Mrs. Sieh's September Book Reviews

Each month I HOPE to read a variety of books and post a review about them.  Most days I could spend time curled up in my sweats reading a good book.  In fact, today would have been a great day for that with all the rain and clouds we have been having this week.  I also like to keep up with what students are reading.  It’s a good way to try and relate to students and spark some conversations with them about a topic. 

Below are the books that I read in September.

My Mouth Is a Volcano!  By Julia Cook

I read this book to the Pk-6^th grade classes for the month of September.  It’s a really good, humorous book on interrupting others and the struggles that kids have with waiting their turn to speak.  A boy named Louis loves to talk and sometimes he just can’t help himself.  Whenever he gets in trouble for interrupting he says that it’s his volcanoes fault.  One day, he was star student of the week and got interrupted by 2 students.  Louis talked about it with his mom and decided that it was rude.  His mom pointed out that that is how others feel when Louis interrupts them!  After trying a strategy his mom taught him to keep from interrupting others, Louis was able to keep his volcano from ‘erupting’ again. 

I really like the message this book gives to students.  I even told the students a secret.  The secret is that adults interrupt sometimes too!  Raising your hand and waiting for your turn to speak is so hard especially when you are little and have so many things to say. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars peaked my interest because I saw a lot of 5^th and 6^th graders carrying a copy around with them to class.  I of course had heard of it, but was curious about what all the buzz was.  Lots of adults had read the book and were raving about how good it was.  So I finally broke down and borrowed a copy out of the library.  This book is about young adults and teenagers with cancer.  There is a support group that meets where they can talk about their different struggles and how it affects them from being a “normal” teenager.  Two students meet at a support group and develop a friendship that ends up to develop into a romance.  Without giving away the entire book, it ends in heartbreak as one of the characters loses their battle fighting the deadly disease leaving the other friend sad over the loss of a dear friend.

As I started to read this book, I was a little taken aback about the content and some of the language.  I wasn’t sure that it was appropriate for the 5^th and 6^th graders to read.  Would I let my own girls read it at that age?  Probably not without me reading it alongside of them or having lots of discussions about it throughout.  It is a sad book.  Cancer is sad.  Little people or teenagers with cancer is sad and it seems unfair, but it is a very real topic.  You hear about stories of little ones fighting this terrible disease more and more.  Look at all the publicity Team Jack has created.  That’s just one of hundreds, maybe thousands of kids that are going through some cancer battle.  It does create a pretty realistic about cancers ugly side and how you can’t really be a “normal” teenager.  A good story, but definitely one that merits discussion with your children if they are reading it.