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**
Our Cheryl Rainfield “Be your own hero” wristband giveaway winners are:
LINDA B.
BERNICE H.
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: This week I was so excited to read Anubis Speaks! A Guide to the Afterlife by the Egyptian God of Death by Vicky Alvear Scheter. I am blessed to have some amazing friends who know I love mythology and made my acquisition of this book possible before its release—I am a very lucky girl! I cannot wait to share this book with you all.
I’ll tell you what, many people talk about how when they are sick, they spend time reading books, but when I am sick, I just veg in front of the TV and sleep which really hurts my reading. This is the second time this school year (ALREADY!) that I’ve been sick and it is getting old; hopefully it is all uphill from here! [Also, being sick makes me miss audiobooks because I would have at least gotten some listening done, but carpooling is worth missing out on them. Kind of.]
Ricki: This week, I finished listening to Annexed by Sharon Dogar. It was a great book and very interesting, but I wish I had read it. It was quite depressing, and it made driving to and from school a sad experience (for two weeks). I learned a lot about Anne Frank from this different perspective (while it is considered a historical fiction, I know it is grounded in a lot of research).
I read The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp in preparation for my viewing of the movie. 🙂 It was very good, and I found it to be quite similar to The Catcher in the Rye. I also read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick. This is a very, very good book. If you aren’t aware, it is about a boy who plans to shoot his ex-best-friend and then himself. I found it to be a very important text that should be available in all classrooms.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I have a to-read list and next up is Doll Bones by Holly Black. I am really looking forward to finally reading it! I also need to do some research because NCTE is getting really close and I need to work on my presentations. Next weekend, we are also going to go visit my grandfather and family who is visiting him. This will take away from my reading time, but I hope to have enough time to make a dent in my to-read list.
Ricki: My husband and I are listening to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in the car together. We have listened to two (out of ten) CDs, but I am thinking we won’t be finished for a very long time. This is his first audiobook.
I just started Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron. I am hoping to finish it for a post this Thursday. I know–I am cutting it close! But it is great so far, so I think I can do it! I am reading a lot of neat articles about the purposes of educating teachers for my doctoral program. This is intended to prepare me to write a philosophy of teacher education. It is interesting because it is forcing me to examine what is most important to me, in regards to the education of teachers.
Guess who got the new Kindle Paperwhite for her birthday? I am a very lucky woman. I love my husband. 🙂
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!
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Wow, that book about The Mary Celeste really caught my eye. I believe I heard something about the wreckage this past week. So now I need to look for the book and refresh my memory. Historical fiction is my thang. Yes, I said thang.
Historical fiction is also my thang. Transport me to a different time and place, please. It makes me happy!
Really?!?! I did so much research about the Mary Celeste after reading the book; I would love to have some new info!
The Yolen book is actually nonfiction, but done so very well. It is a great read! So interesting!
[Historical fiction is my thang too!!! I love learning and being entertained!]
Enjoyed the review for Journey. It’s interesting when parents “read” the book at our store. You can ask kids to tell their version of the story after the initial reading. In a classroom setting, you can ask student if a picture book without words can tell a complete story. Plus, take a popular picture book and block the texts and see if that can work as a wordless picture book. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock actually sounds interesting.
It is very, very good, Earl. I wish it was taught in every school. It brings up the topic of bullying without being preachy.
That is a great idea Earl; if you don’t mind, I’d love if you’d go comment that on the Journey review so anyone looking at the review sees it.
I LOVED Journey!!! I really want it to win the Caldecott! Aaron Becker is also really cool and made an awesome video for our class! You’re going to love Doll Bones, Kellee. I’ve got Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock in my library bag. Reading Fangirl now and really liking it!
I just got Fangirl from the library! We are swapped. I am excited to hear what you think about Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock!
I second the Caldecott. I just don’t see how it can be overlooked.
I am so looking forward to Doll Bones 🙂
Kellee–I hope you feel better soon. I will be interested to see what you think of Doll Bones. I really enjoyed it, but have seen some posts of people who didn’t like it. Ricki–I love everything by Matthew Quick and need to get my hands on a copy of Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. I am sure it is really engaging and sounds like an important story for teens to read.
Andrea, it is quite different from the others, but just as good. He does a great job with variety between his books’ topics.
Thank you Andrea 🙂
I haven’t heard of anyone who didn’t like it, but it is bound to happen.
I happen to really enjoy Holly Black, so I am optimistic.
Wow, Jen has been ill too, Kellee. I think we all gear up for the beginning of school & then let down & boom, something hits. Happens at my school every fall. Hope you’re better soon! Lots of good reads here to catch up with, like I keep hearing about Leonard Peacock, but oh my it sounds depressing, and of course must get to Doll Bones. It looks like I won a wristband-awesome! And thank you!
It is a bit depressing, Linda, but it felt very important. It is reminiscent of other books (Like Burn by Suzanne Phillips or 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher), but yet, it offers new perspectives.
Been sick twice this year so far. WAY too much. I think the pregnancy is making my immune system have a hard time fighting off colds. Hopefully this is the last cold though!
Kellee, I didn’t know you were pregnant too! Congratulations & hope this is the last one!
Thank you!!!! 🙂
I hope the colds are over as well 🙂
Kellee enjoy Doll Bones and take good care! Ricki – I love that you and your husband are listening to stories together. Such a lovely thing to do. I love when our whole family listens to audio stories on road trips Such a way to have a common experience and great memories.
I love it too! I am not sure if he will stick with it. He enjoys it, but he is easily distracted. I am trying to convince him that it is better than listening to crappy music!
Thank you Carrie. I am looking forward to Doll Bones 🙂
I hear ya Kellee on the needing to work on presentations thing. I think I must just work better under pressure because I am not feeling enough urgency at the moment. 🙂
Though my friend has asked me to speak to the children’s lit class she’s teaching at EMU about using picture books as mentor texts so I’m going to do that before NCTE to motivate me to get my part of the preso finished! 🙂
Sorry to hear you’ve been sick. Hope you’re feeling better today!
That balance between work and reading is so tricky!
I just got an email saying NCTE is 6 weeks away; that made me freak out a bit, but not totally urgent yet.
Have fun talking to her class! What a fun opportunity.
And thank you – each day is getting better, but it is hard when you cannot take all of the good medications 🙂
Ol’ Mama Squirrel is in my book bag right now! Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock does sound powerful! Henrietta Sacks is in my TBR, so I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts on the audio, Rikki. My current audiobook is The True Meaning of Smekday . . . another long one that I keep needing to renew from the library!
I haven’t heard of that one. I will have to check it out! It might be a while for the Henrietta Lacks report. I have to see if my husband is willing to forge on, or if I will be going at it alone. 🙂
Yay Ol’ Mama Squirrel! Make sure you see the song that the author did (on our review) – it is awesome.
Hi there Kellee and Ricki, I am excited to read Journey – sure to receive many awards next year. Grumbles from the Forest also caught my eye. Looking forward to read what you thought about The Real Boy. Sounds like a fascinating read too. 🙂 Thanks for sharing all these. And a Kindle Paperwhite?! Wow. Nice present indeed. 🙂
He is an all-star. He even spent the extra 20 bucks so I don’t need to see any advertisements. 🙂
Journey is definitely going to be an award recipient. I cannot imagine those illustrations being ignored.
Grumbles in the Forest and The Real Boy are both fantastic – well worth the read.