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 know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

The Past Week on Blogs: 

 Interview with Rebecca Barrow on Rich in Color

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

It was a short week so just one new #classroombookaday title - We are Grateful Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell. It's a wonderful bilingual English/Cherokee book about gratefulness. It's beautiful.

 

Darius the Great is Not Okay (YA) was fabulous. I loved it tons. I expected to after I got to interview the author a while back and he recommended a tea I now love. Darius is depressed and that felt honest and real. Harbor Me was beautiful. It's a middle grade with six students finding each other and their voices in the midst of struggles. Here to Stay is a great YA with friendship, basketball, relationships, and a healthy dose of racism and bullying. The rest of my reading was what I could find in the local library's digital audio collection for my 18 hours on the road by myself getting to and from my mother's house for Thanksgiving. 

Minday Kaling had me laughing in Why Not Me? I had already enjoyed a previous book of hers. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie always has interesting things to say and I really enjoyed Dear Ijeawele or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. I wish I had read this early in my parenting days. It's a letter to a friend who is questioning how to raise her daughter. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry was enlightening, if a bit difficult to understand at times. Also, I like Tyson's voice.

The Coming Week: I also started a novel, I Almost Forgot About You, also on audio and have a few more hours to finish it up. It's entertaining and was great for the drive back home. I still have Binti and Voices in the Air checked out.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 687/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 209/300
#MustReadin2018 - 22/30

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 know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

Kindergarten and first grade students read The Moccasins by Earl Einarson illustrated by Julie Flett along with We Sang You Home by Richard Van Camp and also illustrated by Julie Flett. Second grade students finished off the Global Read Aloud with Dolphin SOS by Roy and Slavia Miki illustrated by Julie Flett. Second grade also read Gracias/Thanks by Pat Mora illustrated by John Parra. Some kindergarten classes were also able to read Wide-Awake Bear by Pat Zietlow-Miller illustrated by Jean Kim. Fifth graders read They Say Blue by Julian Tamaki. It was a good week of reading.

 

I really enjoyed Lu, the last installment of the Track series by Jason Reynolds. I love the running (though there is less of that here), but the relationships and personalities are what make the books so excellent.

Short story collections can be hit or miss. I enjoyed most of the stories in Unbroken. It's a unique collection since it focuses on main characters with disabilities. I think we definitely need more stories like that.

The Coming Week: I'm reading and loving Darius the Great is Not Okay. I also still have Binti and Voices in the Air checked out so will try to read them this week.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 672/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 201/300
#MustReadin2018 - 22/30

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 know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.


The Past Week on the Blog:

Review: Bruja Born on Rich in Color

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

Bigger! Bigger! by Leslie Petricelli is a fun building book.  A Parade of Elephants is cute and is surprisingly a bedtime book. Kevin Henkes has such relatable books even when they are filled with elephants. "Fall in Line, Holden" is by Daniel Vandever and looks at individuality and opens up discussion about the boarding school era in Indigenous history. We All Count: A Book of Cree Numbers: is a great Julie Flett book I read with a few grades for Global Read Aloud. We went on to count in English, Hmong and Spanish. When we read You Hold Me Up earlier in October, we started making the video below. I finally got the clips edited together from volunteers from about eight different classes.

Velva Jean Learns to Drive is an adult historical fiction title I read for book club. It was an interesting story of a family living in the Appalachian Mountains. It was not a bad read, but I won't continue the series as I have too many books to read and not enough time. All That I Can Fix was on my MustReadin2018 list. It was an interesting look at family dynamics when a parent has depression. 

The Coming Week: I'm still reading Being the Change and The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston. I have Binti and Voices in the Air checked out so may get to them this week.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 640/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 190/300
#MustReadin2018 - 22/30

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 know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.


The Past Week on the Blog:

Need a Little Comic Relief?

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

Pre-K: We Love Dinosaurs by Lucy Volpin (Yup - they do)
Kindergarten: Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alfabet di Michif / Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet by Julie Flett
First and Second Grade:  A Day with Yayah by Nicola I. Campbell illustrated by Julie Flett and When We Were Alone by David Alexander Robertson illustrated by Julie Flett
Third Grade: Hungry Johnny by Cheryl Minnema illustrated by Wesley Ballinger
Fourth Grade: The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke illustrated by Van T. Rudd and Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson illustrated by David Shannon
Fifth Grade: The Turtle Ship by Helena Ku Rhee illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage and The Water Walker by Joanne Robertson

Dactyl Hill Squad is historical middle grade novel with a fantastical slant. It's in the time of the Civil War, but the dinosaurs never became extinct, so they are around. It's really fun and full of adventure. It's also got a great cast of diverse characters. I read it because Daniel José Older will be speaking in a nearby town tomorrow evening. Yay!

