The Unteachables by Gordon Korman

Goal for 2023: read more to my children.  I started the year out with four books for them to choose from, three of which I was familiar with and had already read. They chose The Unteachables by Gordon Korman that I read in 2021. I have enjoyed other books by Korman (Masterminds trilogy was wonderful) and didn't mind this revisit. It tells the story of a group of middle school kids who are considered "unteachable" and are lumped into a classroom together and forgot about. The teacher that is assigned to these kids is at first as disengaged as his students. Through some unexpected chance encounters both the teacher and the students see past the labels that have been applied to them and surprise everyone, most importantly themselves.

 All three of my kids (ages 14, 16, 19) and my husband listened to me read each night. This book is engaging and short enough that we got through it in a week or so. They had a good time trying to guess what would happen next and even got a few things right.

 Recommend as a read aloud? Most definitely

56 Books read in 2022!

 I was surprised as I was counting the books I read last year to reach over 50!  It was difficult to pick my favorite, but two of them do stand out. 

Duet by Elise Broach belongs at the top of my list because of the uniqueness of the narrator: a goldfinch named Mirabelle. I've read books with animal viewpoints before but this one was more than just a bird personified. I felt I was getting a bird perspective of human life and it was fascinating. I loved how Mirabelle sees the young budding pianist as a kindred spirit and how she fights for his success. It doesn't hurt that my favorite composer, Chopin, is the passion of the boy pianist and his frail teacher. And finally the ending is not perfectly tied up in a bow with a comfortable dominant to tonic ending chord. It does, however, give hope in more work to come, more progress to make and more joy to create. 

100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons. I read this by accident really. I needed a book with a yellow cover and this seemed to fit the bill. It was a wonderful surprise. A little bit of romance and some teenage angst made it a typical young adult novel, but what stood out were the lives of the two main characters and most importantly their character. Tessa has been in an accident that robs her of her sight. Weston has also been the victim of an accident which left him a paraplegic. Tessa does not know that Weston is a paraplegic and so treats him "normally". This gives Weston a much needed break from the pity he is constantly shown. Tessa wants to be left alone in her misery, but Weston doesn't give up and is constantly there for her. Together they are able to help heal each other from their unseen wounds that their very visible problems have caused. I really enjoyed their journey.