I had two books to recommend this week, in anticipation of Halloween. In honor of All Hallows Read, I offered this one up to my older, more mature elementary students.

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There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”

So begins the creepy tale of Nobody Owens, an infant who escapes the murder of his family and is raised by an unlikely assortment of ghosts and supernatural beings in the local graveyard. This book is not for the faint of heart. Bod, as he is called by his friends, faces dangers and adventures in his graveyard home. If he leaves, however, he’ll be at the mercy the man who assassinated his family, since we learn that Bod was the real target. We follow his childhood and adolescence through a series of chapters that are short stories in style. Each story is fascinating, and Gaiman’s writing style is intense and captivating.

I read this book after several of my strong readers recommended it to me. They commented that it was “scary, but everything turns out okay”.

Recommended for:
5th to 8th graders who enjoy creepy tales, though older students and adults would also enjoy this book (I certainly loved it, as it was very well written!)

Cautions:
The events in his life (especially at the beginning) are frightening at times, and may scare younger or more sensitive readers. In spite of that, the book is not overly graphic in its depiction of those events.

Check out more information at Neil Gaiman's websitehttp://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/The+Graveyard+Book/

This is a very funny book about a group of middle school kids who just don't quite fit in.

One student keeps an origami Yoda on his finger, dispensing advice to his friends. But is Yoda really magical? Can he help these kids find a way to make it through middle school?

If your students like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and have an interest in awesome Star Wars references, this is the book for them!

This was last week's "Book of the Week", I just didn't get it up to the site!

This week's book dives back into the world of nonfiction. 

10 Kings and Queens who Changed the World by Clive Gifford starts in Egypt with Hatshepsut and ends with Catherine the Great. In between, the Kings and Queens are shown as connected through time - as the events in one period flow into and impact the next.


Filled with beautiful illustrations, this book will please both passionate and reluctant readers. My upper elementary students love the details, but younger students would also find the illustrations engaging.