Up For Air
Some of my favorite people to interact with on Twitter are authors. I follow a lot of them and they really are the best. They share their experiences and struggles when it comes to writing. They share exciting news and previews about the books that they are writing. My favorites of course are those amazing authors who offer opportunities for teachers to have copies of their books to share with students.
Thanks to the amazing Laurie Morrison, I was able to get my hands on a copy of her upper-middle-grade novel Up for Air. She personalized it for my students and send us a dozen or so bookmarks, as well as a teacher's guide to help me discuss the novel with my kids. It's fantastic and I was so excited when I received everything in the mail.
Morrison taught middle school English for ten years and I think that's part of why this book is so fun and relatable for me who teaches junior high. She has another novel called Every Shiny Thing that I need to get my hands on too!
I've been meaning to read Up for Air for a while so I was excited that I could read it first before book talking it to my students. It is such a great book and I think that they will enjoy reading it as much as I did.
Up for Air is about Annabelle, a thirteen-year-old girl who struggles at school but excels in the water. When summer comes and she gets to spend more and more of her time in the pool, she feels more like herself. But this year, everything changes when she is asked to join the high school swim team instead of swimming for the middle school team with her friends. Suddenly she is learning how to interact with the older crowd--including a boy who seems to pay her special attention. She starts to feel like she is standing out in a good way.
However, Annabelle finds that she starts having to compromise her values and her relationships with her friends in order to fit in with the high school kids. After she gets into some trouble with her new friends, the high school boy abandons her, she is injured, and can't even swim. Annabelle finds that she doesn't know who she is without swimming--the one thing she feels like she is good at. She must rediscover who she is and what self-worth is.
Morrison did such a fantastic job of capturing what it means to be a teenage girl. Annabelle's self-talk reminds me a lot of what it was like to be thirteen and what my 7th grade students are feeling all the time. Teenagers are always in a hurry to grow up. They define their self-worth on what other people think of them or the things that they feel like they are good at. They get hyper-focused on themselves and forget about how their actions affect other people. I felt like Annabelle embodies what a lot of thirteen-year-old girls experience and how they might react if an older boy starts showing them attention.
The rest of the characters in the book are also well fleshed out and I can see other typical teenage behavior in her friends and swim team-mates.
It was a pretty quick read as well. It only took me a couple of days because the back to school season is so busy. It's a fast paced book since it covers a large chunk of the summer in just one book. There is enough action to keep things interesting but it was well balanced with dialogue and character development.
I highly recommend this upper-middle-grade novel for anyone who loves swimming, realistic fiction, coming of age books, and teachers looking for relatable books for their junior high aged kids. You can purchase a copy here!
Morrison taught middle school English for ten years and I think that's part of why this book is so fun and relatable for me who teaches junior high. She has another novel called Every Shiny Thing that I need to get my hands on too!
I've been meaning to read Up for Air for a while so I was excited that I could read it first before book talking it to my students. It is such a great book and I think that they will enjoy reading it as much as I did.
Up for Air is about Annabelle, a thirteen-year-old girl who struggles at school but excels in the water. When summer comes and she gets to spend more and more of her time in the pool, she feels more like herself. But this year, everything changes when she is asked to join the high school swim team instead of swimming for the middle school team with her friends. Suddenly she is learning how to interact with the older crowd--including a boy who seems to pay her special attention. She starts to feel like she is standing out in a good way.
However, Annabelle finds that she starts having to compromise her values and her relationships with her friends in order to fit in with the high school kids. After she gets into some trouble with her new friends, the high school boy abandons her, she is injured, and can't even swim. Annabelle finds that she doesn't know who she is without swimming--the one thing she feels like she is good at. She must rediscover who she is and what self-worth is.
Morrison did such a fantastic job of capturing what it means to be a teenage girl. Annabelle's self-talk reminds me a lot of what it was like to be thirteen and what my 7th grade students are feeling all the time. Teenagers are always in a hurry to grow up. They define their self-worth on what other people think of them or the things that they feel like they are good at. They get hyper-focused on themselves and forget about how their actions affect other people. I felt like Annabelle embodies what a lot of thirteen-year-old girls experience and how they might react if an older boy starts showing them attention.
The rest of the characters in the book are also well fleshed out and I can see other typical teenage behavior in her friends and swim team-mates.
It was a pretty quick read as well. It only took me a couple of days because the back to school season is so busy. It's a fast paced book since it covers a large chunk of the summer in just one book. There is enough action to keep things interesting but it was well balanced with dialogue and character development.
I highly recommend this upper-middle-grade novel for anyone who loves swimming, realistic fiction, coming of age books, and teachers looking for relatable books for their junior high aged kids. You can purchase a copy here!
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