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.
Last Week on the Blogs:
Reviewed The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish
by Deborah Diesen/illustrated by Dan Hanna
Reviewed Urban Tribes here
Reading Last Week:
Young Adult
Orbiting Jupiter was definitely emotional and will be one that I remember for a long time. This is a beautiful story, but is also heart-breaking. I'll Give You the Sun was an audio read. I had mixed feelings about it. I liked the way the plot worked for the most part, but Noah and his language annoyed the daylights out of me and there was so much drama. It also seemed to go on forever. I loved Jude though. I'm still trying to read all the Printz books or I might not have finished it. Lizard Radio is science fiction, but felt realistic. Here is part of the summary on Goodreads, "As a girl in boys’ clothes, she is accepted by neither tribe, bullied by both." Kivali doesn't conform to gender expectations, but figures out a way to live as the person she truly is. I loved the friendships and the challenges to rigid ways of thinking.
Middle Grade
This was a week full of middle grade books. I think I kept picking them up because they are quick reads and quite a few of them gave me a bit of lightness to my week. A standout was Shadows of Sherwood. There was so much action and I have a favorite Robin Hood book the Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley. It was fun to see the story told a different way. Moving Target was another awesome adventure filled with action. On an evening when I needed some giggles, Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood was pure fun and entertainment. I also enjoyed the other three, The Way Home Looks Now (a serious family book), The Bubble Wrap Boy (a not quite so serious family book), and Night of the Zombie Chickens (even less serious family book).
Picture Books
Finding Winnie is fabulous. It's non-fiction and tells the story of Winnie, the real bear that ended up at the London Zoo and inspired A.A. Milne to write Winnie the Pooh. It's beautifully done and I loved the inclusion of actual photos and artifacts. Edible Colors is gorgeous. It's filled with photos of eye-popping fruits and veggies. I Love Snow! is cute. Mud Puddle and Mechanimals were silly books I read when my classes were using our Tumble Book library. ¡Vámonos! Let's Go! is a bilingual book that is essentially a Spanish adaptation of the song The Wheels on the Bus. It was okay, but not my favorite. The illustrations are energetic and fun, but the song itself has some things that sound forced. The Great and Mighty Nikko! is a counting book involving wrestling. Young wrestling fans will enjoy it. Hansel and Gretel had wonderfully creepy illustrations. My old eyes had trouble with the text sometimes though as there were colored papers layed over text once in a while. There were other design features that seemed cool, but also made reading a challenge. The Sky Painter was an interesting biography written in verse accompanied by gorgeous illustrations.
The Coming Week: Today I started reading The Good Braider. I'm not that far in, but it is intense. Wow. Serpentine and A Tale for the Time Being are both about to land on the library hold shelf, but I'm not sure what else I will tackle this week. I'm finishing up NaNoWriMo and will have my son home from university so am not sure how much time I'll have anyway. We'll see. I wish you a great week filled with reading.
Reading Challenge Updates:
Diversity on the Shelf/Diverse Books - 216/100
Goodreads - 534/520
#MustRead2015 - 46/53
Diversity Reading Challenge - 12/12
Pura Belpré Challenge -86/86 (some were read prior to this year)
Around the World with Books Map
Diversity on the Shelf/Diverse Books - 216/100
Goodreads - 534/520
#MustRead2015 - 46/53
Diversity Reading Challenge - 12/12
Pura Belpré Challenge -86/86 (some were read prior to this year)
Around the World with Books Map
Impressive reading! I picked up Tale of the Time-Being but ended up not reading it all the way through. The writing was fine. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.
ReplyDeleteAbby Spencer was very marvelous and one of the reasons I love MG lit! You did hit a vast quantity of good stuff this week!
ReplyDeleteI am interested in Urban Tribes and that latest Gary Schmidt, have heard that The Way Home Looks Now is also good. I finally got Finding Winnie from the library, and it is good. I enjoyed the first one out about this story too. So much to enjoy, and I am grateful. Have a good week, Crystal!
ReplyDeleteOrbiting Jupiter was on my to read list, but now I really want to read Lizard Radio. I just picked up Finding Winnie from the public library. When I go home, I will have to pick it up!
ReplyDeleteI read I'll Give You the Sun last summer and really enjoyed it; I wasn't crazy about the language, but maybe it didn't have the same punch on my Kindle as it does on the audio version. I plan to spend my Thanksgiving break getting caught up on reading and you have some terrific suggestions!
ReplyDeleteHi there Crystal, I'll Give You the Sun is one of my favourite reads of this year, but I could foresee it sounding annoying as an audio read - I wouldn't want to hear the whining of the teenager protagonists, but I thought that the craftsmanship of the writing was superb (two voices/different timelines) and her fearless way of putting heart out there was just amazing.
ReplyDelete