What are you Reading? Civil RIghts, Holocaust and City of Bones

Happy Monday all!  I've been a busy traveler lately, so I haven't had time to MAKE anything for a Monday Made It, but I have had the chance to read a lot in the last week or so.  Today I'm linking up with Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers for:

I <puffy> heart this linky!  I love to go and read what everyone else has been looking at during the week.  I've been adding to the list of books that I want to read.. the stack by my bed is getting longer and longer!

Please note:  If you are interested in any of the books below, if you click on the book it is linked to AMAZON.  Thanks

This week I read:

Here is the Goodreads summary:

Ruth and the Green Book is the story of one black family's trip from Chicago to Alabama by car in the late 1940s. Along the way they encounter prejudice, but they also discover The Green Book, a real guide to accommodations which was published for decades to aid African-American travelers as they faced prejudice on the roads across the country.

I really liked this picture book, and have added the name to a list of books I keep at school. It was a great way to show what life was like for African Americans before the Civil Rights Movement.  My students have heard so much about Martin Luther King Jr, by the time they reach me in 6th grade, I like them to learn a little bit more about what the country was like BEFORE the movement began.  This book helps to give an everyday life perspective to this time period in our country's history.  PLus, the Green book was REAL!  More information can be found {HERE}.  Hello Primary Source!

The second book I read was 

Goodreads says this:

The Last Train is the harrowing true story about young brothers Paul and Oscar Arato and their mother, Lenke, surviving the Nazi occupation during the final years of World War II.

Living in the town of Karcag, Hungary, the Aratos feel insulated from the war — even as it rages all around them. Hungary is allied with Germany to protect its citizens from invasion, but in 1944 Hitler breaks his promise to keep the Nazis out of Hungary.

The Nazi occupation forces the family into situations of growing panic and fear: first into a ghetto in their hometown; then a labor camp in Austria; and, finally, to the deadly Bergen Belsen camp deep in the heart of Germany. Separated from their father, 6-year-old Paul and 11-year-old Oscar must care for their increasingly sick mother, all while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy amid the horrors of the camp.

In the spring of 1945, the boys see British planes flying over the camp, and a spark of hope that the war will soon end ignites. And then, they are forced onto a dark, stinking boxcar by the Nazi guards. After four days on the train, the boys are convinced they will be killed, but through a twist of fate, the train is discovered and liberated by a battalion of American soldiers marching through Germany.

The book concludes when Paul, now a grown man living in Canada, stumbles upon photographs on the internet of his train being liberated. After writing to the man who posted the pictures, Paul is presented with an opportunity to meet his rescuers at a reunion in New York — but first he must decide if he is prepared to reopen the wounds of his past.

I need only to say  WOWZA!!! This book is fabulous, and if you study the Holocaust with your students, than you MUST purchase this book to share.  It is a perfect companion book to a study of this period in history.  The last several years we have had the good fortune of having author and Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan visit our smarties and share her story with them.  She cowrote her biography entitled, Four Perfect Pebbles.

My plan is to read The Last Train as a companion piece this year, and then do an overview of Marion's book because my students will have the opportunity to purchase it and have it signed by her.  What a wonderful PRIMARY source!

The third book that I read was:

Here is the Goodreads review:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. 

Ok... I'll totally admit this.. I picked this book up because the movie is coming out soon, and if a book has been made into a movie I MUST read it first.  Plus I really like Jonathan Rhys Myers, and he plays Valentine in the movie. <hee hee>...

 I liked this book, and will look into reading the rest in the series.  I will definatly recommend it to some of the higher readers I am expecting in my classroom this year.  There were times, when I was wondering where it was leading, I felt I had read about these characters somewhere before.. there was a little Harry Potter feel to it... evil character, overthrow the world, shadow hunters living among the humans.. and a little Star Wars.. an I love you but OMG you are my brother? moment...but it had sections that intrigued me enough to keep reading... plus again, movie at the end of the month = must read the book first.

What have you been reading this week?  Be sure to link up with those lovely ladies and let us know!  One can never have too many books!