Saturday Cartoons (and personality leakage)

Whew. Back from DC and getting  ready to wrap up things in the library. After arriving home late on Thursday evening, I went in at 5:00 a.m. Friday to help set up for Bulldog Breakfast, which honors students who make our day. My nominee was Katie, who is such a dedicated library helper that when she was voluntarily dusting the tops of the bookshelves the other day, she didn't think the duster was enough and wet wiped them! The substitutes who were in for me did an amazing job, although I had to laugh when both said how busy the library was, and when I checked the stats, they had checked out only a quarter of the books that normally go out! 

All books were due yesterday, so any check outs had to be accompanied by sad stories, preferably with puppy dog eyes. Had my regular classes in as well as students taking end of year assessments on the computers, and book fair was delivered, so I got that set up, and made a dent in my hundred e mails.

Must admit that I haven't read a book in a week, but my box from YA Books Central arrived, and I will spend the weekend getting my upcoming reading organized, just in time for Mother Reader's 48 Hour Reading Challenge on June 8-10. Oh, and Nonfiction Monday will be hosted here this week.

Roman, Dave and John Green. Teen Boat.

Teen Boat has more problems than the average high schoolers-- not only do bullies like Harry Cobbs bother him, they want him to host parties on himself when he is a boat-- parties that end up with gambling in international waters and running into ice bergs! Teen has a big crush on Nina Pinta Santa Maria, an exchange student, but no matter what he does, she doesn't like him... but his friend Joey (who is, of course, less hot because she wears overalls instead of midriff baring tops) does. The gang get into all sorts of improbable scrapes, travel to Italy, get involved with pirates, and use Teen's ability to turn into a boat at every available opportunity. As we are reminded frequently, it's all about "The angst of being a teen; the thrill of being a boat."

Strengths: This is certainly innovative and original. The artwork is well done and brightly colored, and the odd story line should appeal to high schoolers who were Pilkey aficionados when younger.

Weaknesses: Since someone gave us a Teen Boat t shirt, this was a family read. We were all amused by the book, but also a little confused as to what was really going on. I think this may have been the authors' point!