Check out my latest middle grade review of “Saraí y la feria alrededor del mundo” and “Saraí salva la música”!
Category Archives: Cluster Review
Cluster Review: “Lucky Broken Girl” & “Penny from Heaven”
Check out my latest middle grade review of “Lucky Broken Girl” and “Penny from Heaven”!
Cluster Review (December Wrap-Up): My Final Reads of 2020
Hello again! It’s been a while since I’ve written a review. Teaching in December is always a whirlwind (and teaching virtually is no exception). In order to get through these last few weeks of the year, I have been reading ravenously. It’s to the point that I’ve done little else in my free time. I decided to just embrace it and take a break from my blogging and reviewing, but now I’m back!
In this post, I will write very brief reviews of some of the stand-out books I managed to read in December. I finished my last two books of the year yesterday, which brings me to 100 total books read this year! I can’t believe it.
Many of the books I read this month were…
Cluster Review: Flowers for Algernon & Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Of the four books I finished last weekend, two of them were YA Fiction and two were sci-fi. I just published my young adult cluster review, so now I’ll be publishing my cluster review of the two sci-fi books I read.
Of these two books, I finished Flowers for Algernon first and it was…
Cluster Review: Midnight Sun & You Should See Me in a Crown
Since I last posted, I’ve finished four books! Two of them were young adult fiction and the other two were sci-fi, so I will be breaking my reviews up into two posts based on genre. Since Midnight Sun was the first of the four books I finished, I’ll publish my YA cluster review first.
What can I say about Midnight Sun? I knew perfectly well what I was getting myself into when I started reading it…
Cluster Review (October Wrap-Up): Dracula, Planet of the Apes, & Cloud Atlas
Yesterday, October 31st, I finished reading Cloud Atlas, which is a cause for celebration for several reasons. For one, it was my 72nd book of the year which means I have OFFICIALLY met my reading goal for this year! And two, I’ve been struggling to get through this book since July, so I’m also celebrating the fact that I’m finally able to read something new.
I’m doing three books at once in this review also for two reasons: One, I was unable to post a review last week and so I’m a week behind in my reviews. Two, I was voraciously reading at the end of October in order to meet my annual goal and to power through as many sci-fi novels as I can (also part of my annual goal). There are only a couple months left in the year, so I’m trying to commit as fully as I can to the goals I set to get out of my reading comfort zone this year.
My feelings about these three books are… complex…
Beginning of the Year Read-Alouds
As a teacher, the first week of school is an exciting, insane, and busy time (especially when beginning the year virtually!). It’s a time for getting to know new students, building classroom community, practicing routines, and establishing expectations. One of my favorite ways to accomplish all of these things is through picture books…
Cluster Review #4 (Books #12, #21, #22, and #25 of 2020)
Welcome to cluster review number four! This cluster of books I read while in the midst of binge reading many children’s books (mostly historical fiction). I was desperately reading as many children’s books as I could in order to figure out which (if any) I could use in a virtual learning setting (only one, it turns out. Though hopefully more this year!). In this post I will be reviewing the adult/young adult books I was able to read for my own enjoyment during this time. It was nice to have so much time to read, and overall I really enjoyed the books I ended up reading! They were a nice escape from our new normal. (There is actually one additional book that I read during this time, which is “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb. I enjoyed this one so much that I am planning on reviewing it separately at a later time, so keep an eye out for that!)…
Cluster Review #3 (Historical Fiction Children’s Books, Multilingual)
Welcome to Cluster Review #3! Here’s why I ended up reading all of these historical fiction children’s books in quick succession: after Spring Break, I was planning on starting a historical fiction unit with my 6th grade Spanish literacy class. However, the week before Spring Break is when the quarantine began. I didn’t know whenContinue reading “Cluster Review #3 (Historical Fiction Children’s Books, Multilingual)”
Cluster Review #2 (Books 6-10)
For this second cluster review, I will be reviewing books 6-10 of my 2020 reading list. The majority of these (all except #6) are Audible originals, so the reviews will be relatively short. As an Audible member, you get two free Audible originals each month, and they can really be hit or miss. I haveContinue reading “Cluster Review #2 (Books 6-10)”
C.A. Hughes Book Reviews 