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.

Picture Books at School

After finishing the book study with Jennifer LaGarde about her book with Darren Hudgins, Developing Digital Detectives, I have been revamping my lessons with 5th and 6th grade. We've been talking about emotions that media can inspire so some of the books we've been reading are: Little Brown by Marla Frazee, A Place Inside of Me by Zetta Elliott illustrated by Noa Denmon (author reading here), When We Were Alone by David A. Robertson illustrated by Julie Flett (author reading here), and Let's Go/ haw êkwa! by Julie Flett. 

At one of my schools, we've also been getting ready for our author visit that's happening this week. Nikki Shannon Smith is coming to our school so we've been reading a lot of her books like Our Beautiful Colors and excerpts from her early chapter Azaleah Lane series (trailer here) and her newest novel for middle grade readers, Stranded (trailer here). 

With TK/K I read a book I heard about in Jennifer LaGarde's book sessions, How to Tantrum Like a Champion. That one seemed a little on the nose for election week, but it finally arrived through inter-library loan so it was in the plan book for the day after the election.

My Reading the Past Few Weeks at Home

I've read a few rom-coms for adults this past week for relaxation and The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates for reflection. 

I've also spent time in the library and book store reading newish picture books. Here are some of the noteworthy ones: Leo's First Vote by Christina Soontornvat illustrated by Isabel Roxas which was bittersweet following the election, Built to Last by Minh L>ê illustrated by Dan Santat that had tears dripping as I thought of what they have done together over the years now, and Ode to Grapefruit: How James Earl Jones Found His Voice by Kari Lavelle illustrated by Bryan Collier. Finally, I read George Takei and Michelle Lee's My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story. That is one that hits locally. The grandparents of one of the students at one of my schools were in the same camp. They are reading the book in the child's classroom since I had just gotten a copy from First Book recently.

My Reading Plans

I am supposed to read Moonglow by Michael Chabon for a book club, but I am not excited about it so I'm not sure if I will. I have a YA book checked out, I Hope This Doesn't Find You and my start that one, but we will see. Have a great week with lots 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.

Picture Books I've Shared at School Recently:

Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales is always a fun book to share. It has very few words, but has a lot of information in the back matter. The book is in Spanish and English. I also shared videos of Yuyi. The first I shared tells the story of how she started making children's books. The second is brief and shows how she sculpted the dolls and made some of the items in the book. The third has her explaining a lot of the process. I didn't show the whole thing, but just the first few minutes. This book is simply amazing in the details that she designed and created and I love sharing it with others. 

You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith illustrated by Danielle Daniel is always a joy to read. You can watch the author share it with children here. You can also see the video some students made in response to the book years ago when I read it in WI. Shortly after that, Monique did a virtual visit with us and was a true delight. She is such a loving person and she listens to children--really gives them her attention. 

What I Read Last Week:

I only finished one book over the week and it was an adult biography. Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang was interesting, but it took me quite a while to read. I had only ever read a picture book about her life and wanted to know more about her especially after reading Stacey Lee's latest young adult historical mystery Kill Her Twice about a Chinese American actress during the same time period. There were parts that I flew through and others where it was a bit slow so it seemed to take a long time to read. Nonfiction goes so much slower than fiction for me. 

Currently Reading:

I have started the middle grade novel The Diamond Explorer by Kao Kalia Yang and am also reading a professional development book called Developing Digital Detectives. I'm also starting Fifty Words for Rain for a book club and will be reading The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's to review over on Rich in Color. I wish you all a great week full 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.

Personal Update: I have not participated in such a long time. It's really true that once you skip a few times, it can be very challenging to start something again. I've been missing participating, but am finally back. Hopefully get back into the swing of things. I am now a teacher librarian at two elementary schools. One is the same one I had been at for the past two years since we moved to California. The librarians here are only half time though so I had been working several part time jobs in addition to my elementary school job. Now I am half time at two schools so I am back to just one employer. The second school is a bilingual Spanish and English school so I am learning a new space, meeting new people, and am quickly learning more Spanish. I have two classes a week and a casual conversation class once a week in addition to learning on the job. If anyone has tips on handling a Spanish/English library or how to speed up my language learning, I am happy to hear them. Thanks in advance. 

Picture Books I've Shared at School Recently:

This Land by Ashley Fairbanks illustrated by Bridget George - this is a great introduction to land acknowledgements and why they are being used. It's a great way to focus in on connecting with the land and knowing who has been there over time. We had excellent conversations about the land our school is on and whose ancestral lands our community is on.

Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson illustrated by David Shannon is a nice introduction to the Haudenosaunee and their Great Law of Peace that influenced the framers of the U.S. constitution.

Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin & Kate Messner - this was a fun one to share right before the Fall Moon Festival/Chuseok with the rabbit and moon references and it is always fun to look for that rabbit within the illustrations. Students always feel pretty proud of themselves for seeing the connection to Alice in Wonderland too.

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen - it's alway a winner no matter what grade I read it to except sometimes the very young, very tender hearted can be a little sad depending on how they interpret the ending. I shared it with 6th grade and they loved it with a large amount of laughter echoing through the library.

Hike by Pete Oswald - many readers can connect with being out in nature with a parent and it's great for involving the students with the sound effects since there really aren't many words beyond sounds.

Berry Song by Michaela Goade - this was another book that we were able to connect to locally. Many of the students have gathered berries and there are many things to gather in our own county including elderberries that are on our campus. In addition, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation which is less than 45 minutes from us, has a video about their land management that echoes some of the exact words that are in this book, "We take care of the land.... As the land takes care of us."

How Do You Say?/¿Cómo Se Dice? and I'm Hungry!/¡Tengo Hambre! by Angela Dominguez - I love sharing her books with kindergarten students because if they know Spanish or not, these books communicate the information so the students get to hear Spanish and English and have fun too. 

