Book Tastings- hook, chapter 1 reading, read aloud, circle time, picture books, YA Fiction, YA Books, classic books, relevant books

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "Across So Many Seas" by: Ruth Behar.

In 1492, during the Spanish Inquisition, Benvenida and her family are banished from Spain for being Jewish, and must flee the country or be killed. They journey by foot and by sea, eventually settling in Istanbul.

Over four centuries later, in 1923, shortly after the Turkish war of independence, Reina's father disowns her for a small act of disobedience. He ships her away to live with an aunt in Cuba, to be wed in an arranged marriage when she turns fifteen.

In 1961, Reina's daughter, Alegra, is proud to be a brigadista, teaching literacy in the countryside for Fidel Castro. But soon Castro's crackdowns force her to flee to Miami all alone, leaving her parents behind.

Finally, in 2003, Alegra's daughter, Paloma, is fascinated by all the journeys that had to happen before she could be born. A keeper of memories, she's thrilled by the opportunity to learn more about her heritage on a family trip to Spain, where she makes a momentous discovery.

Though many years and many seas separate these girls, they are united by a love of music and poetry, a desire to belong and to matter, a passion for learning, and their longing for a home where all are welcome. And each is lucky to stand on the shoulders of their courageous ancestors.

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else these authors have written be sure to check out Ruth Behar.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry" by: Chad Morris and Shelly Brown.

Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry lives in a cabin with her family deep in the wild woods. Living off the grid is usually exciting, like the time she chased off three growling raccoons with a tree branch and some acorns, or when she thought she glimpsed the legendary Bigfoot. But her happy life in the wild ends abruptly when her younger brother gets sick, and the family moves to the city to be closer to the hospital.

Juniper and her older sister are sent to live with cousins they hardly know and attend a public school for the first time, which is harder to navigate than the wild woods ever were. Juniper feels like a wolf cub separated from her pack.

When Juniper notices that her cousin, Alayna, is being bullied by so-called friends, she's ready to fight back like the wild geese do when protecting their goslings, but her cousin tells her to stay out of it; she doesn't want Juniper making things worse.

As the hospital bills for her brother start piling up, Juniper knows they'll need to be paid before the family can go back to the woods, so she decides to make enough money to help out. With Alayna's support, Juniper starts posting videos filled with her wisdom from the woods, hoping to get a following. But what if it doesn't work? What if the bills never get paid? Not going home to the wild is Juniper's worst nightmare. But while she's stuck in the city, she might as well make the most of it, like sticking up for her cousin, for starters.

The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is a story about perseverance when faced with difficult and unfamiliar challenges, belonging and finding your identity, compassion for others, and learning that our differences can sometimes be our strengths.

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else these authors have written be sure to check out Chad Morris and Shelly Brown.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "15 Secrets to Survival" by: Natalie D. Richards.

When classmates Baxter, Abigail, Turner and Emerson break a school rule, they're forced to travel to the middle of nowhere for an extra credit project. They think things can't get much worse. After all, how will learning to survive in the wilderness help them stay out of trouble in school?

What starts off as a weekend of team building takes a scary turn when their instructor goes missing and they are given nothing but pages of a survival guide to complete a series of challenges.

They soon learn the woods around them have unexpected surprises. Will they discover a way to work together to find their teacher and overcome the dangers of winter in the mountains?

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else this author has written be sure to check out Natalie D Richards.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "The Doughnut Fix" by: Jessie Janowitz.

Tristan isn't Gifted or Talented like his sister Jeanine, and he's always been okay with that because he can make a perfect chocolate chip cookie and he lives in the greatest city in the world. But his life takes a turn for the worse when his parents decide to move to middle-of-nowhere Petersville--a town with one street and no restaurants. It's like suddenly they're supposed to be this other family, one that can survive without bagels and movie theaters.

His suspicions about his new town are confirmed when he's tricked into believing the local general store has life-changing chocolate cream doughnuts, when in fact the owner hasn't made them in years. And so begins the only thing that could make life in Petersville worth living: getting the recipe, making the doughnuts, and bringing them back to the town through his very own doughnut stand. But Tristan will soon discover that when starting a business, it helps to be both Gifted and Talented, and it's possible he's bitten off more than he can chew...

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else this author has written be sure to check out Jessie Janowitz.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "Gregor the Overlander" by: Susanne Collins.

When Gregor falls through a grate in the laundry room of his apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland, where spiders, rats, cockroaches coexist uneasily with humans. This world is on the brink of war, and Gregor's arrival is no accident. A prophecy foretells that Gregor has a role to play in the Underland's uncertain future. Gregor wants no part of it -- until he realizes it's the only way to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance. Reluctantly, Gregor embarks on a dangerous adventure that will change both him and the Underland forever. 

