Random Chalk Talk

Who doesn't love free, right?! Here are some great freebies from amazon for your Kindle! Click on the titles to take you right to the books on Amazon!

(Don't forget... if you don't have a Kindle it's okay! You can download the app on your phone here or download Kindle for PC! Check that out here).


Rippler by Cidney Swanson

Samantha Ruiz has a freak gene that makes her turn invisible, or ripple. She can’t control it, and it’s getting worse. Afraid of becoming a lab-rat, Sam keeps her ability secret, until fellow runner Will Baker sees her vanish into thin air. Will promises secrecy and help, and Sam begins to fall in love.

Together, the two discover there are worse things than being a scientific curiosity. Someone’s been killing people who possess Sam's gene. A mysterious man from France sends letters that offer hope for safety, but also reveal a sinister connection with Nazi experiments.

The more time Sam spends with Will, the less she can imagine life without him. When Sam uncovers secrets from her past, she must choose between keeping Will in her life or keeping Will safe.

Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he's got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off: With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school's oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class-5,000 points! Running in the hallway-10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm-50,000 points! But when Rafe's game starts to catch up with him, he'll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he's finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he's been avoiding.

Now that you have all picked your jaws up off of the floor because there is a post... let's get on to the good stuff! My friends Kellee and Jen from Teach Mentor Text have gotten be back to the blogging world. I have been reading like crazy, but I just haven't gotten around to posting. So be ready for some posts!!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Previous Book Adventures...
There are so many great books that I have read and cannot wait to share with you all. Here are just a few of them:
The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly



Upcoming Book Adventures....
I am currently reading two YA books. I started The Pledge by Kimberly Derting the other day and will probably finish with it tomorrow so be looking for the review soon. Just like her others, this is yet another of my favorites! The other book that I got in the mail just this weekend was Jennifer Hubbard's latest novel Try Not to Breathe.


I also got the new Stephen King book, 11/22/63, for Christmas and cannot wait to get into it. I love the premise behind the book and don't think that it will freak me out like It or some of his others! I also got The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by various authors (this is the book where they took the pictures and wrote the stories they thought were being told within them) and the portfolio pictures from the novel. I have a great unit worked up with all of this that I cannot wait to dive into! I will be posting more on it later.



I also have this desire to read Mary Shelly's Frankenstein thanks to BrainPOP! Their featured video today was about it and my six year old watched the video and we talked about it for a while. She is completely fascinated by it, but I just don't think that I will put that one on her bookshelf quite yet! Maybe I can find some younger versions!




And....
I am a new fan of Pixel of Ink and today's freebie is one that all YA readers will enjoy! Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey!

Visit HERE to get it for FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! We all love those freebies!




So... what are you reading this week? Make sure to let me know!!

Populazzi by Elise Allen

Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

# of Pages: Hardcover, 400

Publisher: Harcourt

Cara has never been one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and always ready with the perfect thing to say. A girl at the very top of the popularity tower. One of the Populazzi.

Now, junior year could change everything. Cara’s moving to a new school, and her best friend urges her to seize the moment—with the help of the Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms into the perfect girlfriend for guys ever-higher on the tower, she’ll reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi.

The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment, a straight climb up, but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.

Looking back now, there are so many things that I would change if I could go back and do high school over again. I would not care what the “Populazzi” thought about me and be confident (much like I am now). Cara has that opportunity. She is starting over at a new school and, along with her best friend Claudia’s help, she has a new leash on life and a way to become the top of the ladder…. The Populazzi. The most popular. The group everyone else only wishes they could be a part of. To Cara, the project of climbing the social ladder seems like an easy thing, but not something that she isn’t going to invest much time and effort in. She lacks that confidence. Things quickly change.

I have to say that I thought that this was going to be another one of those cutsie books where the main character is striving to be popular and faces the challenges… blah, blah, blah. How wrong I was! I laughed, was heartbroken at times and fell completely in love with the characters in this novel. Cara and Claudia remind me a lot of my best friend and I (one is the more reserved of the two…. Not me!!) but yet they balance each other out perfectly. Simply stated, I loved Archer. He is my kind of guy and was very well written throughout the novel. While the plot was a typical plot for this story line, it was completely enjoyable and I know that my students will love it as much as I did. Oh… and the tension at the end- DANG!! J Elise Alan is definitely an author to watch out for!

Visit Elise HERE to find out more about her books, writing and lots of other cool stuff!

Now it is time for you to WIN a copy! If you are a US resident, fill out the form below to enter. The contest will end on September 2, 2011!

To get ready for this year with my read alouds and the like, I have been reading a lot of children's picture books. I thought that I would just post some of them here so that you can check them out too! Enjoy...

Ladder to the Moon by Maya Soetoro-Ng

Turquoise Boy: A Navajo Legend by Terri Cohlene

A World of Words: An ABC of Quotations by Tobi Tobias

Hourglass (Hourglass #1)

by Myra McEntire

One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally get my hands on this book. I had been reading so many wonderful reviews, chatting with Myra on twitter about the writing and getting her updates and hearing from my friends who had read it. Disappointment was nowhere near me when I finished…. Unless you want to count the disappointment I had that the next book wasn’t waiting on me to read!

Emerson just wants to be a normal teenager… whatever that is. The only problem is she sees dead people. Not in the Sixth Sense idea though. Her parents were killed in an accident right after she started seeing these strange beings and it all went downhill from there. Her brother has tried everything that he can to help her, but it is only when the mysterious Michael shows up that Emerson starts to feel that maybe she isn’t as crazy as she has thought that she was.

Myra McEntire has created a universe where we can travel back in time or to the future, see rips (those “dead people”) and create matter with our bare hands… if we have the right genes. The creativity behind this amazing debut novel kept me glued to the pages the entire read. I loved Emersons quirks and how she had to figure out who she was while falling in love with Michael. Of course… nothing comes easy!

Make sure (before or after you read it) you visit Myra’s blog HERE and follow her on Twitter for fun facts and updates (@MyraMcEntire). Also, make sure to check out the Ash to Nash tour that Myra McEntire, Victoria Schwab (author of The Near Witch) and Beth Revis (author of Across the Universe) will all be going from Ashville to Nashville. Check it all out HERE. I will be visiting them in Spartanburg, SC next Friday night!

Happy reading everyone!!