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.
One Year Anniversary Celebration
We are gearing up for our one year anniversary (June 24th) and have a fun week planned with celebratory posts and giveaways! In honor of our anniversary, we redesigned the look of our blog. Because we are so excited, we couldn’t wait to share it with you all, so we are unveiling it a few weeks early! We hope you love it as much as we do. A big thank you to Philip Stetson for this beautiful design!
In preparation for our one year anniversary celebration, we would love to hear from our fellow bloggers! On June 25th, we are focusing on the power of blogging, and we would love to highlight other incredible reading/teaching blogs. If you would like your blog to be included in our post, please complete our survey:
Last Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Professional Books
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets was such a well-done book! It really captured what depression and anxiety feel like. You will not regret it if you read it. I also read a couple of wonderful picture books this week. First was The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson. I loved the story, the lesson, the illustrations. Beautiful! The other was The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires. It had such great illustrations and is an important book to share with kids. Trent and I had no duds in our reading this week.
- If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Joffe Numeroff (Book #100!!!! And it was perfect for it! Since my mom was visiting, she got to read the book to him, and she loves cats. This Numeroff book is just like her others, but I am a fan of the formula.)
- Two Hands to Love You by Diane Adams (This is such a sweet, lyrical book. Great to read with kids.)
- We’re currently reading the Fly Guy Reader Collection which has 6 Fly Guy stories. We’ve read 5 of them so far: Hi Fly Guy!, Super Fly Guy!, Shoo Fly Guy!, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly Guy, and Fly High Fly Guy! (I’d never read any Fly Guy stories before, and they are so much fun. Fly Guy is a new favorite!)
Ricki: This week, I read Reading for Their Life: (Re)Building the Textual Lineages of African American Adolescent Males by Alfred W. Tatum. All of Tatum’s research focuses on African American adolescent males, and I wish I had read this book when I was still in the classroom. He provides a healthy list of “enabling texts” and thoroughly explains how to empower these young men to read. I love how he describes the importance of building students’ “textual lineages” with texts that matter. Many of his approaches would work well with other reluctant readers, as well. I would absolutely recommend this PD text.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I am currently reading Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and I hope to finish it by Tuesday. Then I am not sure what book I am going to grab. Trent and I will finish the Fly Guy Reader Collection, and then I’m not sure either. It is going to be a surprise-filled week. 🙂
Ricki: Kellee, I LOVED Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock! I wish I had read it back-to-back with Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets like you are doing. I can’t wait to hear how they compare. Henry and I are trucking away with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He keeps falling asleep, so I only read 5-10 pages at a time. I am almost finished with I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora, and I also started Boys of Blur by N.D. Wilson. I also have a stack of PD texts, but I haven’t quite decided which is next. I’m taking a YAL break from PD books this week.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Dream Book Vacations
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 LOVE the new logo banner thing. Happy 100th book! I really need to read Matthew Quick’s books. I made a shelftalker for I Kill the Mockingbird for work. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
Thanks Earl! And thank you for celebrating 100 books with us. Can’t believe he’s already hit 100!!
I really enjoyed Boy 21 and am liking Leonard Peacock so far–I think you would too.
So far, I love it! I will share more when I finish, and we can compare notes. 🙂 Thank you for the compliment about the banner!!
The new banner is wonderful, Kellee and Ricki, and congrats on the coming anniversary-wow-the time went so fast! I need to get the Sad Poets book, & get to Leonard Peacock, but it won’t be soon. I’m finally going to read We Were Liars, & can’t wait to begin it! I loved The Man With The Violin, Kellee, sent it to my brother who’s a musician, & Ricki, Reading For Their Life sounds like such an important book. Glad you shared the title.
Hasn’t time flown! I cannot believe that it has been a year! And I think the new banner is a great way to celebrate.
The Man with the Violin is such a special book–so worth sharing.
I am so very excited that you are about to read We Were Liars. I can’t WAIT to hear your thoughts!
Wow! Love your new blog header!
I have been hearing such wonderful things about I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD recently. I definitely need to read that one.
Thank you Beth! So happy with it 🙂
It is a true booklovers’ book. It has so many allusions. I love that about it!
I think the new look is wonderful! I loved the posts of favorite books with your little ones. 🙂
Thank you Crystal!
