When twelve-year-old Frankie Joe's mother is sent to jail, he is uprooted from his home in Texas to live with the father he has never met, his father's wife, and his father's four "legitimate" sons in Illinois. Frankie Joe is miserable. Trying to adjust to his blended family proves too much to bear, so Frankie Joe hatches a plot to escape on his bike back home to Texas. For that he needs money, and so Frankie Joe's Freaky Fast Delivery Service is born. His deliveries win new friends, a place in the rural Illinois community, and a sense of achievement. But his planned escape is destroyed by a heartbreaking betrayal, and Frankie Joe needs all of his incredible resilience and the loving support of his new family to survive the devastating loss. from Amazon.com

I enjoyed reading this book, another from the Bluebonnet Master List for 2013-2014. It is a bit "old" for what I would normally share with the 3rd graders, but it would make a good read for a slightly more mature reader. As I read I consistently had the thought that this could make a great movie. The character interactions just beg to be played on the big screen with some talented young performers. Themes of family, respect, bullying, love, and change weave themselves in and out of a boy stuck in a situation he has no control over.

Waiting for the Magic

When William’s father leaves, his mother promptly goes out and adds four dogs and a cat to their lives. William’s sure that nothing can fill the hole left by his father, but the new additions to the family are determined to help. With his sister, Elinor, and his mother, William will learn that “family” can come in all shapes and sizes, because sometimes we find love through magic, and sometimes that magic is all around us. from Amazon.com

I liked it. It was sweet. This is on the Bluebonnet Master List for 2013-2014. It made me think about family and how we cope with the holes that form in our relationships.. what we fill them with and how we feel about others. I'm not sure how the 3rd graders would react to it, but that's ok. I don't have know that ahead of time. It might make for some good conversation when I get to know next year's kids.

Welcome!

My goal for this blog is to share information on books and chronicle my ideas about teaching, librarianship, the role of education, and anything else in that vein of thought. So begins a journey and I wonder if it will come to anything interesting.