Social LEADia: Moving Students From Digital Citizenship to Digital Leadership by Jennifer Casa-Todd

Social LEADia: Moving Students from Digital Citizenship to Digital Leadership, by Jennifer Casa-Todd
Publication: June 14, 2017, by Dave Burgess Consulting Inc.
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Rating: 

Equipping students for their future begins by helping them become digital leaders now. In our networked society, students need to learn how to leverage social media to connect to people, passions, and opportunities to grow and make a difference. Social LEADia offers insight and engaging stories to help you shift the focus at school and at home from digital citizenship to digital leadership.

My Thoughts:

Social LEADia is a book every teacher (and student) needs. It explains the meaning of digital leadership, and how it is extremely important for each and every one of us to care about this topic. To show others that we can make a difference in the digital world. It has made me realize how important my role of book blogging is in the world, and in the digital one. I am aware of the influence my words, writing and reviews have on many individuals, especially kids. If you want to learn about a teacher's opinion on how we can use social media in the classroom and world, then this is perfect for you.

I adored how personal the writing was, even though it was a research-based novel. Jennifer Casa-Todd tells some stories about her life which surprisingly and amazingly apply to the points she makes and the ideas that are introduced. Everything seemed to sew and flow together wonderfully - I love writing like that. In fact, I love when someone teaches based on their personal experiences; it makes the learning experience so much better and intuitive. In total, I can just say that I really appreciated this reading experience; it was different (and more interesting) than anything I have read before. I guess that I need to read more research-based books!

Social LEADia also has a huge spotlight on students who have made a difference using social media and various movements. I loved this - it shows that people have already achieved the goals Jennifer set out for her readers. And it shows educators and teachers that everyone has a potential to do something remarkable. The author provides us with ideas on how we can strengthen the social LEADia movement in the classroom and beyond with questions teachers should ask themselves and their class. It's a complete success!

Do you want to make a difference in the social media world? Then this is for you - grab this as soon as possible. It's a down-to-earth, truthful research book with humour, interesting facts and statistics that prove that social media should never be looked at negatively.

What is your favourite most recently read research book?

Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz // A Heartfelt, Almost-True Story

Something in Between, by Melissa de la Cruz
Publication: October 4, 2016, by Harlequin Teen
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 432
Format: ARC
Source: BEA/Publisher
Rating: 

Jasmine de los Santos has always done what’s expected of her. Pretty and popular, she’s studied hard, made her Filipino immigrant parents proud and is ready to reap the rewards in the form of a full college scholarship.
And then everything shatters. A national scholar award invitation compels her parents to reveal the truth: their visas expired years ago. Her entire family is illegal. That means no scholarships, maybe no college at all and the very real threat of deportation.
For the first time, Jasmine rebels, trying all those teen things she never had time for in the past. Even as she’s trying to make sense of her new world, it’s turned upside down by Royce Blakely, the charming son of a high-ranking congressman. Jasmine no longer has any idea where—or if—she fits into the American Dream. All she knows is that she’s not giving up. Because when the rules you lived by no longer apply, the only thing to do is make up your own.

My Thoughts:

Melissa de la Cruz is one of my favourite authors, and I feel like I've read almost everything she has written. They all seem to be cute, fun contemporary romances that you can just pack with you on a trip to the beach. However, Something in Between was the most real out of them all. It also seems to be the most unpopular, as I have not heard much about it (except for the promotion Harlequin Teen did at BEA in 2016). This is a huge (as in MANY pages) read that took me a few days to get through due to the slow pacing, but it was fabulous. I was able to feel every dash of de la Cruz's passion and personal story in the writing, and in Jasmine's character.

This was just an entertaining story that was different than the rest, and it was so applicable to the kinds of political topics we are looking at today: immigration. And even better, it was applicable to people my age - we teens who live in a country where we have full citizenship are so lucky and fortunate. This book is just so smart, so meaningful, that I would like to recommend this to everyone. I love Jasmine as a character, her ambition, the writing, the unique concept of this.

