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 to
MICHELLE E.
for winning a copy of the complete set of the Wolf Chronicles–Prompis of the Wolves, Secrets of the Wolves, and Spirit of the Wolves
Last Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Ricki’s Top Ten Books Read in 2014
Wednesday: Blog Tour! Catch that Cookie by Hallie Durand
Thursday: Our Last Minute Book Gift Recommendations
Friday: Holiday Blog Hop! Mira’s Diary series by Marissa Moss
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: Yay, break!!! I am on day 3, and I have already read a #bookaday! I hope I am able to keep it up! First, I finished The Complete Persepolis by Marjan Satrapi. It was an INTENSE book, and it took me a while to finish it; however, I am happy that I read it. Since break started, I have finished The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang, a graphic novel that began with a lesser known comic hero called the Green Turtle and turned into quite an awesome adventure. Next, I read Leroy Ninker Saddles Up by Kate DiCamillo. It reconfirmed for me that Kate is a phenomenal author. Her way with descriptive language and voice is one of the best in the business. Next, I read The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale which is an exceptional new addition to girl power in early readers. Trent and I did a lot of rereading this week including Santa Goes Everywhere, Fifteen Animals, My Heart is Like a Zoo, and Waddle!
Ricki: Henry has decided, at age one, that naps are for babies, so my reading list is shorter than I would like it to be. I finished a beautiful book, Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson and Sean Qualls. This is a fantastic book about Emmanuel’s resilience over his disability. He is an icon in Africa (and across the world), and it is a great nonfiction text for students. I also read two informational nonfiction texts by High Noon Books. They were Robots by Allison Lassieur and We Made It by Lisa Benjamin. Middle grade students who are interested in engineering and robotics will enjoy these.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I still have my huge TBR pile for winter break that I am still delving into. I am going to start with Fairy Tale Comics and Explorer: The Hidden Doors, but then the rest of the books in the pile are longer, so although I am still going to try to do a #bookaday, it may be more like a book every couple of days 🙂 Trent and I have a few Christmas themed books to read, including A Christmas Wish for Corduroy and Santa!: A Scanimation Picture Book.
Ricki: I have one CD left of the first Harry Potter book. My husband drove today, and I fell asleep while listening to it. This parallels the time I fell asleep watching the movie. I actually think it is entertaining, but for some reason, it makes me sleepy. I am so glad I decided to listen to the book (and I am extremely impressed by the audiobook reader, Jim Dale), but to Kellee’s dismay, I won’t be listening to more Harry Potter books beyond this first one. The only characters I enjoy are Hermione and Hagrid, and all of the characters seem to fall a bit flat for me. I know a lot of you will disagree with, but I am just being honest! I respect the collective love for this book, but it just isn’t for me. You know which characters don’t fall flat for me? The characters in All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. I haven’t finished it just yet, but it is simply fantastic.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Books We Wouldn’t Mind Santa Bringing Henry and Trent This Year
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 hope you both have wonderful holidays with your babies, not so babyish anymore I think, but still… I want to read Princess In Black, and All The Bright Places-perhaps soon!
I cannot wait! This is such a special time to be spending with Trent!
Princess in Black is so much fun! I love girl power books 🙂
Thank you, Linda! Happy holidays to you and yours!
It sounds like you both have lots of good books to read over Christmas break. Enjoy the reading and the celebrating! I’m looking forward to reading the books I opened yesterday–a Bill Bryson (on Englis, the Mother Tongue) and a Mitch Albom (I’m finally getting to The Time Keeper.)
Enjoy Kay! I need to read The Time Keeper, too. Maybe one day 🙂
I’ve wanted to read The Time Keeper for quite some time. I am looking forward to your thoughts on it. Happy holidays!
I think I need to add The Shadow Hero to my TBR. I’ve been hearing a lot about it lately.
It is very good, Beth. I highly recommend it.
I have it on my nightstand right now! I need to read it too.
Glad you are both finding more reading time with your holiday, though Ricki, I feel sorry for you! Giving up a nap at just 1 is killer!! My first son was still taking long naps at 5 (thank goodness he got morning kindergarten), but my second (very active!) son gave up his nap at 2 or 3, so I feel for you.
