The Awakening of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, #2) by Paige McKenzie

I liked this book even better than the first one!  Now I have to wait a  year until the last one.  Ugh.  So, in this book, Sunshine goes with Aiden to Mexico to learn how to control her powers.  While she is there, she learns more about her past.  Who is the bad guy? Can Sunshine actually be and do what they want and hope she can do?  More ghosts and demons and drama abound in this second book in the Sunshine girl series.  This is another fun story to read.  I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it!

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie

I decided to read this book because several people came into the library asking for it in one day.  It is in the scholastic book fair selections and several teens saw it there in their school and wanted to check it out from the library to read.  Our copies were already checked out and I had to put it on hold for a few people. The book started out as a Youtube series, and then was picked up to become a book series. That is an interesting way to write a book. I have only watched the first video so far so I am not sure how well the book follows it. This is a fun to read, creepy ghost story for teens.  Sixteen year old Sunshine and her adoptive mother have moved from Texas to Washington state where it is perpetually dark and damp and Sunshine is sure that their new house is haunted.  At first, her mother laughs that off, but later, she denies it and gets angry when Sunshine even mentions that.  As her mother gets stranger, Sunshine is befriended by a boy at school named Nolan who is excited about the idea of a ghost and wants to help her find out what is going on.  The book is fast paced and I look forward to the next book in the series!

The Six by Mark Alpert

Science fiction examines possible future technologies and it's benefits as well as the frightening ways it can go wrong. This book does that quite well.  In this story, the military has developed an Artificial Intelligence that has gone rogue and they have also developed technology for transferring human minds into technology.  That has the unfortunate effect of destroying the body and does not work with adults so a group of teens who are dying of various diseases are selected to have the opportunity to live on virtually.  Adam, whose father came up with this project, is dying of muscular dystrophy and is one of the teens who is chosen for this project.  Can he and the other teens outwit Sigma, the AI who is determined to win against all of humanity?  Fabulous story!  I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it.

Relax, It's Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You're Not Religious by Wendy Thomas Russell

This is an excellent book about how to teach your children religious tolerance, whether you are religious or not.  It has good, practical advice about how to talk to your children about the fact that different people have different religious beliefs and ideas.  I love that the author references Todd Parr, one of my favorite children's authors who writes wonderful books about inclusiveness, diversity and self-confidence.  I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it!

Well of Witches (The Thickety #3) by J.A. White

This third installment in the Thickety series has more adventure and magic as Kara and Taff go to the World so that they can go into the Well of Witches and rescue Grace so she can reverse the spell and release their father from Timoth Clen.  It ends with a cliffhanger so there will be more to come.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I totally loved this fabulous book!  Rainbow Rowell took her characters Simon and Baz from their fictional existence in her book Fangirl and brought them and their Harry Potter knock off story to life in this fun to read book.  Simon Snow is the chosen one who is the most powerful boy magician when he is brought from foster care to Watford, a boarding school in Great Britain for children with magic.  All the other kids grew up in magical families and he is the only "Normal" among them, not knowing he had any magikal power until it rather erupted when he was 11 years old.  His best friend is Penny, a very smart girl, and he has a beautiful girlfriend named Angela and his roomamate, Boz, is a vampire who has been trying to kill him for years.  This is their senior year at Watford and they are still battling the Insidious Humdrum who is creating non-magikal spots throughout Great Britain somehow and is stalking Simon.  There is magic, mystery, adventure and romance in this really fun to read book.  I also like that the author gave this book a proper ending.  I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it!

Reading Picture Books with Children How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking about What They See by Megan Dowd Lambert

I think this book will be a good professional development resource for librarians and teachers.  The Whole Book Approach, which is advocated in this book looks at how the book is arranged as well as the story and pictures.  It gives librarians and teachers a good set of resources in which to discuss picture books in a wide variety of ways with children.  I know that it made me look at picture books in a whole new way!  I received this book free to review from Netgalley.