GreenBeanTeenQueen

In Missouri, we have a state book award for fourth-sixth grade called the Mark Twain Award. This year my library has partnered with seven area elementary schools for a program we call Chat & Chew. Each month we meet with a group of fourth & fifth graders to talk about a selected book from the Mark Twain list (chat) while the kids eat lunch (chew). It's been a lot of fun and the kids have had lots of great feedback about the books we've read so far. I posted about the first half of the year in January  and here's our second half round up: Drizzle Hide and Seek Half Upon a Time The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson - -"It started off with a lot of action and it made me want to keep reading." -"It has something for everyone-adventure, action, animals, magic." -"It was the best book-it's going to win!" (I thought so too, but our winner ended up being Out of My Mind ) -"I was surprised by the ...

Rating: 5/5 Stars Genre: Graphic Novel Release Date: 5/14/2013 Add to Goodreads About the Book:  Theodora loves everything to her way. She has everything planned out just the way she likes it. She has a perfect swimming routine, she has perfect exercises, a perfect routine for running her errands. When Chad moves in next door, Theodora notices that Chad is a bit odd. His house is a mess,  his feathers are dyed strange colors, and he makes lots of noise with his art projects. Theodora is sure she and Chad will not be friends? But can the two ducks find a way to get along? And is either one really that odd? GreenBeanTeenQueen Says:  Go get a copy of this book right now-I'll wait. Got it? Good-because you'll love it! I read Odd Duck and then I had to read it over again because that's how much I fell in love with Theodora and Chad. This is a book that will make you laugh, cherish friendships, and even think about your own odd duckness in a way that is so completel...

Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Fantasy/Novel in Verse Release Date: 12/13/2012 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Bartholomew is pretty ordinary and a bit bored. So when a very big wind appears outside his window, Bartholomew takes his bedsheet and soars into the sky. Flying across the world, Bartholomew meets new friends and has many wild adventures. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says:  Told in rhyming verse, Bartholomew Biddle would make a great pick for poetry month lessons. The story is broken up into seven chapters and while they all work together, each chapter also holds a small vignette of adventure that is happening to Bartholomew. The rhyming verse would make this a great read aloud for families reading together. I really appreciated that I never felt like the rhyming lines were forced. The flow was always very well done and the rhymes worked. It also gave the book a nice cadence. Bartholomew has several fun adventures along the way and I think readers who love stories full of ...

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary/Novel in Verse Release Date: 3/5/2013 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Sam is excited for his special fishing day with dad-that is until his annoying little sister Lucy comes along. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says : I love novels in verse and Gone Fishing is a perfect introduction to the format for young tweens. I think that while this could easily fit into the tween category, it might be the younger side of the tweens who are perfect for this one. Sam seems about eight or nine in the book. The poems have different narrators from Sam, Lucy and Dad but it's mostly Sam that we hear from throughout. He's having a rough day having his sister tag along and he's not catching any fish. The author does a great job expressing Sam's emotions throughout with his annoyance and frustration about his trip and then also his excitement and change of heart when things start to go well. What I really loved was how the author used various for...

Please welcome debut author Claire M. Caterer to GreenBeanTeenQueen! She's currently on her blog tour to celebrate the release of her middle grade debut, The Key and the Flame. I asked Claire to share her thoughts on libraries! Thanks so much to Sarah for letting GreenBeanTeenQueen host a stop on my blog tour! Sarah asked me to talk some library love, so I’m paying homage to two special libraries I know. When I was 22 years old, I was a walking cliché: Midwestern girl with big-city dreams. Two days after receiving my college diploma, I hopped a plane to New York City, where I intended to get a job and become a famous writer. New York is a tough town to hang out in all by yourself. I knew no one, had no job, and the culture shock was extreme, though I never admitted it at the time. Still, I knew I needed to find a home base, somewhere I could feel like myself. So of course I went to the library. Even my cocky, I’ll-conquer-the-world attitude was humbled by t...

Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary/Mystery Release Date: 6/21/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book:  The three Barker have just moved to Arizona. Everyone has told them not to go up Superstition Mountain, but when their cat goes missing, the boys have to find her-even if it means hiking up the mountain. When the reach the mountain, they discover three human skulls. With their pesky neighbor Delilah, they decide they are the perfect detectives to find out exactly what is happening on Superstition Mountain. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Missing on Superstition Mountain is nominated for our state book award next year, so I picked up the audiobook. It's a pretty quick read (or listen) only four discs long. The story was cute and engaging and the narrator did a good job with the boys voices, although he did make the youngest brother sound really young and whiny. I have to say that the boys in this book made me laugh. If I found human skulls while hiking a mountain, I would ...

Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary Release Date: 9/1/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Taylor's life just got turned upside down. She is not made for country living, but her parents have just uprooted her to a small town farm in the middle of nowhere. Now instead of trips to the Mall of America, Taylor is spending her time with sheep, ducks, chickens and goats. As her farm life keeps landing her in one disaster after another and chicken poop, Taylor devises a plan to get her parents to move back to the city where she belongs. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Barn Boot Blues is a cute look at transitions and changing what you've always known. Taylor hates the farm, but it's her moms dream to own animals and a farm, so Taylor isn't going to have an easy time convincing her parents it's time to move. Much to Taylor's surprise, she actually has a talent for living on a farm and learns to spin wool. As she learns about life on the farm readers will learn ...

Tween Tuesday is a meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens! Check out Annette LeBlanc Cate's Guest Post!! Rating: 5/5 Stars Genre: Nonfiction Release Date: 3/12/2013 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Anybody can bird watch! All you need is to go outside and look up! This fun quirky book will teach the basics of bird watching, what to look for, and how to get started with a new hobby. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says:   Look Up! is a great nonfiction addition to any collection. While the book is short (just over 50 pages), the pages are full of information that will get readers excited about bird-watching. I will admit, I've always thought of bird-watchers as a bit odd-they're those people who have notebooks and binoculars, spend a lot of time outside being very quiet and really love birds. But Annette LeBlanc Cate has managed to make me rethink my ideas of bird-watching and make me, someone who would much rather stay inside with a ...

Check out the Chronicles of Egg Blog Tour Rating: 3/5 Stars Genre: Historical/Adventure Release Date: 5/29/2012 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Egg lives on the island of Deadweather-and his family are the only non-pirates on the island. His siblings are always giving him a hard time and his dad is occupied with the ugly fruit plantation. When his father rushes the family away for a sudden trip to Sunrise Island, Egg isn’t sure what is going on-but he knows it’s something big. The family soon meets the rich and fancy Pembroke family and their beautiful and witty daughter Millicent. But when Egg’s family disappears in a hot air balloon accident and someone tries to push Egg off a cliff, Egg is on the run-because someone wants him dead and he’s not sure why. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Deadweather and Sunrise is the first in a new series, The Chronicles of Egg. The Chronicles of Egg reminds me of Lemony Snickett with pirates. And not Disney-nice pirates. Pir...

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars Genre: Magical Realism Release Date: 3/4/2010 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Polly Peabody lives on a magical farm. They grow chocolate rhubarb, it rains every Monday at exactly 1:00, and her best friend is a plant named Harry. When the rain stops, Polly's brother falls ill, and her aunt wants to sell the farm, Polly must figure out a way to save her beloved home. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Drizzle is on our state book list and one of our Chat & Chew book club picks. The kids reviews were mixed on this one and sadly, it was my least favorite of all the books we read for Chat & Chew. The kids that liked it said it had action, but for me the plot was slow and dragged too much. The book could have been edited down and I lost interest in the story. I liked the magical farm that Polly lived on, but the magic wasn't enough to hold my interest. I felt like the plot went around in circles too much and never got going. The ending was also a bit ...

