Claire's Book Picks of the Week

Kyla Mae Miss Behaves as an International Super Spy
By. Kyla Mae



This book is like a diary or journal about Kyla Mae's day.  She has an extremely active imagination.  During English class at school, she imagines she is a super spy on a mission to find someone who is stealing diamonds at a dog show in Russia.  She and Fifi-Belle, her dog, compete in the competition while looking for the thief. Kyla Mae was day-dreaming about being a spy because her arch-enemy, Bianca, lost her favorite bracelet and accused Kyla Mae of taking it.  In this book, Kyla Mae works to solve the mystery of the missing bracelet.  

I thought this book was really cute because she drew a lot of funny pictures on each page.  The book pages looked like they came straight out of an actual journal with colorful words, pictures and side notes.  This book would be great for girls ages 8-12 who love colorful pictures and like to journal. 


President of the Whole Fifth Grade
By: Sherri Winston




In this book, Brianna, wants to run for class president of the fifth grade, to be like her hero Miss Delicious.  Miss Delicious is a celebrity cupcake baker who had also been class president when she was younger.  Brianna has to fight in the election against a new girl in town.  

I liked this book because it was like a real life story of a girl and her hardships with her friends and bullies.  I could see myself in this character because she likes to bake and because I ran for student counsel in 3rd grade.  Even though it's about the 5th grade, girls ages 9-11 would enjoy this book.  


Sisters in Time American Challenge: Lydia the Patriot
By: Susan Martins Miller




This book is about a young girl named Lydia and her brother Stephen during the Boston Massacre.  This was a scary time for their family as the British soldiers were marching all around the town.  Lydia's aunt goes into labor and Stephen has to fight the mob to go and find the midwife.  Lydia was afraid because if the midwife didn't come soon, she would have to help her Aunt give birth.  

This book taught me about history and how we have had bad times in the past where we made wrong choices.  We have made many good choices along the way, and I am glad that America is free so that we aren't ruled over by England.  I am also  thankful for not living during the revolutionary war because having British soldiers all around me would be very scary.  They could come into your house whenever they wanted.  I am a sensitive person so this would really upset me.  This story is part of a larger collection of stories.  The other stories are Kate and Spies, Betsy's River Adventure, and Grace and the Bully.  They are historical fiction stories based in the time period of 1770-1819.  This reminds me of the American Girl series, but I liked this better because I learned more about history from this one story than from the many American Girl stories I've read.  I learned about Samuel Adams and other patriots who stood up to the British Soldiers.  I would recommend this for girls ages 8-12. 

THE STORY OF SAINT JOHN PAUL II: A BOY WHO BECAME POPE by Fabiola Garza

  On Sunday April 27th, the day Pope John Paul II was canonized, my dad read us all a book called THE STORY OF SAINT JOHN PAUL II: A BOY WHO BECAME POPE  by Fabiola Garza. This book is about the life of Saint John Paul II, when he was a boy. There are were some interesting facts that I found in the book that I didn't know before. Did you know that his real name was Karol, but he went by Lolek.  Lolek became an actor when he was in high school and performed in plays until he became a priest.  He became a priest during World War II, when the Nazi's invaded Poland and forced the Jewish people to leave. JP had lots of friends and some of them were Jewish, so he did not see them for a long time. After the war ended, he stood up to the Communists who took over Poland by celebrating Mass in public on Christmas Eve.


The author and illustrator, Fabiola Garza, did a beautiful job drawing the pictures.  They are perfect down to every last detail because some of the pictures remind me of one of my favorite movies, Tangled.  I feel as if I could just jump into the book and be a part of it. 
It's also cool because they are carrying a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa, whom I studied, through the streets?

Fabiola Garza, the author and illustrator signed our copy

Lolek chatting with his Jewish friend Jerzy

This is my mom's favorite page

This page reminds me of movie Tangled where the lanterns are lighting up the sky.

Claire

New artwork at Giggling Guadalupe's Gallery