Monday, April 30, 2018

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:

Last Week in Books:

Thousand Star Hotel is a book of poetry by the author of the picture book A Different Pond. In one of the poems, you can find reference to the times when Bao Phi and his father went fishing as he described in the picture book. Most of the poems are about his experiences growing up in Minnesota. His family came to Minnesota as a result of the war in Vietnam and there are some pretty raw revelations of the racism and hostility directed at Bao Phi and his family as he grew up in the cities. It's written with an adult audience in mind or maybe older teens. I was eager to read some of his adult work and am looking forward to hearing him in October at the CCBC Charlotte Zolotow Symposium in Madison. 

I am Life is one that I found out about from another IMWAYR blogger. It's one that could lead to great discussions about what life is and what meaning it has. As a side note, there is an illustration with a character who has many tattoos. I did a blog post about tattoos in children's books once and am always interested to find more of them.

Around the World in a Bathtub has interesting information about bathing in different places around the world. Milky Way is a sweet story of a child who loves the moon. It takes place in Ladakh, India and provides a glossary and some background information.

You Go First is a nice middle grade story of friendship and family issues. It takes place over a week and addresses some very common middle grade situations. It had tension, but it felt soothing too.

South Korea wasn't an extremely outstanding book, but it did give me the basics about the country and that's what I need. I'm super excited to be heading to both Korea and Japan in June, but I want to know a it more about both countries before getting there.

Hillbilly Elegy was certainly interesting. My family of origin is not geographically similar, but there were many things I could relate to. It's a bit of a controversial book and our book club had lively discussion around how he offered his story. We agreed that the personal stories (especially around Mamaw) were the strength and some of the social/political commentary wasn't as strong. 

The Coming Week: 
I'm reading Tokyo: A Biography in preparation for my trip. I will also be reading Mary's Monster for next month's book club. Happy reading to you! If I get it from ILL, I will also read Thi Bui's graphic novel memoir The Best We Could Do.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 95/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 58/300
#MustReadin2018 - 11/30

5 comments:

  1. Happy Monday! I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on Mary's Monster. I haven't read it, yet, but my husband had read Frankenstein twice in the last year or so and I've been thinking about buying him a copy of Mary's Monster (as long as I get to read it, too!). Also, I had to click over and read your blog post on tattoos in children's literature. I really enjoyed it and am happy to see your list. I think you're so right that today's children have much more exposure to adults with tattoos, so it's becoming second nature compared to MY generation. Thanks so much for sharing, Crystal!

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  2. It's a good thing I looked at your Rich in Colour post before reading the rest because otherwise I would have been to busy gnashing my teeth. I adored Thousand Star Hotel. I have pages of snippets from poems. It took me at least a month to read because I only read a few a day. They both inspired and intimidated me while I participated in the poem a day challenge this year. I sure wish I could be there at the CCBC Charlotte Zolotow Symposium!

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  3. I'm looking forward to You Go First. I was not a huge fan of Hello Universe, so I'm hoping I enjoy this one more!

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  4. I'll look for Thousand Star Hotel, know it will be good. I loved A Different Pond. And I have Mary's Monster, still haven't picked it up. There are so many good books available! Thanks, Crystal.

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  5. For Everyone is definitely on my list. :) Thanks for sharing it with me, Crystal. <3

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