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

Last Week On the Blog:

K-Pop in YA Lit (Rich in Color)

Group Discussion Announcement (Rich in Color)

Review: Zonia's Rain Forest

I also updated my Hmong Resources Post

Last Week in Books:

Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail is a sweet story that will be lovely for Jewish readers and informative for others. I was familiar with some aspects of Passover Seders from other books, but learned more here. Even though it could be instructive, it felt like a story rather than a lesson.

The Train is an emotional text that deals with the residential schools that Indigenous children were forced to attend. It touches on the trauma of being removed and having people trying to erase an entire culture. Readers will see the grief that folks are still recovering from even today. 

Charlie & Mouse Outdoors is the fourth in the series and brings laughter and smiles as the others before. The children are playful as they camp and explore.

i Am! Affirmations for Resilience is a board book filled with simple affirmations that help readers understand that feelings are real and that we can notice them and know that they aren't forever. The affirmations are provided for specific situations as when one is feeling scared. Highly recommended.

Call Me Max is about a young trans child and it is mostly explanatory about being trans and some of the issues he deals with. In the second book, Max and the Talent Show, we get to know more about Max's friend Stephen and it's basically a friendship story.

A Sled for Gabo is precious. It's a beautiful snowy day, Gabo and his family have recently moved so he doesn't know anyone and he doesn't have a sled. All of his problems have a solution and it's dulce de leche levels of sweet. 

I will be reviewing Yolk on Friday at Rich in Color, but it's a YA contemporary. I've enjoyed all of Mary H.K. Choi's books. I find her books have a lot of bittersweet elements to them so they seem very realistic to me. I had an ARC and it comes out on March 2.

I had two different books involving tigers this weekend and they had some similar elements. They both looked at the threatening aspects of the tigers, but also the resilience of women. When You Trap a Tiger was the Newbery this year. It's a book about family and identity especially as it applies to women and specifically Korean women. It references some traditional Korean tales regarding the tiger and life choices. I can't say too much without giving away plot. Staring Down the Tiger: Stories of Hmong American Women is an essay collection about Hmong women and their strength and resilience. It was written because Hmong women are largely left out of histories about the Hmong and the editor Pa Der and the other writers want to change that.

Paris is Always a Good Idea was entertaining and a pleasant way to spend an evening. I'm not sure it would make my all-time favorite rom-com list, but it was okay. It was just laying out on a table when I stopped to pick up my holds at the library so I grabbed it.

The Coming Week: 

I still have quite a few ARCs to catch up on, but I have started listening to Ikenga and it is hard to stop. Have a great week!