Visit Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers to participate in the kidlit version of this weekly meme.

On the blog:

• A collection of the best online reading from last week

In reading:

I wasn’t sure how James Burks would be able to sustain the clever in Bird & Squirrel, but so far, he’s having no problem at all. On the Edge!, the third volume in the series, has a comical twist: Bird loses his memory and when he comes to, he’s even more of a scaredy cat than Squirrel. So it’s up to poor Squirrel to save both of them as well as the baby bear they’ve somehow managed to pick up along the way. Fine pacing, smart dialogue, plenty of action and adventure, plus really pretty illustrations=another winner.

I read Worm Loves Worm aloud to my Children’s Lit class for our Valentine’s book this week, and it’s such a delight. There’s plenty to amuse both the child and grown-up reader as every attempt to get married is interrupted by friends who have suggestions for how the wedding needs to happen. This is how it’s always been done, the friends keep insisting. Well, we’ll just change how things are done, the Worms decide. Exactly as it should be. Marriage equality for all!

Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes was highly recommended on one of the Book Riot podcasts I really like, and I decided to try it. I’m planning to do a little reading outside my wheelhouse this year, and this book definitely qualifies. It’s contemporary fiction for grown-ups, but it’s not literary fiction (though it’s not un-literary either). It’s kind of a romance novel but not exactly. The most apt description is probably chick lit. I’ve always found that to be a stupid descriptor, but “chick lit” it is. It’s breezy, fast-paced, entertaining, and well-written at the sentence level which counts for a lot. Believable? Nope. I mean, the 21-year-old student college professor Ally Hughes has sex with CRIES after sex. But if you can overlook some unlikely character development and plotting, it’s an enjoyable read. And it does have more on its mind than just the fling between Ally and Jake: the mothering and daughtering subplots are strong and actually quite believable.