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 in Books:

 

My favorite chcildren's book this week was definitely I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leaves Her Mark. First, because I admire Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but also because it is very well done. 

Is That Wise, Pig is another funny book by Jan Thomas. It's a bit silly and I will have to explain the word galoshes. Students will probably love it.

Nothing Up My Sleeve is a humorous middle grade book that will be popular with any readers who enjoy learning magic tricks. I can think of a few who would enjoy it. I am not as fond of magic so that wasn't a draw for me, but it was a nice book about friendship too.

The Best Man is another funny book and is a great look at family and especially male role models. I think adults may enjoy it more than students, but there will be Peck fans who like it. The book features two weddings. One of them is the marriage of two men who are important in the main character's life, but that isn't the primary focus of the book.

Secret Coders is a fun series. I liked Paths and Portals though not quite as much as the first book. It seemed a little more code heavy and a little lighter with story.

Lowriders to the Center of the Earth has a lot of action and adventure. It's also filled with humor. I think it will be fairly popular. I had some concerns about the Spanish, but am not sure if I am knowledgeable enough about it to really make strong commentary. It just seemed written/marketed more for a non-Spanish speaking audience than not. I would be very curious to know how Spanish speakers react to it in general.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois was a challenging read as an audio book. I listened mostly while driving and would find my mind drifting. I don't know if it was the reader or just that it was written so long ago that it was harder to follow than more current writing. I was able to finish, but many times I had to back up and start chapters over because I realized I had lost track. If I read it again, I won't use audio. Last week I watched 13th which was amazing and if you haven't seen the documentary, I highly recommend you watch it. 

Watching 13th and reading The Souls of Black Folk so close together was eye-opening for me. So many things were already apparent even back in 1903 that have not been part of my education like how policing started. There were things I learned in the video that had been common knowledge in the African American community for years and years, but were new to me. This should not be the case, but it likely is for the vast majority of people who have gone through our education system. I'll end with these quotes from the book, "Would America be America without her Negro people?" and "We seldom study the condition of the Negro to-day honestly and carefully. It is so much easier to assume that we know it all. Or perhaps, having already reached conclusions in our own minds, we are loth to have them disturbed by facts."

The Coming Week: I just started reading Steeplejack. I also just got the ARC of Stacey Lee's newest book coming in December thanks to Edelweiss so that is likely to be read this week. Her books have been fabulous so far. Other than that, I'm not sure what will land in my hands. Have a great week!