{"id":412,"date":"2012-06-05T14:38:49","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T14:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/cindy2\/index.php\/2012\/06\/05\/books-bluefish-and-when-you-reach-me\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T12:54:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:54:42","slug":"books-bluefish-and-when-you-reach-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/05\/books-bluefish-and-when-you-reach-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Books! Bluefish and When You Reach Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

 \"Bluefish\"<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

       Bluefish<\/strong><\/em> by Pat Schmatz, Candlewick, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

I had no idea what to expect when I opened the cover of this book. Bluefish? What is a bluefish? I might not have picked it up at all except it\u2019s on the DCF list for next year and it was in the half of the list I was talking about at the DCF booktalk at the Norwich Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m so glad I read it! I loved the characters and how their lives intertwined. I loved the realistic look at school and bullying and friendship. And I loved the literary references to other books readers would love.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eighth grader Travis has been living with his grandfather since his parents died when he was 3. They\u2019ve just moved from a house in the country to a cramped place in town. Travis misses his faithful old hound who disappeared right before they moved, his grandfather drinks too much, and he\u2019s starting a new school.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year is different. His grandfather has stopped drinking and is paying attention to Travis\u2019s schoolwork. Travis meets Velveeta–a scarf-wearing movie-watching 8th<\/sup> grade girl with secrets, Bradley Whistler–a nerdy picked-on student, and Mr. McQueen–a teacher who doesn\u2019t accept failure as an option. Secrets come out and life changes for each of these characters. Excellent, excellent book!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 \"When<\/span><\/p>\n

When You Reach Me<\/strong><\/em> by Rebecca Stead, Wendy Lamb Books, 2009<\/span><\/p>\n

 This isn\u2019t really an \u201cold\u201d book to fit my recommending one new and one old, but the way it uses another book is similar, so I thought I\u2019d put these two together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sixth graders Miranda and Sal live in New York City and know their way around and how to stay safe. But, there are the notes she finds in her pocket\u2014notes that tell her things no one should be able to know\u2014and then Sal is punched by a stranger and stops talking to Miranda. As Miranda helps her mother study to be on the $20,000 Pyramid show, she tries to work out who is leaving the notes, how this person knows the future, and what is going on with Sal. And everything is tied to another book in a great way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss this book\u2014or the other book mentioned in it!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

         Bluefish by Pat Schmatz, Candlewick, 2011 I had no idea what to expect when I opened the cover of this book. Bluefish? What is a bluefish? I might not have picked it up at all except it\u2019s on the DCF list for next year and it was in the half of the list … Continue reading “Books! Bluefish and When You Reach Me”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cindyfaughnan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}