Book Review: January

Happy Monday and Book Review Day!

Last month I read three books. 

I felt like I started out strong and then had a major loll half way through the month. 

I was stuck at home for 7 days without a good book, so I lost a lot of reading time!

This year I'm going to share my books in reverse order of how well I liked them each month. 

So, here we go...

Winter Solstice

This was the last book in the Winter Street series. 

I'm the type of person who hates beginnings and endings, so I really held out on reading this final book. 

I grew to love the characters at the Winter Street Inn, especially Ava and Margaret, so I didn't want my connection to them to end. 

Alas, the story had to end. 

I really can't give away too much, but once again more characters are mingled into problems that continually arise.

Ava makes a big decision and learns to live away from her former home-at the Inn. 

The characters enjoy one more Christmas at the Inn before some big changes take place. 

While I loved the series, this book kind of wrapped everything up, which made me sad, and thus I deemed it my 3rd favorite book of the month. 

The Boy at the Top of the Mountain

This book has been on my list for over a year. 

We tend to always read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in my classes at the beginning of each school year. 

The students love that book that shows life outside of a concentration camp through a German boy's eyes. 

This book mixes a few of the characters from The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but it details an orphaned boy who goes to live with his aunt, who he doesn't even know. 

She, ironically, enough works for Mr. Adolf Hitler. 

A series of changes occurs in Pierrot as he entrusts and begins to look up to the Fuhrer. 

This book was great, and a lot of my students were intrigued by my reading it because it was written by the same author as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. 

This book might become a book in our literature circles next year. 

Orphan Train Girl

I randomly selected this book out of the Scholastic book magazines that I get each month. 

It's about another orphan who is looking for a home. 

She has grown up on a train looking for her forever home. 

Each time she comes to find it, something falls through. 

This child is skeptical and hopeful for people who will love and care for her. 

Along the way, she tries to escape the horrors of one home by clinging to her teacher. 

At a new home she befriends an elderly lady who she learns has more in common with her than she thought. 

This book was a page turner!

It was a quick read, and I loved the story of hope that it shared, and so I've ranked it my #1 book for January!

That's all for today. 

Hopefully, next month I will have more books to report back with!