Other Books I've Read Recently:

Picture Books

Home to Medicine Mountain - I am still learning about the Native Nations in California and this is a story about two brothers who were sent from Northern California to Southern California to attend a residential school there. Debbie Reese mentioned it in her webinar Selecting and Using Children's Books about Boarding Schools that's part of the free Native Ways of Knowing Virtual Book Club through California Indian Education for All. (I highly recommend this series)

Middle Grade Books

Boarding Schools by Heather Bruegl - very accessible nonfiction middle grade book that explains the impact of boarding schools on Indigenous children and their communities. 

The Beautiful Game by Yamile Saied Méndez - fun chapter book about a girl who has been playing on a boys soccer team coached by her grandfather and how things change for her drastically when she is thirteen and she ends up on a girls' team.

Red Bird Danced by Dawn Quigley was one I read for a Bookelicious Middle Grade Book Club (so many resources there). It was great to meet the author in the online book club and I even won a copy of a Jo Jo Makoons book in the giveaway. Red Bird Danced is a dual perspective book that is written in verse. The two main characters live in intertribal housing in a city. Ariel's Auntie has gone missing and both of the characters have challenges in their lives that they are dealing with as they move through the year. It's a beautiful book. 

Some others that I have enjoyed in the past little bit are Moko Magic: Carnival Chaos by Tracey Baptiste, Crushing It (another soccer book) by Erin Becker, The Kids in Mrs. Z's Class: Emma McKenna Full Out by Kate Messner, Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar, The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera, and Pahua and the Dragon's Secret by Lori M. Lee (a sequel to Pahua and the Soul Stealer). 

Young Adult

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed by Dashka Slater was one I picked up at ALA over the summer. It's by the same person who wrote The 57 Bus. Again it is a nonfiction book about an even that actually happened. It happened at a high school here in Northern California. It would be an amazing book to read with teens not just to discuss what is legally allowed and not allowed, but the ethics around all of it and the impact that words and images can have.

This Ravenous Fate was the group discussion book over at Rich in Color in September. It's a sapphic vampire book set during the Harlem Renaissance. It's pretty unique and we had a wonderful time reading and discussing it.

Whew! That's as much as I'll share for now. 

What's Next?

I just started reading The Diamond Explorer by Kao Kalia Yang and up next is Developing Digital Detectives by Jennifer LaGarde for another online book club. Have a fabulous week filled with reading.

Spotlight on Robin Ha

Robin Ha is a Korean American author and illustrator and if you don't know her work yet, you'll want to check it out. Earlier this year, I reviewed The Fox Maidens over at Rich in Color. It's quite a fun graphic novel especially if you like Gumiho stories. This reminded me that I had also enjoyed Robin Ha's graphic novel memoir, Almost American Girl. I figured I should find her comic book cookbook Cook Korean! as well. There was a copy at the library and I read through it, chose some recipes, and got ready to cook. 

First, I made Pan Fried Tofu. It was relatively easy and quite tasty. The illustrations are super cute and the instructions are clear and easy to follow.

The Rice Cake Soup took longer, but the recipe was also quite easy. Later, I did add an ingredient that isn't in the photo. I dropped in some mandu and that made us all quite happy. 

The Spicy Bok Choy was also simple enough to make and was also a delight to eat. We cook bok choy quite often, but usually it is served fairly simply with a broth or chopped up to add to another dish. The sauce was yummy. 

The Braised Daikon with Saury was very new to us. We've only ever had daikon in a pickled form so it was different to experience it cooked. Also, I had never heard of that kind of fish, but I thought had seen it on the shelves at the local Korean market so this was a good excuse to give it a try. Our market did have it so we were in luck. 

When I was finished making this dish, we had extra daikon left over so the next day I made some quick pickled carrots and daikon because that is one of my favorite side dishes. That wasn't in the cookbook, but I had used this recipe from My Korean Kitchen before and did it again.

I appreciated the engaging way that Robin Ha illustrated the recipes and it was cool to learn about the process of making the book with her mother's input. My family also really enjoyed the wonderful food we had as a result of this book so to Robin Ha I say 감사합니다! 

Here is a video of the author introducing her illustration process. 

Here she talks about Cook Korean!

 

Origin Stories Podcast with Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Review: A Costume for Charly

Title: A Costume for Charly

Author: C.K. Malone

Illustrator: Alejandra Barajas

Publisher: Beaming Books

Review copy: Final copy via publisher

Availability: On shelves now

Summary: Trick-or-treat! Non-binary Charly must think outside the box to create the perfect Halloween costume: one that represents both their feminine and masculine sides. 

Halloween is always tricky for Charly, and this year they are determined to find a costume that showcases both the feminine and masculine halves of their identity. Digging through their costume box, they explore many fun costumes. Some are masc. Some are femme. Some are neither. But all are lacking. As trick-or-treating looms, they must think outside the box to find the perfect costume--something that will allow them to present as one hundred percent Charly.

*Our Thoughts: We are excited to see this book out in the world and are glad to have bi-gender representation for young readers. It's great that it exists and we are hopeful that many people will have the chance to read this delightful and enjoyable Halloween story.

Before even getting to the text, the illustrations are super fun. They are bright and cheery and the endpapers full of bats are top-notch. Charly's facial expressions support the text wonderfully. Altogether, the illustrations really add a lot to the story.

We appreciate the blurb on the back that says, "Charly is searching for a Halloween costume that reflects their whole self." That reflection is the goal for Charly, but also for readers. 

The alliteration and word pairings like "fangy delight" add a brightness to the story and will be sure to generate smiles. 

Recommendation: Get it soon. This is a great addition to any collection for young people especially around Halloween. 

*One of my adult children also read the book and shared some thoughts with me.