It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!
It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme started by Sheila at Book Journeys and now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. It is 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 the next “must-read” book!
Kellee and Jen, 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 support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.
CONGRATULATIONS
Sara A.
for winning the giveaway for Your Alien Returns!
Last Week’s Posts
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Tuesday: Ten Books We Are Looking Forward to in the First Half of 2017
Wednesday: Tales from the Arabian Nights by Donna Jo Napoli
Thursday: Teaching Guide for Barkus by Patricia MacLachlan
Friday: Teaching Guide for Charlie & Mouse by Laurel Snyder
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee
My primary reading right now is trying to read as many Mock Newbery titles as possible, and each one is really showing me why they are on so many lists for possibly winning the Newbery. The Best Man, Save Me a Seat, and When Green Becomes Tomatoes are all wonderful, well written, and so worth the read, but out of these six, I think Key to Extraordinary, Full of Beans, or The Wild Robot are more likely to be contenders. This upcoming week, my students will be debating what book they think should win, and we are voting on the 19th in preparation for the announcement next Monday! (I’ll be sharing our Mock Newbery, process, and votes next week.)
I also read The Time Museum by Matthew Loux and Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson in preparation for sharing them here–I cannot wait to share both of them with you as sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, and I love seeing new titles coming out for my middle schoolers that do the genre justice.
Ricki
Otter in Space by Sam Garton is a new, charming picture book that will get kids thinking creatively. Otter and Teddy want to have a moon rock just like the one they saw at the museum, so they decide to make their own! I adored this book, and my son loved it, too.
How did I not know about these books? Nancy Rose positions miniature scenes and hides peanuts to get real squirrels to visit them! She takes their photographs and constructs a story. I adored Merry Christmas, Squirrels, and I will certainly be checking out her other books.
Kane Miller Books sent Henry and me this awesome origami book, Paper Animals. We’ve been hard at work, creating a lot of paper animals to fill a giant boat! The book contains both the instructions and the paper to go along with each animal!
Sneak peek for the review on February 2 (What will Henry [err…Mama] make)?:
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee
The last three Mock Newbery titles I’ll probably get to are Wolf Hollow, Summerlost, and Pax. I hope to read them this week.
If I have an awesome reading week and have time to pick up more books, I would love to get to Some Kind of Courage and As Brave As You as well.
Ricki
Among about 6 other books that I am reading, I just started Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons. I am reminded that she writes in a way that sweeps me off of my feet!
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Ten Underrated (less than 500 ratings on Goodreads) Books We Read in 2016
Wednesday: Frightlopedia: An Encyclopedia of Everything Scary, Creepy, and Spine-Chilling, from Arachnids to Zombies by Julie Winterbottom
Thursday: The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Friday: Zack Delacruz: Just My Luck by Jeff Anderson
Sunday: Author Guest Post
So, what are you reading?
Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!
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Kellee, I haven’t read The Best Man or Save Me a Seat, but I think Key to Extraordinary, Full of Beans, As Brave As You and The Wild Robot are all amazing. I enjoyed Some Kind of Courage, but cringed during the section where the characters meet with some Native Americans. Have you read Debbie Reese’s comments on it?
Rickie,I had to go and look up Nancy Rose. Her website is charming and I loved looking at her pictures on flickr. I am very excited to see that she is Canadian.Have you read Granny Torrelli Makes Soup? That is one of my favourite Sharon Creech titles.
I hadn’t read Debbie’s comments until you mentioned something, but they definitely have me thinking now.
I think I’ll read As Brave As You next–Jason Reynolds just is so superb.
I am loving the look of the National Geographic version of Arabian Nights – very interesting. I should’ve book talked The Key To Extraordinary to my book club for young readers last Sunday, it totally slipped my mind and I haven’t even read it yet.
It is a special book. I think I may have liked it better than A Snicker of Magic though both are definitely 5 star books.
Arabian Nights is done so well–Donna Jo Napoli does it so well.
I’m curious about Time Museum. Science fiction isn’t a genre I love so I don’t read much of it, but I feel like I should know more titles in this genre. Save Me a Seat is a favorite of mine. I loved the structure of it and it has such an important message.
I loved the structure also. I think it is a really important novel for kids to read.
Time Museum is perfect for science fiction fans and adventure fans, so I think it is a good one to read 🙂
So much to read before next week! I’m trying to finish The Girl Who Drank The Moon and then Best Man this week. Awards are coming! They may surprise us again, too. Have a great reading week!
I am sad I won’t get to Girl Who Drank the Moon before next Monday, but I am glad I am getting to so many. But definitely it is so hard to predict; I can’t wait for the announcements!
Good morning!
Kellee, if you can, try to get to Some Kind of Courage too! The setting is so different from anything you’ve read, I think you’ll be surprised with how easy it is to fall into the story. I have Last Day on Mars marked to read.
Ricki, thanks for including the adorable picture of Henry! I have not read Walk Two Moons! I’ve owned it for a very very long time. Maybe one of these years I should put it on my #mustread list!
I think anything Walden Pond Press publishes is so wonderful; they haven’t had a misstep yet.
I LOVE Walk Two Moons. One of my all-time favs.
Mine too! I am so glad that Ricki is reading it 🙂
I hope you enjoy Pax. It’s one I really loved last year.
I’m on hold at the library for the ebook; I hope it becomes available soon!
How exciting! The Mock Newberry sounds like a lot of fun! Another blogging friend of mine is a HS librarian, and she does a Mock Printz award with the kids every year.
Of the books you mentioned, I read (listened to) Pax and Some Kind of Courage last year – both were very good – hope you enjoy them!
The paper animals book looks like SO much fun! My boys would have loved that.
Enjoy your books this week –
Sue
Book By Book
We’re having so much fun doing the Mock Newbery! Today we started discussing and debating today. It is so interesting to see which book kids think are going to win 🙂
I just finished FULL OF BEANS and absolutely loved it. I was so happy to return to Key West with Beans and the Diaper Gang.
I haven’t read Turtle in Paradise, but now I definitely want to!
I really enjoyed Some Kind of Courage. And I’m debating whether to read The Sun is Also a Star. Everyone seems to be talking about that one.