Chapter Books: The A's

I'm reading Chapter Books this semester and it's going SO SLOWLY.  I just cannot fly through these like picture books.  The kids are a little disappointed in me and I think I've learned that I have to have a concrete goal.  I can't just "See how many I can read in a semester".  I need the push of keeping up with something.  

But the point of it all is for me to read the books, and for kids to see me reading, and the kids are definitely checking out books off of the "What Mrs. L. is reading..." shelf so I'll call it a win, if a slow one.  

I thought this one was hilarious and had a nice, "be yourself and be nice to others and give people the benefit of the doubt" kind of message.  A little talk of boys and girls but not much.  I got the rest of the books in the series and the kids are eating them up.  WIN!  (And-checking out origami books too, which warms my little crafty heart).

This won the Newbery award last year, and I've heard and heard about it, so I was eager to read it.  It was good.  I'm not a huge animal fan in the first place, but for those kids who are, it'll be great.  I'll keep recommending it.  

This one was my absolute favorite.  It suffers from a TERRIBLE cover.  I can't sell it to anyone, even when I tell them it was my favorite of all the A's.  I finally talked a 4th grader into it and she said she liked it, but that she found it hard to follow.  I made MJL read it and he loved it too.  You should all check it out.  I don't think Anna's read it yet, I'll try to get her review.  It's about a refugee from Africa who's adapting to life in Minnesota.  

Only one book from the A's which I think I'm going to weed out- just poorly written and doesn't contribute anything new to the giant genre of pioneer stories and it's a paperback and no one's checked it out in years.  

On to the B's!