New on the shelf at the New and Improved Monrovia Library!!

I finished And Now Miguel - which was good but dragged a bit - the pace could have been snappier - and went to get another Newbery winner and was distracted by this book on the "new books" display.

It's about a boy who's learning disabled - can't read - but no one knows about it -I may read it to my students at the beginning of the year. There' s another book, My Name is Brain (crossed out) Brian, with a similar theme and I read it to my students at the beginning of the year one year, and they enjoyed feeling like their own story was not so unheard of.

Last year I started with a novel about bullying - I like to address a theme each year at the beginning - allows for some good discussion.

This book wasn't totally believable - but enough believable to be enjoyable.

So now I'm back to the Newbery books - Criss-Cross to be exact.