It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

The Past Week

Nerdie Nominees

The non-fiction I read was excellent. My favorite books this week were the Animal Book, Parrots Over Puerto Rico, Something to Prove, The Boy on the Wooden Box, and Lincoln's Grave Robbers. I am almost ready to vote for the Nerdies, but I have one more book here at home (Out of the Easy) and three more on reserve at the library. Once I finish those, I will be voting. It will be tough though.

There wer also two books that I read that weren't on the list. Santiago Says was okay, but I would have liked a little more to the story. I really liked Friends. I have many friends that I lost contact with because of moving. It touched my heart.

The Coming Week

I am still listening to Rose Under Fire, but should be finishing that up this week. I have started Adventures in Blockworld: A Novel for the Young Minecraft Fans and Out of the Easy. I will also be reading Reality Boy, What the Heart Knows and The Show Must Go On for the Nerdies. If I have time with all of that, I will finish off with Matt de la Peña's The Living. I will be at the TIES convention in Minneapolis for two days this week, so this plan may be a little too optimistic, but I will give it a shot. What will you be reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

The Past Week:

Jingle Dancer is a re-read for me, and I had a great time sharing it with second grade this week. I loved that students noticed the connections between Hmong New Year and Powwow. They even pointed out that their traditional clothing also jingles because of the coins that decorate their fancy clothes.

I read an ARC of Chitchat and will be reviewing it later this week. It's a fun look at the history, development and use of world languages.

The majority of my reading this week though has been in preparation for voting on the Nerdies. Here they are:

Words with Wings, Frog Song, and Flora and Ulysses were my top picks from these, but there were many that I loved.

The Coming Week:

Up next, I have Lincoln's Grave Robbers and many more fun books from the Nerdies list. I have six here in the house and 11 more are in transit according to my library account so I will have plenty to choose from this week. What will you be reading this week?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Newbery Challenge: This week I finished Dobry. It was a folksy family story about a young peasant boy in Bulgaria who is being raised to be a farmer though he is a talented artist. It was interesting to find that this was based on an actual artist's story.  I had to search pretty hard to find this article about the origins of the book. 

Caldecott Challenge: I didn't read a single one this week. How did that happen?

2011 Nerdy Nominees: I also got to read Bookspeak! Poems About Books. I thought the art was fun and many of the poems were really fantastic. I can't wait to share some of them with my students.

Non-fiction: Come and Eat by George Ancona is a great look at the variety of ways that people around the world eat.  Project Puffin: How We Brought the Puffins Back to Egg Rock came with the adoption of our Puffin. Walden Pond Press adopted it in the name of our library in honor of the Neversink book release. I learned all kinds of puffin facts. I am just tickled to know that the babies are called pufflings. It just makes me smile.  Just Like Me: Stories and Self-Portraits of 14 Artists was excellent. It is a great volume because it highlights a wonderful mix of artists.

Picture Books: I loved the beautiful pictures in And Then It's Spring. Bee & Bird was a neat look at perspective in a wordless book.

Chapter Books: The Legend of Diamond Lil was another fun part of the J.J. Tully Series by Doreen Cronin. The Whole Story of Half a Girl was a great middle grade book about feeling different. This book is from the perspective of a girl who is half Jewish and half Indian. Glory Be is historical fiction during the civil rights movement and was quite engaging.

Graphic Novel: The Unsinkable Walker Bean was certainly full of action and adventure. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I know quite a few students at my school that would LOVE it.

Young Adult: Vintage Veronica is by Erica Perl. I love her younger books so grabbed it up when I saw her name. It really kept me on my toes since I could never predict what would happen next. 

For next week: I really, really, really need to finish writing my research paper, so I am going to try to limit my recreational reading or I will be in trouble. Ack. I will maybe read a few Caldecotts to make up for last week and just finish reading Caddie Woodlawn unless I finish my paper early. I wonder if I can actually hold myself to that?