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.
If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.
Last Week on the Blog:
Last Week in Books:
I was fortunate to see advanced copies of several picture books while I was at the ALA annual conference. Family Poems for Every Day of the Week is a gorgeous book of poems illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. It is also the final book written by Francisco X. Alarcón before his death last year. I have always enjoyed his bilingual poetry and this book is no exception. Each poem is about the unique aspects of one of the days of the week and it incorporates family moments. I am looking forward to having a copy in the fall. Draw the Line is a beautiful wordless book that plays with the phrase "draw the line." There is more going on here than drawing. Like Otoshi's previous books, this one deals with how people interact with each other and how we can creatively solve problems. Before She Was Harriet is a lovely poem that shares many aspects of who Harriet Tubman was because over her lifetime she had many roles. Yo Soy Muslim is a stunning book. The colors are rich and lush and it oozes love.
Where Are You? is a cute book with one snake looking for the other all through the book. It's basically a look and find book and it's written by someone from Wisconsin. Yay!
The Playbook by Kwame Alexander is a collection of advice, quotes and photos is inspirational and easy to read in small bites. It has a sports theme, but the advice is for both sports and life in general.
Boat of Dreams is a very imaginative wordless picture book that's difficult to explain, but well worth reading.
The final two books were for the Ramadan Readathon I wrote about last week. That Thing We Call a Heart is about a teen girl who is falling for someone. She is also learning about Persian poetry from her father along the way. Her family has some Muslim roots, but they are not really practicing Muslims. Her best friend is though. What was interesting was that the book showed that there are multiple ways to be Muslim. Some Muslims may even be offended by some of the things the characters do or say. This is kind of a romance, but is more about a young woman figuring things out about herself and others. I enjoyed the inclusion of the poetry. Ten Things I Hate About Me is about a young Muslim girl who has been hiding her heritage at school so she can fit in with her peers. She is trying to figure out if it is worth it to hide or if she needs to be honest with herself and the people at school. It's also a little comedic.
During my drive to Chicago, I got about halfway through the audio book The Noodle Road. I am still reading Miles Morales and want to get back to #NotYourPrincess. I have quite a few ARCs and books from ALA like Boundless and Solo so that's what I will likely be readng this week.
Reading Challenge Updates:
Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 295/550
Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 140/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)
LGBTQIA Challenge - 14/30
#OwnVoices Challenge - 83/125
#MustReadin2017 - 18/24
Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 51/100
