It's Monday! What are you reading?

Back to work as an elementary school librarian ironically means less time to read, or at least it does for me.  Of course, once the students return, I'm usually reading all day long with them in the library! 

My one book for this week:
Saving Lucas Biggs by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague is a 2015-2016 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee, and the last of the twenty nominees for me to read.  

I was still reeling from the post-Katrina harsh reality portrayed in Zane and the Hurricane when I started this book; when it opened with the depiction of the miserable treatment of coal miners by the mining companies in the 1930's, I thought I was in for another heartbreaking story.  And I was...until the element of time travel was introduced.  Modern-day Margaret O'Malley is determined to do whatever she can to help her father, who has been wrongfully arrested.  His fate has been determined by a Judge Lucas Biggs, whose view on life became twisted in that coal mining town long ago.  Somehow, Margaret must save Biggs from becoming a coldhearted corporate pawn in order to save her father.  There were parts in this book that were still a heartbreaking read, and should spawn interesting discussions about life in the early 20th century. 

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Next on my list:

Finishing up Are You Fully Charged?: The Three Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life by Tom Rath
A Plague of Bogles by Catherine Jinks