Not the end, but the beginning

My semester officially ended yesterday–just in time for the summer session to start tomorrow 😅😬. I signed up to teach a summer creative writing workshop because it sounds “fun,” and now that I have exactly one day to prep for it, I’m reconsidering my life choices 😂😂😂.

The good news is that it will be fun! The better news is that the creative writing coordinator has basically prepped the whole class for me. I just have to plug in some readings and, you know, do the actual work of teaching the class. There are worse ways to spend a summer for sure.

But I am also going to a conference this weekend, so this summer is off to a very busy start. It all kind of crept up on me, too. Oh well.

Anyway, so now I’m sitting on the couch writing this blog post instead of typing up my syllabus, which I need to do immediately. So! Quick reading/links round up and then! On to updating my syllabus!

I posted a couple of things this past week:

My reading mojo has been nonexistent so I am depending on middle grade graphic novels to get me out of my reading slump. It has worked in so far that I am…reading a bunch of middle grade graphic novels. Hopefully, this will translate to straight prose books soon since I have a book club meeting coming up.

On the plus side, I have finished two books:

Brave by Svetlana Chmakova

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m not saying this is a good book BECAUSE one of the characters is named Akilah and she’s a reporter for the school paper and that she’s featured on the cover. I’m just saying it doesn’t hurt anything else going on in the book that she’s super intelligent and amazing.

I liked this. It’s a nice story about an odd kid who gets bullied and has to face up to the fact that he’s being bullied (denial is real). Good look at friendship and standing up for yourself and others. I know what Chamakova was going for with the ending, but I’m not so sure I agree with it. Still, a good moment for discussion with the young people who read the book for sure.

Also, Akilah is the best, but you knew that already.

View all my reviews

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love books about kids hanging out with senior citizens, and Sunny spends the summer with her grandpa at his retirement home. This is cute on the surface but actually about dealing with a loved one’s drug addiction and the impact it can have on a child who doesn’t quite know what’s going on but knows that things are very much Not Good. This is very slice of life/vignette-y, but everything comes together in a pretty satisfying ending/acknowledgement of what’s happening with Sunny’s family.

View all my reviews

Coming up on the blog: More music posts! Plus a reflection on my semester! And I’m one of the co-hosts of a summer reading challenge! Ahhhhhhhh!