It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!
It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. 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!
Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee 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 to view the post**
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: Wow – this was a crazy week for me. First, I had a two day training on the new mandated curriculum for my county’s reading classes. Then, on Wednesday I did 6 hours of online training followed by a 6 hour drive to South Florida for a Lifetouch Yearbook Workshop on Thursday and Friday. Then on Friday I drove the 6 hours back home. The training and workshop led to me working all day and really frying my brain! This meant, it wasn’t until Saturday that I did any reading for pleasure. Since then I finally finished Feynman and also read The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen and Barbed Wire Baseball by Marissa Moss which were both really, really great nonfiction picture books. I’ll be reviewing all of these for you later.
Ricki: This week, I finished Double Vision by F.T. Bradley. It was a great middle grade book that will be enjoyable to kids who love adventure and investigative stories. I agreed to participate in a blog tour for the book in October, so I will share more about it then! I also read Jake by Olivia Carter. It was one of those books that kept me guessing about plot details. I can see 8th-9th graders enjoying it. Stop back on Thursday for the review and a book giveaway!
Lastly, I finished The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb. This was an incredible work of narrative nonfiction. I am a tough critic when it comes to nonfiction because I find I become easily disengaged. I stayed up until late in the night, reading about the Nazi Hunters who were seeking to capture Adolf Eichmann, one of the leading organizers during the Holocaust. I will post a review on August 22nd (next Thursday), but be sure to get your hands on this one when it is published on August 27th. It will change many of your fiction-loving students into nonfiction believers. 🙂
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: Back to school, back to school, jiggity jig! I know I have not been reading very much, but I know it is going to slow down even more now that school is starting again. Also, with car pooling (which I hope to do with 2 different people as much as possible this year) I know that audiobooks are a no-go this year. So, much of my reading right now is just going to be day-to-day. My plan for my next book is Rump by Liesl Shurtliff followed by Doll Bones by Holly Black. I also have 2 picture books to read: Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea and The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.
Ricki: This week, I plan to tackle more professional development reading. I received a copy of Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey. I believe it is aimed for elementary school teachers, but I am teaching a cohort of elementary school students this semester, and this is the course’s required reading. I’ve heard great things. Has anyone else read this one? I also want to read Into that Forest by Louis Nowra. I signed up for the ARC on NetGalley because the summary looked so neat! I’ve never read a book with a setting in the Tasmanian bush! This one is due to be published on September 3rd.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
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!
and 
Looking forward to The Salem Witch trials as well as The Nazi Hunters books. Great reviews this past week! Thank you!
Thanks, Linda! The Nazi Hunters is great. I highly recommend it. 🙂
The Salem Witch Trials history mystery book was great and I went on and requested all of Yolen’s history mystery books because I enjoyed it so much – she really know how to tell a good story.
I am happy to see some good non-fiction titles. My TBR just grew again. Kellee at least the next few books will be quick reads. I know Doll Bones is quick and suspect Rump is too. I have to get that sometime soon.
Ricki thanks for mentioning Black Ants… I may want to pick that up as we are working to become more culturally responsive in our school.
Crystal,
No problem! I will have to post a review when I finish. I have heard really great things, so I think it should be a good one.
I’ve been really loving the nonfiction I’ve been reading – they’ve all been wonderful!
Thanks for so many good non-fiction suggestions!
Ricki, I know what you mean about some non-fiction works–longer ones, especially–not holding readers’ attention. I sympathize with authors of non-fiction because unless they move into the narrative non-fiction realm, they have only incomplete facts to work with. Those who do it well are to be applauded.
Natalie @ http://bibliolinks.wordpress.com
Natalie,
Agreed! I have found some of the more informational books to be very interesting, but this one is definitely more of a bridge for purely fiction readers. I am going to work on reading more nonfiction because I love all of the knowledge I gain!
Been truly enjoying the nonfiction picture books I’ve been reading – there are some amazing ones out there!
