It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Last Week in Books:

Tales of the Talented Tenth: Bessie Stringfield is an entertaining YA graphic novel bio of an African American woman who criss-crossed the U.S. on a motorcycle. I enjoyed finding out about her adventures and her determination to live in a way that fit her personality and passions. Hoodoo is a seriously creepy middle grade novel and I know there are students who are gonna love it. The Education of Margot Sanchez is a YA book about family, community and more.

In Plain Sight is a sweet picture book about a granddaughter/grandfather relationship told through their daily game of hide and seek. Readers can also try to spot the hidden objects. Sleep is an older picture book created to go with a choral work. It has lovely dreamlike pictures to go with the text. Because of the Sun is a fairly intense YA book about a girl dealing with grief and some pretty emotional family history.

The Hate U Give was a re-read to prepare for a book discussion over at Rich in Color. It's a book everyone should read. It's a fantastic novel that touches on friendship, family, racism, and community. The book is so relevant to what is happening around our country right now. I loved the characters and the voice of Starr. It's a book that made me laugh and cry. A Spy Called James was interesting because I had never heard of James Lafayette before.  He was enslaved, but worked as a double agent in the Revolutionary War. It's a picture book and I would have enjoyed even more facts, but I don't think there is a ton of source info about him. Quiet Power is a young people's version of the adult nonfiction book Quiet. It's about being an introvert. I'm an introvert and found it nice to have validation for some of the things I feel and do. I think young people would enjoy it.

Pauly Wants to Doodle All the Day is a self-published book by a local author. It's not fancy, but it was nice to read it knowing that the author works in my school district. She'll be part of the author fair I'm helping co-ordinate for WEMTA in the Dells next month. ABC Pasta is another book by Juana Medina that highlights found art. The illustrations are fun though sometimes the vocabulary is quite challenging. Things to Do is a beautiful and poetic look at some of the simple things in life that bring joy.

The Coming Week: I'm looking forward to getting the graphic novel version of Kindred. For the month of March we're going to be focusing on young women in graphic novels over at Rich in Color. That's going to be one I read for review there. I'm wanting to see the movie I Am Not Your Negro, but it isn't playing anywhere around here so I think I will try to read some of James Baldwin's books while I wait. Also, next weekend I get to see Carole Boston Weatherford at the Zolotow Award reception so I may re-read some of her books.

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 85/550

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 41/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 6/30

ReadPOC Challenge - 27/125

#MustReadin2017 - 8/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 17/100