Hello friends! I was hoping to have some of the other Biggest Reader "contestants" blog on here about their reading, but I haven't received anything from them so I guess I will keep on posting my books.

I recently finished two books for the challenge. I decided to do a Margaret Peterson Haddix book since she is coming to speak and sign books at our Library on November 4. Dexter the Tough was one of her books that I had not read yet. I used this for my realistic fiction pick. This books is not like most of her other books that contain some mystery and suspense. This book is more for younger readers, those kids who are just beginning to read on their own. Or if you have a 1st grader like I do, he likes me to read him a chapter a night now. So it would be a perfect read-aloud. The book is about a boy named Dexter who has moved to a new school. But he is not very happy about it. At first the author doesn't tell you why he has moved there, the reader just knows that he is in a new school and living with his grandma. Dexter is asked to start writing a story for English. The story can be real or made up. On his paper he begins his story by writing that he beat up a kid in the bathroom this morning. Dexter seems to be very angry about his life and reading the story reveals why Dexter is so tough acting. It was an easy book to read and it had a nice lesson within the story. But not overly exciting like I am use to reading with her other books. I recommend if you are going to try one of her books you try reading Among the Hidden, Turnabout, Running Out of Time, Just Ella or Found. Those are excellent and will have you reading all night long!

The other book I choose was for my biography selection, although it was fairly short, so I will probably do another one like it to equal it out. It was called Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist by Philip Dray. This picture book biography is about the famous Ida B. Wells who was born into slavery in 1862. When Ida was three years old, the Civil War ended, and slavery was now illegal. So Ida and her parents were no longer slaves and this began the journey of Ida's notable life of freedom. Ida B. Wells, who later became a famous “crusader for justice” was also a famous journalist. This books was interesting and I learned a lot about her.