It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 8/10/20

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Sharing Picture Books, Early Readers, Middle Grade Books, and Young Adult Books for All Ages!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop co-hosted by Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts which focuses on sharing books marketed for children and young adults. It offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

Happy reading!

Tuesday: Review and Giveaway!: Clover Kitty Goes to Kittygarten by Laura Purdie Salas, Illustrated by Hiroe Nakata
**Giveaway ends tomorrow!**

Saturday: Sofia’s Kids’ Corner: Classic Starts Favorites

Sunday: Student Voices: Digital versus Traditional School by Nitya A. and Sarah W., 7th Grade

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

Kellee

Sorry for the length of this update, but I wanted to share everything from July and this first week in August as I haven’t really updated during that time.

July:

• Trent and I really love the Questioneers series–both the picture books and the chapter books. We highly recommend them. They are well done and exactly the type of kids I want Trent to be reading about.
• We love Salina Yoon! If you haven’t read ALL of her Bear or Penguin books, Trent and I both recommend it.
• Lulu, Old Rock, and Kat were all reviewed here on Unleashing Readers–check out the reviews!
• The Panda Problem by Deborah Underwood is on our state list for K-2 and we already owned it, so a win-win. Also, it is a hilarious book. I really love when the fourth wall is broken.
• We read The Infamous Ratsos for Camp Candlewick! What a great program and book–I know we’ll be reading the rest of the series. I love the focus on what makes someone actually tough.
• Itch by Polly Farquhar: “Isaac’s sixth grade year gets off to a rough start. For one thing, a tornado tears the roof off the school cafeteria. His mother leaves on a two month business trip to China. And as always. . . . there’s the itch. It comes out of nowhere. Idiopathic, which means no one knows what causes it. It starts small, but it spreads, and soon–it’s everywhere. It’s everything. It’s why everyone calls him Itch–everyone except his best friend Sydney, the only one in all of Ohio who’s always on his side, ever since he moved here.”
• I love that Hands Up by Breanna McDaniel takes a negative connotation and gives ownership of the phrase to the Black community in a positive way.
• Alma by Juana Martinez-Neal is such an important read for all kids because it talks about the importane of names.
• Ella McKeen Kickball Queen by Beth Mills is another state list book. It is a book that kids are going to relate to because it looks at changes at school and dealing with them.
• Sing a Song by Kelly Starlings Lyon is a book I needed. And Trent needed. So I assume others will as well. I had heard of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” but I did not know much about it nor had I heard it. This book introduced me to it, showed its power, and led to Trent and I listening to it. Beautifully done book as well!
• You Loves Ewe by Cece Bell cracked Trent up and was a fun intro to homophones.
• Donald Crews is brilliant. Read everything by him.
• Trent and Henry read How to Test a Friendship together; Ricki and I plan on reviewing it later in August or in September because it is SO GOOD.
• Pusheen Cat has a new fan in Trent!
• Five Fuzzy Chicks by Diana Murray was our multi-read, read whenever we had a chance book for a while. Trent would read it to whomever would listen. He loved it–I think I am going to buy it for him (it was a library book) as a beginning of the school year surprise.

Last Week: 

• THANK YOU SONA CHARAIPOTRA AND DHONIELLE CLAYTON for breaking my reaidng rut! If you haven’t read Tiny Pretty Things or Shiny Broken Pieces and love YA dramas, get on it now. They are everything you want in drama-filled, back stabbing, redemption book!
• I cannot gush enough about Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o and illustrated by Vashti Harrison. WOW! First, the illustrations blew me away. They are perfection. I’m serious. Second, the lesson taught in the book is one that all kids need to hear–either for themselves or to make them thing about others. Third, the story does a beautiful job of entwining mythology and the contemporary story. Highly recommended.
• This last week Trent and I read books from some favorite series: Poppleton, Mr. Putter & Tabby, and Yasmin. All as good as we expected.
• We also read from two new series: King & Kayla and Bad Kitty. They are both now favorites and we’ll be finishing them both!
• The Littlest Family’s Big Day by Emily Winfield Martin has such soft, beautiful illustrations–it is worth reading just for them. But the fun story of a new neighborhood makes it double worth it.

To learn more about any of these books, check out my 2020 Goodreads Challenge page  or my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Kellee

Oh man… well, I am back at work. I have NO idea what I am going to read or what I am going to read with Trent–I’ll update you next week 🙂

.

Tuesday:  Build a Castle: 64 Slot-Together Cards for Creative Fun by Pail Farrell

Saturday: Sofia’s Kids’ Corner: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

Sunday: Author Guest Post by Fleur Bradley, Author of Midnight at the Barclay Hotel

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!

  and