I am intentionally dragging my feet with the voting process this year because the amazing books just keep coming.  It is so hard to stop reading and not think of how incredible a conversation might be around a certain book, and yet, time ticks and at some point, the final books need to be chosen.

The group of books for this year’s middle school aged kids, or whomever else that would like to read them, is a particular beautiful one.  From the searingly beautiful Orbiting Jupiter to the riveting page turner read of Night Vision.  From the poetic struggle to finding oneself in House Arrest to the frightening what if tale of The Nest. To the tale of wondrous redemption in The Seventh Most Important Thing or one girl’s search for the truth behind a senseless tragedy in The Thing about Jellyfish,  this year’s contenders are all must-reads and must-adds.  I am glad I have all of you to help me, so while my heart tugs in one direction I cannot wait to see what the vote says.

Whatever book you love, now is the time to let your voice be heard and that of your students. Cast your vote and let us see which book will transport us and connect us this year starting October 3rd.

Voting will be open until April 8th, 2016. Good luck to the amazing books and happy reading.

Once in awhile, I am gifted a book to consider for the Global Read Aloud.  This the book Eleven by Tom Rogers came to me at my school and I was immediately drawn to it.  The cover told me that the story had something to do with 9/11 and yet I was not sure what to expect.  After all, how do you write about an event that still is so raw in our history and yet do it in a way to capture middle grade readers?

It turns out you do it exactly like Tom Rogers did.  The book follow Alex, a boy whose 11th birthday falls on 9/11, who lives in New York City.  As we follow him throughout the day, we see the story slowly unfold as it dawns on him what is happening in his city.  We also have a dual perspective from the man in the white shirt, which fills in some of the holes that our 11 year old protagonist would not know about.  I cried when I read the book and then I smiled, because I finally found a book that I can hand to the generation of kids that I teach that will offer them a little slice of what it felt like that day.

I should have known that a book that is sold at the 9/11 memorial would be a great read, and it is.  This book is a Global Read Aloud contender for 2016 and should be added to any classroom 3rd grade and up, but I know that my middle schoolers will love it as much as I did as well.

We continue voting in our first round picks for the Global Read Aloud 2016.  Next up are the amazing choices for our earliest readers.  Voting will run for a week and end on March 9th.  Remember; students may vote too!

I don’t really do animal books.  As anyone who has heard me tell the tale of how The One and Only Ivan was selected for GRA 2012, they will know that when a book features an animal I tend to take a very long time to even pick it up.  If a book gets a lot of hype, it sometimes takes me much longer.  So when Pax by Sara Pennypacker, yes, the Sara Pennypacker of Clementine amazingness, was brought to my attention I gladly put it in my to-be-read pile.  And then promptly avoided it for a month.  After all, a book about a fox and boy –  wasn’t that just a new version of Where the Red Fern Grows?

Yet last night, after finishing Touching Spirit Bear, I figured I may as well keep this animal trend going and I settled in to this tale of a boy and his fox and the world that separates them.  And I read for 3 hours.  And I stayed up too late.  And this morning I slipped it in my school bag so I could read during my prep, and then I read during my lunch, and then I read after school.  And tonight, I finished it and it is so wonderful. So magical. So heart-wrenching. So deep.  And all I want to do is to talk about others with it.

And that is why this book is the newest contender for the Global Read Aloud 2016.  This book is meant to be read aloud.  This book is meant to be shared, to be discussed, to be read to a silent room where students just want you to read just one more page.  This book is magic, pure and simple.

So order it now, it comes out February 2, 2016.  Read it, hold it close, and then pass it on to as many people as you can.  While this is a book that asks you to reflect, it is also a book that begs to be shared.  For 4th grade and up, I have a feeling Pax will be a book we remember for a long time to come.