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
Top Ten Tuesday: “Gateway” Books/Authors in Our Reading Journey
**Click on any picture to view the post**
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: This week I finished Wild Awake by Hilary Smith. It was an interesting journey of watching a character’s life run out of her control. I was a big fan of the way the author wrote the story because if helped you feel the chaos that was happening in Kiri’s life. A very impressive debut novel.
Trent’s picture book #bookaday continued, and we actually doubled up on a couple of days. This week, we read:
- Disney Bedtime Stories Board Books: 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, Lion King, Dumbo, Lilo & Stitch, and Pinocchio (These stories are all touch and go. Some are so sweet, especially Dumbo, 101 Dalmatians, and Lilo & Stitch. We have 2 more left that we plan to finish this week.)
- Listened to Go Dog Go, Are You My Mother?, and The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman on You Tube (These videos are perfect for the 20 minutes Trent and I have to spend upright after nursing. I’m sure we will listen to them over and over.)
- Baseball Is… by Louise Borden (Friday was the Cubs home opener, and we celebrated by having a baseball filled day! Thank you to Michele Knott for recommending this beautiful book to me.)
- Black on White by Tana Hoban (I learned about Tana Hoban’s books at the Mommy-Baby Tea that I go to. Since babies’ eyesight is not mature yet, the contrast in these wordless books keeps their attention, and it worked great for Trent. I made a little story for each picture to make it a little more interesting for me.)
Ricki: This week, I read a lot of great books. I am going to divide them up by category to make it easier to read.
Professional Development: I finished Life in Schools by Peter McLaren. It was good, but it wasn’t my favorite PD text. I felt like many of the ideas were contained in several other texts I have read recently. That said, I agree with the ideas he puts forth about the hegemony that exists in schools.
YA/Middle Grade: I read We Were Liars by e. lockhart. It was incredible. If you are looking for a good YA book, this one will blow you away. It has strong literary merit and is haunting. I get the shivers thinking about how powerful it is. I also finished Aphrodite by George O’Connor. I love how he re-imagines Greek mythology in graphic novel form!
Children’s Books: We pounded through our library books this week. Henry and I have a new tradition. We read a book downstairs before we go upstairs for his last feeding, so he and I enjoy double the reading time. My favorite from this week was The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Shotter. It highlights the magic of collecting words. I also loved Jane Yolen’s How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?. The other books we read and enjoyed together were: Robie Harris’ When Lions Roar, Mark Moulton’s Change the World Before Bedtime, Mem Fox’s Koala Lou, Chris Allsburg’s The Stranger, and Taro Miura’s The Tiny King.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I have already started All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, and I am intrigued by the premise already. At only 30 pages in, I am excited to keep reading it. And, of course, Trent and I are going to continue our #bookaday. We’ll first finish the Disney board books then move to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and other books Aly kindly sent us.
Ricki: My next PD book is Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation. I have always wanted to read this one, so I am looking forward to learning a lot from it. I just started the young adult book, Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira. I pre-ordered it because I heard such good things about it. Henry and I are reading Fairy Tale Comics (edited by Chris Duffy). It retells seventeen fairy tales in graphic novel form. He love the bright colors, and I enjoy how each fairy tale is short, so I can keep his attention!
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Most Unique Books We’ve Read
Wednesday: Favorite Nonfiction Picture Books About Strong Women in History
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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How to tell you’ve gotten old: the idea of Go, Dog, Go on YouTube makes you very sad, but you can’t exactly say why!
Aw 🙁 If you watch the video, it’ll make you happy! It is perfect 🙂
Karen, reinterpretations of books often make me sad. Anytime a YA book because a movie, my stomach starts to hurt, so I understand. That said, sometimes the interpretations are actually well done, so I shouldn’t be so critical.
I’m right there with you!
(The You Tube videos Trent and I watched were just read alouds, though, so I was good with them :-D)
Isn’t it great that you get to use your own story with wordless books Kellee? I enjoy hearing about both of your reading experiences with your little ones. It brings back so many memories. 🙂
It is so much fun! Love how you can change it up every time you read it.
How old are yours now Crystal?
I hadn’t thought of doing this. I always just point to the pictures. I need to steal this suggestion!
I love hearing about all of the books you two are reading with your little guys and the routines that help support all of this reading. I can’t wait to read We Were Liars – it’s on my #MustRead list!
Thank you for your support in our sons’ reading lives. You have pointed us in directions of some great books!
Yes, yes! I can’t wait to hear what you think!!! I agree with Kellee. Thank you for all of your suggestions.
Kellee – I’m so glad you liked the Baseball Is… book! I’ve read it and shared it a few times!
Ricki – can’t wait to hear more about we were liars! I have it on preorder!
Have a great week!
It was a beautiful (poetry and pictures) book. Thank you for putting it on my radar.
Michele, I have to think long and hard about this post. I can’t give anything away! 🙂 Have a great week, too!
All new mothers should be reading your posts, Kellee and Ricki-so many fun books for the tiniest ones! Like Carrie, need to get to We Were Liars-sounds great! Thank you! Kellee, when my children were young, we had a dalmatian. They watched her all the time & many said because of the black & white!
I love the relationship between kids and their pets. I can’t wait until my cats and son recognize each others’ existence 🙂
Aw, thank you, Linda! You are so kind. I hope you have a fantastic week!
I definitely need to read WE WERE LIARS soon! I saw the Twitter thread last night and am even more anxious to read it now.
I was told at NCTE that this book was going to be the IT book, and it seems like it is. I so look forward to getting to it at some point 🙂
🙂
I was sucked in, and I hope you are too! Please let me know if you read it. I would love to hear your thoughts!
I love P.D. Eastman! I learned to read with Go, Dog, Go! and The Best Nest was one of my favorite books, so I shared both with my sons, and they loved them, too. We still say, “Where are all those dogs going?” and “Do you like my hat?” to each other and they are n their late teens now! And when i am glad to be home and content, I still hum to myself, “I love my house, I love my nest, In all the world, my nest is best!” OK, now you both think I am totally nuts 🙂
My youngest son LOVED Are You My Mother? – one of his all-time favorites, especially when I did the voice of the baby bird asking the question over and over…and of course, the “Snort!”
Thanks for reminding me of all those good times. Enjoy your books and your babies this week –
Sue
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I can say “Do you like my hat?” to my siblings and they’d answer with “I do not.”, so you are not alone 🙂
I’d never read The Best Nest, and it is so cute!
You should watch the You Tube videos I linked–I think they are perfect for the books 🙂
Happy memories!
I only own the board book version of Go Dog Go. My husband always complains that it isn’t the same. I guess we will be getting it at the library this week. Sue, I always love reading your posts on our blog. They make me so happy.
Ricki, you should check out the You Tube video 🙂
Kellee – you read some great picture books. I loved Baseball Is…, too! Ricki – I’m hearing lots of good things about We Were Liars!
It is incredible, Holly. You definitely have to read it!
Baseball Is is just a beautiful book (language and pictures).
I think I must have mentioned this to you before but it bears repeating. I grew up on P.D. Eastman’s Are you my Mother? Didn’t realize there were more! Have wonderful fun with your young ones. 🙂 Such a precious time this must be for both of you.
I didn’t realize this either, Myra! I love blogging because I learn so much. 🙂 Thanks for the well wishes. 🙂
The others are just as good 🙂
I love that Trent and Henry are already #bookaday readers. 🙂 And I am guessing that I will now need to pick up We Were Liars.
I’m hoping I can keep it up! 🙂
We’ll both get to Liars eventually 🙂