It's Monday! What are you Reading?

Jen & Kellee over at Teach Mentor Texts host a meme every Monday that invites people to share the children's and young adult books they have been reading over the past week and what they plan on reading the following week.

You may find more complete information about what I am reading at Goodreads.com or by clicking on the Goodreads widget along the side of my blog.

Last week was one final push to read Nerdy nominees. Whew. Voting was fun, but the middle grade section was tough with so many awesome choices.

Nerdy Nominees This Week

Of all of them, I would have to say The Wicked and the Just was the one that was the most interesting. I enjoyed being transported back in time to Wales. Life can be so difficult for people and it is easy to overlook the troubles of those around us. This book brings that out and lets you think about it for a good long while.

Zombie Makers was certainly the gross-out book for the week. You do NOT want to be reading this while eating. Eeeeew! Parasites galore here and fabulous close up illustrations.

The most moving book of the week had to be October Mourning. This is a collection of poems related to the brutal beating of Matthew Shepard. Getting through that without tears would be nearly impossible for me. Like with The Wicked and the Just I hear my high school English teacher lecturing about "Man's inhumanity to man."

As you can see by the stars, it really was a great group of books. I appreciate having such a wonderful list of books to go to for reading suggestions.

Newbery Challenge

These are two tough reads one after the other. Both of these were re-reads and I think that I have read Roll of Thunder at least three times now. Both managed to tug on my emotions even knowing what was coming. I put them both on my "Made-me-cry" shelf. Ack. But they are worth it. The injustices in Roll of Thunder rile me up every time I read it. I did read one person's review of it though that riled me up even more. He thinks that the book just teaches people to be racist. I think he missed the point.

Bridge to Terabithia was moving, but I think that the ending was a bit rushed for me. It wraps up so quickly I felt that I didn't have time to adjust so how could he possibly already be at peace? I still loved it though.

The Coming Week

I have just started The Westing Game for the Newbery Challenge and I have several more Newberys here at home so I plan to work my way through those. I will also keep plugging away at the Nerdy nominees. I have a humongous pile for holiday bookaday and will enjoy having the extra time to relax and read this week. Happy reading!