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.

Last Week on the Blogs:

Celebrating Good Health and Tidying

 Hiatus and Book Giveaway

Reading Last Week:

 

Picture Books 

Boats for Papa by Jessixa Bagley stands out from the rest. The cover didn't really draw me in (maybe because I'm not an animals as people fan), but the story and the art inside won my heart.  By Mouse & Frog by Deborah Freedman was cute, but it was a little longer than I needed it to be somehow. The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi was dreamy. I loved stepping into this world. There were echoes of Mr. Tumnus bouncing in my head while I read. Let's Get a Pup! Said Kate and How the Sun Got to Coco's House by Bob Graham were nice warm family books. I'm still really happy that Graham presents a family with parents who have tattoos and multiple piercings.

I've also been re-reading lots of picture books for our Mock Caldecott and Mock Pura Belpré. I've read Drum Dream Girl to almost every class now and played the drums too. I think this is the first time I've ever played bongos. It's been a lot of fun.

Middle Grade
Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby was a much more complicated book that I had anticipated. I listened to it on audio. Joey is deaf and her mother doesn't want her to learn sign language and that was extremely frustrating as Joey is trying to become independent. There was a whole other component of animal rights though that had more frustrating situations. I liked the book well enough, but found some of it very difficult to hear and some of it a little unbelievable.

I am Malala was also one I listened to on audio. I had started a version of this book for older readers and was actually bored. This version was nicer because it didn't include as much dry history at the beginning. Malala is a fascinating person and I appreciated hearing her story.

Young Adult
All American Boys was my favorite YA of the week. Jason Reynolds is an awesome writer and I was looking forward to this one. He and Brendan Kiely did a fantastic job here. The book deals with an instance of police brutality involving a black teenage boy and how it affects those involved and beyond.

Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger is one I read in my attempt to read all of the Printz awards. I enjoyed it in the beginning and because it was a pretty quick read for a Printz, but I liked it less as it progressed. The relationship mess felt too contrived. I have only 18 more award/honor books to go though. Yay!

Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainardis a nice collection of stories. Most of them felt like they were written for adults though - possibly college age, but not teens so much. The cover art and even the introduction really seemed like a book written to be a college text. As with many short story collections, there were several that were amazing, but it was quite a mix. There was a glossary so even readers unfamiliar with Tagalog could look things up if necessary, but I found that most words were understandable through context anyway. I appreciated this look into Filipino culture.

Adult
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo was not necessarily the best written book I've read, but it was extremely helpful. The first section is mostly an argument of how effective the process is and why you may want to do it. I found much of this repetitive, but the actual instructions and motivation she provided later got things done in my house. I spent time tidying on Friday and popped out of bed on Saturday eager to get at it again.


I picked up In the Name of Sorrow and Hope by Noa Ben Artzi-Pelossof because recently I read A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valérie Zenatti and it seemed that this book may shed more light on Palestinian/Israeli issues. This memoir focuses mainly on the life and assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the author's grandfather. Now even more than before, I would like to see more from the Palestinian perspective.

The Coming Week: 
We have two days of school this week and then it's winter break so I am anticipating lots of time for reading. I have several ARCs that I have been holding onto for vacation: Hour of Bees by Lindsay Eager, Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee, and Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina are in my stack. Other than that, I am also hoping some ILLs come in because I have three more books to read for #MustReadin2015: Canary by Rachele Alpine, Control by Lydia Kang, and Boarding School Blues by Clifford E. Trafzer. I wish you all a great week of reading.