Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on weekends where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week though this month I have been remiss. I haven't been as good about celebrating here on the blog this month. It's not that I don't have things to celebrate, but life gets in the way.

This year had many challenges and many blessings. We moved to a new home in April. That absorbed a lot of our energy, time, and money. We adore the new house though and love our neighborhood.

My favorite things about the house are glass doorknobs, a laundry chute, and the fabulous location.

Connections are another thing I'm celebrating this year. We are meeting so many new people and are making and maintaining more friendships. The area where we live has houses close together and we are within walking/biking distance of the university and downtown so we can easily attend many events. I'm in two different book clubs now. One of them consists of neighbors and moves from house to house though they are all in walking distance. Long distance connections also seem to be getting stronger. I am especially happy to have met up with Twitter and blogging friends via NerdcampMI and ALA in Chicago this summer. Each in person visit solidifies friendships even more. 

The challenges of this year have been many. Events in our nation and the world have contributed to raised anxiety and frustration for me. This has caused me to become more connected to various activist groups and more involved in local events to make a difference here. I will choose to hold onto the positive things we have done. The most visible activity was a fundraiser for diverse books to put in the hands of children and educators in our city. We were able to raise over four thousand dollars in a brief amount of time. We distributed books to children at the Boys and Girls Club and directly to many teachers in the school district for their classroom libraries.

2018 will surely bring more challenges, but I look forward to stepping out into this new year with friends and family to embrace the difficulties and the joys. Happy New Year.

#MustReadin2017 Update

The #MustReadin2017 is a reading challenge led by Carrie Gelson at There is a Book for That. I enjoy being part of the group of readers setting and aiming for their own unique reading goals. Back in January, I chose 24 books. 

I missed the first update, but did manage to create a fall update post sharing some of my favorites of the year at the time. At that point I only had three books left to read. I had to purchase Shine to read it since it wasn't even available via ILL for me, but I didn't mind buying it. The only one I wasn't able to read is American Road Trip, but the publishing date has been moved to 2018, so I'll push it to my next list. 

This is a fun way to make sure that I read some specific books each year so I look forward to participating again. Since I was on a picture book award committee, this list was helpful in keeping me reading YA and adult titles. I'm starting to contemplate next year's list already and will post about that on January 2nd.

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.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Past Weeks on the Blogs:

Review: 10 Gulab Jamuns

Giveaway at Rich in Color

Last Week in Books:

 

 

The two chapter books I read were wonderful and both made me cry. I knew I would enjoy The War I Finally Won because I adored The War That Saved My Life. These are two fabulous pieces of middle grade historical fiction. Starfish came strongly recommended by Eric Smith and I had wanted to read it for awhile. 

Rot, the Cutest in the World was likely my favorite picture book this week. It cracked me up and I knew it was a perfect gift for one of my friends. 

Caroline's Comets and Muddy were great picture book biographies. I think we are getting spoiled with how many excellent nonfiction books are being published lately.

Update on Korean Dramas:

This is my year for watching Korean Dramas. I will blame it on Maureen Goo and the somewhat overwhelming dismal political situations of this year. I wrote about my introduction to K-Dramas here. Since then, I have watched quite a few more.

I tried Reply 1997, another recommendation from Maureen Goo. It was distinctive because the characters were a little more realistically flawed and it was a nice palate cleanser after the almost fantasy aspect of Boys Over Flowers. After that, While You Were Sleeping caught my attention. It's one of my favorites. It had a supernatural element, and it was fantastically funny. My husband never did make it through Goblin (Guardian), but he did give another one a try when he found it on Netflix. He's into Crime/Thrillers so Stranger (Secret Forest) was right up his alley. We watched that one together. My next rom/com was Because This is My First Life. For Winter Break I chose Coffee Prince. I pretty much binge watched that and have finished it already so I'm contemplating my next series and in the meantime, my husband has started watching Strong Woman Do Bong Soon so I'm re-watching it with him. :)

The Coming Week: 

I have a fairly ambitious stack of books set aside for Winter Break. First Rule of Punk will be a re-read and the rest are new to me.

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 839/550
(when I made my goal, I didn't know I'd be on a picture book award committee - eek!)

