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December 2007

Hi folks!

I hope you are all as excited about the holiday season as I am. Please try to remember the spirit of the season, as I encountered plenty of enraged shoppers at the Home Depot parking lot yesterday (people honking, others arguing over who chose a particular X-mas tree first). I try to always remember how blessed I am and put any problems in perspective. Try smiling and laughing; they’re contagious.  

My pastor alerted me to a website that I want to promote to anyone who wants to share good wishes to our soldiers overseas: www.anysoldier.com. Another site that I encourage everyone to go to is www.freerice.com. This site provides a vocabulary quiz, and for each word you get right, the United Nations donates 20 grains of free rice to help end world hunger (a great teaching activity for all ages of students). Sorry for the two promos, but they are worthy causes. 

I have been reading even more than usual this past month, as I spent a wonderful week with my wife and kids in Scottsdale, Arizona. While the kids were swimming, I dove into a number of eclectic titles that I have wanted to read, including Bones to Ashes (another excellent Kathy Reichs novel in her series that has inspired the Fox TV show Bones); Alan Elsner’s The Nazi Hunters is just a pure fun suspense story; Jennifer Belle continues to impress me as one of the funniest women novelists with her latest effort Little Stalker; and I cannot say enough good things about Alan Sitomer’s Homeboyz. If you teach middle school, you really need to add Sitomer’s books to your classroom library, as his books circulate like hotcakes (he also has a wonderful book for middle school teachers entitled Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classroom, a guide for connecting classic, standards-based curriculum to hip-hop poetry as a way of engaging students).

Anyhow, enjoy this month’s book selections below. I hope you are all reading some wonderful books. Make sure to tell me all about them. If you're an author or a publisher and would like to send me review copies of your book(s), please send them to the address listed for authors and publishers.

I hope you are reading some wonderful books. Make sure to tell me about them by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Have a wonderful December, and enjoy your books!

Danny ;-)
Born Standing Up

Born Standing Up

By Steve Martin 208 pages Adult

Danny Says

Wow! This wild and crazy guy has led an amazing life, and Steve Martin has managed to create a tight autobiography that makes you laugh, cry and think. One of the few autobiographies I have ever read that I actually thought was too short, as I could not put this book down once I opened it. Any fans of the comedian will find this highly intimate account to be fascinating. 
Buy on Amazon

"Simpsons" Comics Royale

By Matt Groening 128 pages Adult

Danny Says

I think too many people take for granted The Simpsons. How that show has managed to stay funny and pertinent for the past 20 years is astounding to me. Here is a comic for grown-ups that includes all sorts of great insights from Groening and a WONDERFUL essay at the end entitled “Give a Hoot, Read a Book” about books that inspired Groening when he was a kid.
Buy on Amazon
Sisterhood of Faith

Sisterhood of Faith

By Shirley Brosius 412 pages Adult

Danny Says

Is that a typo? I thought I was supposed to only share books that are under 250 pages? Let me explain this pick: it is meant to be read as a page a day. Subtitled “365 Life-Changing Stories About Women Who Made a Difference (the extra pages are references, etc.),” this book is one of those books I turn to everyday for inspiration. The vignettes are wonderful and take less than a minute of your time. Can you spare a minute for daily inspiration? How about turning down the volume during a TV commercial and reading a page from this wonderful book. I highly encourage you to buy a copy.
Buy on Amazon
Big Slick

Big Slick

By Eric Luper 240 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

This is Luper’s first book, and I expect many more. Everybody seems to be into poker nowadays, and Luper introduces us to 16-year-old Andrew Lang, a typical teen bursting with hormones and worldly knowledge. Just when he thinks he has figured everything out, he is dealt a bad hand, and Andrew’s losses may soon be noticed by an unsuspecting bankroller named “dad.” A really easy book to read.
Buy on Amazon
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

By Rachel Cohn,David Levithan 256 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

For older teens (based on language and content), this one is popular reading with high school girls who enjoy romances. It is so well-written that even I managed to breeze through it, and it held my interest the entire way (a rarity for me with teen romances). A touching and often very funny portrayal of friendship, I like it best for how it deals with alternate points of view.
Buy on Amazon
Mocky's Revinge

Mocky's Revinge

By Mark Louis Lehman 125 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

I like slender books! This novelette actually took a little longer than I thought, as the story is told through the point of view of an 8-year-old girl who has a penchant for misspelling (as seen in the title). I think teachers will appreciate recommending this book to students as an exercise in fluency. I have found that middle schoolers enjoy the story and delight in identifying misspellings.
Buy on Amazon
The True Story of Christmas

The True Story of Christmas

By Anne Fine 144 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

I confess that I am a big fan of British humor, as I love Monty Python, Ricky Gervais and Jeanne Willis. Anne Fine has that twisted sense of humor in this engrossing book about a boy sentenced to his bedroom on Christmas. His descriptions of his various family members remind me of the Dursleys from Harry Potter. A little too mean for little kids, the humor is perfect for teens. 
Buy on Amazon
Adventures of the Sky Kids

Adventures of the Sky Kids

By Keven J. Christopherson 58 pages Children

Danny Says

Subtitled “Lost Treasure of Kolob Canyon,” this is a really easy chapter book that boys seem especially drawn to, as it deals with camping, lost treasures and Indians. This reminded me of the simple books I read when I was a cub scout growing up. Why aren’t there more books like this nowadays? I guess I am starting to sound like a reminiscent curmudgeon.
Buy on Amazon
Pinkalicious

Pinkalicious

By Victoria Kann,Elizabeth Kann 40 pages Children

Danny Says

. I have a daughter who turns four this month, and she loves anything to do with princesses and the color pink. She loves this book about a girl who eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink. The only cure is to eat her vegetables. This is one of the most popular books that I read aloud to students right now. A MUST purchase.
Buy on Amazon
The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z!

The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z!

By Steve Martin,Roz Chast 64 pages Children

Danny Says

I began this month’s list with a Steve Martin recommendation, and I figured I might as well push one of his children’s books. In this delightful alphabet book with illustrations offered by one of my favorite New Yorker cartoonists, Roz Chast, Martin creates zany tongue twisters to entice young readers to learn each letter of the alphabet. Terrific fun that prompts kids to beg for repeated read alouds.
Buy on Amazon

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