Frindle by Andrew Clements

I am a slow-comer to this book, and I wish I'd added it to my read-aloud repetoire years ago!

Great Opening: If you asked the kids and the teachers at Lincoln Elementary School to make three lists--all the really bad kids, all the really smart kids, and all the really good kids--Nick Allen would not be on any of them. Nick deserved a list of all his own, and everyone knew it.

Nick was an expert at asking the delaying question--also known as the teacher-stopper, or the guaranteed-time-waster.

Mrs. Granger, champion of the forces of order and authority, is battling hundreds of young frindle-fighters.

Eyes of the Emporer by Graham Salisbury

Fascinating book about a part of WWII history I'd never heard of before.

Out to sea, the ocean breathed slow and soft, a body sleeping under silk.
Inland, fresh white clouds grew up out of the mountaintops.
He stopped and squinted at me, shadows from the tree spattered all over him.
Basic training was like swimming with barracudas--you were always on edge; somebody screaming in your face hour after hour, day after day.

How the Light Gets In

Although I didn't enjoy the ending, I loved the character development and the voice.

The Mercedes smells as though it has just come out of its plastic packet.
But within moments of closing my eyes, my brain springs open, like a flick-knife.
Flo is an example of a smudge; a dull, untidy mind containing bad copies of original thoughts.