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 255/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 21/30

#OwnVoices Challenge - 154/125

#MustReadin2017 - 23/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 124/100

Review: 10 Gulab Jamuns: Counting with an Indian Sweet Treat

Title: 10 Gulab Jamuns: Counting with an Indian Sweet Treat
Author: Sandhya Acharya
Illustrator: Vanessa Alexandre
Publisher: Mascot Books
Pages: 30
Review copy: Digital copy provided by author

Summary: Young brothers Idu (Ee-doo) and Adu (Aa-doo) can’t wait for dinner! They’re having guests over, and their Mamma has already made a feast that has their mouths watering. Now all Mamma has left to make are the Galub Jamun… But Idu and Adu don’t know what that is! From their first taste of the sweet treat, they can’t seem to get enough of the syrup-soaked dough, but Mamma has only made so many. Will the Galub Jamun even make it to their guests’ plates? This humorous and fun story includes a simple recipe to make your own Galub Jamun, and easy to follow lessons so you can make sure to count them along the way!

Review: I'm inclined to love books about food. Learning about a food new to me is especially welcome. In 10 Gulab Jamuns, Mamma is preparing fantastic sounding sweet treats for their guests. The illustrations are bright, cheerful, and show the mischievous children at work. The Gulab Jamuns are sweet, but so are the interactions between the family members.

The inclusion of a recipe for gulab jamuns makes the book even more fun. I look forward to trying out the recipe in the future. Readers and their families will likely be inspired to make Gulab Jamuns after reading this cute story of family and food that is universal while also highlighting Indian culture.

Recomendation: This is a nice addition to any picture book collection especially for those looking for representation from India or books focusing on food.

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.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Last Week on the Blog:

Jacob Lawrence and The Great Migration

 

Giveaway at Rich in Color

Last Week in Books:

 

The Coming Week: 

I have The War I Finally Won checked out. I also have a pile of picture books to read before the end of the year. Happy reading!

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 812/550
(when I made my goal, I didn't know I'd be on a picture book award committee - eek!)

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 252/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 21/30

#OwnVoices Challenge - 153/125

#MustReadin2017 - 23/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 122/100

Jacob Lawrence and The Great Migration

Jacob Lawrence created a fabulous series of sixty paintings to share the story of The Great Migration. This was the movement of millions of African American people from the south to urban areas in other parts of the United States (see this map). In our school library, we have the book The Great Migration: An American Story. It includes the art series by Lawrence, notes about the content of the paintings, and a poem by Walter Dean Myers.

I read this book with fourth graders last year during our African American Read-In inspired by NCTE. This year I thought I would do a little more with the text. While prepping for my lesson, I looked online and found out that The Phillips Collection hosts a very helpful online resource about Lawrence and the series. It includes an intro, a bio of Lawrence, the entire series, clips from a videotaped interview with the artist, and more.

In one of the interview clips, Lawrence explained how he had done research for the pictures at the Schomburg Center in Harlem. For that reason, the picture book biography Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford illustrated by Eric Velasquez would also be an interesting additional resource.

There is a picture book biography of Lawrence Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence, an Artist in Harlem by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts illustrated by Christopher Myers.

Another related picture book is John Brown: One Man Against Slavery by Gwen Everett with illustrations by Jacob Lawrence. The story was created to go with paintings Lawrence had previously finished. I haven't read it yet, but noticed it was in our library and provides another view of his artwork.

Two other picture books tell more about The Great Migration. This is the Rope by Jacqueline Woodson illustrated by James Ransome is inspired by the historical migration of African Americans and the migration of Woodson's mother. Her mother moved from South Carolina to Brooklyn, New York and Woodson describes it as a fictive memoir. The second book is a collection of poems, The Great Migration: Journey to the North by Eloise Greenfield illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. The families of both the author and illustrator were part of the migration. They share from both history and experience.

One other picture book may be helpful when teaching about this topic. Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey illustrated by Floyd Cooper, shares the story of an African American family traveling by car from Chicago to visit family in Alabama. While this isn't about the actual migration, it shows an effect of the migration on family members separated by geography. It also highlights some of the differences Ruth sees between her life in Chicago and the places she is traveling through and visiting. Readers learn about the discrimination and danger faced when traveling as an African American, but they also learn about the resourcefulness and kindness of fellow African Americans.

Finally, Kadir Nelson's book Heart and Soul would also serve as a helpful resource when discussing this time period. There's a chapter called "Turn of the Century and the Great Migration" and other related history is found in surrounding chapters. The information is helpful, but it would also be interesting to compare the content of the artwork of Nelson and Lawrence

These resources are a great place to start when teaching about The Great Migration. If you know of others, please include them in a comment below.

