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
Tuesday: Top Ten Books We’re Not Sure We Want to Read
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: This week, I was lucky enough to read a manuscript of one of my friend’s novel. It is a wonderful middle grade book that I know will be published, and I cannot wait to share it with you!
Trent and I read some amazing picture books this week. We continued our Oliver Jeffers readathon with The Hueyrs in…It Wasn’t Me, Stuck, and The Incredible Book Eating Boy. Stuck and The Incredible Book Eating Boy, along with Lost and Found are probably my favorites of his.
We also read two amazing, but different, nonfiction books. First was Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli was a beautiful story (with amazing illustrations!) of an inspirational woman who I truly want to learn more about. We also read Best Foot Forward by Ingo Arndt which is a fun Q&A nonfiction books with such realistic photographs.
Ricki: This week, I enjoyed Just Call My Name by Holly Goldberg Sloan. This was an excellent sequel to I’ll Be There, and I enjoyed it very much. Sloan plays with literary elements in ways that are both innovative and brave. It is a very suspenseful book, and I had difficulty putting it down! Henry and I enjoyed some great picture books this week. We laughed as we read Naked by Michael Ian Black, admired the artwork in Oh No, George by Chris Haughton, enjoyed the adventurous boy in The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, lived through history with Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, and loved the retelling of Rumpelstiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky. This isn’t my favorite fairy tale (but Zelinsky does it very well), and my husband and I spent a long time trying to figure out the moral of the tale. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I started In Real Life by Cory Doctorow yesterday, and so far I am truly enjoying it. I especially love how real the protagonist is. After IRL I am going to read El Deafo by Cece Bell and reread Jellaby by Kean Soo. Trent and I still have the huge pile of picture books from the library to read that includes many picture books I learned about on your IMWAYR posts.
Ricki: My second Ph.D. year at UConn starts next week, so I am reading twice as many PD texts as usual. Once teaching and classes start, I lose a lot of time, so I am trying to devote most of my free time to reading. I started Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher, which is edited by Judith A. Hayn and Jeffrey S. Kaplan. I really like the way the book is organized and find myself nodding my head quite frequently. I will share more when I am a bit further in the book. I also started The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. To be honest, I don’t love it yet, but I am very curious to see where it goes.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling Us We Must Read
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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I have El Deafo on my TBR pile. I’m not really familiar with her work so opefully it’ll be good! Cris Haughton’s popularity will only continue to increase, I think. Everybody loves Little Owl Lost!
I’ve only read one of Cece’s picture books, so I look forward to read El Deafo. I’ll let you know how it is 🙂 I don’t know Chris Haughton. Will have to look for his books.
I haven’t read these, but I must add them to my list!
The Interestings is an adult novel that I have on my TBR list. I will be interested to see if it picks up for you. You both have some great picture books in this list. Thanks for sharing!
My dad read The Interestings and really enjoyed it. 🙂
I took a sneak peak at the GoodReads reviews, and it seems people either love it or hate it. I am going to stick with it. I will keep you posted!
That picture of Trent is priceless, Kellee. So glad he’s such a precocious reader! Hard to believe you’re starting back to school, Ricki-busy time for everyone I guess. Have a great week!
Thank you! It is one of my favorite pictures! He is precocious in all aspects 🙂
I cannot believe it is time for school to start again either. Wishing all my teacher friends a great year 🙂
Thanks, Linda! Your comment on Kellee’s picture made me realize I should post one of Henry! I will get on it. 🙂 Have a great week!
I love the picture books list. I am not as familiar with picture books, but want to learn and read more of the. You guys are a great source of titles and authors for me to start with!
Having Trent has definitely made me learn more about picture books, and I love sharing my favorites 🙂
So glad that we are able to help you find some great titles.
Thank you, Kay! I consider myself a YA reader, but I am slowly entering the territories of picture/middle grade books. I’m learning from some of the experts on this meme. They are great mentors!
