It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

The Past Week:

My favorite book all week was definitely A Long Walk to Water. I had heard about it from Holly Mueller and have wanted to read it for quite some time. For such a short book, it sure packs in a lot of information and emotion. I am excited to share it with teachers and students at my school. 

I was happy that when I picked up The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland... this time, I chose the audio. When I tried to read it in 2010, I gave up very early in the book because it wasn't working for me. As an audio book though, I found it much more fun. I wanted to give it another shot since several Nerdybookclub members seemed to like it a lot. 

The Diego Rivera is a well-done middle grade to young adult biography. Diego was such an interesting individual. There are many children's biographies about him. I can only imagine it is because the research must be intriguing in addition to his wonderful artwork. It made me even more eager to get my hands on Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales too. That will be out in September!

Lakota Woman was a rough read because Mary Crow Dog shares many painful things from her past and the past of her people. I appreciated hearing Native American history from someone who had lived it. I just read that she walked on a little over a year ago. The picture book The Ghost Dance was one that then caught my eye since Mary Crow Dog had written quite a bit about that particular ceremony. I wrote a bit about that here.

Last, but not least, I finished The Archived as part of the Batty About Books group lead by Kathy and Maria. It was a nice change of pace. The author describes it as a supernatural thriller. I found it mysterious and a little addicting. I was unable to stick to the plan of the leaders. We were supposed to read it in bits and discuss. I finished it right away. Oops.

The Coming Week: 

I am still listening to Son of a Witch and will likely finish that sometime this week.  I am in the middle of Akata Witch - and am loving it! Up next is House of Purple Cedar by Tim Tingle and My Basmati Bat Mitzvah. What will you be reading?