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 go to my Goodreads account, you can see what I have read recently & click on the books to learn more.

Last week in books: 

Not Recommended: The Itsy Bitsy Pilgrim is a board book and mythologizes the Thanksgiving story and is definitely not recommended. Knots on a Counting Rope is also definitely not recommended. It's some kind of amalgamation of Native stereotypes and is in no way an accurate representation. These are two I was reading to look at the Native representation. 

I enjoyed Kashmira Sheth's ARC (from the publisher) of her early chapter book, Nona Soni: Former Best Friend. I'll review it soon. The rest of the books were read as I am preparing for the American Indian Summer Institute in Black River Falls next week. These are a few I had on my list of books to read and the institute is just the push to get on those. Several of them are concerning indigenous people in Canada. Super Indian is a fun graphic novel. A Girl Called Echo: Red River Resistance is a great historical graphic novel. Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation was on my #MustReadin2019 list. It's a powerful look at the residential schools in Canada and the reconciliation work that is going on there now. It led me to the Red Man Laughing podcast and an episode with Justice Murray Sinclair's keynote address to Youth. That led me to more episodes and I know I'll keep listening. The Sovereign Traces graphic novels were great and are written for adults, but older young adults would likely be interested. The Story of Act 31 has some awesome information in it, but it is dense so I'm not sure how many teachers will get through it. I think it would work to read some of it, but I'm fairly persistent as a reader and it was a challenge. I'm glad I read it though. It provided new information for me and also reminded me of the many reasons why we needed Act 31 here in Wisconsin (it's a mandate regarding instruction about Native Nations of Wisconsin). Water Panthers, Bears, and Thunderbirds: Exploring Wisconsin's Effigy Mounds is basically a brief informational book for teachers which provides lesson activities for teaching in our Wisconsin schools. I've had it on my shelf, but couldn't remember if I'd ever read it.

The Coming Week:

I have several more graphic novels by and/or about Indigenous characters that I want to read. I also have Mother of the Sea by Zetta Elliott waiting on my desk. Have a great week!

Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2019 - 225/550

Diversity on the Shelf 2019 - 123/275

#MustReadin2019 - 21/30

Year of the Aisian 2019 - 17/30