To find more nonfiction suggestions, stop by Alyson's blog - Kid Lit Frenzy and visit some of the other participating bloggers.

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.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Last Week on the Blog:

 My 2017 Favorites on Rich in Color

Last Week in Books:

Sam and Eva is a cute book about creativity and collaboration. Debbie Ridpath Ohi has an artwork collaboration offer going right now for teachers too.

The Poet X is a YA novel in verse exploring family, religion, identity, and the fabulousness of poetry. I loved it and will be recommending it a lot before and after it comes out in March. I got the digital ARC from Edelweiss and will post a longer review at some point in the near future.

Time Now to Dream is a sweet picture book that would be a good bedtime book.

Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History is a picture book biography by Walter Dean Myers. The book is well done and I learned more about Douglass. He is definitely someone who influenced the world in a big way.

Books in the Classroom: 
I enjoy Hour of Code activities, but we still manage to read along with our coding.

#classroombookaday Bad Kitty Does NOT Like Snow by @nickbruel (1st gr) - Bad Kitty also dislikes computers by the way. Software Engineer by R.J. Bailey (2nd) & Margaret and the Moon by @DeanRobbins illus by @LucyKnisley (3rd) #HourofCode pic.twitter.com/3PNV99OynO

— Crystal Brunelle (@librarygrl2) December 6, 2017

The Coming Week: 

I'm reading two books right now - the third Magnus Chase book and Akata Warrior. Other than that, I will read a few picture books and will be starting The War I Finally Won.

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 805/550
(when I made my goal, I didn't know I'd be on a picture book award committee - eek!)

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 248/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 20/30

#OwnVoices Challenge - 149/125

#MustReadin2017 - 22/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 122/100

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.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Last Week on the Blog:

 Mini-reviews on Rich in Color

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:

 

Nonfiction this week was excellent. Allen Say did a fabulous job with Silent Days, Silent Dreams. It's an incredible picture book biography of a self-taught artist who had physical challenges and very little encouragement from his family, but persisted in creating. Sergeant Reckless is another biography, but this time about a horse that performed heroically during war. The Survivor Tree is not a slick book (it doesn't look like a book from a big publisher), but it's one about a subject that I don't think I've seen in a picture book before. It's written about a tree in front of the Murrah building in Oklahoma. It was damaged, but survived the bomb that went off there. The book shares this painful piece of history in a respectful manner. Margaret and the Moon is a great biography of a female computer programmer that worked for NASA. I especially love this one because the illustrations are done by Lucy Knisley. I'm a fan of her graphic novels.  My Journey to the Stars is a nice autobiography.

Books in the Classroom:

These are the books I shared with classes this week. We were finishing up our Native American project with third grade and read Dragonfly Kites after watching the video we had created since it ended with Julie Flett and her illustrations.

This project came about after I saw this tweet from Debbie Reese:

19. A far better option than asking Native people to join you as props on the Thanksgiving Stage, is to ignore the holiday itself and read books by Native people.

— Debbie Reese (@debreese) November 15, 2017

With the other grades we were preparing for Hour of Code by learning about female coders (4th & 5th grade) and robots (1st & 2nd grade).

Middle Grade and Above:

 

Shine was a middle grade novel on my MustReadin2017 list. It's by Candy Gourlay and I wanted to make sure I'd read all of her books. I had to buy it because it wasn't available at any libraries in WI. It's a mysterious story about a family with secrets.

Things I'm Seeing Without You was an ARC (YA) I got at ALA in June. I finally picked it up this weekend and it was quite compelling. It involved suicide so obviously dealt with death, but it was also a romance in an unorthodox way. I read it straight through so that says something. It was certainly thought-provoking. In the Pond was for my neighborhood book group (adult). It was actually super funny. It's set during the time after the cultural revolution in China. It was great for discussion.

The Coming Week: I still haven't gotten to all of the ARCs I meant to before the year's end so I will attempt to do that.

Reading Challenge Updates:

Goodreads Challenge 2017 - 797/550
(when I made my goal, I didn't know I'd be on a picture book award committee - eek!)

Diversity on the Shelf 2017 - 245/225 (goal = 50% of my books by and/or about POC)

LGBTQIA Challenge - 20/30

#OwnVoices Challenge - 147/125

#MustReadin2017 - 22/24

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge - 121/100

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.

If you want to know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

Last Week on the Blog:

Celebrating Bookish Things

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