What this is all about...

Back about four years ago, I started teaching at a small school in a small town in Ohio. That is where I met my best friend and super colleague Meghan Philpot. When we first met, I would greet her at the front door of the school as soon as she got there. I, having already drank my 32 oz. of coffee, was kind of...in her face. At first, I think I might have been slightly annoying, but soon there after she grew to love me. That is when we started making beautiful lesson plans together.

In a stroke of genius, and after reading the same article about young adult literature in a professional magazine, Meghan and I decided to try to read five to six young adult books a month and then book talk them to our students. At first, the task was daunting. There were a few mistakes made *cough Mummy Book cough*, but after we got the kinks out, Philpot's Faves and Reed's Raves were born.

After a few months of book talking and loaning our books out the the students, Meghan and I were seeing the fruits of our labors: the students were actually enjoying reading! So over the next several years we continued our monthly book talks, which the students loved because Mrs. Philpot and Mrs. Reed (that's me) are dynamic comic geniuses when they are together (okay, maybe we just think we are funny).

Unfortunately, my husband took a job in North Carolina and I had to move away from Ohio, which also broke up the monthly book talks together. Although we are far apart, Meghan and I continue to book talk to our students. But through another mutual stroke of genius, we thought it would be a great idea to create blogs where we can post our current book choices and write book reviews on them for the world to see! Or if the world isn't looking, hopefully our past, present, and future students can check out our blogs to see what we recommend.

So, follow us here on blogspot and recommend us to your friends. Mrs. Philpot's blog is philpotsfaves.blogspot.com and mine of course is right here at reedsraves.blogspot.com

Feel free to leave comments below!

The Devouring by Simon Holt

Recently, I read the scariest YA book I have ever read. It is called The Devouring by Simon Holt. I love scary movies, stories, books, etc., but usually don’t find a YA book that is truly scary. Usually the books are suspenseful and thrilling, but never really SCARY! Plus this book has a great cover:

The book is about a girl named Reggie who lives with her father and little brother, Henry, in the snowy, cold town of Cutter’s Wedge. Reggie and her best friend Aaron are complete horror fanatics. Reggie’s mom even used to read her scary stories before she went to bed; that was until her mother left them without warning about a year ago. Since then, Reggie has taken on full responsibilities around the house including taking care of Henry when her dad is at work, which is much more often lately. Reggie works at an old book store when she can and recently she found an old tattered journal filled with mysterious scary stories of things called Vours. She reads these stories to Henry before he goes to bed at night, not thinking about the fact that they could scare the living daylights out of him.

In the stories, the Vours are said to be “[demonic beings] that could take over people’s bodies and minds when they were most frightened” (Holt 6). The only time these monsters can do this is on Sorry Night, which is the night of the winter solstice. The Vours feed on fears that reside in the deepest crevasses of the mind. They can reach in the brain and pull them to the surface.

Being the horror fans that Reggie and Aaron are, they decide to “conquer” their fears on Sorry Night to see if the whole “Vours” thing is true. Little do they know that while they are conducting this experiment, something is happening to poor little scared Henry. Something that Reggie will regret and something she will have to learn how to defeat…or die trying.

Simon Holt really knows how to suck a reader in with his smart dialogue and his likable main character Reggie. I loved how strong Reggie is—on her own. She doesn’t need anyone, like say a boy or man, to save her because she is going to figure out how to save herself and her brother. That strong female character is what I crave in a novel.

Also, there are scenes in the book that just basically scared me silly. From the beginning scene where they original Vour story is brought to life(oh, you so have to read it), to the creepy images of Vour-Henry just staring out the window (think The Shinning), all the way to the part where Reggie comes face to face with a Vour in its true form (I was screaming, “Run, run! Why are you just standing there? Get out, Get out!). You have to read this book.