It's Monday! What are you reading? 8-23-21

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.

Hello, friends! I hope you all are safe and healthy as another pandemic school year begins. I'm excited to be back in the library this year, as I went back to teaching 8th grade English last year out of necessity. 

Here's what I've been up to in my reading the past few weeks:

TikTok Book Talks:

A Boy Named Isamu

@bibliophilebeth

##BookTalk: A BOY NAMED ISAMU by James Yang ##picturebook ##booktok ##kidlit

♬ (Without rain) Jazz Lo-fi chill out(875940) - Hazumi

A picture book biography of Bob Ross

@bibliophilebeth

If you’re ever looking for a biography of Bob Ross, you can thank me (my student, actually) later. ##foryoupage ##fyp ##happylittletrees ##bobross ##kidlit

♬ Comical and a little silly carefree music(831995) - Etsuo Kawasaki

I recently read and enjoyed:

The Genius Under the Table by Eugene Yelchin

Eugene (Yevgeny) Yelchin grew up under the oppressive communist regime in Soviet Russia and this is his memoir of his childhood growing up in a communal apartment with one of his neighbors being an informant to the KGB and the pressure his parents put on him to have a talent that would eventually help give his family some upward mobility. When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling, illustrated by Aaron Asis A young girl's grandmother (lola) visits from the Philippines and she thinks about all the ways she knows it's summer, particularly the way summer smells. A wonderful mentor text to use with students about sensory writing. Isobel Adds It Up by Kristy Everington, illustrated by A.G. Ford Isobel loves math and loves doing her homework, but her new noisy neighbors are making that difficult for her. So one day she decides you can catch more flies with honey and sends them a letter. What she discovers next soon surprises her... A lovely and fun story about the power of dealing with conflict head-on. Not Little by Maya Myers, illustrated by Hyewon Yum Dot may be small and have a small name but she's not little. One day she meets a new student in her class who may be even smaller than her. Sam gets picked on by another student and she decides she will have none of that...

Currently reading: 

Genius Hour: Passion Projects That Ignite Innovation and Student Inquiry by Andi McNair

Currently reading with my ears:

Black Enough edited by Ibi Zoboi

One last thing: if you are a teacher or librarian and have created an Amazon wishlilst for your classroom that is filled with books, I would encourage you to see if your local independent bookstore (if you have one) has a wishlist feature on their website and create one with them. While I am an Amazon affiliate, I also recognize the importance of supporting independent bookstores and so I created a wishlist on my local indie's website, Nicola's Books. Nicola's has been a fixture in my community and has hosted many wonderful author events over the years. Not to mention they are a five minute drive from my house, so I can get the books I need in less time than it would take for Amazon Prime to deliver it to my house. 

Anyway, that's just a thought. I know not everyone has a local independent bookstore in their community.