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 see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads.
Personal Update: I have not participated in such a long time. It's really true that once you skip a few times, it can be very challenging to start something again. I've been missing participating, but am finally back. Hopefully get back into the swing of things. I am now a teacher librarian at two elementary schools. One is the same one I had been at for the past two years since we moved to California. The librarians here are only half time though so I had been working several part time jobs in addition to my elementary school job. Now I am half time at two schools so I am back to just one employer. The second school is a bilingual Spanish and English school so I am learning a new space, meeting new people, and am quickly learning more Spanish. I have two classes a week and a casual conversation class once a week in addition to learning on the job. If anyone has tips on handling a Spanish/English library or how to speed up my language learning, I am happy to hear them. Thanks in advance.
Picture Books I've Shared at School Recently:
This Land by Ashley Fairbanks illustrated by Bridget George - this is a great introduction to land acknowledgements and why they are being used. It's a great way to focus in on connecting with the land and knowing who has been there over time. We had excellent conversations about the land our school is on and whose ancestral lands our community is on.
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson illustrated by David Shannon is a nice introduction to the Haudenosaunee and their Great Law of Peace that influenced the framers of the U.S. constitution.
Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin & Kate Messner - this was a fun one to share right before the Fall Moon Festival/Chuseok with the rabbit and moon references and it is always fun to look for that rabbit within the illustrations. Students always feel pretty proud of themselves for seeing the connection to Alice in Wonderland too.
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen - it's alway a winner no matter what grade I read it to except sometimes the very young, very tender hearted can be a little sad depending on how they interpret the ending. I shared it with 6th grade and they loved it with a large amount of laughter echoing through the library.
Hike by Pete Oswald - many readers can connect with being out in nature with a parent and it's great for involving the students with the sound effects since there really aren't many words beyond sounds.
Berry Song by Michaela Goade - this was another book that we were able to connect to locally. Many of the students have gathered berries and there are many things to gather in our own county including elderberries that are on our campus. In addition, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation which is less than 45 minutes from us, has a video about their land management that echoes some of the exact words that are in this book, "We take care of the land.... As the land takes care of us."
How Do You Say?/¿Cómo Se Dice? and I'm Hungry!/¡Tengo Hambre! by Angela Dominguez - I love sharing her books with kindergarten students because if they know Spanish or not, these books communicate the information so the students get to hear Spanish and English and have fun too.
Other Books I've Read Recently:
Picture Books
Home to Medicine Mountain - I am still learning about the Native Nations in California and this is a story about two brothers who were sent from Northern California to Southern California to attend a residential school there. Debbie Reese mentioned it in her webinar Selecting and Using Children's Books about Boarding Schools that's part of the free Native Ways of Knowing Virtual Book Club through California Indian Education for All. (I highly recommend this series)
Middle Grade Books
Boarding Schools by Heather Bruegl - very accessible nonfiction middle grade book that explains the impact of boarding schools on Indigenous children and their communities.
The Beautiful Game by Yamile Saied Méndez - fun chapter book about a girl who has been playing on a boys soccer team coached by her grandfather and how things change for her drastically when she is thirteen and she ends up on a girls' team.
Red Bird Danced by Dawn Quigley was one I read for a Bookelicious Middle Grade Book Club (so many resources there). It was great to meet the author in the online book club and I even won a copy of a Jo Jo Makoons book in the giveaway. Red Bird Danced is a dual perspective book that is written in verse. The two main characters live in intertribal housing in a city. Ariel's Auntie has gone missing and both of the characters have challenges in their lives that they are dealing with as they move through the year. It's a beautiful book.
Some others that I have enjoyed in the past little bit are Moko Magic: Carnival Chaos by Tracey Baptiste, Crushing It (another soccer book) by Erin Becker, The Kids in Mrs. Z's Class: Emma McKenna Full Out by Kate Messner, Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar, The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera, and Pahua and the Dragon's Secret by Lori M. Lee (a sequel to Pahua and the Soul Stealer).
Young Adult
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed by Dashka Slater was one I picked up at ALA over the summer. It's by the same person who wrote The 57 Bus. Again it is a nonfiction book about an even that actually happened. It happened at a high school here in Northern California. It would be an amazing book to read with teens not just to discuss what is legally allowed and not allowed, but the ethics around all of it and the impact that words and images can have.
This Ravenous Fate was the group discussion book over at Rich in Color in September. It's a sapphic vampire book set during the Harlem Renaissance. It's pretty unique and we had a wonderful time reading and discussing it.
Whew! That's as much as I'll share for now.
What's Next?
I just started reading The Diamond Explorer by Kao Kalia Yang and up next is Developing Digital Detectives by Jennifer LaGarde for another online book club. Have a fabulous week filled with reading.
