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: 2017 New Year’s Book Resolution
Wednesday: Kellee’s Mock Newbery Experience
Thursday: Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia
Friday: Blog Tour with Review and Teaching Guide!: Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee
Now that the ALA Youth Media Awards have been announced, (CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners! We’ll celebrate our favorites tomorrow. The awards always make me so happy for the books I have read and love; makes me want to read a million more books; and makes me sad for those that weren’t honored.) I am now working on finishing the Sunshine State Young Reader Award nominees. This week, I read Nickel Bay Nick by Dean Pitchford which i son the list. I can see why my students like the book–it is an interesting look at motives, happiness, and personality.
I also finished Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson, and it is the PERFECT finale to the Seeds of America series. Isabel and Curzon went through so much, and it was an honor being part of their journey. And yes, this one made me cry.
Ricki
This week, I asked my preservice elementary education students to bring in their favorite picture books. We took thirty minutes to read and enjoy each other’s books. It was a marvelous time! During their breaks, I continued to read their favorite books, and I was struck by how varied and different our tastes can be. I enjoyed them all for different reasons.
Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, I Will Take a Nap! by Mo Willems, A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead, All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan, Henry’s Important Date by Robert Quackenbush, The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield, A Penquin Pup for Pinkerton by Steven Kellogg, The Dark by Lemony Snicket, Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen, and Imaginary Fred by Eoin Colfer and Oliver Jeffers
Out of all of the books, if I had to pick a favorite, I really enjoyed A Sick Day for Amos McGee. It hit me in the gut, and it moved me to tears. I also thought The Dark would be a great book to talk about fear and Imaginary Fred does a wonderful job in its portrayal of our imaginations. I will certainly be gifting Math Curse to a few friends, too. The Bear and the Piano reminded me that we can never forget our roots, and All the Places to Love was brimming with beautiful paintings and love. Guji Guji is a silly but important story of identity. Not all of these books are new, but they all touch my students in some way. Sharing this experience with them brought us together as a group.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee
I am currently reading another SSYRA nominee: Turn Left at the Cow by Lisa Bullard. I really hope to finish the nominees soon! I do have some review books to read but they are for late February and March, so I am trying to finish the SSYRAs before starting them 🙂
Ricki
I hope to finish this book this week. It has been a great text to learn from. Fiction has pulled me away a few times, and I look forward to getting back to this text!
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books that were Honored at the ALA Youth Media Awards
Wednesday: National Geographic’s The Book of Heroines and The Book of Heroes
Thursday: Paper Animals from Kane Miller Books
Friday: Ellie Ultra: An Extra-Ordinary Girl by Gina Bellisario
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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It was an exciting week last week, and a bit disappointing too. Now for 2017! Have a great week!
Always is! 🙂 🙁
Great batch of books from both of you this week! I love to hear about your experiences in the classroom. I love kids and especially reading with kids & getting them excited about books! I enjoyed giving talks on reading & writing to the 8th grade English classes when my son was in middle school & I decided that this year, I will look for a volunteer opportunity that will allow me to read to/with kids. It’s so much fun to see a kid get excited about a book!
Hope you both have a great week & enjoy your books –
Sue
Book By Book
That’s great, Sue! That teacher/organization is going to be so lucky to have you! 🙂
Hi Ladies!
Just got caught up with your posts from last week!
Kellee, thanks for the shout out and happy to help 🙂 I love reading your takeaways! Some I can respond to – some were things we’ve changed as well – and some I’m working on as well, too. Let’s make this our next walk around Disney parks discussion!
Really can’t wait for Last Day on Mars to come out. I think that is February, right?
I have Ellie Ultra to read. I’m thinking I’ll cover it on a Tuesday at some point. Yay transitional chapter books!
Ricki, I loved hearing about your grad school students and their discussion around picture books!
Have a good reading week, ladies!
I can’t wait for that conversation!
I loved The Bear and the Piano. One of my favorite picture books last year.
It’s been a long while since I’ve read Math Curse and Science Verse – I still think that the collaboration between Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith is unparalleled.
Some wonderful titles chosen by your students Ricki. I love A Sick Day for Amos McGee as well. Looking forward to your post tomorrow to see what you two picked as favourites from the award winners!
Kellee,
I see that Nickel Bay is available from my library, but the pile of books on my shelf tried to smack me across the head when I contemplated putting it on hold. I saved it onto my for later shelf instead.
Rickie,Sharing favourite picture books sounds like a really interesting experience. I bet you can learn a lot from each other just based on that. I’m not even sure I could come up with just one favourite!