It's Monday! What are you reading? 1-7-19

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.

I haven't been blogging much these days. There's a couple reasons for that 1) Being on ALAN's Walden committee means I can't really comment on much YA that I'm reading. 2) I do most of my booktalking on Instagram these days because, to be frank, it's easier and faster to post something from my phone than to boot up my computer and then have to write an format a blog post. This year I did an Instagram story of my favorite books of 2018 instead of a blog post. So feel free to go over and follow me on Instagram if you don't already. 


Last week I read and enjoyed:

Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump by Martha Brockenbrough

In a social media culture today that's attention span can't go past a couple days, Martha Brockenbrough made it her mission to document the life, campaign, and first two years of the presidency of Donald Trump. This book is meticulously researched and meant to report the truth of the 45th president of the United States. It pulls no punches but does its best not to editorialize excessively. If it is unflattering of our president, that's only of his own doing. What I appreciate so much about this book is that it was written for young adults, but Brockenbrough does not talk down to her audience. Her writing manages to be both succinct and to the point, while also leaving out no important detail. I hope that there are plans for Brockenbrough to write a second edition after Trump leaves (or is forced out of) office. Miss Pinkeltink's Purse by Patty Brozo, illustrated by Ana Ochoa A sweet book that helps put a human face on homelessness. The ending was a little too neat and easy though. Have I Ever Told You? by Shani King, illustrated by Anna Horvath A sweet, lovely book that reminds each child (and adult) who reads it the inherent dignity of all humans. Currently reading:   Spinning by Tillie Walden Between the Lines by Nikki Grimes