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 reading:
The Coming Week:
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.
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
These books sound excellent! I've seen praise for Prairie Lotus, the Vanderbeekers series, and 'Ohana Means Family. Ghost Boys also sounds excellent! Thanks for the excellent post!
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about All Boys Aren't Blue. A personal connection makes me happy that more books are being written about the queer experience. It's been a tough road in the past and not easy today, but better. Paneer Pie sounds good too, Crystal. Thanks for all!
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree it's unfortunate that you had to put Ghost Boys on the realistic shelf. :( I just grabbed a copy of This Book is Anti-racist, so maybe I'll get to start that on July.
ReplyDelete