Mr.+McFadden

USERNAME: ChaseMcFadden

// Summer 2010 // //To Read:// //1. One Second After// //2. Truancy// //What Would MacGyver Do? True Stories of Improvised Genius in Everyday Life// by Brendan Vaughan



This is a collection of short, nonfiction stories about people using creativity and ingenuity to solve problems with random items and thinking. The stories are really short and most have a humorous tone. I'm actually listening to this book on a Playaway MP3 player that I checked out from the public library. You check these out just like books, and they are basically self-contained MP3 players with one title on them. Pretty cool.

//Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd// by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci



This book contains short stories about "geeks" written by self-proclaimed geeks. The characters in the stories are Star Wars junkies, Klingon wannabes, etc. One of the stories is by Scot Westerfeld, author of the //Uglies// series. What I've read so far is pretty humorous. Plus there is a comic that appears between each short story.

//The Bar Code Tattoo// by Suzanne Weyn Interesting book. I'm not a big science fiction fan, but this one has my interest so far. Anyone who is big into social networking (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) should pay particular attention to the main premise of this book: how much personal information is too much information, and who has access to that information, and who controls it? This book sort of reminds me of another science fiction book, //Uglies// by Scott Westerfeld.

//Catching Fire// by Suzanne Collins.

Wow! I poured through this amazing sequel to//The Hunger Games// in a couple of days; I just couldn't put it down. I really thought that this novel was better than the first installment in the trilogy, which is really saying something because the first book was excellent, as well. It's hard to imagine what will happen in //Mockingjay//, due out on August 24. Will President Snow get his revenge, or will Katniss and the other revolutionaries successfully gain their freedom from the oppressive tyranny of the government?

Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson



Sheriff Walt Longmire and his crew are at it again in local mystery writer Craig Johnson's sixth book. I love the first-person point-of-view in Johnson's series. This wasn't my favorite of Johnson's books, but it certainly was worth reading. I wanted more Vic and Henry, but I know that there is more to come. Walt's daughter will soon be getting married, and I would guess that a future title will focus on that event.

Summer 2009  9/9/09: //The Compound// by S.A. Bodeen

I started this book at the end of the summer, then ended up reading the last quarter of the book aloud to my 8th grade reading class. I think that we all agreed that it was a great read: intense, surprising, and thought-provoking. Check out Kris, Kevin, Amelia, or Nicole's pages for more about this book.

8/16/09: An innocent trip to the library this past week led to me power-reading a display book that I picked up on a whim, as I often do, because of the cover. And I'm glad that I did, because //A Small White Scar// by K. A. Nuzum is a great story (and a really quick read). I may even start the year off reading this book to my students, and I'm definitely going to be buying a copy of it to share with others. [|Click here] to read a teaser and review at [|Teenreads.com].

8/8/09: This past Thursday, I went to the library and listened to local author Craig Johnson discuss his new book, //The Dark Horse,// which has received glowing reviews from critics and is a book that I read earlier this summer. It was interesting to hear an author discuss the thinking behind his writing and the stories behind the story. Mr. Johnson said that most characters in his books are based on people he knows or has met. He also said that he gathers lot of ideas for events and episodes to add to his plot lines by reading newspapers. He explained that he has a huge file folder of interesting headlines and stories that he has cut from newspapers and saved over the years. As a special treat, Mr. Johnson read an excerpt from the novel that he is currently working on. It was an enjoyable evening.

As for my reading, I'm back into //The Book Whisperer,// which I had started last spring and then set aside for a while (actually, I was out of renewals at the library, so I was sort of forced to turn it in). As the coming school year approaches, reading this book has been a great way to slowly start shifting my brain into education mode. Ms. Miller has some really interesting thoughts concerning reading, and I'm looking forward to putting some of her theories into practice in my classroom.

Also, trying to finish //Despereaux.// Can't say that I'm really enjoying this book, and my kids have sort of given up on listening to it, but I'm trying to finish for the sake of finishing, which doesn't make much sense because that is time that I could be reading something that I might enjoy. That is actually one of Ms. Miller's premises: readers have the right to not finish a book. Why make yourself miserable reading something that you don't enjoy when there are so many other books out there? 

[|Chasing Lincoln's Killer]  [|The Graveyard Book] [|Voss] [|Three Willows] [|The School for Dangerous Girls] [|Oh My Gods!]  BOOKS I'M INTERESTED IN:

 1. //The Squared Circle// by James Bennett (high school senior/basketball stud/college recruiting/scandal)

2. //Artemis Fowl// by Eoin Colfer (7th grade boys got me interested in //Artemis// with their reading passages//;// the [|official website] for the series is pretty amazing)

3. //Tangerine// by Edward Bloor (been meaning to read this book for a while; Hanna C. just finished it and liked it)

4. //Once Upon a Marigold// by Jean Ferris

5. A book by Sara Dessen (Which one should I read? Several readers have suggested //Just Listen.)// Here's a link to the author's website: [|saradessen.com]

6. //The Red Kayak// by ???. Mrs. Kennedy read this book to her class and it seemed to get positive reviews.

