THREE MORE BOOKS FOR A SATURDAY MORNING

RAE’S READS

about

This year (2025) finds me with 53 years of teaching “under my belt.” I have taught all levels from pre-K “(library lady” or “book lady”–volunteer) to juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled in my Advanced Writing class at the university where I have just completed 34 years. My first paying teaching job was junior high, and I spent 13 years with ages 12-13, the “difficult years.” I had some of the “funnest” experiences with this age group. When I was no longer the “young, fun teacher,” I taught in an elementary school setting before sixth graders went on to junior high, teaching language arts blocs, an assignment that was a “dream-fit” for me. After completing graduate school in my 40s, I went on to community college, then university teaching. This past fall I accepted a part-time teaching job at Apogee Gulf Coast Schools in its first year at the Alvin campus. After my Better Half died n 2022, I achieved a lifelong dream: opening a bookstore of my own, Rae’s Reads. A year later, I sold the house we had lived in for 47 years and moved into the bookstore. My goal is to circulate and repurpose books. Just as teaching is “in my blood,” so is a passion for reading, writing, libraries, and everything bookish. This blog will be open to anyone who loves books, promotes literacy and wants to “come out and play.”

THREE MORE BOOKS FOR A SATURDAY MORNING

February 15, 2020

These books were also Cybils finalists I read in 2019

First in a swashbuckling series, Britfield and the Lost Crown by C.R. Stewart, could be the next Harry Potter series for the fifth grade to eighth set. It is fast-paced and crammed with adventure and action. And, like Harry Potter, it is filled with respectable values and life lessons. Thanks to the publishers who sent me a copy when my local libraries did not have it yet. This series has real potential.

The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James will appeal to readers of both sexes and to upper elementary as well as middle school students. Ashley Herring Blake captures the emotions and fears of a girl who faces a heart transplant in the middle of her search for her sexual identity. Characterizations like Sunny’s mother, a secondary character, but a very important one, flesh out this touching novel and the relationship of mother and daughter would make this an ideal mother-daughter read-together.

Shark research is something I knew NOTHING about before reading The Line Tender, but what I learned about oceanography and marine life made this a fascinating read. Carrying on her deceased mother’s lifetime work, the main character comes to grips with her mother’s horrendous death (The accident also killed the daughter’s best friend/potential boyfriend, Fred.) and her own destiny. It is action-packed and exciting as well as a tender look at dealing with grief and fear. It is, perhaps, for junior high readers and above because of its emotional theme and realistic tone.