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary Release Date: 3/5/2013 Add to Goodreads About the Book:  Everyone in Ruby's town knows that if you make a wish on your birthday and a quarter with your birthday year goes through the statue of Captain Bunning's donut, your wish will come true on Bunning Day. Ruby didn't listen to her grandmother and grandmother recently passed away. Ruby wants to know what it was her grandmother was trying to tell her. Plus Ruby's  best friend isn't speaking to her, her new friend is mad at her too, and Ruby's world is spinning out of control. Will her Bunning Day wish help her put everything straight? GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Linda Urban is a tween queen. I've been a fan of her books since her debut with A Crooked Kind of Perfect and Ms. Urban is a master at writing tween voices. She gets right to the heart of a story-you try and not get misty when you read a Linda Urban book. In The Center of Everything Ms. Urban writes...

Since I'm back in the blogging world, I can post Tween Tuesday on a regular basis again-yay! Tween Tuesday is a meme hosted here at GreenBeanTeenQueen. Share your Tween Tuesday links below! Rating: 3.5/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary Release Date: 5/8/2012 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Fern is in middle school and she feels invisible. She's in the middle of her siblings, her family is busy running the family restaurant, and Fern feels like her family doesn't pay attention to her. Her sister Sarah is taking a gap year before college, her brother Holden is being bullied at school and trying to pretend that everyone doesn't know he's gay, and her youngest brother Charlie is the only one who ever seems to notice Fern. But Charlie can be so annoying and he's always demanding Fern's time and attention. When tragedy strikes the family, Fern feels even more alone and responsible and has to figure out how to help her family heal. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says:...

In Missouri, we have a state book award for fourth-sixth grade called the Mark Twain Award. This year my library has partnered with seven area elementary schools for a program we call Chat & Chew. Each month we meet with a group of fourth & fifth graders to talk about a selected book from the Mark Twain list (chat) while the kids eat lunch (chew). It's been a lot of fun and the kids have had lots of great feedback about the books we've read so far. I thought I'd share some real tween comments about the books we've read. You'll see the comments grow as we went on-the more Chat & Chew discussions we had, the more the kids wanted to talk about the books. Because of Mr. Terupt  by Rob Buyea my review -"There's a character in this book that everyone can relate to."  -"I want a teacher like Mr. Terupt." -"I liked the ending." (spoilers here, so I can't say much-but they all LOVED the ending! :) -"I h...

Tween Tuesday is a meme that highlights great reads for tweens! Join the fun and add your link below. Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Contemporary/Mystery Release Date: 8/7/2012 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Georges (the S is silent) and his family have had to downsize to an apartment. The day they move in, Georges and his father notice a sign that advertises a spy club meeting and Georges's father encourages Georges to join. Georges meets Safer and his younger sister Candy who live in the building and are spying on a mysterious occupant, Mr. X. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: I wasn't a big fan of Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me , so I was a bit nervous about reading this book-I was really hoping I would like it. Happily I discovered a novel that I enjoyed. Liar & Spy has a mystery element to it, but it's also about friendship, family, bullying, and fear. Georges is picked on at school, his family is having some trouble, and he's had to move out of a hous...

The Wright and Wong Mysteries by Melinda Metz and Laura J. Burns were first published in 2005. The books feature two tween detectives who couldn't be more different- B. Orville Wright has Aspberger's Syndrome with a high IQ and great eye for detail where Agatha Wong is able to see the big picture. Together they make a great detective team. This series is especially important because it features a main character with Aspberger's Syndrome. This is such an important topic and kids need to see main characters with Aspberger's and Autism featured in books. Authors Melinda and Laura have put together a petition asking for The Wright and Wong series to go back into print.  If you believe in this important topic and series, please sign the petition . Hopefully together we can bring this great series back into the publishing world and into the hands of tween readers.

