Why Absent has been...absent

We're now into July and that means that I am nearing the middle of inventory season.  The last few weeks have been filled with the sound of the scanner beeping, the air filled with disturbed book dust and the annual aches of shoulder and tricep muscles as I plod through the endless rows of library books.  Every year I become convinced that the books multiply on the shelves ahead of me. This year is no exception.  I currently have 6 school library inventories  in progress, one finished, and one untouched.   

As I am exhausted at the end of each day (and likely will be until all my schools have been inventoried) I have decided to ease my reading load by choosing 20 or so books from the Orca Currents series to review. 

Orca Currents are high interest - low vocabulary books designed for intermediate students who are currently reading below level. What's great about the series is that the topics are current and timely. The books are quick reads for more advanced readers, but are designed to grab the interest of my 5th to 8th graders with subjects such as flash mobs, chat rooms, geo-caching, parkour  and more. The characters are easy to identify with by those going through those early teen years and by those of us who have survived them.  This is a collection of realistic fiction with everyday situations that lead to moral dilemmas complete with emotional responses and consequences, good and not so good, for the decisions made.  The writing is clean and detailed enough to draw in the audience without becoming lost in in a volley of excessive adjectives. This simple style invites the self proclaimed non-reader to test the literary waters and enjoy an adventure for a hundred or so pages.