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.
Last Week’s Posts
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Tuesday: Kellee’s Favorite Reads of 2017: Picture Books and Early Readers
Wednesday: Kellee’s Favorite Reads of 2017: Middle Grade and Young Adult
Thursday: Review and Giveaway!: Don’t Forget Dexter by Lindsay Ward
**Giveaway open until Wednesday!**
Friday: Ricki’s Top Ten (*ahem* Thirteen) Favorite Reads of 2017
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee
I’m back!!! Can’t wait to see what you all have been reading 🙂 Here’s my updates for the weeks I’ve been gone:
Week of 12/18
This was still a slow week, but Trent and I loved reading Star Wars OBI-123, and Ellie from Ellie Engineer is now one of my favorite mighty girls in an early reader!
Week of 12/25
This is the week that my rut started to end! Yay! It just takes a couple of good books and some time.
Rhyme Schemer and They Both Die at the End were so good! K.A. Holt and Adam Silvera have both not disappointed me yet. These are both must reads if you haven’t read them yet! For real.
Week of 1/1
This is the week that my reading was rocking! It was so wonderful! I always don’t mind going back to school, but I also really wish that I had had one more week of awesome reading before going back to the regular.
You’re going to notice a trend for a couple of weeks: Laurel Snyder. My book club is Skyping with her on Friday, 1/19! Although I loved both of her books, I do want to shout out to Swan because it was just SO beautiful.
American Street by Ibi Zoboi was recommended to me by Ricki, and I am so glad. It was available at my library through Kindle, and I started it right away. And it is perfection.
Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman is just as perfect as the first in the series. It is 500 pages, but I read it in one day because I couldn’t stop! And now I have to wait forever for the third in the trilogy. Seriously, if you haven’t started this series… make. it. happen.
Lastly, I read Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas, and she once again blew me away with her ability to craft a mystery. Her stories always blow me away.
Week of 1/8
Chugging along with the Whatever After series, and I think this one was my favorite yet!
Two Laurel Snyder books this week: The Forever Garden, a sweet story reminding us that it isn’t always about the end goal but about the journey itself. I also really liked Any Which Wall which was a fantastical adventure with a wide age range of main characters (5-12) which makes it a great read for a variety of kids.
Trent’s go-to read this week were Six Brave Explorers, a pop-up book that belonged to my sister, and Baby Monkey, Private Eye by Brian Selznick and David Serlin which is pretty much the perfect book for Trent’s age. Check out the Scholastic page on it for a HILARIOUS book trailer also. https://www.scholastic.com/kids/book/baby-monkey-private-eye-by-brian-selznick/
I also had the honor of reading the manuscript for the sequel to The Dark Intercept by Julia Keller, Dark Mind Rising. I can’t say too much, but I will say that the craziness continues!
Ricki
So happy to have you back, Kellee! Missed you last week! 🙂
For my younger son’s holiday wish list, we asked for noise books. He loves pushing the buttons. Between all of our family members (some very special aunts, uncles, and grandparents), he made out like a bandit. My husband and I have read each book a few hundred times since the holidays. Our favorites are:
We pretty much like any book that roars because it causes our son to let out his own huge roar.
On a more personal note, I am catching up on some of the YA books that I missed last year. I am determined to finish my #mustreadin2018 list this year. 🙂
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee
I already started the next Whatever After book, and I also hope to finish Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder before the Skype visit.
Ricki
I am reading four books right now, and I enjoy switching between them, depending on my mood. Blankets by Craig Thompson (an adult GN) and We Are Okay by Nina LaCour are currently the two books that I am reading the most each night.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Twenty 2018 Books We Look Forward to Reading
Wednesday: Love by Matt de la Peña
Thursday: Guest Review: That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston
Friday: What Do You Do With a Chance? by Kobi Yamada
Sunday: Author Guest Post by Shana Hollowell, Author of Little Mouse’s Sweet Treat
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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Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Orphan Island. The plot is so intriguing and thought provoking. Enjoy your reading and Skyping with Laurel!
I certainly read Brown Bear, Brown Bear many times when my girls were young. You have both been very busy reading. What is it about the Whatever After series that makes it so hard to stop? I loved her Gimme a Call so much that wish she would go back to more YA/MG sometimes!
I am a sucker for fractured fairy tales, and each in the series is a new one! It is wonderful 🙂 I’m also a big fan of the MCs, and I love seeing how the fairy tales are made better.
Can’t wait to read the new Selznick. And yay that you got noise books. Usually parents try to avoid them!
Those parents are party poopers 😛
Welcome back, Kellee! You packed in a lot of reading with the holiday busy-ness! So glad you read America Street, too – wasn’t it amazing? I really loved it on audio, read in a Haitian accent – it was like Fabiola was telling me her story personally. I still need to catch up on that Neal Schusterman series – he is one of my favorite authors, but I missed out on Scythe somehow.
Ricki – my sons always enjoyed books with noise buttons, too! Lots of fun. Glad you are experiencing Blankets – it’s a wonderful book. That was the first adult graphic novel I ever read. And I want to read We Are OK, too.
Hope you both enjoy your books this week – I need to go check out your Best of posts – I still haven’t done mine yet!
Sue
Book By Book
Kellee, You crushed my reading and I hadn’t even been in a slump! Although returning to school crushed it pretty quickly 🙂 I so hope you love Orphan Island!
Ricki, We Are Okay is a book I checked out at the library but didn’t get back to. And according to Kellee’s list, I guess I need to check out American Street too!
Happy reading week to both of you!
I love hearing about the noise books, too. What fun the holidays must have been at ‘reading time’. I love Orphan Island, hope you do, too, Kellee. And I still need to read America Street, hoping someday! Thanks for all, and have another good reading week!
Wait…500 pages in one day…did I read that right? You’re the real MVP!
I really, really need to start the Whatever After series!
Kellee,
I also adored They Both Die at the End. It’s just one more reason why I admire Adam Silvera so much. I’ve just put a hold on Ellie Engineer. When my mother was in hospital at the end of her life, I brought Swan in and read it to her. These words still bring me to tears,
“Every day must end in night.
Every bird must fold it’s wings.
Every feather falls at last, and settles.”
Ricki,
I need to get some of these noise books for my grand babies! They already love any book of animals and their sounds. Both Blankets and We Are Ok are on my to read list.
Happy reading to both of you!
Yay for Laurel Snyder. I had a small book group Skype with her once and it was great.
I want to re-read We Are Okay. I loved it so much and I wonder how it holds up a second time.
My 16 year old daughter received Scythe for Christmas (from yours truly of course), but we have not started reading it yet – but I’ve already ordered Thunderhead. 🙂 Great books both of you!