On Joy's recommendation, I recently read All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn and Kimchi & Calamari by Rose Kent.
All the Lovely Bad Ones was a little creepy for me, but I'm not a big fan of scary books.
I really liked Kimchi & Calamari and think it would be an excellent choice for Joliet Reads. For once, no reservations! The main character is 13, but the book is still appropriate for students in fourth and fifth grade.
The child's fourth grade teacher has been reading Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate out loud to the class, so I decided to read it myself. The book is sad enough that I teared up several times last night. (But then, I cry pretty easily.) More on this book later....
