The Graveyard Book

I think everyone should be given a "Stay Home and Read Pass" every once and awhile. Let's say you are in the middle of a really good book, but you have to go to school or work and can't read until you get back home. But if you have this pass, you can say, I'll be staying home to read today and everyone will understand. How many of these should we pass out?
I would have used mine to read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The book is so engaging. Adults and children (no younger than 10) will love this book. It starts out with the child's family getting killed but this youngster does survive. He actually is living in the nearby cemetery and the characters he meets and skills he learns are incredibly fascinating. You will have affection for his new family and his guardian. My favorite part was when he empowers some children to stop themselves from being bullied. Let me know what you think of this 2009 Newbery Medal Award Winner.

Elephant Run

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to live on a teak plantation in Burma and harvest teak while sitting on an elephant with your feet tucked under his ears? In this book, you may get a chance to find out. This story takes place during World War II and Nick's mother sends the 14 year-old to live with his father in Burma to get away from the bombing in London. Nick gets to know some amazing people including a very special monk who happens to be in the right place at the right time and a Japanese soldier who facilitates Nick's learning the language and culture of Japan. Roland Smith, the author of this historical fiction has written quite the adventure and you will find Nick doing some things that make you very nervous for his safety.

Habibi

The author, Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. This young-adult novel called Habibi is somewhat of an autobiographical story of her life as an Arab-American teenager who moves to Jerusalem from the US in the 1990s. Habibi means darling in Arabic and is used by her grandmother in another book Naomi wrote titled Sitti's Secret. Sitti is Arabic for grandmother and Sitti's Secret is a picture book of a young girl going with her dad to visit his family in Palestine. Both of these books won the Jane Addams Children's Peace Book Award. Habibi is a good book and I recommend it because it is fun learning about life in another country by reading someone's personal story.