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: Teaching My Son to Read (by Ricki)
Wednesday: Leaf Litter Critters by Leslie Bulion
Thursday: Dr. E’s Super Stellar Solar System by Bethany Ehlmann with Jennifer Swanson
Friday: Blog Tour with Review and Giveaway!: The Backup Bunny by Abigail Rayner
Giveaway only open until tomorrow!
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee
- I love everything by Eliot Schrefer! He is just so detailed in his voices and settings which just adds so much to his stories. Mez’s Magic is different than anything else he has done, and it is going to be a wonderful addition to the reading lives of students who love animal adventure fantasies.
- Fresh Ink edited by Lamar Giles was created in partnership with We Need Diverse Books and includes 13 authors sharing a short story (well, 10 stories, 1 comic, and 1 play). These authors include some of my favorites including Jason Reynolds, Walter Dean Myers, Nicola Yoon, Sharon Flake, Gene Luen Yang, and Malinda Lo as well as new to me authors who I can’t wait to read more from. This is a MUST GET everyone. I promise you–you and your students are going to love it!
- THE FALSE PRINCE IS AMAZING!!! I couldn’t stop texting Michele while reading it because it is so twisty and turny, and there were parts I didn’t see coming which just shocked me! So. Good!
- I look forward to sharing Granted on Friday 🙂
Ricki
I am really excited to share these picture books, which will be published later this year.
I Walk with Vanessa by Kerascoeet is going to be a favorite this year. It’s absolutely stunning. I’ll be making space in the calendar to write a full review of this one. This is a great book to teach bullying. I would pair it with Jacqueline Woodson’s Each Kindness. I feel lucky to have this one in bound form, and I gifted my F&G to a friend who teaches literacy to future teachers. I love this book.
Wordy Birdy by Tammi Sauer is a fun book to teach listening skills.
Fruit Bowl by Mark Hoffman is full of puns, and adults will have just as much fun reading this as the kids will.
Night Out is a quiet almost-wordless picture book that reminded me a bit of Alice and Wonderland. The artwork is absolutely beautiful.
Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang is very funny. I will be buying a bound copy of this one. I love that it teaches that it is okay to be grumpy sometimes!
How To Be a Lion by Ed Vere is a useful book for teaching about asking questions. I love the friendship that develops in this book and the lion’s determination to be different.
I also REREAD Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan. I am looking forward to teaching it tomorrow!
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee
As soon as I was done with The False Prince, I started this one. I hope it is as good as the first!
Ricki
I am halfway through Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya, and I love it. I don’t tend to love middle grade books. It’s my flaw. I am finding that I am thinking about this story a lot when I am not reading it. Once I get my work done tonight, I suspect I’ll be finishing it. 😉
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Gateway Books for Kids Who Say They Don’t Like to Read
Wednesday: When Paul Met Artie by G. Neri
Thursday: Astronaut Annie by Suzanne Slade
Friday: Granted by John David Anderson
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
I Walk with Vanessa is going on my must have list! Thank you for the recommendation. Kellee – so pleased you loved The False Prince. We listened to the audio book as a family on a trip to Seattle and became forever Jennifer Nielsen fans! I just met Pam Muñoz Ryan in Bellingham last week. She is incredible.
I’m listening to book 2 now, and I adore Sage/Jaren (is that how you spell it? I’ve never seen it in print), and so many of my kids want to read it now because I’ve talked so much about it.
I think you are going to love I Walk with Vanessa. It is so beautifully done! I’ve seen Pam Muñoz Ryan speak, but I’ve never met her. I am jealous!
Looking forward to Marcus Vega. Have a great week!
Me, too!
It’s very good!
I’m sharing Be Kind today by Pat Zietlow Miller, sounds like a good pairing with I Walk With Vanessa. It’s wonderful that books like these are coming out. And I have When Paul Met Artie, will look for your post about it! Yes, glad you are reading the False Prince books, Kellee. I loved them, too! Happy Reading!
I hope you liked When Paul Met Artie as much as I did 🙂 Check out my post on Wednesday!
And they are so good!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait to read more Nielsen books!
Yes! I just read another tonight (What Happens Next) that can be added to this list. I agree that it is so nice that these books are coming out!
Grumpy Monkey’s cover made me LOL. My eyes were glued to the YA section of your post.
Grumpy Monkey caught my eye, too 🙂
Some of the titles my fifth grader has read are the following:
Finding Mighty
Ms. Bixby’s Last Day (a sad one)
Refugee
Scar Island
Orphan Island
She says her teacher has them all in a bin and students can check them out if they want to.
Other titles:
Ghost
Love that Dog
How to Steal a Dog
She said she read all of them except one, one many of her friends said was, “really boring.”
What’s the one she hasn’t read?
I loved SO MANY on this list! ANd yes, Mx. Bixby’s Last Day is sad 🙁
There are so many good ones on this list!!!
I am really excited to get my hands on The False Prince!! And my copy of Granted just came in from Amazon last week. I have just 3 more books ahead of it, so I’ll be in a hurry for sure! Have a wonderful reading week!
The False Prince is so wonderful! I can’t sing its praises enough!
I want to read The False Prince, too!
Wow, you’ve both read so many great books lately, and such a huge variety! We had The False Prince here at the house for a while (a few years, actually), but I don’t think either my son or I ever got to it – looks like we missed out!
I loved Pam Munoz Ryan’s Echo, so this one looks good, too.
Hope you both enjoy your books this week!
Sue
Book By Book
You definitely missed out–you should grab the audiobook!
Yes! This is one of her older books, but I think it’s likely the most widely read in schools. I love it! My students raved about it today.
Keller,
Fresh Ink is now on my to read list. I enjoyed The False Prince, but found the other books in the series, especially the last one, became to violent for me. Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish is the kind of book I might love.
Ricki,
I am eagerly anticipating How To Be a Lion. I have adored all of Ed Vere’s Max books and expect to love this one too! If the title, Grumpy Monkey didn’t already make me wa t to read this book, the cover sure does. I love it already!
It was the first book that my son wanted to reread tonight. He really enjoys it.
Grumpy Monkey is REALLY good. I am going to buy it for a family member who fits well with the storyline.
I really like the look of Astronaut Annie (immediately placed it in my Goodreads’ To-Read stack) and When Paul Met Artie – both picturebooks fit into our upcoming reading theme on memoirs/biographies. 🙂