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.
CONGRATULATIONS
EMILY H.
for winning a copy of A Snowman’s Story
Last Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Books On Our Winter TBR
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Trent and Henry met at NCTE!
Last (2) Weeks’ Journeys
Kellee: Wow! What a whirlwind! We left for DC on the 21st, and it has been nonstop since then. Ironically, because I was at NCTE/ALAN (a conference focused around reading), I was not able to read as much as I usually do. I was able to finish a few titles. First I finished Mira’s Diary: Bombs over London by Marissa Moss (and was able to talk to her about it at NCTE). I love these books! A great mix of sci-fi and historical fiction. I also finished a couple of graphic novels: The Silver Six by AJ Lieberman which is a great dystopian middle grade GN that somehow flew under my radar & Nnewts by Doug TenNapel which is his new GN coming out in January, 2015 (and my students will be so excited I got it!). Lastly, I read two picture books: Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman which actually made me laugh outloud in the middle of a store & Outlaw Pete by Bruce Springsteen which was a beautiful adaptation of Bruce’s song (not for little kids!).
With Trent, we brought along some of our favorite board books and revisited them while on our trip. Mostly we reread Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton, If I Were a Penguin by Anne Wilkinson, and The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! by Mo Willems. Trent also received a gift from the kind Kim McCollum-Clark of My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall which we have read a couple times already. Love the clever illustrations and kind message.
Ricki: The past two weeks have been nonstop for me, too. I was at NCTE/ALAN for five days, then I was at my in-laws’ house for two days for Turkey Day, and then I spent three days preparing my son’s first birthday party. I will share the Goodnight Moon-themed party pictures in an upcoming post! Henry and I have read a lot of new picture books like, My Yellow Balloon by Tiffany Papageorge and several great Sandra Boynton board books. This week is my last week of classes (both as a teacher and as a student), and then I am able to do a lot more free-reading.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I started The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi over the weekend, and I am about half way done. I then have a couple piles of books: one YA and one PBs from the library. I hope to make a dent in the PB one (including The Very Inappropriate Word, Sophie Scott Goes South, A Boy and Jaguar, The Girl Who Hears Colors, & The Cat, the Dog, Little Red, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf, and Grandma). Also maybe I’ll start The Paper Cowboy by Kristin Levine or Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick. OH! And I have 2 graphic novels to read: The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew & Fairy Tale Comics edited by Chris Duffy. Hopefully with life back to normal, I’ll be able to get some reading down 🙂
Ricki: I sent home many, many new YA books and ARCs from NCTE/ALAN, so it is time to get started! The first book I started reading was All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven because it is getting rave reviews. So far, I absolutely love it.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Ricki’s NCTE/ALAN Reflection
Wednesday: Kellee’s NCTE/ALAN Reflection
Thursday: Ricki’s Top Books from NCTE/ALAN
Friday: Kellee’s Top Books from NCTE/ALAN
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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Loved the pics of the boys! I look forward yo your reflections and again, it was so great to see you (and Trent) at NCTE!
Thanks, Gigi! They had a great time together. 🙂
Aren’t they adorable?!?!
Loved seeing you as well! And so happy that you got to meet Trent 🙂
Happy you both got together, & with the boys, too! Kellee, I have a student who gobbles up graphic novels, so thanks for these titles new to me, and Ricki I too have heard much about All The Bright Places-can’t wait till I can read it! Have a great week!
Linda, so far, I absolutely love it. I will share more when I am farther along, though. 🙂
You’re welcome! Love GNs!
I look forward to reading All the Bright Places! Everyone is raving.
Those pictures of Trent and Henry are absolutely precious. And Ricki, I just now realized that we STILL haven’t met in person yet. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen again next year. 😉
Beth, next year, I am going to have someone install a GPS monitor on your phone (or your person) and find you!
Thank you! I loved that they got to meet!
I can’t wait to hear more about NCTE/ALAN. Love the pics of Trent and Henry! Enjoy reading all the books you collected. I’m jealous of the new Doug ten Nepal GN!
Thanks, Kay! I think we will enjoy them, for sure. 🙂
Thank you 🙂 They are such sweet boys 🙂
Nnewts was quite good. It comes out in January (I’ll have to pick it up then too because the ARC is not in color).
Your conference sounds like fun! I LOVE the pictures of Henry and Trent together! Also love that they met at a book conference 🙂
Sounds like you both had a super busy week – and still managed to read!
Enjoy your books this week –
Sue
Book By Book
It’s fate. They are both destined to be readers. That is how it works, right? 🙂
Yes. That IS how it works!
I’m looking forward to your NCTE/ALAN reflections. I’m hoping to stay for ALAN next year. I know just what you mean about limited reading time with NCTE and then the holidays. I also have a week of classes left and hope to be more indulgent with reading time after that.
ALAN is my absolute favorite. I am very partial to it. NCTE is just a bit broad for me, but I do enjoy both for different reasons. For me, NCTE is English-oriented, but ALAN is YA explosion. It makes me happy. 🙂
Great comparison.
Sometimes becoming a better teacher/person/parent takes away from reading, and I am coming to terms with it not being a bad thing, just different.
Conferences are for connecting and seeing your little ones bonding over books is fantastic. I only read one middle grade and one picture book bio during the holiday week as I was finishing up my NaNoWriMo. It is a relief to be able to read freely again so I too am hoping for a great week with lots of books. 🙂