Monday, May 14, 2012

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


Wahoo! I am back on a roll. I was able to read quite a few books this past week. There were so many, that I am going to do this the quick way. 




This huge stack of books put a dent in my TBR fortunately and got me moving on the Newbery Challenge again. The Little Yellow Bottle, Junkyard Wonders and A Lion Called Christian got tears from me. It was especially true when I tracked down the reunion video of the men and the lion they had cared for. Whew. Amazing.  Another one I really enjoyed was The Unforgotten Coat. It inspired a lot of wondering and thinking. The photos were really great. It would be wonderful to read with a group of students that are interested in photography. God's Dream was another standout book. I enjoyed both the message and the illustrations. A surprising book was Frog and Fly. It is kind of Hatbackish. Not very Disney-like. 

I was very sad to hear of Maurice Sendak's passing and spent a bit of time re-reading many of his works and meeting some for the first time. So glad that the Colbert Report interviews happened in time. What a creative and fantastic man he was.

For this coming week, I will finish Call it Courage & Matchlock Gun and maybe even Adam of the Road for Newbery. I am also pretty excited because The Humming Room came in the mail today so I will probably read that one too. Here's to another great week of reading!




5 comments:

  1. I like the quick way! It's fun to look at all the covers...I should probably do this some time...anyway! What did you think of the Unwanteds? I know lots of people loved it but it wasn't super great for me. I wanted them to be able to do more with their magic. AND I have Remarkable to read but haven't read it yet! Need to move it up the TBR...what did you think of that one?

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  2. The Unwanteds was okay, but the setting just wasn't convincing for me and I didn't really get absorbed into the story. Remarkable was kind of the same for me. I was never able to fall into the story. I felt like I was reading fiction. Both of them improved, but I never fell in love. You know how it usually takes a chapter or two to sort everything out and get into a book, well with both it took me about 1/2 the book before I settled in and even then, I wasn't very invested. Wish I could have liked them more, but they ended up being okay.

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  3. You are cruising along with the Newbery Challenge! Do you have a favorite so far?

    Isn't Junkyard Wonders beautiful? Where would Patricia Polacco be without these amazing educators in her life? The Art of Miss Chew is also a great story, but didn't move me quite the way Junkyard Wonders or Mr. Falker did. I'll have to check out the Little Yellow Bottle. I'm always impressed by a picture book that can be so powerful in such a compact form.

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  4. I will have to find The Art of Miss Chew. Thanks for mentioning it.

    My favorite Newbery so far was Invincible Louisa. I have been a long-time Alcott fan and had read that one before, but really love it. Her family had such a fascinating history and it really is amazing to see the parallels to Little Women.

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  5. Glad to hear good things for the Unforgotten Coat. I really want to read it. I loved Cosmic by Boyce. It looks like you read a lot of great books this past week!

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