Kellee, I haven’t seen Jeffers’s Incredible Book-Eating Boy but it has a great title and I love his work, so I’m going to request it at the library. We’ve read several PBs about Wangari Maathai, and I have liked all of them (though I think Claire Nivola’s is probably my favorite). Ricki, what is the focus of your PhD? I am not sure I have ever been more relieved than when I finished mine! I know what you mean about reading time getting cut down. Hard to believe summer reading is over!! I struggle to read any adult fiction these days: I prefer YA and middle-grade to everything else!
Elisabeth, it is quite an interesting and fun book–I know you will like it. Mostly if you have enjoyed other Jeffers books. I will have to look for Nivola’s book about Wangari Maathai–I really want to learn more about her.
Hi, Elisabeth! My focus is English Education (Curriculum and Instruction). I am hoping to teach English teachers. What was your focus? It is a big undertaking, but I am really enjoying it!
Ah…it seems we are all on the same wavelength! I just finished both IRL and The Interestings! I liked them both.
Just back from 3 weeks of vacations, so you can catch up with the rest of what we read at my blog.
I packed up a bag of books to give to my teen cousins this weekend at the beach – so much fun sharing some of my favorites and seeing their excitement at new books!
Also gearing up for the start of school here, but in different ways – one son is in daily soccer practices already and the other moves back to college campus at the end of the week – busy week!
Sue
Book By Book
IRL is pretty good–I need to finish it!
Hope you had an amazing vacation! A bag of books and the beach sounds amazing!
Happy beginning of the school year–sounds like you have some changes happening soon.
Ah! I am heading to your blog to find out your thoughts on The Interestings. I think I have a future with a soccer son. My husband plays on several teams. Busy, busy, busy! Thank you for stopping by!
I can’t wait for this post about your favourite books with Trent Kellee- what a cute little reader. Rumpelstiltskin is a very strange story – part of the reason I loved reading Rump so much (Liesl Shurtliff) That is a fantastic read aloud when these little listeners of yours get older.
Thank you Carrie! I am waiting until Wednesday (his 6 month birthday!!!) to write the post. I’m looking forward to looking through all of the books we’ve read.
I love Rump! It is a great retelling.
I will add Rump to my “later” list! I am glad I am not the only person who finds it to be strange!
I hear a lot of positive things about El Deafo. I had a super busy life this past week with a huge running race I was in, so I never read an actual book, but did manage to finish the audio book China Dolls. Have a great week.
I have heard amazing things as well–I am very much looking forward to it.
What race did you run in? I can understand how much time that takes up–my husband is a runner 🙂
I have also heard good things. I need to get it! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great week!
Every time I see the title JUST CALL MY NAME, I immediately get “I’ll Be There” by the Jackson 5 stuck in my head. 😉
Thank goodness it isn’t only me! I do it with BOTH titles in the series! Hahaha.
Hi Ladies,
I stayed caught up with you on Goodreads this week! I’m not sure how much reading I’ll be be doing now since school started, but I’ll get it in when I can! I’m interested in hearing about Jon Scieszka’s new one. It’s not ordered by the library yet, so I’ll wait and see you review to see if I should buy it! Kellee, adorable pictures of Trent. I can’t believe how old he is already, didn’t you just have him??? 🙂
I’m right there with you. Working + mom + blogging + wife = hard to find time!!
Thank you for the compliments on Trent. He is such an awesome kid, and I cannot believe he is going to be 6 months this week!!!
It is so hard to keep up with school starting. We all will be missing that extra time! I agree. I feel like Kellee just had him! The boys are growing up!
Hello there Ricki and Kellee – Oliver Jeffers is an absolute favourite, but I haven’t had a chance to read any of his Hueys yet. I feel like I’m missing out on a lot. I haven’t read any of Doctorow’s novels yet, so I look forward to reading your thoughts about it Kellee, and Ricki, best of luck on your PhD – I supervise quite a number of our PhD students here at the University (I have around 4 supervisees), and I know how solitary a PhD student’s life can get – so it’s great that you’re blogging. PD texts at this juncture are bound to be a lot of fun. Challenging, perhaps on occasion, but still a wonderful experience.
Woot to Oliver Jeffers reading! 🙂 Also to reading Oh No, George… IRL and El Deafo- hope I can get my hands on them both! Ricki- good luck getting thru PD texts, I’m behind on reading mine…
Hope the reading week is wonderful for you both…