It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Last Week on Blogs: 

Celebrating Sunflowers

Rich in Color

Charlottesville and Resources

Guest Post with Sonia Patel

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge

Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix

Last Week in Books:

The Coming Week:

This is the final week of summer vacation for me and I am trying to finish up books that need to be reviewed as quickly as possible. I want to read Akata Warrior. I am also finishing up the audio of A Crown of Wishes. Otherwise, it will be a hodgepodge. I wish you a great week of reading. 

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 399/550

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 178/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 16/30

#OwnVoices Challenge - 103/125

#MustReadin2017 - 21/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 76/100

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on weekends where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week.

I adore sunflowers. They are beautiful on their own, but when there are thousands of them together, they are stunning. I appreciate that they both look like the sun and look to the sun. This field of sunflowers was planted in memory of a young woman who also loved sunflowers. Haley died in a car accident in 2015 and her family planted these flowers in her memory. They also share the beauty with others and allow anyone to come and walk through the path through this amazing field. One of my children went with me and we took a leisurely walk through this spot of loveliness. I'm thankful Haley's family is finding peace in this gift. I never met Haley or her family before this weekend, but with this field they are sharing her with us all in a special way. What a wonderful celebration of her life.

Non Fiction Picture Book Challenge - Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix

Alyson Beecher over at Kid Lit Frenzy hosts a Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge and has a roundup every Wednesday. I love the encouragement to explore more nonfiction.

Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin & June Jo Lee

illustrated by Man One

This is another great title from the Readers to Eaters publishing company. They seem to focus on books about slow and local whole foods. Chef Roy Choi is a wonderful biography. First off, the endpapers are decorated with ramen!! Awesome. The book shows a bit of his early life like how food was very important in his family when he grew up. There were even meals that they created together as they interacted with one another. We learn about Sohn-maash or the "flavors in our fingertips." It reminds me of how my grandmother baked things with love. There were other Korean words and phrases explained in the book.

 

Roy Choi had an indirect path to food trucks, but his experiences helped prepare him for that type of work. I love that the book shares some of his Korean heritage, but also shows how things from his community also blended with that to create something wonderful and new. 

Speaking of blending, the art is a mix also. Since this is a book about street food, they invited a street artist to illustrate the book. The art has a graffiti look to it at times and shouts city. 

This would be a great book to use when talking about persistence or that failure doesn't mean everything is over. It's great for teaching resilience too. One of the pages is talking about his career as a fancy chef. "Roy was a success--until he wasn't." That was when he got the nudge to open a taco truck which ultimately was a more fulfilling job for him. 

Since our community is seeing an uptick in food trucks, this is a book I am happy to have around. It has many great things going for it. It would also work well paired with the middle grade fiction book Stef Soto, Taco Queen which centers around a family who owns a taco truck. It's a lovely book that like Chef Roy, features a comittment to food and community. I haven't read it yet, but there is also a fun looking picture book called Food Trucks! by Mark Todd I might have to get.

Roy maintains a Twitter account so you can find out what he is up to. He has expanded way beyond one simple food truck at this point.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Last Week on Blogs: 

Celebrate!

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - Creekfinding: A True Story

Last Week in Books:

My favorite picture book this week was Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner. It's another great nonfiction nature book that is engaging and informative. I also really enjoyed The Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana. I had looked forward to this book after interviewing the author for Rich in Color. The story is rich and lovely in so many ways. Braiding Sweetgrass was phenomenal. I loved this nonfiction book that shares about science and nature from a Native perspective. Young Frank Architect is cute. Pete with No Pants was amusing, but just okay for me. I don't often read celebrity books, but I grabbed The Adventures of Abdi by Madonna because I am interviewing an author on Rich in Color whose name is Abdi. He happens to be a Madonna fan so he mentioned the book in a video he made with Epic Reads. It's not geographically specific, but is said to be far away. It's a fantastical tale of a boy and a jeweler and a king. It wasn't outright horrible, but I wouldn't likely buy it.

The Coming Week:

I'm reading The Star-Touched Queen right now and had to pause my audio book due to scratches on the 5th CD. Ack! I may get back to it someday in print instead. I'm not sure what I will tackle next, but I'm sure to pack as many books in as possible in these last few weeks before school begins. Have a great week!

