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. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

The Past Two Weeks in Books:  

John's Turn by Mac Barnett

Learning My Rights with Mousewoman by Morgan Asoyuf

When We Say Black Lives Matter by Maxine Beneba Clark

Baby, Sleepy Baby by Atinuke

Herizon by Daniel W. Vandever

Flip the Script by Lyla Lee (YA and fun)

Triceratopposite by Bridget Heos

Vanmpires Don't Wear Polkadots Graphic Novel by Pearl Low

American Desi by Jyoti Rajan Gopal

Miss Quinces by Kat Fajardo

The Very True Legend of the Mongolian Death Worms by Sandra Fay

Flubby Will Not Go to Sleep & Flubby Will Not Take a Bath by Jennifer E. Morris

The Bad Seed Goes to the Library by Jory John 

Fancy Pants by Dawn Quigley

I Love You More Than Ice Cream by Becky Davies

A Cool Day at the Pool by Lola M. Schaefer

There were many really excellent books in my past few weeks, but I am just not able to comment on them right now. I am almost falling asleep sitting up. The first week of school is always draining and the second week is just about to start so I need to get to bed. 

The Coming Week: 

I am still working on finalizing my reading list for the What's New in Children's Lit class I will be teaching through UW-Madison in October so I will try to get to a few more picture books and early chapter books. Have a great week. 

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. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

The Past Two Weeks in Books:  

I have a bunch of work to do tonight and professional development days begin tomorrow at both of my schools so I am going to keep this brief. 

I have been reading as much as I can fit in around my training at the public library (to be a substitute/extra help librarian) and preparing at the private school where I will co-teach humanities with 3rd-6th graders half-time and at the public school where I will be the half-time teacher librarian. It's going to be fine once it all gets rolling, but right now I am pulled a few directions with odd scheduling. 

Some of the books I really enjoyed were:

Picture books

• Eyes that Speak to the Stars - gorgeous
• This Book is Not For You - will be great for class discussion
• The Life of Pura - a board book biography that has a surprising amount of information
• Climb On - a story of a parent and child and their hike through a distinctive setting

Graphic Novels

• Heartstopper (YA) - the whole series was relaxing & often made me smile - then I had to watch the series of course 
• Rabbit Chase is a fun middle grade Indigenous retelling of Alice in Wonderland
• Silk (YA) is a super hero I hadn't met before, but I enjoyed getting to know her

Middle Grade Novels

• Operation Sisterhood was a delightful story of family and friendship and dealing with change
• New From Here is a story from COVID times that closely mirrors that of Kelly Yang and her children and I couldn't put it down

Nonfiction

• Reawakening Our Ancestors' Line: Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tatooing is an oversize book that could work as a coffee table book. It is filled with amazing pictures documenting an inspiring project that brought tattoos back to Inuit women. 

As always, I am also grabbing many short Korean board books and picture books (not all are on Goodreads so I don't record them all there) and am finding better luck understanding what I'm reading--yay!

The Coming Week: 

I will be preparing for the school year, but I also need to finalize my reading list for the What's New in Children's Lit class I will be teaching through UW-Madison in October. That means I may be re-reading or grabbing some new titles to round out the list. I wish you a great week of reading!

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. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

Last Week on the Blog: 

Review: Batter Royale

Last Week in Books: 

Here are some of the books that stood out last week.

Picture Books--

Luli and the Language of Tea is sweet and shows children connecting through tea. They are from various places in the world and have slightly different names for it, but they can all relate to one another through this beverage. Opposites Abstract by Mo Willems was really clever. There isn't much text, but he communicates so well with very little text and simple illustrations. A Boy Named Isamu is a nice book that shares a bit about the life of the Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi who found inspiration in nature. It's a book to encourage wondering. Big Truck Little Island is a fun story about a road getting blocked by a large truck and the way people deal with that challenge. Calvin is the story of a young transboy and how he lets the people in his life know who he really is. The family and school are supportive.  

I also read two books that were closely related and noticed a difference. Light for All by Margarita Engle has the Statue of Liberty and immigration as a focus and I is for Immigrants by Selina Alko also speaks to immigration in the U.S. They both celebrate immigration and the phrase "a nation of immigrants" is brought up in both. The difference I noted is that in Engle's author note she addresses an issue with that phrase. "That phrase ignores the true experiences of Indigenous and African American communities who were either here before conquerors and immigrants arrived, or were brought by force, kidnapped, and enslaved." Alko does point out that there are also descendants of African slaves, but doesn't mention Indigenous folks which is a common omission. 

Early Readers--

Juana and Lucas: Muchos Changes is another fun early chapter book from the Juana and Lucas series. It has humor and realistic situations as Juana and her family prepare to welcome a new family member. 

Young Adult--

My Mechanical Romance was a very fun rom-com centering on a young woman who is kind of aimless, but begins to find her way unexpectedly through the school robotics team. 

Sugar Falls is a graphic novel that shares about a young woman who is sent to a residential school in Canada. It's a reissue of a short story by David Robertson that had been published ten years ago. I really appreciated how it showed a focus towards healing. 

Adult

Kamila Knows Best is inspired by Jane Austen's Emma. It's not direct, but it is related enough that I realized that without being told ahead of time. As I read, I was thinking that it reminded me of Emma. It's a fairly light and fun rom-com.

The Coming Week: I just started reading Kelly Yang's newest book New from Here and am reading many books for ages birth to 14ish for the class that I will be teaching online in Oct. so I can finish up my reading list for the students. I am not sure how reading will go though since I am simultaneously starting several part time jobs which add up to full time. Onboarding in multiple places means a lot of paper work and meetings. It's exciting, but also there are many details to keep track of and I don't have a lot of extra brain space for other things. Have a great week!