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Mystery/Humor Release Date: 1/1/2010 Add to Goodreads About the Book: 12-year-old Teddy lives in a zoo. His mom is a top zookeeper and his dad is an animal photographer, so Teddy is the only kid who lives year round at FunJungle-the ultimate zoo vacation spot. When the zoo's mascot, Henry the Hippo, goes belly up, Teddy sneaks in on the autopsy and learns that the Hippo was murdered. Teddy is on the case trying to figure out what happened to Henry before more animals meet the end. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Belly Up is another book that is on our state book award list this year and I've had book clubs about the book. Our discussion over Belly Up was one of the liveliest discussions we've had this year. This is a great tween mystery-the story keeps them guessing and none of the tweens in my book clubs guessed who the murderer was from the start and all were surprised. The book moves along at a good pace and keeps readers engaged. The...

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Humor Release Date: 9/27/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Rob never cleans his closet. Instead he tosses random junk and the books his mom gives him to read all into his closet. He even thinks that the beared man on his doorknob is a little weird, so he'd rather not think about his closet at all. Until one day a strange creature appears from the closet-it's Wonkenstein-half Willy Wonka, half Frankenstein. Rob needs to figure out a way to get the creature back where it belongs-and he might just discover reading along the way. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Author Obert Skye recently visited a local middle school and he obviously made an impression on the students because they have been asking for this series non-stop! I decided I had to see what all the talk was about. The Creature From My Closet: Wonkenstein is a great start to a hilarious new series that is perfect for readers who love humor and illustrations (ala Wimpy Kid style) in...

Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Animal Stories/Historical Release Date: 10/13/2011 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Did you know mice in houses and wear clothes and take the family name of the family they live with? The mouse Cranstons live within the walls of the human Cranston family home. When the human Cranstons decide to travel to England to find a husband for one of their daughters, the mice Cranstons decide they must follow their humans and travel over the scary sea as well. As the mice try to secretly help their humans out on their adventure, they have adventures and romance of their own! GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: If you're looking for historical fiction ala Downton Abbey , Secrets at Sea would fit that need-and would be perfect for tweens who are fans of the BBC show along with their parents. (I've had a few tween fans come into my library-they do exist!) The story is a humorous historical fiction with a twist because the entire story is told from the point of v...

Please welcome Irene Latham to GreenBeanTeenQueen! I love her memories of the Library-this is one of the reason's I became a librarian-so I could help kids find the joy of reading! (And her photos make it even better!) When I was about eleven years old—Whit’s age—my parents went on a week-long trip and divided up the five kids to leave at one grandparents’ house or another. My parents were strategic in how they determined which kid would go to which grandparents’ house. They always paired one good kid with one bad kid—and honestly I can’t remember how things were decided for the fifth kid. On this particular occasion, my brother Ken and I got Grandma and Granddaddy Dykes—my father’s parents—who lived in tiny Port St. Joe, Florida, which is on the coast between Appalachicola and Panama City. My brother Ken was known to be mischievous. This was a kid who would sneak next door and cut the roses off the neighbor’s bushes. Me, well, I was supposed to be the good one, the ea...

Tween Tuesday is a meme hosted at GreenBeanTeenQueen to highlight great reads for tweens! Rating: 3/5 Stars   Genre: Contemporary   Release Date: 10/16/2012   Add to Goodreads About the Book: Whit lives at the zoo. With a mom that's the zoo director and a dad who is the head elephant keeper, it's all Whit has ever known. He feels like his parents don't pay attention to him and care more about the animals. Whit wants to experience a different life. So when he's assigned a field study project, he decides to study Bird Girl, a mysterious girl he's seen at the zoo every day. Whit meets Stella, a girl who loves to draw birds, but her life outside the zoo is something she's trying to escape. GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: Don't Feed the Boy would be a great book for a middle grade book club. Whit is envious of Stella living outside the zoo, but Stella's abusive father makes her life something she wants to run away from. Stella on the other hand is ...