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 388/550

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 172/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 16/30

#OwnVoices Challenge - 103/125

#MustReadin2017 - 20/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 71/100

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on weekends where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week.

This weekend it is difficult to celebrate. The events in Charlottesville remind us all that there is a lot of hate in our country even though we often don't acknowledge it. The White supremacists who were protesting the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue were not chanting anything loving or up-lifting. If there is anything to celebrate, it is that there are also people in our country who speak out and want to disrupt this kind of thinking.

Yesterday the Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) group in our area organized and held signs along one of our major streets. The signs said things like "Hate has no home here," "We stand against White supremacy," "Reclaim humanity" and "No hate." There were a few jeers and shouts, but it was encouraging to hear more cheers and many honks and see lots of thumbs ups. Tonight there will be a candlelight service down by the river. People are finding ways to show we value everyone and to stand up against this injustice and evil. Yes, I said evil.

Call it by its name. pic.twitter.com/kYwQjCOW2U

— Mo Willems' Pigeon (@The_Pigeon) August 12, 2017

Some people are saying this is not their America, but I am sorry to say it is. This is exactly the America we have right now and it won't change until we face that. I watched I Am Not Your Negro last night. James Baldwin had so many wise words to say about race. One thing stood out to me in relation to this weekend. He said, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." This is the America we have and saying it isn't won't change a thing. I want to be a part of that change.

There shouldn't be families mourning this weekend because a city has decided to remove a statue honoring Lee. Heather Heyer was run down and killed by a White supremacist. Her FB photo says, "If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention." Today I celebrate those who are paying attention and will act because they care about others. I have a voice in my community and with my family and I plan to use it.

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2017

Alyson Beecher over at Kid Lit Frenzy hosts a Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge and has a roundup every Wednesday. I love the encouragement to explore more nonfiction.

Last month I was part of a class through Earth Partnership called Indigenous Arts and Sciences. I wrote about it here.  An important focus of that class was restoration of land and water so I was really excited to come across the book Creekfinding: A True Story written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Claudia McGehee. Creekfinding is the true story of Michael Osterholm and his restoration of Brook Creek in the middle of Iowa farmland. He purchased a farm and found out where the creek used to be. He then had a dream to restore the land to what it had once been. In the note at the end his words are recorded, "I hope kids will remember from this story that we can change the world by acting on our dreams."

The illustrations are beautiful woodcut prints and really support the story well. They help it feel close to nature. Also, sometimes the text is woven into the illustrations for readers to find.

I love that the book starts with an excavator. That will really pull in readers who like big machinery. The first page says, "Sometimes excavators help find lost creeks. How do they do that?" The text often encourages readers to wonder about things. The content is awesome, but the way it is delivered makes the book really powerful. The book really pushes readers to think about what happened and how it happened. I don't think readers can remain passive while reading this story.

I'm excited to share Creekfinding with students and teachers. I have been planning to teach about ecological restoration this year and this book is pretty much perfect for that. It will pair well with a few other books I had in mind also.

Over and Under the Pond 

Written by Kate Messner

Illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

Plant a Pocket of Prairie

Written by Phyllis Root

Illustrated by Betsy Bowen

On Meadowview Street

by Henry Cole

One final book isn't a picture book, but is a fabulous look at restoring the human relationship with the natural world. I'm reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and am absolutely loving it. I am recommending it to all the adults I come into contact with lately. It's lovely and all kinds of educational.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Written by Robin Wall Kimmerer

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Last Week on Blogs:

Review: Busy Builders Kits

Review: Esteban de Luna, Baby Rescuer!/Esteban de Luna, ¡rescatador de bebés!

Review: One Shadow on the Wall

by Leah Henderson

This Week in Books:

I've read a lot of picture books lately and have been enjoying them. Lucía is fabulous. I also really liked The One Day House and Creekfinding. My two middle grade reads were excellent too - Clayton Byrd Goes Underground and Stef Soto, Taco Queen.

The Coming Week:
I'm reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kemmerer and am loving it. She shares some wonderful wisdom. I'm looking forward to starting The Library of Fates this week. I'm not sure what else will fall into my hands. Have a great week!

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 382/550

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 171/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 16/30

#OwnVoices Challenge - 101/125

#MustReadin2017 - 20/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 70/100