It's Monday! What are you reading? 2-18-19

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.


These are the picture books I really enjoyed last week:

The Story of Rock and The Story of Rap  illustrated by Lindsey Sagar

Adorable rhyming baby board books for the budding musicians in your lives. My only criticism is that the author and illustrator are not mentioned. The illustrator is listed in very tiny print on the back of the book with the copyright information, but authors and illustrators should get a prominent place somewhere on the book. The New Neighbors by Sarah McIntyre When rats move into the building, the bunnies are excited to meet their new neighbors. All of the other animals in the building put ideas into their heads about how untidy and inconsiderate rats are. An important book to read and discuss with kids about how our preconceived notions and prejudices can do more harm than good. How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison At NCTE in November, I had the privilege of meeting Carole Boston Weatherford. I wish I had known about this book at the time so I could've thanked her for it. The fact that she not only included how and why this song was originally written, but a few historical moments when Amazing Grace met the Zeitgeist of what was happening in our culture, specifically with Mahalia Jackson and Barack Obama. Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Steve Salerno Hey kids, let’s learn about irony today. Here’s an example: a woman who invented a game to teach people the injustices of capitalism, only to be swindled out of millions of dollars for her own invention so a bunch of greedy men could make that money by asking her to sign off on her patent so they could sell her game. Oh wait. I better not teach THAT for fear of being accused of being a loser teacher who indoctrinates her students as socialists. Currently reading: Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman