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.

I was very busy this week with a class I took called Indigenous Arts and Sciences. I've taken it in the past and it was interesting to do it online this time. What I love is hearing from the elders. It also pushes everyone outside. Here are some of the things that caught my eye this week.

When I wasn't busy with that, I've been writing letters to the school board, the mayor and the editor. We also went to a rally here in town - wearing masks. It was a busy week. It's always surprising to me how some weeks in the summer, I get less read than during the school year.

Last week in reading:

The Kingdom of Back was quite a unique tale based on the elder sister of Mozart. There's a bit of the magical about it and a lot of the frustrations of being a woman whose life decisions were made by her father. 

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them will be with me for quite a while. There's also a bit of the magical about this one too. Family and love and death are all explored and I did shed some tears.

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky was a fun middle grade adventure that I read with my ears. It started to get a little long, but I think that's because audio takes so much longer for me. Also, I was listening while doing other things and I had to keep going back because I'd find that I had gotten a little lost.

The Coming Week:

I have a few digital ARCs that I am going to begin, but I don't know which ones yet. I have also just started The Henna Wars. I wish you a great week of reading.

Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2019 - 284/500

Diversity on the Shelf 2020 - 164/250
Chapter Books 2020 - 104/200

#MustReadin2020 - 19/36
#YARC2020 - 37/55
#RamadanReadathon2020 - 10

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 on the blog: 

Review: The Voting Booth

Last week in reading:

Rebel was a nice visit back with June and Day in the future. I had to read a re-cap before diving in though because it has been so long since I read the first few books. 

Ruse is another YA dystopian, which is slightly bizarre to read since we seem almost to be living in one at this point.

The Book is Anti-Racist is an excellent book because it gives information, but it also provides lots of activities that really help you think through and do your own work around anti-racism.

The memoir Untamed really resonated with me. It also seemed to overlap with The Four Agreements. The first agreement about being domesticated. We are really shaped by many outside forces that aren't always in our best interest.

Fever Year was eerie to read right now. It looks into the pandemic of 1918. It is definitely white centric which is always a disappointment. There is a lot of interesting information that I did not know though.

Here We Are Now was a young adult audio book available on the new online library we have. A young girl connects with her father's family. 

The Coming Week:

Making Comics and The Four Agreements will be in my currently reading stack for a while because they are both basically workbooks that can't be rushed through. I just started listening to Tristan Strong, but should finish it within the next few days. I'm taking a class this coming week, so reading may slow down. Happy reading!

Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2019 - 280/500

Diversity on the Shelf 2020 - 161/250
Chapter Books 2020 - 101/200

#MustReadin2020 - 20/36
#YARC2020 - 37/55
#RamadanReadathon2020 - 10

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 on the blog: 

Review: American as Paneer Pie

Mini-review at Rich in Color: All Boys Aren't Blue

Last week in reading: 

Ghost Boys is a quick middle grade, but it's intense. It's the story of a 12 year old boy who has just been shot by a police officer. His ghost is still hanging around and watching the aftermath of his death. It's unfortunate that I had to put it on the realistic shelf. 

The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden is the second in this sweet series about a family in Harlem.   

Prairie Lotus is set in the time and near the place of the Little House books, but with a biracial Chinese American girl. With both the Vanderbeekers and this book, the authors refer to classic literature that is problematic. In Vanderbeekers it is The Secret Garden and Prairie Lotus it's the Little House books. The stories themselves were nice, but I would love for those classics to fade out so we don't have another generation to be nostalgic about them. I loved both of them as a child and the racism is pretty insidious. So I enjoyed the books, but can't help but wish they didn't have the connection to the other books.

You Matter is lovely. If you want to see it, Christian Robinson reads it aloud here. 

Ohana Means Family is a picture book that is like This is the House That Jack Built and is explaining the significance of poi and how it is made. 

What About Worms!? is a cute Elephant & Piggie presents that stars a tiger who is terrified of worms. 

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times was really helpful. I think Krista Tippet was right to share it on the podcast On Being recently. It has some really wise advice that really helped me when I was stressing about something this week. 

The Beauty of Your Face is an adult novel about an immigrant family and their difficulties, but it's also about coming to Islam later in life. It also involves a school shooting. I appreciated seeing the way that Afaf's faith journey.

The Woman Warrior is an adult Chinese American classic that I've had on my shelf for several years, but I finally read it because it was the May pick for the Books and Boba podcast. It's an interesting memoir that is told in a mix of memory and stories like Fa Mu Lan. It was quite unique, but pretty heavy content.

The Coming Week:

I'm currently reading This Book is Anti-racist, Making Comics and the workbook for The Four Agreements. I'm not sure what else I will be grabbing. I am having a lot of fun exploring the new catalog of digital books we have at my school. There are so many books there. I also have to read a book for review on Friday. I think that will be the ARC for The Voting Booth. Have a great week. 

Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2019 - 274/500

Diversity on the Shelf 2020 - 154/250
Chapter Books 2020 - 95/200

#MustReadin2020 - 19/36
#YARC2020 - 35/55
#RamadanReadathon2020 - 10

Review: American as Paneer Pie

Title: American as Paneer Pie
Author: Supriya Kelkar
Publisher: Aladdin
Pages: 320
Review copy: Digital ARC via Netgalley
Availability: On shelves now

Summary: As the only Indian American kid in her small town, Lekha Divekar feels like she has two versions of herself: Home Lekha, who loves watching Bollywood movies and eating Indian food, and School Lekha, who pins her hair over her bindi birthmark and avoids confrontation at all costs, especially when someone teases her for being Indian.

When a girl Lekha’s age moves in across the street, Lekha is excited to hear that her name is Avantika and she’s Desi, too! Finally, there will be someone else around who gets it. But as soon as Avantika speaks, Lekha realizes she has an accent. She’s new to this country, and not at all like Lekha.

To Lekha’s surprise, Avantika does not feel the same way as Lekha about having two separate lives or about the bullying at school. Avantika doesn’t take the bullying quietly. And she proudly displays her culture no matter where she is: at home or at school.

When a racist incident rocks Lekha’s community, Lekha realizes she must make a choice: continue to remain silent or find her voice before it’s too late.

My review:  Lekha is struggling with her identity in some ways. She loves many aspects of her culture, but she feels like she needs to be one person at school and another at home. She tries to keep her worlds from colliding because she doesn't want to give anyone more reasons to see her as other. With Avantika standing up to bullies, Lekha starts to take a hard look at how she is moving through life.

This is a very relatable middle grade novel. Bullies can be anywhere and will look for any difference or weakness so readers will likely have experienced something similar even if they are not part of an immigrant family. For those who are an immigrant or whose family has immigrated in this generation or the previous one, I'm sure they will see themselves or other family members here in the pages.

Beyond Lekha's personal identity questions, there are also some fairly serious questions in the community. A politician is running a campaign with the major point being that immigrants are stealing jobs and need to go back to where they came from. This hateful rhetoric is making Lekha and others unsafe in their own community.

Beyond that, it's a book about friendship, family, and oh my goodness - the food. There are so many descriptions and mentions of food. I was so hungry while reading. I was hoping for a recipe and was not disappointed. A recipe for the Paneer Pie mentioned in the title is included at the end. Books with recipes are a particular favorite of mine. 

Recommendation: This is a lovely middle grade book that I highly recommend. It deals with some particularly difficult topics, but not in an overwhelming way. The friendship and love are comforting while they still face tough situations that are unfortunately very timely.

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 on the blog: 

Review: The Water Bears

Last week in reading: 

Once Upon an Eid is a lovely middle grade anthology. I was happy to finally get to read it. 

The Best at It was even better than I expected. I read it with my ears and it had me laughing and it got a few tears. It's a middle grade book about a boy who thinks he can solve some of his problems (one of them is some bullying) if he was just the best at something. Rahul's also dealing with a possible mental health issue and wondering if he is gay. 

A Wish After Dark is another middle grade. This one is a fantasy set in Thailand with a young man who has been growing up in the prison where his mother had died. Children have to stay there until they are thirteen or their parent is released so he's been there for a awhile. This book deals in many social issues including imprisonment, poverty, and more. It's so well written and I fell right into this world. 

Cilla Lee-Jenkins Future Author Extraordinaire is super cute. Cilla shares the major happenings in her life as her family prepares to welcome a new sibling into their lives. Her mother is white and her father is Chinese American and the two sides of her family aren't antagonistic, but they don't have much to do with each other. That's a concern for Cilla among other things. It's a beginning level chapter book with plenty of humor and would work for fans of Ramona or Junie B. 

How to Solve a Problem is a fantastic picture book. It is written by one of the worlds most skilled rock climbers who is still quite young. I started climbing more seriously early this spring and so I was really looking forward to this book. I took a few lessons and quickly learned that falling is something you do a LOT when you are climbing. And, a route up the rocks or wall is just a problem to solve. It's a great book for talking about how falling or mistakes are opportunities to learn and improve. 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was a book I picked up because too many of the books sitting around my house involve some trauma or are quite intense. I just wanted something a little lighter. Eleanor's particular way of looking at the world was just the right thing for the day I was reading. She is quite unique and it was nice to step into her life for just a bit as our lives her in the U.S. are not completely fine right now. 