Blanca & Roja was fabulous as I expected since I love fairytale re-tellings and I also love Anna-Marie McLemore's books. We're having a group discussion about it over at Rich in Color later this week.

Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero illustrated by Zeke Peña was a really creative graphic biography that included some of her art.

This Side of Home by Renee Watson was a great realistic young adult novel that dealt with family, friendship, romance, race, and gentrification. Whew. It was good and was packed with things to think about.

The Coming Week: I've started reading one of the books on my #MustReadin2018 list - All That I Can Fix by Crystal Chan. I'm still reading Being the Change and started The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 625/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 188/300
#MustReadin2018 - 21/30

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 know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

The Past Week in Books: 

#ClassroomBookaday

Our GRA display. The giant collage was quite an undertaking, but was fun.

Kindergarten through second grade students are doing Global Read Aloud so we read Wild Berries by Julie Flett and then You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith. 

Third grade students read Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse and A Gift From Abuela.

Fourth grade students read Imagine.

Fifth grade students read More Than Anything Else.

At home I had quite a variety of books. The Paris Architect was for book club and it wasn't horrible, but also wasn't my favorite WWII novel. Lucky Luna was a cute middle grade novel. A Girl Like That was not easy to read. It starts with the death of two teens & deals with sexual assault and a variety of injustices to women and girls. When reading reviews, I did see that some people had issues with the Muslim representation with some legitimate concerns. I'm not sure I would recommend it to others. After that, I reached for The Epic Crush of Genie Lo believing that would be a fun book that would make me laugh and it was perfect. I love Monkey King stories and this one is a fantastic twisty and action packed adventure with a nice bit of romance too. The Place Between Breaths was my next read and it's a heavy one dealing with mental illness. The story is complex and difficult to follow, but it is structured that way intentionally. It's one to make you think. The author intended to make it hopeful, but I didn't find it very hopeful so I"m not sure what to think about it. I was happy to pick up Always and Forever Lara Jean after that one. I really enjoy hanging out with Lara Jean and her family so this one lifted my spirits. Given all that has happened in our country this week, I was looking for ways to find joy and this fit the bill.

The Coming Week: I learned that my hold request is in so I will pick up Photographic : the life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero. I'm super excited to read that one, but am not sure what else I'll get to. Have a great week!

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 618/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 182/300
#MustReadin2018 - 21/30

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 know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

The Past Week in Books: 

 

My #classroombookaday with all grades this week was Misunderstood Shark. When the book fair comes, I always pick a book from it and read that. We had already read My Heart Fills with Happiness so that was cool. Ame Dyckman had sent enough bookmarks and stickers for all or our students so they were excited to have those after reading too.

This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America was quite an interesting book to read. It was on my #MustReadin2018 list. It was good to hear her perspective. How I Resist is a fabulous collection. I loved it and found it great for YA and We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices was similar in some ways, but seemed aimed more for middle grade. Both are worth reading. For fun and laughs, China Rich Girlfriend fit the bill. It's again over the top and the food descriptions made me drool.

The Coming Week: I started reading The Paris Architect for my book club, but I'm not sure if I will finish it in time - eek! I have also started Being the Change and am enjoying it. I may also get to A Girl Like That (on my #MustReadin2018 list) and Lucky Luna. Have a great week!

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 551/800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 167/300
#MustReadin2018 - 20/30

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 know more about what I've been reading, visit my Goodreads shelf.

The Past Week on the Blog:

Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith
Review of Hearts Unbroken

The Past Week in Books: 

I finished There There by Tommy Orange. It was an interesting novel about urban Natives in the Oakland area. They had intertwining stories that all led to one powwow. I definitely think it's worth a read. I started How I Resist today and am really appreciating the variety of voices. 

I did read a few picture books, but life was very busy this week as I was one of the presenters at the Zolotow award ceremony in Madison this weekend. It was so cool to hand the award to Bao Phi for his book A Different Pond. It was also very nerve-wracking to speak in front of so many people with an audience containing authors and editors along with teachers, librarians, and others. The Zolotow Symposium was the following day so it was an excellent weekend. Here are some highlights:

Zolotow Lecture - Benjamin Alire-Sáenz

Erin Entrada Kelly

Gaia Cornwall

Bao Phi

It was an amazing time and I'm thankful to the CCBC for hosting and providing such great events.

The Coming Week: I'll finish How I Resist and will get to read a few more from a pile I have checked out.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
Goodreads Challenge 2018 - 527800
Diversity on the Shelf 2018 - 158/300
#MustReadin2018 - 19/30