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 Things We Like/Dislike When It Comes To Romances In Books
Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “Three Bowls of Porridge” by Lisa Heathfield, Author of Seed
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: I read The Crossover this week, and I am so glad I did! I am so happy that a book that won the Newbery is one that I love and that is accessible to my students. Oh, and it is diverse! I cannot wait to review this book because this is a book that belongs in a classroom.
With Trent, we read Pete the Cat probably 15 times, Fifteen Animals probably 10 times, and Personal Penguin probably 5 times. The boy finally has favorite books! I know it will eventually become tedious, right now I am loving that he loves these books.
Ricki: I was boring this week. I read 200 pages in a manual about coding qualitative data and read half of a book on qualitative data analysis. Henry has started a new sleeping trend. We read the typical 4-5 books together. Then, we put him down to sleep. He cries and cries unless we read another 4-5 books. We have tried starting off with ten books. Nope. The break—when Mommy and Daddy say goodnight—is required between the ten books. I am not quite sure how to break this trend, but hey, at least the kid wants to read! His current favorites are Trucks by Roger Priddy (a slide and find book), B is for Bear by Roger Priddy (a fantastic alphabet book) and Where’s Spot by Eric Hill (a lift the flap book). He reads each of these at least 15 times per day.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I am still listening the The Lions of Little Rock, and I am loving it! I am actually listening to it at the same time one of my students is reading it, so I am really enjoying chatting with her about it. As for what book I’m going to read this week, I am going to have to decide, but I think I am going to grab The Cure for Dreaming because I student loved it, and I would love to chat with her about it as well. Trent and I will probably continue reading the same books, but I do want to get Fox in Socks in there because my aunt gave it to Trent and haven’t gotten to it yet.
Ricki: This week, I will be finishing The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer. My friend, Wendy, gave me several new picture books for Henry, so I am excited to get to those, too.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Book Related Problems We Have
Friday: How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday by Jane Yolen (& Can You Believe Trent is ONE?!)
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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So fun that you are both in that stage of reading and re-reading with your children. I remember it well. 🙂
I loved The Crossover and knew that it would be so easy to book talk. I’m glad that the shiny sticker now means that our Barnes and Noble will have it on the shelves. It wasn’t there before. Brown Girl Dreaming was only briefly there too so I am hoping they will both be stocked better now.
I’m eager to see what you thought of Dreaming in Indian.
I hope that your book store gets it! It needs to be available for all kids to read!
I’m loving the reading and rereading even though I thought I wouldn’t. I love knowing the words my heart and knowing how much he loves what I am reading to him.
I loved Dreaming in Indian. What a beautiful book. Phew. I get shivers thinking about it. 🙂
Yes, it is fun when they start to love certain books, but eventually you will have them memorized! Enjoy LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK. It was not what I expected, but I loved it.
Already do! All three that he loves have songs that go with them which makes memorizing them even easier. 🙂
I am so excited to keep listening to Lions. It makes me wish I was reading it, so I could read it when I can’t listen to it!
I have a few memorized, but I suspect that number will grow!
How great to be reading/listening to The Lions of Little Rock with a student-must be very helpful to her, Kellee. Glad you loved The Crossover, such a wonderful story. And Ricki, sorry about that reading-don’t see how you manage it! Glad you get to drift along with some sweet PBs, too! Happy Birthday to Trent!
I’m hoping that us reading the book together will find help her out! I know I am really enjoying it more because of it.
The Crossover is a great story! I love how it was written.
Thanks, Linda! I don’t know how I manage it either! 🙂
Pete the Cat is CRAZY popular among the kiddos at my library. We have a poster of Pete and they all go nuts when they see it, ha! I need to read your post on Audacity. I’m dying to get my hands on that book!
He loves Pete, and I am starting to love him to! I can see why your kiddos are so excited 🙂
It was wonderful. I love all things historical fiction, but this was exceptionally good.
“I read 200 pages in a manual about coding qualitative data and read half of a book on qualitative data analysis.”
I bet that was a page-turner Ricki. 😉
Kellee, so glad you loved The Crossover. I actually read that one a couple weeks before that ALAYMA but as soon as I read it, I was actually hoping it would win over Brown Girl Dreaming. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Brown Girl Dreaming, but The Crossover’s rhythm, swagger, and heart made it, in my opinion, the most distinguished novel in verse I’ve ever read. Glad the Newbery committee agreed with me. 🙂
I agree! The rhythm and swagger of The Crossover just really makes it far superior to other novels in verse.
