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 see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads.

Picture Books I've Shared at School Recently:

Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales is always a fun book to share. It has very few words, but has a lot of information in the back matter. The book is in Spanish and English. I also shared videos of Yuyi. The first I shared tells the story of how she started making children's books. The second is brief and shows how she sculpted the dolls and made some of the items in the book. The third has her explaining a lot of the process. I didn't show the whole thing, but just the first few minutes. This book is simply amazing in the details that she designed and created and I love sharing it with others. 

You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith illustrated by Danielle Daniel is always a joy to read. You can watch the author share it with children here. You can also see the video some students made in response to the book years ago when I read it in WI. Shortly after that, Monique did a virtual visit with us and was a true delight. She is such a loving person and she listens to children--really gives them her attention. 

What I Read Last Week:

I only finished one book over the week and it was an adult biography. Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang was interesting, but it took me quite a while to read. I had only ever read a picture book about her life and wanted to know more about her especially after reading Stacey Lee's latest young adult historical mystery Kill Her Twice about a Chinese American actress during the same time period. There were parts that I flew through and others where it was a bit slow so it seemed to take a long time to read. Nonfiction goes so much slower than fiction for me. 

Currently Reading:

I have started the middle grade novel The Diamond Explorer by Kao Kalia Yang and am also reading a professional development book called Developing Digital Detectives. I'm also starting Fifty Words for Rain for a book club and will be reading The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's to review over on Rich in Color. I wish you all a great week full of reading.