Thanks, Crystal! I am glad you liked those posts. It is hard to pick favorites, but sometimes, it is helpful to others, I suppose!
I immediately noticed your new banner! Are those your little reading boys (older versions of course) on the far right? That’s what I thought when I looked at it. Congratulations on your one year anniversary (upcoming) – you two are such important blogging voices to me and I appreciate all that you share. Forgive me Leonard Peacock is a title I just read recently. Whoa. What a book! Have you also read Boy 21? If not, make sure it gets on your lists. Kellee- I loved The Man with the Violin – my local booksellers laugh at me because I stand by that book and hand sell it to their customers whenever I am in their store or see them at a literacy conference. It is one of my VERY favourites!
That is so cute! I didn’t really think of it that way, but it is perfect!
Thank you for your kind words Carrie. That, coming from you especially, means so much!
The Man with the Violin is a special book. It is definitely a book that deserves hand selling!
You are so very sweet, Carrie. Thank you so much for these wonderful compliments! I also LOVED The Man with the Violin and Boy 21. It seems we have similar taste–incredible books. 🙂 Have a great week!
Love the new banner. I am working on some redesigns for my blog too. I celebrate my 4th anniversary blogging come this July. Kellee – I am glad you liked Dr. Bird’s Advice and must look for Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. Ricki – What did you think of Boys of Blur?
4 years–congrats!!!
I really did like Dr. Bird’s. I’ll let you know about Leonard, but so far so good!
I am excited to see your redesign, Alyson. 🙂 It was fun, but I guess that is because I didn’t do the major work. I love the final product.
I am halfway through Boys of Blur. It is so different than I expected, but I am really intrigued. I am very curious to see where it goes. I will have more to share next week.
Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock – now up in my TBR list, looking forward to reading both. 🙂 Congratulations on your Blogiversary… 🙂
Thank you Debbie and enjoy the books when you get to them 🙂
Both are very, very good, so I am very glad you are taking the recommendations! Thank you for the congratulations!
Love the new look! I just recently read my first Matthew Quick novel, Silver Linings Playbook, and LOVED it, so I can’t wait to read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock.
You two were both busy last week with lots of good books – enjoy your reading this week, too!
Sue
2014
Big Book Summer Challenge
I’ve only read a couple Quick novels, but I’ve liked them all. He is so talented.
And thank you 🙂 We’re a fan of the look too!
I’ve read most of Quick’s works. They are all very, very good. He is incredible–and a teacher, too! Enjoy your week!
I really love the new design! Forgive Me Leonard Peacock was not on the syllabus of my Adolescent Lit class, but it made the rounds after I booktalked it and I think nearly everyone in the class ended up reading it. Such a powerful book! And the “just right” book for so many different types of readers. We read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake too, though I didn’t include it in my post this week. (Too many books to write about all of them sometimes!) I think it’s the only one in the series we hadn’t read yet. The illustrations were so fun. I’m interested in your thoughts on Boys of Blur–that’s one I’d like to read at some point. Have a terrific reading week!
What a great sale of Leonard Peacock! That is a huge compliment. I cannot wait to finish it!
And wasn’t Cat a fun book.
Elisabeth, Boys of Blur is very different than I expected I expected it to be, but I will share more when I have finished (without spoilers, of course). I agree with your comments about Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. It is such an important book. I wish I had read it in high school. Have a great reading week, yourself!!
Hi Ladies! Love the new banner – I think it definitely shows readers this is a blog for people who love reading! Ricki, can’t wait to hear what you think about Boys of Blur. That was a crazy fast read for me! I’m intrigued by the new Mockingbird book, but I never read the classic! My “high honors” American Lit class never read it!!! You’ll have to let me know if you definitely should have the original read first to really appreciate it.
Thank you Michele! We love it and really think it shows what our blog is all about 🙂
Michele, To Kill a Mockingbird is my all-time favorite book. I read it in high school and loved it, but when I read it as an adult (before teaching it), I was blown away. It hooked many of my juniors to reading. Our school taught it later than other schools, and I loved the great conversations it started with juniors. I think this was the perfect age for it because I don’t think I appreciated it enough as a freshman in high school. Of course, that is just my opinion, and I am sure most will disagree with me! I highly, highly recommend it.