Monday, June 9, 2014

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 shelfImages via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

The Previous Week:
Young Adult


It was a great week for me with young adult novels. Heist Society was pure fun. Both Bronxwood and Angel de la Luna were pretty intense, but were also excellently written. As I was writing this I realized that in both of these books, the main character is struggling to support their family and acting in the role of a parent for a time. Later, they also have to step back out of that role and that is a tough situation - feeling grown up and responsible, but having to move back into the role of a child. I reviewed Angel de la Luna over at Rich in Color on Friday.

Middle Grade


I liked The Thing About Georgie. It is a nice middle grade realistic fiction book about family (new sibling coming), friendship and a little bit about the challenges of being a dwarf. Everything on a Waffle was just a lot of fun. I have used What Color is My World in class before, but I had only shared some of the non-fiction portions. I finally read the story part, but I didn't like that as much. It felt pretty contrived and the story is aimed at a younger audience than the non-fiction text. It didn't mesh well. I still appreciate the non-fiction sections though. The Last Airlift is basically a memoir written by a second person. It's the story of Tuyet, a young girl who was airlifted out of Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. I found it interesting and something that I may want to add to our library collection. I wanted it to have more detail and be a fuller story, but at least this way it is a quick read and readers do get the gist of what happened. I did just find out that there is a sequel though so I will have to see if that fills in some of the gaps I felt.

Picture Books


This was also a great week for picture books. I would recommend any of these. 

The Coming Week:

I am still listening to Landline on CD. I am really enjoying it. I am just starting Kendra and I will likely read the ARC of The Red Pencil too. I brought home a ton of books from my school library so I will be hitting those in no particular order. Our last day with students is Tuesday so my official summer #bookaday will begin though I have been posting books there all year long anyway. If you haven't heard, the hashtag has been in the news lately. I mostly dislike what the publisher is doing because typically we are posting about kid lit and ya lit, but some of the images now are definitely adult and don't have enough clothing for my taste. I am starting to see things that don't really match up with what the #bookaday community has been focused on in the past. I enjoy things that get people excited about reading, but teachers and librarians have been using that hashtag for a specific purpose and it is sad to see it compromised this way. It's made me read even more though so I can post to #bookaday in the way it was originally intended and do it a lot. :)

Happy reading!

8 comments:

  1. The Last Airlift sounds very interesting. My son and I read another Vietnam War book earlier this year - Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. It would be interesting to read another one on a similar topic. Have a good week!

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  2. Coming On Home Soon is a personal favourite, so beautiful. Angel de la Luna sounds like a book that I would enjoy, despite its heavy theme. :) Thanks for sharing all these wonderful titles.

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  3. The Thing About Georgie has been on my list for awhile now. It should be interesting since I've met so many kids with achondroplasia at the dr where my daughter goes for her limb lengthenings! So many good picture books have come out recently! I have a few of those on my read or TBR list! Can't wait for Landline... although I'll be waiting a few more weeks! Have a great last couple of days of school!

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  4. Hoping to read Landline soon, shall keep an eye out for your review! :) I just love Everything on a Waffle, I know I need to find a copy of the sequel soon... Happy reading to you!

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  5. I am so glad you liked Bronxwood. It is one of my favorites, so I love to see that others are enjoying it. :) I am looking forward to hearing what you think about Landline when you are finished! I hope you have a terrific week. Happy reading!

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  6. I like Polly Horvath, but find she is hit or miss and mostly miss with my readers. On the other hand, everyone of them who has read Mr and Mrs Bunny has loved it. The Last Airlift was a favourite of many of my Red Cedar Club readers last year. A couple of them even made a book trailer for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9zaFEqOUaI

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    1. Thanks for sharing the book trailer. Nice work.

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  7. Reading about Bronxwood on Goodreads made me realize that I would probably like the previous titles in this series. Thanks for highlighting this title here. Gorgeous picture books!

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