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: 

Nonfiction 

All of these were nice nonfiction books for the elementary level. The standout to me was Raindrops Roll. The photographs were fabulous. They didn't just support the text, they were beautiful too.

Picture Books

Red: A Crayon's Story stole my heart this week. Red is a crayon with a label issue. The label says red, but it's not matching what who Red really is inside. Loved this! One is a Drummer: A Book of Numbers is a counting book that introduces many aspects of Chinese culture along the way.

Middle Grade to Young Adult

 

I enjoyed Roller Girl just as much as I expected to after hearing so many Nerdybookclub members gushing about it. Roller Girl is another graphic novel that many of my students are going to love. Raina Telgemeier fans will eat it up. It's realistic, funny, and has emotions that many tweens will relate to easily. I'm excited to share this one. I also got myself to a roller derby bout because of reading it. I wanted to really see what it was like. Fortunately our local roller derby team had their season opener this weekend and I was able to attend. Go Mississippi Valley Mayhem!

Gathering Fireflies was a great look at the Hmong American experience across generations. It was written and self-published by a local woman and I appreciate the chance to hear a modern Hmong story that weaves in the past and present. My only quibble was the format. It was a novel in verse, but it was one that didn't seem to need to be in verse format. I know it was free verse, but it didn't feel like poetry and my mind wished for paragraphs instead. It's still a valuable book though, especially for libraries and classrooms that serve Hmong Americans.

I got an ARC of More Happy Than Not when I was at ALA Mid-winter. Happily, I also met the author briefly and got my book signed. I was excited to finally read it. It's definitely a book to make you think and if you're like me, maybe even shed a few tears. I'll formally review it over at Rich in Color next week. If you're a realistic fiction fan and can tolerate a smidge of medical sci-fi, you won't want to miss this one.

I also read and reviewed Fred this week. Click here to read the review and enter the giveaway (10 picture books!!).

I also highlighted A Fine Dessert for the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

The Coming Week: I'm reading the middle grade book Eep! and Escaping the Tiger with my eyes and am listening to both Mexican White Boy and The Screaming Staircase. I'm also reading an ARC of Surviving Santiago to review in a couple of weeks. I hope you have some fun reading plans also. Happy reading!

Reading Challenge Update

Diversity on the Shelf/Diverse Books - 90/100

Goodreads - 177/520

#MustRead2015 - 28/53

Diversity Reading Challenge - 9/12

Around the World With Books 2015