Sasquatch Award Reviews - Halfway! (Part 2)

I am truly enjoying reading the Sasquatch Reading Award List this summer.  Here are the next three books I have finished so far.

The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata

Sometimes it is funny how we make connections with reading.  I picked up this book randomly out of my Sasquatch pile, but it just happened to be while my husband was combining wheat as part of his job.  I even rode in a combine recently!  The story of Summer and her family is a familiar one to my home in the agricultural area of northwest Washington.  Many of my students have parents who work in agriculture, and while our migrant families are not as predominant as in the past, we still have a few.  In the story, Summer, her brother, and her grandparents are part of a custom harvesting crew that travels all over the Midwest combining wheat for farmers who cannot afford to buy their own machines.  They work tirelessly, and for months in the heat.  On top of that Summer is trying to avoid the bad luck that has seemed to follow all of her family for the past year.  She finds herself in awkward positions where she must make choices about who she wants to be.   Growing up is hard, but especially difficult when you just can't seem to ever make a good choice due to bad luck.

The Adventures of a South Pole Pig: a novel of snow and courage by Chris Kurtz

Have you ever had a crazy dream?  One that keeps you up at night?  In this story, Flora, the pig has a dream. She dreams of becoming a sled pig, just like the sled dogs training on her farm.  Her family thinks she is crazy to want to be anything besides a pig, but with some inspiration from her farm friends, and her obliviousness to the real reason farms raise pigs, Flora gets chosen to travel with the sled dogs to Antarctica to follow her dreams.  She doesn't really know that she was chosen to come because the cook loves bacon, she thinks that she will be part of the team, racing across the snow!  That's when the real adventure begins, as Flora must survive rat attacks, a shipwreck, and finally, a true test of survival as a sled pig.  She is one brave pig!

Rump: The true story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff

Poor Rump has survived many years with his awful name, but what's in a name?  In his village, "your name is your destiny," so Rump does not have much to look forward to besides the backside of life.  Rump's Gran tells the story of his birth where his mother died before she could speak his full name.  He knows that there is more to him than just Rump.  When he finds an old spinning wheel, his destiny changes, but not exactly for the good.  He has a magic curse that he must figure out, and evil likes to follow magic, so now he must deal with an evil King and Queen, evil trolls, and evil pixies.  They are all trying to get what they want out of him - gold, and all he wants to know is his full name.  Follow Rump on his exciting and humorous adventure through the kingdom where he finds friendship in unlikely places and must figure out for himself where his true destiny lies.

Please check out these books from your local library!

Sasquatch Award Reviews - Halfway!

The Sasquatch Reading Award is a kids choice award in Washington State for middle grade fiction.  Every year, I challenge my students in 4th and 5th grade to read all 12 books on the list during the school year.  I enjoy spending the summer reading the books so that I can book talk them in the fall.  This program has been pretty successful since I include an enticing pizza party with prizes for the readers who finish all 12 books.  As an added bonus, I started challenging teachers to read them also, with the promise of clock hours as their reward.  As most teachers and librarians know, if a teacher recommends a book, it flies off the shelf in the library, so I have loved that part of the challenge!

Once again, I am reading the books this summer, and enjoying the variety so far.  Here are the first three reviews, in no particular order. I will post three more later this week.

Jinx by Sage Blackwood

Jinx is a young orphan from an unnamed clearing in the Urwald.  He is abandoned as a young boy by his step-parents and taken in by the cranky, and perhaps dangerous, wizard, Simon.  As he grows, Jinx becomes more curious about magic and his own possible powers until finally he decides to venture off on his own.   He encounters a couple of unusual travelers, who add both comic relief and powerful friendship to the story.  I am looking forward to the continuing story of Jinx in the next two novels.

Star Wars, Jedi Acadmy by Jeffrey Brown

Roan has always dreamed of being a pilot just like his dad and brother, but his plans change when he is selected to go to the Jedi Academy.  He is worried about going to a new school, and disappointed that he did not get to go where he wanted, yet this could be an amazing opportunity.  When he arrives, Master Yoda talks funny, Roan cannot levitate anything, and the other students have been training to be Jedis since they were very young.  He may just cut his leg off with a light saber before he ever becomes a Jedi.

Great story with a lot of friendship and new kid themes, and the added bonus of Star Wars!

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

In this heart-wrenching story, Carley Connors is forced to deal with her new reality of being a foster child.  Her foster family is kind, generous, and fun, all attributes that Carley has never known in a family.  Her adjustment to the Murphys is difficult, and Carley pushes back at every turn.  She learns to accept kindness and friendship in the most unusual of people, but then has to find the courage to be herself on her own.  I think that students and teachers will appreciate the story of Carley, and hopefully, we will all recognize her bravery in some of the behaviors we see every day.

I hope you enjoy reading these excellent stories.  Look for them at your library!