IMWAYR July 31-August 7

I was a reading machine last week!

Make sure to visit the IMWAYR hosts Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts to find other blogs to follow that use this weekly wrap up.

I have many ways to access my content:

• Watch my week of reading on my Bookdragon Diary YouTube Channel
• Read my official reviews below
• Listen to my podcast!
• Instagram, Twitter, and Threads @mrs_bookdragon

Fun news first before I dive into the books though! I have started a BANNED BOOK CLUB, so if you are interested, please shoot me an email (in my link tree at the end of the post) and I will send you a link. It’s through an app called Fable! We chose our first book already and you are free to come and go as you like with each new book we choose. I would love to see you there.

Books I Finished

Middle Grade

I am so happy to see myself reading more middle grade! It is almost time for school to begin, so I think that helped me get into the groove. Out of these four amazing books, if I had to pick one to recommend…it would be A WORK IN PROGRESS by Jarrett Lerner. BUT, all of them were great and valuable in some way or another.

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you Macmillan Children’s for sharing an earc with me. I thoroughly enjoyed this story! I mean…it has a cat, a little free library, mystery, ghosts…it was purrrfect! It also broke my heart at the end, but in a good way! I highly recommend this cute little ghost mystery.

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Jett Jamison and the Secret Storm by Kimberly Behre Kenna
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a powerful book told in such a short amount of pages (side note: we need more short middle grade). I was given this book by Books Forward and my views are my own.

This book was described on the front as a “Speak” book for preteens and it was. It was a powerful book about assault, finding your voice, and book censorship too. I think it covered the issue of assault well for younger readers-it was enough to know that something happened with a male that was not okay. I also really loved the message at the end about the importance and value of sharing your story and how it can bring people together. This is a second book in a series called Brave Girls and I will be reading the first.

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The Braid Girls by Sherri Winston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook and loved the multiple narrators with the multiple pov! This was a great story of sisterhood-blood sisters and found sisters. It was also a fun summer camp/entrepreneurial book.

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A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Aladdin for sharing a copy of this book to review. I love Jarrett Lerner, but this one was unlike any of his other books. He’s a humor writer, but this book was not humorous. It broke my heart. I think it’s really important too because it touches on bullying and eating disorders-in a boy! I liked how it was set up with poetry/verse on book pages and had doodles in the margins that really illuminated the main character’s feelings while he was writing. It’s a must read.

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Young Adult

Goodness…I cannot pick a favorite out of these two. Seriously, both amazing.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I reread this by listening to the audiobook and following along with the physical and I loved experiencing this way! It’s a full cast with sound effects, and done very well. I still think readers should also view the pages as some are quite unique and illustrate the story really well.

I loved the romance, the thriller aspects, the horror, and the mystery. It was so good!

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Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh man this book was all that I had hoped. A romance that was so heartfelt and had me white-knuckling my kindle in suspense. The fantasy elements were a lot of fun-especially the mythology. I can’t wait for more.

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Up Next

I have a few book club books to read, so those will be somewhat priority, but honestly, it’s my last week before going back to work and I just hope to read whatever keeps me entertained. That’s all I want this week! I am halfway through both THE GRACE YEAR and YOUR PLANTATION PROM IS NOT OKAY, so I foresee me finishing both of those books. I probably won’t read much of MAGIC WORDS this week since I don’t have a writing group meeting, but may pick it up. THE DAVENPORTS is what I am listening to on my walks as well as GEMINA, so both of those might get wrapped up this week as well. But as always, who knows!

Reading Challenges

Here is my update on my 30 books in 3 months challenge-also known as YOU CAN’T BUY MORE BOOKS UNTIL YOU READ THESE haha! I added A WORK IN PROGRESS to the finish stack! So…this is obviously still a work in progress (see what I did there?).

How you can support me

I love what I do, reading and sharing books, connecting with readers, educators, librarians, and authors/illustrators. My favorite thing is to be seen-so a comment makes my heart go all aflutter. Sharing my posts on social media is also so very much appreciated.

If you are feeling EXTRA generous and want to show your appreciation, you are more than welcome to support my book buying with my list on bookshop.org (and after reading I am happy to donate to a little free library if you so choose) or gifting me a gift card to either Bookshop.org or Amazon! My email is in my Link Tree at the end of this post. Make sure to leave me a name or handle so I can shout you out and send you a thank you.

Following me is also much appreciated. Happy reading everyone! Thanks for stopping by!