It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 1/25/16

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

   

Tuesday: Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The First Half of 2016

Wednesday: From Kellee’s (Huge) Library Pile Part Ten: 2015 Fiction Titles

Thursday: The House of Purple Cedar by Tim Tingle

Friday: Bella’s Best of All by Jamie Harper

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

 Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee: I will tell you that Making a Murderer on Netflix is not a friend to reading. It is so addictive. It fascinates me just as Serial did; however, Serial could be listened to in the car while Making a Murderer is during my prime reading time (nighttime). I am only 4 episodes in, too, and it has already taken away a big chunk of reading time on 4 days!

I did have a chance to read Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo, which is brilliant and you should preorder it!, but after finishing it, I haven’t even picked up the next book even though I am really looking forward to reading it. And all because of a TV show. I have no excuses.

I did attend my first Ed Camp on Saturday, and I cannot stop raving about it! It is like crowd-sourcing professional development. I loved that the PD was on the fly and participant chosen and so interactive. I ended up presenting about how teachers can become voracious readers and inspire their students to become one as well. It was completely impromptu, but I think it went really well.

With Trent, we did add a couple new picture books to our rotation. First, Trent has become a little obsessed with Disney, so we have a Disney short story anthology with sounds that he wants us to read to him all the time. He also pulled Friends by Eric Carle off the shelf and had me read it to him 6 times in one sitting! Finally, we are working our way through two five-minute story books: Five Minute Marvel Stories and Start Your Engines 5-Minute Stories.

Ricki: This week, I read and loved Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. What a fascinating book that got me thinking! I am going to be recommending this one a lot, and I am glad that so many folks at NCTE told me to read it. Henry and I read a lot of great picture books this week, and I forgot to snag them out of his room to write this post, and he is asleep right now! He really enjoyed the I Want to Be books by Ruby Brown. I love that these books teach him that he can be anything that he wants to be—and the illustrations are fantastic!

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee: I am going to start Rescued by Eliot Schrefer! I already told Jim that I need to go back to our better balance of TV and reading, but I have a feeling that I’ll need to finish the series first. But I do plan on finishing it and Kiki & Jacques by Susan Ross this upcoming week. 

It is Celebrate Literacy, Florida! week which is a pretty exciting time for me at my school. It is the week that the whole school focuses on literacy, so I love it! Today is literacy day where all students in language arts all day are going to be reading (or reading & discussing). I’m also starting a “Most Popular Book at HCMS” poll today by accepting nominations–I’ll let you know what wins. We are also having a student-created book mark competition in the media center. All week our morning announcements will feature some of my students’ book trailers. Wednesday morning we’re doing a Breakfast Book Swap where students who come will be treated to breakfast and then be able to swap books.  There is also a door decorating contest that will be judged on Thursday. The doors must be creative, student-made, and focusing on literacy. Finally, we are doing a book drive for the organization Books for Africa which sends books to schools and libraries in rural Africa.

Ricki: I am still reading and enjoying The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin. I am halfway through my instruction of an intensive, two-week course that students take before student teaching. This has really put a damper on my reading, so I look forward to getting back on track!

Upcoming Week’s Posts

 

Tuesday: Books that Were Honored at the ALA Youth Media Awards that We Want to Read

Wednesday: Mock Sibert Book Club

Thursday: Lexiles and Reading Levels: Just Say No.

Friday: The Perfect Tree by Chloe Bonfield

 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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