#Soof by Sarah Weeks

[heyteenbookshey]

I decided to restart this blog because I had gotten back into reading YA

But I tripped backwards and have read 6 middle grade novels in the past few weeks? Oh my god I'm loving it???? They are are so good?????? They are creative and use words efficiently and are so right for my attention span???????

If you're curious (because apparently I don't review books anymore) here's what I've read:

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson (4/5 eeeee I didn't know middle grade could still go this intense!!!)

So B. It by Sarah Weeks (A classic for a reason, I love when books have ONE fantastical element like Heidi's luckiness 4/5)

Soof by Sarah Weeks (A So B. It sequel, kind of! This lacked the charm and heart of it's original, not impressed 2.5/5)

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (I love Sharon Creech and hadn't read this yet! It was okay, I don't see why it's so widely read in schools but I am neither a middle school teacher or a middle schooler 3.5/5)

Bloomability by Sharon Creech (This was my favorite book in fifth grade! I was a drama drenched kid and searched "kidnapped" in the school library catalog and this came up, but the "kidnapping" was Dinnie's aunt and uncle taking her to an American boarding school in Switzerland and she has such fun adventures and grows so much 4.5/5)

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (500/5 WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW do you ever read something and get mad because you'll never write anything this good??)

Do you want to see full reviews of any of these? Reply if you do! I know it's not heymiddlegradehey but that's what's happening right now!

[rickmoya]

the books I read in 2019

Thirst No. 3, Christopher Pike

My Life as a Fifth-Grade Comedian, Elizabeth Levy

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret Pitch, Donald J. Sobol

Thirst No. 4, Pike

Cardboard, Doug TenNapel

The Pinballs, Betsy Byars

Witch World, Pike

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline

Five Were Missing, Lois Duncan

Thirst No. 5, Pike

Bad Habits, Dave Barry

Red Queen, Pike

Ball Don't Lie, Matt de la Peña The Food Lab, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Lapsing Into a Comma, Bill Walsh

Black Knight, Pike

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsberg

A Word to the Wise, Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali

Strange Girl, Pike

So B. It, Sarah Weeks

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

The Idiot, Elif Batuman

No Place Like Here, Christina June

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, Stacy McAnulty

Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo

The Smartest Book in the World, Greg Proops Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami

People I Want To Punch in the Throat, Jen Mann

Attucks!, Phillip Hoose

Beastie Boys Book, Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz

Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams

The Odd 1s Out, James Rallison

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams

Soof, Sarah Weeks

Life, the Universe, and Everything, Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams Do I Make Myself Clear?, Harold Evans

Superfudge, Judy Blume

Accidence Will Happen, Oliver Kamm

Writing Your Rhythm, Diane Thiel

Everything is Flammable, Gabrielle Bell

Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great, Judy Blume

Suck It, Wonder Woman!, Olivia Munn

Learning to Bow, Bruce Feiler

Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need

Wish You Were Here, Nick Webb

Check, Please! 1-3, Ngozi Ukazu

Holes, Louis Sachar

Dave Barry Turns 40 The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

Five-Carat Soul, James McBride

italics: read it before bold: read it to my kids in bed struck: unfinished 

Far lower number than usual. Couple possible reasons:

I was still (and increasingly, as I closed out the project) burnt from attempting to read nearly 100 books by the same author and summarize/react to all of them in one year.

In the fall, I taught two classes instead of just one, which meant double the researching, writing, reading, responding, and grading.

Maybe as a reaction to these two things, I developed some pretty nasty zoning-out-on-digital-devices habits that ate up possible reading time (which I am actively working to curtail).

That former rationalization may also be why I didn’t read more new things. Re-reading stuff I enjoyed (and exposing my kids to it) is sort of a comfort food for me, which I needed in the gaps between research and creating prompts and wondering why these technically-adults didn’t understand their responsibility in actually turning shit in.

I don’t necessarily expect to read more this year. I have a couple other projects I want to work on, including at least drafting the novel I’ve been kicking around since before A Year of Pike. One of the books I didn’t read, which I’ve had from the library since goddamn August, is Walter Mosely’s This Year You Write Your Novel. Well, guess what — I’m actually gonna read it this year. Writing not guaranteed.

[smileyville]

Reader-Leaders!! I am so proud of these students for taking the initiative to join a book club to read "Soof", the follow-up novel to the Sarah Weeks kids lit. classic "So B. It". They did a great job and it was incredible seeing them read and discuss this book. ❤️

[thefusioncoach]

I just discovered that a movie was made of this wonderful little book, So B. It.  Several middle schools have used So B. It as a replacement for the FUSION suggested books.  I, myself, love the story, so personally I think it could be used in 9th grade as well.  There are so many themes to explore, and kids really seem to engage with this book and empathize with Heidi, the main character. 

