Sunday, October 30, 2016

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 Blog: 

Last Week in Books:

The big standouts this week were the two poetry books: Are You an Echo? The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko and Somos como las nubes/We Are Like the Clouds. The first is an amazing picture book biography that includes poetry. It's stunning and her life story is very moving. The poetry is fabulous too. The second is a collection of poems showing what it is like to be a child refugee. The author fled El Salvador when he was young and has also worked with children who have come to the U.S. from Central American countries. The poetry is very moving.

On the side of humor, We Found a Hat (loved!) and We Are Growing! really made me smile along with Dear Dragon

Ralph Tells a Story tempted me to do NaNoWriMo one more time. I am still not sure if I am doing it or not, but Ralph and his story made me see possibilities. I am a Story and How This Book Was Made were also rather convincing. I may finally do it as a rebel and work on picture book ideas instead of a novel. That would be a first.

Many of these books were excellent and I will have most of them in my library at school. I read Steeplejack for possible review over at Rich in Color. It was a cool steampunk mystery type and it was an exciting read. Altogether, it was an excellent week of reading.

The Coming Week:

I've ordered a few books from my #MustReadin2016 list (Beholding Bee and Branded by the Pink Triangle) because I am way behind on that. I am also starting to look at the Mock lists and am realizing that I need to catch up on some of the really good books from this year. I'm not sure exactly which titles I'll get to, but those are the plans.

Reading Challenge Updates:
Goodreads Challenge - 490/550
Diversity on the Shelf 2016 - 219/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)
LGBTQIA Challenge - 31/31
ReadPOC Challenge - 149/125
#MustReadin2016 - 28/54
Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 84/100
Around the World with Books 2016

6 comments:

  1. Both the poetry books are on our Cybil's list, and I have We Are Like The Clouds now, waiting for Are You An Echo? I loved I Am A Story, and best wishes for NaNoWriMo if you choose to do it! With the Cybil's reading, there is no way I have time. Happy Halloween!

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  2. Yes! I am so far behind on my #mustread list. I'm having a really hard time with sticking with anything that's not a picture book! Too much all the time...

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  3. Steeplejack is now on my to read list. It sounds great! I still have 5 books left on my #MustReadin2016 list. I've got one of them ready to go as an audiobook, but one of them I can't even get from our local public library!

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  4. Great combinations of books, especially on the power of writing. I really liked I Am a Story. Jacqueline Woodson's talk was amazing. Can't wait 'til Jason Reynolds next year!

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  5. Yes, do that picture book!! I've thought about NaNoWriMo but I'm not really all that interested in writing a novel - maybe I'll try my hand at a picture book, too! ;)

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  6. I just read We are like the Clouds - I agree. It's absolutely beautiful.

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