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.

I have been cramming in as many Nerdy Nominees and Newbery books as I can in the past few days so I have quite a list for the past week.

Nerdy Nominees

I fell in love with Every Day. I loved the main character and the premise of the book was rather unique. The main character wakes up every day in a different body. It's a bit mind-bending and the concept kept me reading at a rapid clip to find out how it could all make sense. Boy21 was another one that didn't have a typical plot. It almost had too much going on for me, but my attention never strayed. The main character, Finley, is a quiet kid, but the book speaks even when he doesn't. Lulu was definitely a bit of comic relief. I wish I enjoyed her more, but she is kind of annoying to me. There are many series books with somewhat snotty girls and I know lots of kiddos that like them so I am sure it will circulate well in our library even if it isn't quite my cup of tea. Temple Grandin was my favorite of this bunch. Her story is so inspirational. I love that she is focused on what she wants and goes after it. And it is so cool that her mother advocated for her all along the way. Best of all, the text is very accessible and has a wonderful balance of images.

Newbery Challenge

This was a boatload of Newberys for one week, but vacation was the perfect time to get ahead and I am trying to get to Shiloh quickly. As of today I have read 65 Newberys. Shiloh is number 71. It also happens to be on the WI Battle of the Books list. My teams will be meeting later this week and we will begin battling. That is one of two books that I haven't read before so I am hurrying to get to it. So far I have read every single one in order and I am trying to stick to that.

I believe that all of these were re-reads for me, but some of them hadn't been in my hands since elementary school way too many years ago. Dicey's Song was really hazy in my memory though it was fantastic. Surprisingly, I didn't enjoy The Westing Game as much this time. I had a really positive memory of it and while it was fun and entertaining, it seemed to have a lot of hard edges to it.

Three of them though felt like I was meeting up with old friends. Jacob Have I Loved and Dear Mr. Henshaw brought both smiles and tears. I was tossed right back into my teen years with Jacob Have I Loved. There is so much raw emotion in there. Another friend was The Hero and the Crown. Robin McKinley does fantasy so well. I remember finding this story in middle school and  being fascinated with the idea of a girl fighting a dragon and relying on herself to solve problems. This was a very empowering book for me then and I loved falling into it again.

Random Books

In the midst of all of the other reading, I also grabbed these two for fun. It was great to learn more about the life of Annie Sullivan. I had no knowledge of her background before she worked with Helen Keller. It is a graphic novel and is done well. My only complaint is that my eyes are about ready for bi-focals and sometimes the text was awfully tiny to accommodate the pictures. Fury of the Phoenix was a sequel to Silver Phoenix. This fantasy went in a different direction as we got to see from the perspective of an evil character. Those bad guys are often more interesting that the others. The book had a different feeling to it, but I was still happy to learn more about Ai Ling and Chen Yong.

For the Coming Week:

I am still whittling down both the Newbery and Nerdy lists and imagine that will fill up my spare time this week. Next up is The Whipping Boy. Have a great week and Happy New Year!