Haha. When you quote it like that, I really seem insane. 🙂 Thanks for bringing me back to reality.
I love hearing about all of the reading you are both doing with your boys AND how much they love it! Ricki, don’t know how you manage some of this reading you have to do. Sounds intense. Kellee – Lions of Little Rock is such a wonderful and important read. I read it and loved it and then read it with our student book club and loved it more.
I love reading it with my student, and I very much look forward to seeing how it ends.
It is intense, but it is actually interesting. If I want to be a good researcher, I suppose it is necessary, too. 🙂 I squeeze in fun books when I can.
ha ha – had to laugh that you are both getting into the repetitive toddler phase with books! Fun times. Our youngest son loved the Spot books and had a stuffed animal Spot, too. Your boys are getting close to the right age for Richard Scarry books – our boys LOVED those! Especially the Cars and Trucks and Things That Go Book – we still quote from it.
Be careful with the bedtime antics, Ricki! lol My mom and her husband used to call that Stall Ball when our son did it, and it’s a slippery slope! The first time he stayed alone with them for an overnight, he manipulated them into letting him stay up until about 2 am! ha ha They put him in the porta crib and he’d cry, and they’s run right back in and pick him up. he’d be holding all his stuffed animals and crying, “Yo Yo!” (the way he said video), so they’d bring him into bed with them and put in another video – ha ha – rookies!
Good times.
Enjoy your books this week, both of you!
Sue
Book By Book
Trent has a Pete the Cat stuffed animal, too! He loves to hold it while reading it 🙂
I heeded your lesson. As of last night, we cut that out. We gave him some Advil to be extra sure it wasn’t his teeth, and we read him a few extra books. But we refused that second reading session. As much as it kills me, you are right. A slippery slope indeed! I will get Cars and Trucks and Things That Go from our library! Thank you!
I decided that very short books were the key to the demand for 15 stories before bed. For awhile, I was choosing picture books based solely on how many words they had: the fewer, the better! My son has never gone through a phase of wanting the same book read over and over. The only books he has ever asked to be reread to him are the Mr Putter & Tabby books, funnily enough. Kellee, so glad you enjoyed The Crossover. I agree: it’s one I can’t wait to get into students’ hands. (I’m so eager to order some extra copies of it–really wish it would be back in stock!) Ricki, that reading sounds atrocious! I occasionally toy with the idea of taking a grad stats class because it’s something I missed in my own Lit Ph.D. program and would be useful in my current work in Educ., but…. then the moment passes and I come to my senses!
I now have two Crossover copies, so I cannot wait to book talk it. I know my class will jump right on it because we just finished Love That Dog, and they’d mentioned wanting to read more novels-in-verse.
I took two grad stats classes, and phew, I don’t think I would voluntarily take them again. They were interesting once, but I am glad I am done with them. That said, I will likely use quantitative work in my future studies. Overall, I am more of a qualitative researcher. Henry loves to reread books. He throws a fit if we don’t get the exact one he wants. It always seems to be the same few books. I definitely pick up the short board books most frequently! It must be a common parent strategy!
Ricki, I do not want your reading assignments right now 🙂 Sounds a touch painful! But I do have The Secret Hum in my #mustreadin2015 pile!
Kellee, I want to read Lions at some point. I have that book and One Crazy Summer (series) that I hope to get to!
Lions is super good so far! It had a turning point that surprised me about 25% in, and it has started going in a different direction than I’d anticipated. I really liked One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven. Her voice sticks with you.
It is more than a touch painful, but Secret Hum is making it all better. 🙂 🙂
Fox in Socks was the only book I ever had to practice reading! What a tongue twister! My daughters certainly liked all of the Dr. Seuss/P.D. Eastman books, with their bright colors and goofy stories! But I’m still glad I don’t have to read to them anymore!
I love Seuss and Eastman too. Are You My Mother is in our board book rotation as well 🙂 I look forward to reading Fox in Socks–I’ve never read it before.
They are certainly good fun. Like Kellee, I enjoy Are You My Mother? very much.
I love that the boys love to read with you! That is so wonderful. And Kellee – I loved the Crossover. I want to share it with so many kids. Ricki – I hope you love Secret Hum of a Daisy.
What age range is The Crossover appropriate for?
Ricki- forced myself through a book I just need to finish… shall see.
Hi there Ricki – are you using NVivo for your qualitative data analysis? That software is a must-have for anyone doing massive qualitative data analysis. Glad to see so many books here. 🙂
It’s so cool when babies finally have books the absolutely love! Happy Reading to both of you even if you do end up reading boring texts!