11 year old Joe has never lived outside of the hospital. He lives in a climate controlled bubble room in the hospital. His life consists of electronics, the medical team that cares for him and visits from his sole surviving relative - his sister. His life is consumed by monitoring the room temperature, air quality and his heart beat.
When a new nurse joins his medical team, Joe thinks he might be crazy. He talks of alien visits. Is he just being funny or does he believe aliens are coming? Regardless, he's something new and exciting in his life. But then the nurse constructs a plan to take Joe outside and he needs to decide if his new nurse is serious and if he can be trusted.
I really enjoyed Bubble. I loved all the characters. It was fun and sad. Bubble is being released May 2, 2017. I will definitely be buying this book for our school library.
The Wild Robot has been my most favourite read aloud that I've done this year. I found myself always looking forward to seeing my grade 4 class because I couldn't wait to read more about The Wild Robot. I think the students enjoyed it as much as I did. I can always tell because if no one moves the light sensors turn off in the library and every single week the light sensors went off. No one wanted to miss it.
There is a boat full of robots that crashes and sends crates of robots crashing with the waves into an island. Only one robot survives - Roz. Roz starts making her way around the island and scaring all the animals. What is this monster they all want to know. Roz watches and observes the animals in their habitat. She soon learns how to speak to each of the animals and survival instincts from watching the animals adaptations.
When Roz finds an egg one day she knows exactly what to do from watching the other birds. Soon Roz is a mother to a baby gosling - Brightbill. The two form a mother and son relationship like no other.
This is a fantastic read aloud for a grade 4 class. There is a sequel coming this fall. The Wild Robot has also been chosen as the global read aloud. I've never participated in this before but I'm motivated to join in this October.
I love a story that gives you an understanding of how others might feel. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng does a fantastic job of invoking empathy for each of the characters in the story. The Lee family is a complicated family. Each family member lives with their own struggles and burdens.
As a young child Lydia vowed to do anything to please her mother. Lydia's mother life hasn't gone as planned and she's determined for Lydia to live her dream. Lydia's dad also has expectations for Lydia that she can't live up to. After years of pretending and over-achieving Lydia cracks and a tragedy occurs. Lydia's older brother has just been accepted to Harvard and is successful but invisible to his parents. Lydia's younger sister Hannah is a shadow moving around the house.
How did the Lee family get to this point and how do they now move forward without their beloved Lydia?