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else this author has written be sure to check out Suzanne Collins.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "Ferris" by: Kate DiCamillo.

It's the summer before fifth grade, and for Ferris Wilkey, it is a summer of sheer pandemonium: Her little sister, Pinky, has vowed to become an outlaw. Uncle Ted has left Aunt Shirley and, to Ferris's mother's chagrin, is holed up in the Wilkey basement to paint a history of the world. And Charisse, Ferris's grandmother, has started seeing a ghost at the threshold of her room, which seems like an alarming omen given that she is also feeling unwell. But the ghost is not there to usher Charisse to the Great Beyond. Rather, she has other plans--wild, impractical, illuminating plans. How can Ferris satisfy a specter with Pinky terrorizing the town, Uncle Ted sending Ferris to spy on her aunt, and her father battling an invasion of raccoons?

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else this author has written be sure to check out Kate DiCamillo.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "The Mapmakers" by: Tamzin Merchant.

Cordelia Hatmaker has saved England from war. She stopped Lord Whitloof's sinister plans, rescued the King and Princess, and restored the Makers Guild. But she still hasn't found her missing father. Ever since Cordelia discovered the hidden map in her father's telescope, she's been searching the streets of London by starlight, trying to uncover its secrets.

She never expects to stumble upon a secret society of Mapmakers--or to learn that magic isn't limited to the few Maker families, but instead is all around, if you know where to look. But danger is lurking around every corner, and Cordelia must convince the rival Maker families to work together for once--not only to bring her father home, but to save the very essence of magic itself. . . .

With exceptional and inventive storytelling and a lionhearted heroine, Tamzin Merchant once again draws readers into her captivating London and takes them on a breathless new adventure full of wildness, wit, warmth--and magic.

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else this author has written be sure to check out Tamzin Merchant.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "Slugfest" by: Gordon Korman.

Yash is the best athlete at Robinette Middle School--so good, in fact, that he's already playing on the high school's JV sports teams. Imagine his shock when he learns that his JV practices have kept him from earning a state-mandated credit for eighth-grade PE. To graduate, he has to take Physical Education Equivalency--PEE, also known as "Slugfest"--in summer school.

Yash gets to know his fellow "slugs" Kaden, an academic superstar who's physically hopeless; twins Sarah and Stewart, who are too busy trying to kill each other to do any real PE; Jesse, a notorious prankster; Arabella, who protests everything; and Cleo, a natural athlete who has sworn off sports.

But when one of them tries to blow the lid off a scandal that could make all their time in summer school a waste, Yash is forced to take drastic action.

Teaming up with the most hapless crew in school can really surprise a person. And their teacher might be hiding the biggest surprise yet. . . .

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Loved this book and interested in seeing what else this author has written be sure to check out Gordon Korman.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum" by: Lisa Yee.

Olive Cobin Zang has . . . issues. And they mostly aren't her fault. (No, really!) Though she often slips under the radar, problems have a knack for finding her. So, imagine her doubts when she's suddenly dropped off at the strangest boarding school ever: a former castle turned prison that's now a "reforming arts school"!

But nothing could've prepared Olive for RASCH (not "rash"). There, she's lumped with a team of other kids who never quite fit in, and discovers that the academy isn't what it seems--and neither is she. In fact, RASCH is a cover for an elite group of misfits who fight crime . . . and Olive has arrived just in time.

Turns out that RASCH is in danger of closing, unless Olive's class can stop the heist of the century. And as Olive falls in love with this wacky school, she realizes it's up to her new team to save the only home that's ever welcomed them.

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Enjoy,

Hey there teachers, in the classroom and those at home, need someone to help you get the kids into reading? 

Join me in this week's episode while I read aloud the first chapter of "The Lost Library" by: Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass.

When a mysterious little free library (guarded by a large orange cat) appears overnight in the small town of Martinville, eleven-year-old Evan plucks two weathered books from its shelves, never suspecting that his life is about to change.

Evan and his best friend Rafe quickly discover a link between one of the old books and a long-ago event that none of the grown-ups want to talk about. The two boys start asking questions whose answers will transform not only their own futures, but the town itself.

Told in turn by a ghost librarian named Al, an aging (but beautiful) cat named Mortimer, and Evan himself, The Lost Library is a timeless story from award-winning authors Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass. It's about owning your truth, choosing the life you want, and the power of a good book (and, of course, the librarian who gave it to you).

If you enjoyed this first chapter please screenshot today's episode and share it on your IG stories and tag me @booktastingspodcast.

Enjoy,