The book, which is written by Sarah Weeks, can be purchased from Amazon for $6.98 per copy.  There is now a sequel to the first book titled Soof.  For reading teachers, here is the scoop on this book:   Reading level is 5.6, Lexile 860, Interest Level 6 - 12.  

Specifically for FUSION, I liked this book because it was so engaging for students.  I also loved the short chapters.  It is an easy read, but there are challenging words in the book as well.  It is a great opportunity to begin forecasting The Vocabulary Process and The Bridging Strategy.

[thereadingroach]

So B. It by Sarah Weeks

So B. It by Sarah Weeks, copyright 2004, 245 pages

Fourth book of 2018 is finished! Although this book was published in 2004, I didn't get it until a couple of years ago. I saw it at Barnes & Noble one day and just thought it looked like a quick, interesting read. It was a pretty quick read, it took me around 4 or 5 hours. Ultimately, So B. It didn't super stand out to me or anything, but I liked it quite a lot and thought it had some great themes. I definitely cried during this one.

The two most important themes I got out of this book were truth and identity as it relates to family history. Almost right away, the main character, Heidi, 12 almost 13-years-old girl living in Reno delves into the topic of truth, especially with whether or not it is something you can know. Heidi craves the truth so much because all of her family history and therefore part of her identity is shrouded in mystery. Heidi's mother has some pretty significant special needs. She cannot take care of herself and can only verbally speak 23 words. Really the only reason they have made it this far is with the help of their kind, Agoraphobic neighbor, Bernadette. It comes down to this: Heidi doesn't know her own last name, where she was born, or even when she was born. She knows nothing about her dad or any other relatives. What she does know is "Soof," a word her mother says that Heidi believes is a connection to their past.

Heidi is right about Soof being a connection to their past and upon developing photos from an old camera she finds in their room, Soof leads her on a crazy journey all the way to New York to find the truth about her identity. She does get her answers, but it's not without tears and wondering whether the truth really is worth it.

I thought of these things in terms of foster and adopted children because often they do not know much if anything about their family histories. While our family history does not define us, it is still a part of our identity. I think So B. It does a wonderful job showing that, and I think that Heidi asks questions that any young person who doesn't know their history would ask. This is important to me as a future foster/adoptive mom because I know biological families often get written out, and I think taking that part of a person's identity is unfair and often causes problems later. So that is really the overall thing that I took from the book.

What I didn't like? Being published in 2004 and taking place presumably even earlier, the book's language was kind of outdated, referring to Heidi's mom as handicapped and mentally disabled, etc. Even if it may be canonically correct from that time, those kind of terms are always uncomfortable for me to read. Then also the whole way that Heidi and her mother slip under the cracks for so many years kind of bothers me too. Obviously it needed to be that way for the story, but it still just inherently unnerved me a little bit.

Some quotes:

Another thing I found out right around that same time is that not knowing something doesn't mean you're stupid. All it means is that there's still room left to wonder. (p. 4)

. . . and discovered along the way that people know only what they know and nothing more than that. (p. 12)

I was fascinated by his fibbing. Bernadette had told me that people lie when the truth is too hard to admit . . . (p. 29-30)

I cried for a long time. I cried so hard, it felt like my ribs might crack open. I imagined my heart flying out like a small, red bird escaping its cage, going off in search of a more promising person to live in. A person with a history. A person who knew. (p. 63)

"How could you? It's not like it shows on a person, what they don't have," (p. 127)

"The biggest mistake I ever made was to think that Elliot's love wasn't deep because he had no words to express it." (p. 218)

Knowing didn't change what was. (p. 227)

"I always knew that Mama loved me," I began. "I just thought she didn't have a word for it. But I was wrong. All along she had a word for love- it was just different from the one everyone else was using." (p. 236)

[smileyville]

SOOF group! Bo, Raymond, and Corbin have volunteered to be part of a book club to read "SOOF" by Sarah Weeks, the companion / sequel to So B. It. This group is doing an excellent job in working together, setting goals, and reading the book. We are all looking forward to hearing how they like it! 😊 📚

[smileyville]

One Smileyville superstar had her own surprise from Sarah Weeks... her prize for the Soof contest!

[smileyville]

Congratulations to our very own Maddie! She won the SOOF contest that was held by award-winning author Sarah Weeks. As a prize, Maddie will receive an autographed copy of Ms. Weeks new book, Soof!

[smileyville]

Do you see SOOF? We may not quite know the meaning of the word yet, but that didn’t stop us from participating in Sarah Weeks’ contest. The winners who created the most creative SOOF display will receive an autographed copy of her upcoming book called (what else?) SOOF.

[smileyville]

More SOOFs take over Smileyville! We have a LEGO Soof, as well as a Soof made from charving cheese. For more info on charving, read Oggie Cooder, also by Sarah Weeks. 😀