Hi Kellee and Ricki, thanks for all the books you shared. I was particularly taken by Ricki’s description of The Nazi Hunters – I don’t read much of nonfiction myself, so I’d be eager to see whether this book would engage me as it does you. Will look forward to getting my hands on it once it’s published. 🙂 Enjoy the back-to-school preparations!
After the first chapter, I was still leery, but as I read on, I became fascinated by the story. I love investigative fiction, so this one was great because I learned a lot about the techniques the police used for surveillance. Let me know if you read it. I would love to hear what you think about it!
I’ll be interested to see what you think of Doll Bones. It was not quite the book I expected. I have Rump loaded on my reader just waiting to be read, and we just read The Day the Crayons Quit this week. My 4yo already has parts of it memorized 🙂
I put The Day the Crayons Quit on my baby registry. The title is so alluring!
I’ll be reviewing it when I get to it, so I will let you know.
It is worth 4yo memorization?! Another great endorsement!
I read Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great and The Day the Crayons Quit this past week. Have you seen the hilarious book trailer for Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great? It’s why I wanted to read it in the first place. I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m not a huge unicorn fan, I must admit, but that book was pretty funny.
Thanks, Beth! I read it this week too and I didn’t know there was a book trailer. I’ll have to check it out.
I just found the trailer. It is so funny! I need to get that book too.
http://family-room.ew.com/2013/06/25/unicorn-thinks-hes-pretty-great-bob-shea-exclusive/
Here it is if anyone else wants to see it.
Just watched the trailer – AWESOME!
I really want to read Barbed Wire Baseball. I think you’ll enjoy Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great and The Day the Crayons Quit. Rump was excellent too. I haven’t been able to bring myself to read Doll Bones just yet.
I haven’t read Doll Bone either, but it is all the rage, it seems. I see it on everyone’s blog! I need to get my hands on a copy.
Barbed Wire Baseball is really great! Marissa Moss is a phenomenal author!
Looking forward to all of them 🙂
I’m feeling the pull of school soon too Kellee!. We can’t go into the building until next week so I will be reading as much as I can before setting up my library. The Day the Crayons Quit looks super cute. Will look forward to your thoughts on Imogene’s Last Stand!
Check out what we read last week.
Good luck with your first days of school! I hope you squeeze in some reading before you are allowed in!
The summer went by SO quickly! Enjoy your last week and have a great first day!
I loved The Day the Crayons Quit. My aunt who I dragged to ALA this year so she could pick up books while I was in session loved it so much that she ended up buying 6 copies. I hope you enjoy it! The Nazi Hunters looks awesome. I saw that, but I don’t know when I will ever have the chance to read it. Thanks for stopping by my Monday Post.
It didn’t take too long to read! It was worth it. I am getting giddy about all of the reviews of The Day the Crayons Quit. It is the first item on my baby registry. 🙂
That is quite an endorsement for a book! Looking forward to it 🙂
Kellee–Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great I predict will be adored by your middle school students! Such funny, snarky humor! Feynman is on my list, so I look forward to your review!
Ricki–Nazi Hunters sounds fascinating for this history buff, and hooray for great narrative nonfiction!
I wish I was a history buff. I love math, science, and literature (obviously). I only like to read about history through books. I am working on that flaw!
Ricki- I am the same way! Historical fiction and nonfiction books about history (interesting ones) are the best way to learn history!
I cannot wait to read it! I have only heard wonderful things and had to order it!
I look forward to seeing what you think about Feynman 🙂
The Fault in Our Stars is just beautiful, isn’t it? I’m really looking forward to reading On a Beam of Light. It was on a lot of lists for pb10for10. Thanks for hosting!
Wow – that whole row of book titles in the last week’s post collage were favourites of mine All of them WOW books. Happy back to school!
I finally read On a Beam of Light! I’ve been impressed by the quality non-fiction picture books I’ve read including The Boy who Loved Math and A Splash of Red!
Kellee, LOVE LOVE LOVE your to-read pile!! 🙂 Can’t wait to get to those books.(I did enjoy Doll bones, but the other three!) Ricki, I really enjoyed Double Visiton as well. I’m looking forward to book talking it with students! 🙂