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.
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 read a bunch of picture books this week (more than 35), so I'll just share the best of the best. My favorites this week were:
All of these are worth tracking down and reading. I especially enjoyed Her Right Foot. It's a very unique way to deliver information and made some points about our country that many should here in this day and age of anti-immigrant/refugee sentiment. Quite a few of these are biographical and I liked learning more about these people. Stolen Words was a bittersweet story told in an attempt to show the effect of residential schooling on Native people and also offer hope of healing. **edited - I had some qualms about the book (the dream catcher and that it was based on what she wished she had talked to her grandfather about), but ignored them when I saw that the author was of Native descent. Since then, Debbie Reese has posted an excellent review of the book. At this point, it is not one I would recommend since there are much better books about that time in history. I wish I had paid more attention to those feelings of unease and questioned what I was reading more. This is definitely a learning process.
A Different Pond has local connections as the author grew up in the Twin Cities. I appreciate this book for it's look into an immigrant family. It also has one character mentioned who is Hmong. That's a plus since we have a large Hmong community and they do not see themselves in traditionally published work very often.
These five books are the ones I shared in class this past week. All were great and I'd recommend them. The Baby Chicks goes with the song Los pollitos dicen. We read that and sang the song before going to the reading room to learn about magazines. One of the magazines had a story about a hungry chick. It's such a fun song to sing.
I also read some middle grade and young adult titles.
Love, Hate, & Other Filters (an ARC from the publisher) was really good. It was realistic fiction dealing with parental expectations, friendship, romance, and living in the US as a Muslim. A Line in the Dark was a thriller and dealt with friendship, romance, and jealousy. It kept me guessing. Spirit Hunters was fabulously creepy at the middle grade level. I loved it.
In addition, I read one adult title:
Crazy Rich Asians is basically a romantic comedy starring some seriously rich Asians. I saw a Twitter post recently about a handbag that goes for more than $200,000. I wondered who would buy such a thing. This book is full of people who could. They pay more for one dress than we paid for our home and car together. It was a light and quick read and just what I was craving.
The Coming Week: I started reading Shine by Candy Gourlay. It's on my #MustReadin2017 list. It wasn't available at the library or through ILL so I finally purchased it. I may get to some ARCs this week, but I'm not sure. I keep getting distracted by other books.
Reading Challenge Updates:
Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 740/550
Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 241/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)
LGBTQIA Challenge - 20/30
#OwnVoices Challenge - 144/125
#MustReadin2017 - 21/24
Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 109/100
Thanks for that first group, and the YA books, Crystal. Her Right Foot has many holds, so I may have to purchase. I enjoyed Balderdash a lot, like you, I love the history these nf picture books tell us. I love A Different Pond, a poignant story that is good for all to read. It's hard to imagine giving up one's country. I'm so glad books like that are being written.
ReplyDeleteThe picture books all look delightful. I have a feeling that my sixth graders will LOVE Spirit Hunters.
ReplyDeleteYou have been reading!
ReplyDeleteWe shared Her Right Foot with 3rd graders today and I was surprised at the conversation and what stuck out to them.
Loved Spirit Hunters. Spoke with Ellen Oh at NCTE and she thinks the follow up is even spookier!
Can't wait to read Love, Hate and Other Filters
I loved A Different Pond so much I read Thi Bui, the illustrators memoir, The Best We Could Do. Have you read it? I also want to read more by Bao Phi. I'm hoping for a sequel to Spirit Hunters.
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