My son is also listening to HP and the Sorcerer’s Stone on audio right now. He has a concussion and is very limited in what he is allowed to do, so he turned (in desperation) to audio books and is enjoying listening to the HP series again. He mentioned how much better and fuller the books are than the movies, and my older son (an avid reader) said, “I’ve been telling you that for years!” lol
Kellee, we still have A Christmas Wish for Corduroy! In fact, we still have a big stack of Christmas books, and our sons, at 16 and 20, still want us to read a few of them to them on Christmas Eve 🙂
Enjoy your books and the holiday – your sons are at such a great age for holiday celebrations!!
Sue
http://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2014/12/its-monday-what-are-you-reading.html
We read Curdoroy tonight. Reminded me how much I enjoy that bear.
I want to get 26 Christmas books so that I can wrap them all up each year and unwrap one each day to read. I want to make it a tradition once he can unwrap 🙂 Would love to know what your boys’ favorites are.
Sue,
Your family sounds simply wonderful. I want to come over for dinner! I agree that the book is definitely better and fuller than the movie.
Henry took one nap today, so I am hoping that tomorrow I will be as lucky. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!
Enjoy your week!
Ricki
Hi Ladies!
It’s been a couple of weeks, but I finally had some time. I’m so excited to finally get some reading done! I’ve heard wonderful things about All the Bright Places, I can’t wait to get it in January! I marked the Emmanuel book down – my daughter has a limb length discrepancy, so I love reading books about kids who thrive with a physical disability! I think reading those with her remind her that she can do anything.
I love Leroy Ninker and The Princess in Black because of what they do for young readers. I think that age is in such need of great, transitional chapter books.
Have a great Christmas with your boys! This is such a fun age – they start getting so excited for those presents!
Early readers are truly getting so exceptional! Kate DiCamillo, Shannon Hale, Kate Messner, and others are truly helping it grow.
I think Trent is probably going to be the most excited about the wrapping paper 😀
Michele,
Emmanuel would be perfect for your daughter. I am interested to hear what you think about it. All the Bright Places is worth all of the wonderful things you’ve heard. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by! We missed you!
Ricki
Can’t wait to read The Shadow Hero. It’ll be my first book of 2015! With the Harry Potter books, you need to be in a mood, I think. I didn’t realize I would like it as much as I did. Happy Holidays!
I think you will really like it Earl. It is a great superhero book!
Hmm. Yes, some days I enjoy it, but other days, I am not into it as much. I liked the beginning the best. I will also be reading Shadow Hero soon!
I love reading Kate DiCamillo’s books out loud! We really loved Leroy Ninker–can’t wait for more tales from Deckawoo Drive. I finished The Shadow Hero this week too–really liked it. I’m not a huge superhero comics fan, but this is a special story. Ricki, I actually totally agree with you about Harry Potter. I think Books 1 and 2 are especially boring, though saved for me by Jim Dale’s narration. I read the HP novels as they appeared, and I hadn’t read any children’s lit since I was a child, so they seemed very special to me then. Wishing you both lots of good reading time this week!
I can see why they’d be super fun to read outloud! All of her books. She just has a way of making each of her characters so unique.
I agree that Shadow Hero is special. I think it is a superhero story that non-superhero fans will truly enjoy.
I keep hearing that Book 3 is the best. I don’t think I will make it that far, to be honest. I have just so much more in the horizon. I am not a big superhero fan either, so I am glad to hear you liked The Shadow Hero. I plan to read it soon. 🙂
Kellee, The Shadow Hero is one of my favorites of 2014. Leroy Ninker was a hoot.
Ricki, thanks for the robot titles.
The Shadow Hero will definitely be on my list as well. And I loved Leroy Ninker–I hope he has more adventures.
You’re welcome! Enjoy!
Oh you two – I arrive here to read your updates and then I get distracted reading all of the other posts that you share from the week that I forget to come back! Ricki – I wonder if when your little guy is older, you might enjoy reading Harry Potter aloud. It was as a read aloud experience with my children that I loved these titles. Kellee – I want to read this next Mercy Watson “spin off” I am excited to hear Kate in the spring in Bellingham! Happy holiday reading to you both!
Carrie, I can most definitely say that I will be reading Harry Potter out loud to him when he is older. He is only a year old, but I can already sense his personality, and I think it is going to be a really good fit. 🙂
Thanks so much for mentioning Emmanuel’s Dream, Ricki! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! =D
You are very welcome! Kellee and I will both be blogging about it on January 14! We are going to do a teaching review for it! 🙂