I tore through the book - that is the best way to describe my experience. Once I began reading it, I was unable to put it down and I was just so obsessed with the romance, WITH EVERYTHING. de la Cruz makes it seem, to readers, that we are able to achieve anything we want to. Jasmine was able to be a National Scholar, to have a romance with a guy she fell in love with at first sight, to be happy and to be always beside her family. 

So, to get on the incline and look at what this is really about... it all begins with illegal immigration. Jasmine has huge dreams - she wants to go to Stanford University, and is on the path towards being valedictorian and a National Scholar. Life is basically going the way she wants it to, until her parents reveal that their family is undocumented and that they have a chance of being deported back to the Philippines, where she was born. It's her worst nightmare; she has no chance of getting the scholarships she dreams of to head to university. And to add to this, she begins to fall head first into a romance with Royce, a congressman's son who basically is on the opposite end of where Jasmine stands.

This story was just special, one-of-a-kind. It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but it certainly was enjoyable and I'd like to promote it more. I really can't get this story out of my mind! GO FALL IN LOVE WITH ROYCE RIGHT NOW.

*A review copy was provided by the publisher via BookExpo America in exchange for a honest review. Thank you so much!*

What is your favourite Melissa de la Cruz book?

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena // Whoa. This Was Mind-Warping.

A Stranger in the House, by Shari Lapena
Publication: August 15, 2017, by Doubleday Canada
Genre: Adult Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary
Pages: 306
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Rating: 

Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.
There's a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town.
The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes. Still, she’s mostly okay—except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good.
Karen returns home with Tom, determined to heal and move on with her life. Then she realizes something’s been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won't stop asking questions.
Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet. 

My Thoughts:

After devouring Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door and falling in love with this genre of mystery/thrillers, or, more specifically, psychological thrillers, I decided that I was in love with Lapena's writing. Little did I know that she would be releasing a new gorgeous read this summer until I received it from the publisher. A Stranger in the House wasn't as good as Lapena's debut novel, however, it was extremely suspenseful and lovely. Once I began reading it, I was hooked and unable to stop sitting in the world of Tom and Karen. There were so many things I enjoyed concerning the premise of this story, and I seriously recommend this to those who love mind-warping endings and the possible hint of a sequel (which I know will not occur... but it did sure sound like it).

This should just be a movie already. Directors, producers, and film productions, PLEASE GET YOUR HANDS ON THE RIGHTS OF THIS FILM BECAUSE THE WORLD WILL BE OBSESSED. Really obsessed. Obsessed to the point that this will become more popular and well-known that Gillian Flynn's books. I feel like the world is really addicted to suspense stories, and there's only a few that could be better than this book. This book relies on its storyline and premise that involves mystery and secrets left behind in the past. You really don't know what's happening until you reach the middle part of the book. Once you're there, there's no looking back. You become obsessed to the point that you will not stop reading until it's over.

SO. This story revolves around the lives of a married couple: Tom and Karen. They live in upstate New York, and they're happy with their "perfect" lives. However, one day, Tom comes home from his job to find Karen gone, the lights on, the door unlocked, and a dinner that was beginning to be prepared. He panics, and he discovers that his wife was in a rough part of the city, and was caught in a car accident. She has amnesia, not remembering how or why she ended up in that situation. And then, more details begin to pop up, and BAM evidence points towards her having something to do with a crime exactly in that part of town. 

This was action-packed for the beginning part (maybe first 70 pages?) and then it just downgraded, and eventually picked itself up again. It had a teeter-totter pace, if you know what I mean. Through the middle part, I just felt my reading pace slow down as I began to get uninterested with the whole detective work and whatnot. But when it picked itself up again, OH MY. I couldn't stop. We also need to talk about THAT ENDING. I was in complete shock with how Lapena created EVEN MORE POSSIBLE SUSPENSE BY THE END OF THIS. Although the story's "solution to the mystery" was kind of predictable, I really enjoyed it.

 

A Stranger in the House was mind-warping, messed up, and *insert other adjectives to describe a crazy story that you couldn't get out of your mind.* I am a huge fan of Shari Lapena's writing and I will never stop picking up her stories. Please throw more of them at me!

*A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a honest review. Thank you so much!*

What are some books similar to this?