It's Monday! What are you reading? 10-14-19

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.


Last week I read and enjoyed:

So You Want to Start a Podcast by Kristen Meinzer

No, I don't want to start a podcast, but I love Kristen Meinzer's podcast, BY THE BOOK, and so when I had the opportunity to listen to her narrate her own audiobook, I decided to give it a try. I love Kristin's voice and I love her practical, detailed advice for potential podcasters. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Long-Lost Home by Maryrose Wood A lovely end to a wonderful series

Kevin the Unicorn: It's Not All Rainbows by Jessika Von Innerebner
Even unicorns can have bad days. And that's okay.

A great message to counteract the pervasive "good vibes only" messages we're being given that has turned into toxic positivity -- i.e., encouraging a positive outlook at the expense of exploring necessary negative emotions that need to be expressed in order to be fully human.

Why? by Adam Rex, illustrated by Claire Keane

A super-villain with daddy issues meets his match when he runs into a little girl who only asks one question over and over. Frankie's Scared of Everything by Matthew Franklin Will Frankie succumb to his fears or will he use them to his advantage? Interesting sort of street art style to the illustrations though I think they still need more refinement to be in the same league as a regular children’s book illustrator. Little Muir's Song by John Muir, illustrated by Susie Ghahremani "The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us." Short, stunning writing in board book format from John Muir's journals.

A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
A gorgeous book that gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at how MLK's most famous speech came to be -- in fact, it almost didn't.

The President Sang Amazing Grace: A Book About Finding Grace After Unspeakable Tragedy by Zoe Mulford, illustrated by Jeff Scher

This book left me in tears. A beautiful tribute to a tragic moment in our nation's history. Currently (still) reading: The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys Currently reading with my ears: Over the Top: A Raw Journey of Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness I am absolutely loving listening to Jonathon narrate his own story. I was only a few minutes in and I had to stop the audiobook to write down a quote because I identified with it so much: