There’s a lot going on with the grownups in the book too.
I felt like I was there with Arcady, and viewing everything in the world through him. In the author’s note, Eugene explains that he partially wrote this story to show children, especially American children, how lucky they are to have the rights they do.
It’s a story about what makes a family, facing fear, and trying to live your best life when there’s so little you can actually control and change.
There are awesome illustrations in this book too; every chapter has lots and they are integrated well with the words; the design is great. I really enjoyed this story and think kids would like it too, to experience a new reality and grow empathy.
Have you read any of these?
I’d love to hear what you thought of them!
See you next Friday with more books!
Bye for now,
KE
P.S. Full disclosure: The links above go to Indiebound and are affiliate links. If you buy at Indiebound, I’ll get a little kick back. That would of course be nice, but really I’m happy to be linking to an Indie site 
