Weerdest Day Ever by Richard Scrimger

The Seven Series is where my blog began.  It was also my first published book review in my local newspaper.  I LOVE this series!  I have driven dark snowy roads to see the seven authors on stage-if the seven appear near you - definitely go and bring the kids.  I've tracked them down at book festivals for autographs - they are all friendly!  I also sport a Seven shirt down the school halls.  I keep the series front and centre at my library for everyone to gravitate too and easy to point and recommend.  I've also convinced a few non-reading adult men to give the series a try.  For the back story of this series check out my first blog post here.

In the first series Richard Scrimger introduced us to Bunny through Ink Me.  Bunny's beloved grandfather has just passed away and left a series of tasks for all his grandsons.  Bunny is going to get the tattoo that his grandfather never did.

In the second book the seven cousins have met at their grandfather's cottage to discuss all their adventures while completing the tasks.  While they are there though they discover some secrets about their grandfather that lead the cousins off on another set of adventures.  Read more about this book on my  The Wolf and Me blog post here.

In the Weerdest Day Ever, Bunny is older and for a school assignment he writes the story of a weekend camping trip with his grandfather.  Bunny's grandfather has promised a big surprise for the weekend.  It doesn't take Bunny long to find out that there is a war planned between Canada and the United States and it's taking place at the campsite this weekend!  Everyone seems so excited about it but Bunny finds it scary.  Bunny makes some new friends and enemies while they wait for the big battle to begin.

While maintaining the innocence of Bunny, I am happy to say that his spelling has improved with age.  I look forward to reading the other cousins stories of experiences they had with their grandfather.

The most series are prequels and will be published by Orca Book Publishers in September 2016.

Sight Unseen by David Carroll

 In 2014 I discovered David Carroll while doing the Forest of Reading program at my school.  His first novel, Ultra, was a Silver Birch nominee and I read it aloud with my grade 5 class.  I also reviewed it here on my blog.  The students loved the book and it was one of those stories that got requests for me to come and read to them at lunch hour.  You know you've grabbed their attention when instead of socializing they want to hear more!

I was very excited to see David Carroll has published a second book, Sight Unseen.  This is the story of a boy named Finn that is slowly losing his eye sight.  Slowly he is being forced to give up doing the things he loves.  Biking being his most missed activity.  He's also losing his friends and independence.  While camping with his family and new friend Cheese, Finn discovers there may be a way to keep his eyesight but at the expense of other sacrifices.  Tough decision!

Hopefully this fall David Carroll will be back on the Silver Birch nominee list with Sight Unseen.  I think it will make another great read aloud for one of my classes.

Fragile Bones: Harrison & Anna by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

  Harrison is a 15 year old boy diagnosed with high functioning autism.  He can travel through his high school days with few incidents but he has his triggers and if those triggers start piling up they can lead to a melt down.  Harrison uses many coping tactics to avoid melt downs especially now that he's in high school but sometimes life just overwhelms him.  Other times bullies bring him down.

This year Harrison has joined the 'Best Buddies' club and he's got a new friend named Anna.  Through this new friendship Harrison pushes himself to try new things and he's thrilled to have a new friend.  Anna learns how to be a good friend to someone living with autism.

Fragile Bones is the first book of a series called One 2 One that explores students at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary school.