What I'm Reading Right Now (Well, not right now, because I'm typing, but you know what I mean.):



// Voss: How I Come to America and am Hero, Mostly // by David Ives

(Finished 7/22) This is one funny book. Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky, the narrator, is a 15-year-old illegal immigrant from Slobovia (made-up country) who has come to America with his father and crazy uncle. It doesn't take long before Voss is in "dipp, dipp trobble." The book is written in a series of "ladders" (lettters) from Voss to his friend Meero back in Slobovia. What I found fascinating as a writer was how the author carried Voss's broken English voice throughout the novel, and mixed in a ton of puns and plays on words in the process. This a great read, and a pretty quick one, as well. I'll leave you with an excerpt:

//Grandma Aleenska had begun to wipp into the bread dough. "Is so sad!" she said. "I cry so much, I don't even need to salt the food anymore. The tears are enough."//

//It was true. The whole kitchen smelled of tears.//

//Leena patted the old woman's arm. "Donut forget the ancient prophecy," she said. "A red-eyed hero will arrive from Lower Slobovia and create a New Slobovia! Maybe the red-eyed hero of Slobovia is here right now!"//

//She looked straight at me. Her dark, thick eyebrows banged togather like two railroad cars. When she looks at you like that, Meero, you go very small inside yourself.//

//The Book Whisperer// by Donalyn Miller

(FINISHED 8/10) //I finished this book after checking it out for the second time, and after finishing it, I got on Amazon and ordered a copy for myself. Reading this book really made me rethink how I teach reading to my students, the enivronment that I establish in my classroom for reading, and my role in the process. Readers need to be lead by a reader, and this book helped me get back to being a reader. I would __highly recommend__// //this book to any teacher or parent.// Miller is a 6th grade teacher in Texas whose students read, on average, over 40 books per school year//.// From what I've read so far, her main premise is give kids time to read what they choose to read. The key is to get books in kids' hands that they're interested in. It's a really interesting read and has made me really reevaluate reading in my own classroom. I look forward to finishing it. If interested, Miller writes a blog for edweek.org called "The Book Whisperer." [|Click here] to check it out.

//Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, and Stupid// by Denis Leary

Interesting title, eh? Leary is known to be pretty brutal with his humor, and in this book, he holds no punches. He rants and rips on celebrities, tabloids, politicians, parents, and himself, and I'm only at chapter 4. It's sarcastic and cynical and it makes me laugh, but it also makes me think, and I like that. There have been a couple of chapters dedicated to kids and it's funny stuff that I can relate to right now. He talks about how little kids can instantaneously go to "jelly-fish mode" and seemingly lose their entire skeletal structure when a parent is trying to pick them up. True. (Finished 6/ 14)

//The Lord of the Flies// by William Golding

I vaguely remember reading this book as a kid. A couple of years ago I purchased this novel on itunes as an audio book with intentions of having my 8th grade boys reading group listen to it. Never happened. So I have it in my truck to listen to this summer. Yesterday I listened to Chapter 1 (really long chapters). The imagery used by Golding is outstanding. As I was driving, I could perfectly envision the island that he was describing. I should really go back and reread several of the books that I "read" when I was younger; I'm not sure how much reading I actually did. ** (Finished 6/21) **

//Star Wars Young Jedi Knights: Delusions of Grandeur// by Kevin Anderson and Rebecca Moesta

This is a book that my son Nolan and I are reading out loud together. He's turned into a bonafide Star Wars freak, and I found this series of novels at the public library, so I grabbed one. The novels are set after the end of the sixth Star Wars movie. In this book, Jaina and Jacen Solo (daughter and son of Hans Solo and Princess Leia) are at a school for Jedis. There is also a young Wookie there name Lowbacca. In the first 50 pages, there have been about a thousand names for people, creatures, and planets that I have no idea how to pronounce. This isn't my favorite type of book by a long shot, but Nolan seems to enjoy it, and he keeps it straight in his head, which helps me out. (Gave up on this one; just couldn't get into it)

//The Tale of Despereaux// by Kate DiCamillo

(FINISHED 8/10) //NOT A BOOK THAT I WOULD NECESSARILY READ AGAIN. WE HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET, BUT I'M GOING TO GO OUT ON A LIMB AND SAY THAT I MIGHT ENJOY THE FILM MORE THAN THE NOVEL (WHICH IS NEVER THE CASE) SIMPLY BECAUSE THE FILM WOULD BE SHORTER. I THOUGHT THAT THE BOOK WAS ABOUT 50 PAGES LONGER THAN IT WOULD HAVE NEEDED TO BE. THE ONE HIGHLIGHT OF READING THIS WAS EVERY TIME THE NARRATOR WOULD SAY, "READER...," MY SON WOULD SAY, "MY NAME IS REEDER!"// Haven't ever read this before. It's one of the movies in the summer movie series that my boys are going to, so we're going to try and read it before we see it. Seems like a pretty quick read so far. The boys wish there were more illustrations. Kind of seems similar to //Ratatouile// (sp?). Rodent that doesn't want to be a rodent, family thinks he's nuts, turns out to be genius. Your classic rodent story.

//Artemis Fowl// by Eoin Colfer

What a cool name the author has. I don't even know how to pronounce it, but I'm sure that it sounds as cool as it looks. Some of the 7th-grade homeslices suggested this series, so I'm going to try this first one for a test drive. Good book. I can see why this series is popular. The writing is witty and fun, and yet there are real serious moments and very vivid descriptions of altercations. What's most interesting to me, however, is that the protagonist, young Artemis Fowl, isn't the character that the reader is always rooting for. I had a hard time deciding if he was the good guy or the bad guy. I'd definitely like to read other books in this series. (Finished 6/27.)

//The Dark Horse// by Craig Johnson

This local author has quickly become one of my favorites, and his latest book didn't disappoint. Sheriff Walt Longmire is back on the case, this time going undercover to try and find out the truth about an apparent homicide and the whereabouts of a world-champion cutting horse, Wahoo Sue. I really enjoy the first-person narration in Johnson's series; Sheriff Longmire is witty, intelligent, empathetic, and above all, human. He's a believable character, and I like that. (Finished 7/13)