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 StoryGraph account here. 

The Past Week at School:

Every Little Kindness by Marta Bartolj (Slovenian author/illustrator) is a great wordless picture book that worked well for the beginning of kindness month. The students helped me read the book by telling what they noticed in the illustrations and what they thought was happening. I used this with fourth grade. 

Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton and illustrated by Don Tate was a great book to use with 6th graders. It's a neat story of perseverance, but also super-soakers are pretty cool. 

I shared I am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde and illustrated by Peter Reynolds with kindergarten classes. We also sang the song and did the motions with Emily Arrow because of course we would. ;)

With third grade, we had a visit with the author Meghan Wilson Duff and they
read their book How Are You, Verity? It was a fantastic visit for World Read Aloud Day. 

Fifth graders also got to meet the author Lisa Stringfellow on World Read Aloud Day. She talked to us about both of her books and read from Kingdom of Dusk. 

With first graders, I read Cesaria Feels the Beat by Denise Rasario Adusei and illustrated by Priscila Soars. The story went well with their science unit about sound. 

My Reading Last Week: I enjoyed the middle grade graphic novel Ash's Cabin by Jen Wang about a young person who runs away to a cabin in the woods to survive because life is challenging. Ash learns a lot about survival, but also a lot about what they actually need and want in life. 

Another middle grade graphic novel was Fake Chinese Sounds by Jing Jing Tsong. Měi Yīng is dealing with bullying at school, but it's not just about that. She also has a visit from her grandmother from Taiwan and is learning more about her language and family. In the midst of that, her friendships are changing. 

I listened to All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson through Libro.fm and it made me cry. It deals with grief and friendship and it's a short book considering how much is packed in there. It's beautiful.

A picture book that I enjoyed was Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu by Ying Chang Compestine and illustrated by Crystal Kung. It's a Rapunzel retelling and she put herself up in the tower so it is a bit of a switch. She is not one to be bossed around. Also, there's a lot of food mentioned. There is a not stinky tofu recipe at the end. I did try it, but be warned, the recipe isn't quite complete. There is a soy ginger sauce, but ginger isn't listed or mentioned so I just added what I thought should be there. Also, you're supposed to put the sauce in the refrigerator for a while, but the instructions never tell you when or how to add it. I wasn't sure if it was also meant to be cooked in the pan or just as a dipping sauce or wha so I went ahead and added it to the pan a when the tofu was just about done. It was quite tasty though.  

I am still listening to Beloved slowly along with a group of people on Bluesky. I have also started to read That Librarian. What are you reading? I hope you have a great week filled with wonderful books.