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 see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. 

Recent Blogposts:

Reading Beyond the U.S.

Review: Love & Other Natural Disasters

Books I've Read Recently: 

I finished listening to Made in Korea (thanks Libro.fm!) which is a cute YA rom-com. I found out about it on the Books and Boba podcast when they had a great chat with the author Sarah Suk. 

I also ran across A Manga Lover's Tokyo Travel Guide. While I am not a teen manga lover, I still found this comic book to be a lot of fun and I learned a lot of helpful hints in case I ever visit Tokyo again and it was also nice to have memories brought to mind.

In the theme of travel, I also read two books for adults that were place based. When we were in CA to visit family, someone handed me Kendra Atleework's memoir, Miracle Country. She grew up in an area east of the Sierra Nevadas which doesn't seem to show up in books and other pop culture very much. I've really only been there once when we drove from Sacramento to Death Valley. She refers to Mono Lake and many of the other places that I still remember from that trip. The land and the people there are definitely interesting. I also read Disappearing Earth which is a mystery that takes place on the Kamchatka Peninsula which is another place that is rarely a setting in books I read. Both were compelling. 

I haven't read many picture books lately, but one that I really loved is My First Day. Apparently it was first published in Asia with a different title, but here is a trailer made for that first publication.

 

I shared it with my fifth grade classes during our final week of school and we made connections to starting middle school in the fall. Students really enjoyed the book and we also learned a bit about Vietnam. I will definitely be sharing this one at the beginning of school in September. 

In a book store this past week, there was a Pride display so I finally got to read Pride Puppy! which is as adorable as it sounds. A puppy and its family get separated during the Pride celebration, but all ends well. There was also a copy of the Prince & Knight sequel The Shadow King. I enjoyed it in spite of the rhyming text. 

The Coming Week: I'm still reading Alta California which was interrupted by my actual visit to CA. I am also in the middle of the book Summer of '69 for one of my book clubs. I've just started listening to A Sitting in St. James for a virtual book discussion with Ms. Edith Campbell and Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen. I'm not sure what else I'll be reading this week, but I'm looking forward to having the time to read a bit more now that my travel is finished. Have a great week!