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.

Whew! In the past 33 days, I have slept in my own house only 7 times. I am done traveling for a while. I loved my time away, but am super happy to be home.

I've had some fantastic adventures, but haven't been so good at blogging.

One of the great things that happened while I was away was meeting Debbie Ridpath Ohi while we were in Canada.

So enjoyed meeting @librarygrl2 & Liz today! pic.twitter.com/TIvOQZ4aEa

— Debbie Ridpath Ohi (@inkyelbows) July 17, 2015

This involved a nice trip to the Indigo Chapters bookstore and some book purchases including Where Are My Books? by Debbie. She is so fun and welcoming. She's also an encourager. I love being around people who are looking for the positives in everyone. I'm excited because some of my classes will be Skyping with Debbie this year!! Where Are My Books? is an adorable book that I'll be sharing with many of my classes early in the school year.

I came back to a pile of books that I need to review. I took care of two right away. 

A very fun middle grade/early chapter book Letters From Heaven by Lydia Gil

An intense YA novel The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell

Here are the rest of the books I've been reading lately:

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste is a lot of creepy fun. Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older is also creepy, but on a young adult level so obviously even more so. Both were very well done and high on my recommendation list. 

Two others that really stood out were The Blue Whale and Little Robot. The Blue Whale looks like it might be fiction, but is really a nonfiction picture book chock full of information about these amazing creatures. Little Robot is another wonderful adventure from Ben Hatke. Like his other graphic novels, it is creative, fun and quirky too. 

The Judy Blume book, Iggie's House was new to me. I have a collection of Judy Blume books that were reissued with Debbie Ridpath Ohi's new cover art. Somehow I had missed reading this historical fiction that deals with racism in the sixties. The message is delivered with a slightly heavy hand, but certainly touches on key points that are still relevant. 

The Coming Week:

I just started The House of Hades which is a monster at 597 pages, but it is going pretty quickly. I'm also reading Kate Messner's book 59 Reasons to Write. I've ordered a few books at the library from my #MustRead2015 list, so will chip away at that while I still have free time. Otherwise, I will be picking up more nonfiction picture books for that challenge too. Have a great week filled with excellent reading!