The Coming Week:

I'm still slowly working my way through Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Making Comics book has a lot of drawing prompts so that is also slow going. I'm reading The Black Flamingo with my ears so that one is for walking the dog and chores. I've only just begun The Four Agreements Companion Book and I'm about halfway through When Things Fall Apart. This last one is actually very helpful right now. 

Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2019 - 260/500

Diversity on the Shelf 2020 - 144/250
Chapter Books 2020 - 87/200

#MustReadin2020 - 19/36
#YARC2020 - 32/55
#RamadanReadathon2020 - 10

Review: The Water Bears

Title: The Water Bears
Author: Kim Baker
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Pages: 272
Review copy: Digital ARC via Netgalley
Availability: On shelves now

Summary: All Newt Gomez wants for his thirteenth birthday is a bike. After surviving a bear attack last year, he thinks this isn't an unreasonable request. Instead, his hardworking parents give him a former taco truck to help him get around the wacky island where they live in the Pacific Northwest. And then Newt and his best friend Ethan find a life-sized wooden bear washed up on the shore. Ethan is convinced the bear grants wishes; Newt doesn't know what to think.

Newt also has a big decision ahead: go to middle school on the island, or to the mainland where his warm extended family lives? There, he won't be the only Latinx kid; he doesn't have bad dreams about the attack, and not everyone knows what happened to him. Newt secretly plots to move to his abuela's house, but his truck is stolen with the maybe-magic bear inside. He must confront his fears and adapt to the reality of a world that's often uncertain, but always full of salvageable wonders.

My review: I love, love, love this book. Newt won my heart almost immediately. He is a young boy who has lived through a trauma and is trying to heal. He's also trying to protect his loved ones from the pain he is experiencing. He hides his scars from his mom and doesn't share everything with his best friend so that Ethan won't be even more anxious. With all of this protecting going on, Newt is having a hard time trying to heal on his own. 

Besides his nightmares and trouble with recovery, he is also tired of the strangeness of their island community. He thinks everyone and everything is just so weird. It's true that gazebos made of old farm equipment and blue bottles are not exactly typical. It's also unique that they have their own lake creature sightings. And of course, most thirteen year olds are not expected to drive around in a used taco truck instead of using a bicycle.

The unique community is part of what I adored about this book. The people take what they have and find ways to use those things in new and creative ways. Newt wants to escape and get to the mainland where his abuela lives and where he believes everything is normal.

Recommendation:

This book is a delight. Newt does go through seriously difficult things, but he has a strong network of people who love and care for him even if they do it in slightly unusual ways. I also appreciated the way that readers get to learn some things that help one heal after trauma. Being with Newt and his family and friends felt like getting a nice big hug. 

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 on the blog: 

#AsianBooksChallenge Wrap-Up

Last week in reading: 

Felix Ever After is a lovely book - cover is amazing to start. We'll be posting our discussion about it on Wednesday at Rich in Color. It's a contemporary YA with a trans main character and it's not so much about being trans, but more a coming of age story. Felix is looking for direction and getting to know himself more. (on my #MustReadin2020 list)

I read Peanuts with a book group at my elementary school that chose that title. I didn't hate it, but honestly Peanuts doesn't age so well. The topics and vocabulary require a lot of context and explanation. It was okay though. 

Dragon Hoops is fantastic.  I love Gene Luen Yang's work and this is no exception. It's a mix of nonfiction about basketball with a little memoir. I'm not a big basketball fan, but Yang was able to pull me in and care for the people involved. And there are interesting asides. Who would expect to learn about Sikhism and the not so popular aspects of Gandhi in a basketball book? I sure didn't, but I appreciated that. (on my #MustReadin2020 list)

This is a short list this week, but between the pandemic and the need to respond to the murder of George Floyd, this has been a busy and stressful week for many. We've had some protests here in town, but it's difficult to focus on much of anything else for extended periods of time. Here are some great lists to share with others if they're asking for ways to learn about anti-racist work or how to talk about racism.

For Our White Friends Desiring to be Allies
A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota - a collection of essays
Audiobook list - How to Be an Antiracist
This List is Anti-Racist (via Brain Lair Books)
Anti-racism resources for white people
Beyond the Hashtag: How to Take Anti-Racist Action in Your Life via Teen Vogue

The Coming Week:

I'm reading quite a few books at the same time, so it's slow progress. I've read quite a bit of Their Eyes Were Watching God and will likely finish that one this week. Zora Neale Hurston was such an amazing writer.

Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2019 - 254/500

Diversity on the Shelf 2020 - 138/250
Chapter Books 2020 - 82/200

#MustReadin2020 - 19/36
#YARC2020 - 31/55
#RamadanReadathon2020 - 10