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. Cover images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

Last Week On the Blogs: 

Interview with Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Last Week in Books: 

 

 

A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America is excellent and includes the history of many people who are often left out of the American narrative. This would be an essential text for middle and high school teachers for classroom use, but would also be a good text for elementary teachers to read for themselves to have a good context when teaching history or sharing literature.

Esquivel! Space-Age Sound Artist is a cool look into the life and music of Juan Garcia Esquivel. Here are a few videos to give you a taste of his music. Of course I picked it up because it's illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh and he's one of my favorites.

Speaking of Tonatiuh, I also read his picture book The Princess and the Warrior. It's a good one, but a little on the sad side so unlikely to be a Disney pick. You'll find out what his last name means in this book if you didn't know already. I think I will use it and a few of his others and do an illustrator study with his books this year. This video shows how he creates his illustrations and I find it pretty fascinating.

Because of an Acorn is a great picture book that demonstrates cause and effect. It reminds me of No Monkeys No Chocolate only in a more simple way. It has some great back matter, but would work with young readers.

My Dad Used to Be So Cool is super cute and is one more to add to the tattoo books. There aren't so many picture books with characters sporting tattoos, but there are starting to be more, Last Stop on Market Street, Tell Me a Tattoo Story and several of Bob Graham's books like Let's Get a Pup. I think there is a blog post in there somewhere. Anyway, it's one that made me smile.

Before I Leave put tears in my eyes. It's a perfect book for a child who is moving or for a child who has a friend who is moving. It's also just a nice one for talking about feelings.

Ghost is a great realistic middle grade book. As a runner and parent of a cross country/track runner, I really enjoyed having a book featuring running. It's more than a sports book though. It's about a young man who is trying to find his place. He's been in survival mode and had a rocky time in school. Being on a team is a positive step, but some of his choices jeopardize this new part of his life. This would definitely be one that would inspire discussion in a book group.

Overall, this was an excellent week of reading mainly because I got a big order in and have so many fantastic books to choose from all of a sudden.

The Coming Week: I have more books from the recent order waiting for me like Best Man by Peck and a new one by Diana López called Nothing Up My Sleeve. Have a fantastic week!