The Thing About Jellyfish - Ali Benjamin
"If people were silent, they could hear the noise of their own lives better. If people were silent, it would make what they did say, whenever they chose to say it, more important. If people were silent, they could read one another's signals, the way underwater creatures flash lights at one another, or turn their skin different colors."
"Humans may be newcomers to this planet. We may be plenty fragile. But we're also the only ones who can decide to change."
I finished this book quickly. Ali Benjamin has a way with putting words to your feelings and I wanted to highlight and write down many lines from the book. I got it for my classroom this year and it has quickly become a favorite. It is geared more toward middle school students to adults. I loved all of the interesting facts about science that the author included, but the main theme is grief and how the main character deals with the loss of her best friend.
Faceless - Alyssa B. Sheinmel
“You have to learn to love yourself before you can love someone else. Because it's only when we love ourselves that we feel worthy of someone else's love.”
This is another book I had in my classroom library. I actually pulled it from the shelf after reading it because it would be a better book for high school-young adult. It was another book that I didn't want to put down. The main character, Maisie, loses her face in an electrical fire while running in a thunderstorm. It is another book about grief and learning to love yourself. When I finished the book I had a lot of questions about her story and was longing to continue following her story.
Wonder - R.J. Palacio
“If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.”
Okay, I've been meaning to read this books since it was a Golden Sower book in 2013-2014. I finally picked it up because the movie came out and had such good reviews. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I will when it comes out on DVD. The book did not disappoint. If you have an upper elementary kid or middle school kid, this would be the perfect book to read with them! The This book will be added to my read aloud list for school.
Beartown - Fredrik Backman
“What an uncomfortable, terrible source of shame it is for the world that the victim is so often the one left with the most empathy for others.”
“The love a parent feels for a child is strange. There is a starting point to our love for everyone else, but not this person. This one we have always loved, we loved them before they even existed. No matter how well prepared they are, all moms and dads experience a moment of total shock, when the tidal wave of feelings first washed through them, knocking them off their feet. It's incomprehensible because there's nothing to compare it to. It's like trying to describe sand between your toes or snowflakes on your tongue to someone who's lived their whole life in a dark room. It sends the soul flying.”
Amazing!! This was a heavy book and there were times I had to put the book down because so much was going on and I just wanted to process it all. The moment I hit the climax of the story though, I couldn't put it down. The story follows many characters which I love when authors do. After reading this book I went and put another book by this author on hold at the Library. I would say it was my favorite book of the month. :)
xoxo,
amanda breazeale
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