That's Noteworthy! (vol. 6)

middle grade hobbies, book fair, & different forms of beauty

Hi friends! I have loved putting these newsletters together for this little community, and after 5 fun weeks of sharing some noteworthy notes, I’m changing up the schedule a bit. I will now be sending these newsletters every other week.

Part of the reason for this is that I’m working on some things behind the scene coming soon to Young at Heart (I promise, it’s exciting!). Make sure you subscribe if you want to be sure not to miss anything. That way my posts will automatically land in your inbox (or in the awesome Substack app if you use that).

📚. And now for some recent middle grade reads…

• Fast Pitch by Nic Stone :: Sports are such a big part of our family life, that I usually go into sports books skeptical that they will be realistic. This book shattered that expectation. It was fantastic on and off the field. It’s clear that author Nic Stone knows softball (according to her author bio, she played!), and the on-field descriptions ring completely true (and it was also eye-opening to read about the experiences of an all-Black team playing in the south).

  Off-field, the story is equally exciting as our main character Shenice sets out to solve a generations-old mystery about a family member who played baseball in the Negro leagues. After listening to this short audiobook (yay for shorter upper middle grade books!), I recommended it to my daughter and her whole softball team (also 12u age like Shenice’s team in the book). My daughter started it right away after three parents of her teammates replied on the team message thread saying that their daughter loved it too. As for listening, Nic Stone reads the book herself and the audio is fantastic.
  5 ⭐️s

• Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte :: I’ve been meaning to pull this one off the library shelf and borrow it for quite some time and I’m so glad I finally read it. This is a sweet graphic novel about a girl who moves to Seattle from Taiwan. Cici navigates meeting new friends in a new country, leaving her A-má (grandma) behind), living up to her dad’s academic expectations, and along the way she finds a new passion thanks to a cooking contest and inspiration from Julia Child.
  I especially loved the artwork as related to food and cooking (it’s a book that makes you hungry for sure!). Some parts of the story require a little more from the reader to piece together what is happening between the panels, so in that sense it requires a slighter higher reading level, but growing in that skill is something that graphic novels are great at helping with.
  4.5⭐️s

• This has been a busy couple of weeks, and while I haven’t finished many MG/YA books, I can’t seem to stop starting new ones. I currently have 3 current MG reads and 1 current YA book (in addition to a few adult category books). I know, I’m a little out of control with the multiple-books-at-once thing. 🤷

before the chaos, I mean, shoppers, ascended

🤓. Last week at school was our book fair, which was super fun and also exhausting. Our students loved getting to shop for books and the library made a good amount of money that I can use to purchase new books. Yay! So thankful for our supportive families. Now, this week, our kids are competing in the PTA readathon. They have to log their hours spent reading outside of school (and it’s also a fundraiser). I would have been all over this sort of competition when I was a kid.

I also kicked off my new year of BookWORMs (Workers of Reading Materials) volunteers, which are 5th and 6th graders that help me out in the library during recess breaks, doing shelving and some circulation (helping check out books). I love getting kids involved in the library like this, and this year I have ten eager readers who have joined on to volunteer a few times a week. Let me know if you’d like to hear more about this program in the future.

🥰. The biggest thing that brought me joy over the last 2 weeks was getting to see Coldplay (for the second time). They have been my favorite band for quite some time and the show did not disappoint. It was so creatively designed and the performers were amazing, showcasing their artistic talents and personality on the stage.

My favorite song by Coldplay is Fix You and seeing it live always brings tears to my eyes because it’s so beautiful¹. But David and I agreed that Sky Full of Stars was the best song of the night. Chris Martin asked everyone to put down their phones and just be in the moment and it was pretty breathtaking with the music, the lights, and enjoying it all with everyone there (that song is probably a close second fave, and also the title of one of my own writing projects).

beauty in 2 forms, made for humans & made by humans

Another joyful moment I had this week when my daughter and I stole away for a few moments at the beach after going a few miles out of our way to get the cheap gas… where we picked up a few shells and read a few pages. We almost didn’t do it and I’m so glad we did as it was a beautiful, warm day and smelling the salty sea air was just what we needed.

A few links from around Substack:

• I’d never read Lore Wilbert’s writing before (though I now want to read her recent book), but I feel like she articulated some of my own feelings brilliantly and also gave me some deep insight I didn’t know I needed in these 2 posts: Should We Keep Talking About Writing? and My Thoughts on Getting Paid on Substack.

• I found a new Substack called Making it Work by Youngna Park, which I immediately subscribed to after reading her post about a “book” that maybe should be banned?

Happy Friday and happy reading!

xo,
Nicole

I always use affiliate links with Bookshop.org when I link to books. If you purchase through my links you support me a tiny bit, and more importantly, you support indie bookstores. Thanks!

1. Also, one of the best scenes in one of my favorite movies references it in such a cheeky, funny way.