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.

The Past Week on Blogs: 

 Interview with Rebecca Barrow on Rich in Color

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

It was a short week so just one new #classroombookaday title - We are Grateful Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell. It's a wonderful bilingual English/Cherokee book about gratefulness. It's beautiful.

 

Darius the Great is Not Okay (YA) was fabulous. I loved it tons. I expected to after I got to interview the author a while back and he recommended a tea I now love. Darius is depressed and that felt honest and real. Harbor Me was beautiful. It's a middle grade with six students finding each other and their voices in the midst of struggles. Here to Stay is a great YA with friendship, basketball, relationships, and a healthy dose of racism and bullying. The rest of my reading was what I could find in the local library's digital audio collection for my 18 hours on the road by myself getting to and from my mother's house for Thanksgiving. 

Minday Kaling had me laughing in Why Not Me? I had already enjoyed a previous book of hers. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie always has interesting things to say and I really enjoyed Dear Ijeawele or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. I wish I had read this early in my parenting days. It's a letter to a friend who is questioning how to raise her daughter. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry was enlightening, if a bit difficult to understand at times. Also, I like Tyson's voice.

The Coming Week: I also started a novel, I Almost Forgot About You, also on audio and have a few more hours to finish it up. It's entertaining and was great for the drive back home. I still have Binti and Voices in the Air checked out.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 687/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 209/300
#MustReadin2018 - 22/30

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.

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

Kindergarten and first grade students read The Moccasins by Earl Einarson illustrated by Julie Flett along with We Sang You Home by Richard Van Camp and also illustrated by Julie Flett. Second grade students finished off the Global Read Aloud with Dolphin SOS by Roy and Slavia Miki illustrated by Julie Flett. Second grade also read Gracias/Thanks by Pat Mora illustrated by John Parra. Some kindergarten classes were also able to read Wide-Awake Bear by Pat Zietlow-Miller illustrated by Jean Kim. Fifth graders read They Say Blue by Julian Tamaki. It was a good week of reading.

 

I really enjoyed Lu, the last installment of the Track series by Jason Reynolds. I love the running (though there is less of that here), but the relationships and personalities are what make the books so excellent.

Short story collections can be hit or miss. I enjoyed most of the stories in Unbroken. It's a unique collection since it focuses on main characters with disabilities. I think we definitely need more stories like that.

The Coming Week: I'm reading and loving Darius the Great is Not Okay. I also still have Binti and Voices in the Air checked out so will try to read them this week.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 672/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 201/300
#MustReadin2018 - 22/30

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.


The Past Week on the Blog:

Review: Bruja Born on Rich in Color

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

Bigger! Bigger! by Leslie Petricelli is a fun building book.  A Parade of Elephants is cute and is surprisingly a bedtime book. Kevin Henkes has such relatable books even when they are filled with elephants. "Fall in Line, Holden" is by Daniel Vandever and looks at individuality and opens up discussion about the boarding school era in Indigenous history. We All Count: A Book of Cree Numbers: is a great Julie Flett book I read with a few grades for Global Read Aloud. We went on to count in English, Hmong and Spanish. When we read You Hold Me Up earlier in October, we started making the video below. I finally got the clips edited together from volunteers from about eight different classes.

Velva Jean Learns to Drive is an adult historical fiction title I read for book club. It was an interesting story of a family living in the Appalachian Mountains. It was not a bad read, but I won't continue the series as I have too many books to read and not enough time. All That I Can Fix was on my MustReadin2018 list. It was an interesting look at family dynamics when a parent has depression. 

The Coming Week: I'm still reading Being the Change and The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston. I have Binti and Voices in the Air checked out so may get to them this week.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 640/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 190/300
#MustReadin2018 - 22/30

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.


The Past Week on the Blog:

Need a Little Comic Relief?

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

Pre-K: We Love Dinosaurs by Lucy Volpin (Yup - they do)
Kindergarten: Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alfabet di Michif / Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet by Julie Flett
First and Second Grade:  A Day with Yayah by Nicola I. Campbell illustrated by Julie Flett and When We Were Alone by David Alexander Robertson illustrated by Julie Flett
Third Grade: Hungry Johnny by Cheryl Minnema illustrated by Wesley Ballinger
Fourth Grade: The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke illustrated by Van T. Rudd and Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson illustrated by David Shannon
Fifth Grade: The Turtle Ship by Helena Ku Rhee illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage and The Water Walker by Joanne Robertson

Dactyl Hill Squad is historical middle grade novel with a fantastical slant. It's in the time of the Civil War, but the dinosaurs never became extinct, so they are around. It's really fun and full of adventure. It's also got a great cast of diverse characters. I read it because Daniel José Older will be speaking in a nearby town tomorrow evening. Yay!

Blanca & Roja was fabulous as I expected since I love fairytale re-tellings and I also love Anna-Marie McLemore's books. We're having a group discussion about it over at Rich in Color later this week.

Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero illustrated by Zeke Peña was a really creative graphic biography that included some of her art.

This Side of Home by Renee Watson was a great realistic young adult novel that dealt with family, friendship, romance, race, and gentrification. Whew. It was good and was packed with things to think about.

The Coming Week: I've started reading one of the books on my #MustReadin2018 list - All That I Can Fix by Crystal Chan. I'm still reading Being the Change and started The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 625/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 188/300
#MustReadin2018 - 21/30