It's Monday! What are you reading? 9-25-17

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a wonderful community of readers, teachers, and librarians. Hosted by Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts along with Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers, participants share their reading adventures from the past week along with their reading plans for the week ahead.

My Monday posts are generally just a highlight of what I've been reading during the week so if you'd like to see all that I've been reading, follow my Goodreads page.

Last week I finished reading with my ears:

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking


Picture books that stood out in the pile last week:
 
The Rain Stomper by Addie Boswell, illustrated by Eric Velasquez
A young girl, upset that the parade has been spoiled by pouring rain, decides to march to the beat of the thunder and create her own parade.


Allie's Garden by Sabra Chebby, illustrated by Marla Osborn
Fun rhyming verse and adorable illustrations made of vegetables make this board book perfect for any budding baby foodie. My only criticism is that it didn't seem long enough. The story ended just as it was gaining momentum.  

 
I Like, I Don't Like by Anna Baccelliere, illustrated by Ale + Ale
 A jarring book that should be read to kids with plenty of discussion and room for questions.  


When Snow Falls by Linda Booth Sweeney, illustrated by Jana Christy


Currently (still) reading with my eyes:

Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough 


Currently reading with my ears:

Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail by Jonathan Chait
I'm hoping this book will give me some, well, hope. Because we're in some very dark political times right now.  

It's Monday! What are you reading? 9-18-17

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a wonderful community of readers, teachers, and librarians. Hosted by Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts along with Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers, participants share their reading adventures from the past week along with their reading plans for the week ahead.

My Monday posts are generally just a highlight of what I've been reading during the week so if you'd like to see all that I've been reading, follow my Goodreads page.


Last week I finished reading:

Saving Marty by Paul Griffin  
A book with lots of parallels to Charlotte's Web.  


I finished reading with my ears:
 
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 
An important read but definitely hard to read. I'm for sure interested in watching the TV series now.
 

Picture books that stood out in the pile last week:

Rulers of the Playground by Joseph  Kuefler
Joseph Kuefler mines the wealth of material that are playground dynamics. Lots to discuss here, which makes this a great classroom read aloud.

Beyond the illustrations themselves, the overall concept, layout, and design of this book is top notch. It sort of put me in mind of something you might see in a music video.


I Love My Hair! by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
A book that is a perfect example of why Rudine Sims Bishop's article about Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors is so important. Love your hair. Love your skin. Love who you are. 


Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 
A sweet picture book that defines certain virtues and vices through the lens of cookies. 

Currently reading with my eyes:

Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough 




Currently reading with my ears:

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking
 

It's Monday! What are you reading? 9-11-17

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a wonderful community of readers, teachers, and librarians. Hosted by Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts along with Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers, participants share their reading adventures from the past week along with their reading plans for the week ahead.

My Monday posts are generally just a highlight of what I've been reading during the week so if you'd like to see all that I've been reading, follow my Goodreads page.

It's hard to believe 9-11-01 was 16 years ago. And yet, at the same time, it's also not hard to believe. Given all that has happened in our country in the past 6 months let alone the past 16 years, it does actually feel like a long time ago.


Last week I finished reading with my ears:

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance   
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book, but I don't think it's the enlightening book the hype made it out to be. I think Vance made way too many generalizations based on his own personal experience, sprinkling his narrative with a few studies here and there to sound more credible, but I never really felt like I got a clear picture of the people he was speaking for. I got a clear picture of his own family, but I don't think he did a good job of transferring his personal experience to generalizing an entire group of people. 


Picture books that stood out in the pile last week:

It's NOT Jack and the Beanstalk by Josh Funk, illustrated by Edwardian Taylor 
Jack is not pleased with the narrator of this story who tells him to do things he would prefer not to like sell his cow, throw away the magic beans he got for the cow, and climb the beanstalk that will lead him to a giant's castle.

 
The Book of Gold by Bob Staake  
A beautiful story that takes a young boy a life of apathy to a lover of learning, all in the quest for the elusive Book of Gold. What he gets instead is a rich life full of knowledge and travel. 


Maurice the Unbeastly by Amy Dixon, illustrated by Karl James Mountford  
Maurice isn't like other beasts: he eats kale and alfalfa and his roar is actually a beautiful, melodious high A. His parents send him to the Abominable Academy for Brutish Beasts to teach him to behave more uncivilized. Despite his less-than-straight-A student performance, Maurice eventually finds a way to show his usefulness at the Abominable Academy.  

 
Be Quiet! by Ryan T. Higgins 
Rupert loves wordless picture books. He thinks they're very artistic. So he sets out to create a wordless picture book, but his chatty friends are making that impossible. Another hilarious story by Ryan T. Higgins that is sure to produce raucous laughter during read alouds. I especially love the cameo from Mother Bruce. 


Town is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz, illustrated by Sydney Smith
Oh my goodness. This is one of the most stunning literary picture books I've read in a long time. If you want to teach kids about effective ways to use repetition, to show contrast, and to include sensory details, share this book about a young boy who lives in Cape Brenton, Nova Scotia, a seaside mining town, and ponders the beauty of his town above ground, while also thinking about the darkness of the mine where his father works, which he also realizes is his lot in life when he gets older. 


Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin by Duncan Tonatiuh
This book is a beautiful celebration of cultures and a reminder to us all that our differences are just an opportunity to learn from each other.


I'm currently reading with my eyes:

Saving Marty by Paul Griffin  
A book about a boy who saves a pig who's the runt of the litter and becomes his pet? Nah. This won't put anyone in mind of any particular children's classic. ;)


Currently reading with my ears:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 
I paused listening to this for a couple months because it was difficult to listen to but I've decided I need to finish this. I'm a little over halfway through now.    

It's Monday! What are you reading? 9-4-17

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a wonderful community of readers, teachers, and librarians. Hosted by Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts along with Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers, participants share their reading adventures from the past week along with their reading plans for the week ahead.

My Monday posts are generally just a highlight of what I've been reading during the week so if you'd like to see all that I've been reading, follow my Goodreads page.

Happy Labor Day! I've enjoyed this long weekend but am looking forward to going back to school tomorrow. Last year I fought for the librarian position at my school to be full time and thankfully, they agreed. So I am just the librarian this year and don't have to teach English. As much as I love teaching English, doing both at the same time was just way too much on my plate. I am loving the opportunity to teach classes and also move around the building to visit students and teachers in their classrooms.


Last week I read and enjoyed:

Second Grade Holdout by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Matthew Cordell
A fun and funny sequel to First Grade Dropout.


Strong is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves by Kate T. Parker 
A beautiful photographic series that proves strong means many things: it can be confident, wild, resilient, creative, determined, kind, fearless, joyful, independent, or all those things at once.

 
More-igami by Dori Kleber, illustrated by G. Brian Karas 
Joey loves things that fold. So when he learns the art of origami at school, he exasperates his family by folding any piece of paper he can get his hands on: his homework, his sister's sheet music, the money in his mom's purse. He soon tells his troubles to Mr. Lopez at his favorite restaurant, Muy Mexicana, and a partnership is soon born.This book won my heart. Everyone deserves a Mr. Lopez in their life. 


Whose Moon is That? by Kim Krans 
Absolutely stunning ink and watercolor art in this story of a cat who ponders the question of who owns the moon. I would love to own one of the prints of this book to hang in my house. I'm off to Kim Krans' website to see what's available...


I'm currently reading with my eyes:

Saving Marty by Paul Griffin  


I'm currently reading with my ears: 

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance