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 or by clicking on the Goodreads widget along the side of my blog.

The Past Week:

Picture Books

Of all of the picture books, I would have to say Ball was my favorite this week. The enthusiasm and focus of that dog are illustrated so well. Anyone with a dog in their life, or wishing for one, will just love it.

Middle Grade

Yay! I had noticed recently that I wasn't reading as much middle-grade as I would like so this week I kicked it up a bit and got quite a few read. My favorite of the week was Doll Bones, but Weedflower was a close second (a review of Weedflower is here). Doll Bones had just the right amount of creepy in it. I typically avoid scary books because I am prone to nightmares after books or movies that are intensely scary. This was creepy, but not over the top. I loved the characters and wanted to know more about them even when the story came to an end. The dynamics of their friendship was almost as intriguing as the mystery. Their playfulness and creativity brought back memories of my own childhood make-believe adventures.

Young Adult

I liked both The Iron King and The Testing, but neither one really stood out for their genre. They were fun, but unfortunately they were also slightly "forgettable" as Simon Cowell would say. I felt that many characters and events were repeats from other books I had read. Entertaining, but not terribly unique. I liked that in both books, the main characters sometimes called for help, but also tried very hard to solve their own problems. They weren't always damsel in distressy. I am leaning toward reading the second book in both series, but it all depends on the height of my TBR pile.

Non-Fiction

I loved Almost Astronauts so much that I had to write a review even though it was the night before the last day of school and I had other things I needed to do. It brought me to tears and I am excited to share it with my fifth graders next year. Children of Manzanar paired well with Weedflower too.

The Coming Week:

I am listening to Esperanza Rising (MG) and should finish it this week. I am still reading an ARC of A Moment Comes (YA), and I plan to start an ARC of The Bitter Kingdom (Fire and Thorns #3) as soon as I finish it. I also have The Real Boy waiting in the wings. After all of Colby Sharp's tweets about it and this awesome Nerdybookclub post that includes some of the awesome illustrations, I know I have to keep that at the top of my TBR pile. Right now I have a ginormous pile though. Plenty to see me through summer #bookaday. What fun things are you getting to read?