This is a level 2 Blastoff Reader. It talks about the different types of technology used in a school and a brief history of technology in school. This book is coding in school, but a more appropriate title would be technology in school as it did not talk very much about coding. This book has many informational text features including bold words, labels and a glossary.

The British Museum is in trouble, it needs a donation right away to stay open. Lottie Lipton follows clues that lead her underneath the museum into the catacombs. She goes on an adventure that may lead her to treasure and saving the museum.

Remy, a raccoon, had his house broken into and his most prized possession a journal is missing. Remy and his friends the mice join forces to search for the journal. Remy and his friends must escape different perils while searching for the journal and discover new friends along the way. This book is part graphic novel, part illustrated chapter book. Students who are trying to move from graphic novel to chapter books may find this a decent transition.

Mia Tang moved to the US with her family in search of a better life. Instead they have faced many challenges. Mia’s mom thinks they have found the perfect new job managing a motel and it comes with free lodging. Unfortunately the owner of the motel is mean and managing the motel is a lot of work. Mia decides to help her family by running the front desk of the motel and in doing so makes new friends and overcomes many obstacles.

The Year of Living Awkwardly runs the reader rapidly through the life of high school sophomore Chloe Snow. The author, Emma Chastain, compels the reader through this emotional year with Chloe and her classmates as she works at the pool concession stand, plans to go to dances, hilariously prepares for and takes the PSAT, terrifyingly attends traffic safety classes, and flubs trying out for the school musical. If that isn’t enough drama, her parents have separated and are proceeding with a divorce. Chloe lives with her attorney dad while her writer mom has moved to Mexico with the boyfriend. Can Chloe forgive her mom for leaving? or her dad for dating Chloe’s English teacher? Can Chloe even figure out who her real friends are amongst the teen drama at school? Chastain presents a sophomore girl who is unfiltered, sexually aware and floundering to find love in most of the wrong ways. Some readers will be put off by this girl’s choices, though no doubt there are girls who have lived parallel lives to Chloe’s by the age of 16. The teenage angst is dripping from this novel as Chloe is battling how to be true to herself as she trusts and loves others. This is an additional purchase for upper high school students.

Maya is in an experimental phase in her life, quite literally. Going into the summer after graduating high school and losing her mother to cancer, Maya’s world is in a state of emulsion — droplets that aren’t mixing together in the right way. Whit, her boyfriend of over a year, dumps her for another girl. Her dad is more concerned with carabiners than college preparations. Her best friend, another boy, is leaving for college at the end of the summer. Maya’s summer plan consisted of transcribing notes from a college professor at MIT, where her mother had previously worked as a chemist and where Maya would be attending in the fall. But shortly after the implosion of her love life, Maya discovered a notebook of her mother’s with field notes on an secret experiment with a serum containing pheromones to spice up the mother’s relationship with her dad. With the help of a PhD candidate in the lab at MIT who had also worked on this secret project, Maya devises a way to continue the experiment, the goal of which is to get her boyfriend back. A true love story without many surprises, Meredith Goldstein gives readers a character that has a little fun while figuring out with which guy she really has the right chemistry. Recommended for hopeless romantics who like clean finishes.