It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5-23-22

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:

Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World by Scott Keyes

When a book completely changes the way you think about travel, that warrants 5 stars. While it is full of tips, details, and examples of how to find cheaper airfare, it can be boiled down essentially to this: find a cheap flight first, then build your trip around that rather than choosing the destination first.

While that is an oversimplification of the book, that beginning premise helps the reader with a mindshift about travel and how it's better to approach travel by taking more, cheaper flights than fewer expensive ones.

Too bad the pandemic made me a tad agoraphobic, but now that I have this information in my back pocket, I can start thinking about the potential for travel again.

Gibberish by Young Vo

Gibberish tells the story of a young boy named Dat who is new to the English language and what that feels like to be the new kid at school who doesn't understand everyone. That story arc isn't new, but the way Young Vo tells it and illustrates it is unlike anything I've seen before. His use of black and white cartoonish illustrations for Dat's surroundings along with emojis for dialogue that he doesn't understand really immerses the reader into Dat's world of unknowing. As Dat becomes more attuned to the English-speaking world and begins understanding more, his surroundings become more colorful and less cartoonish.

This book is brilliant and so incredibly innovative. I'm calling it now: 2023 Caldecott medalist. I will be shocked if it doesn't at least win an honor.

How to Hug a Pufferfish by Ellie Peterson

A sweet and humorous book about consent about a good-natured pufferfish who just... prefers a heads-up if you want to hug him. And important book to add to the collection of books that are currently written about consent. Pair with Can I Give You a Squish by Emily Neilson. School is Wherever I Am by Ellie Peterson Learning happens everywhere... it doesn't have to only be in a building we call school. The World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Leo Espinosa A tribute to the joys of summer when kids played in the street and always knew to come home when the streetlights came on with not an electronic device in sight. Currently reading: Moonflower by Kacen Callender Currently reading with my ears: From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

It's Monday! What are you reading? 5-16-22

 

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.

Here's a recent TikTok I made of middle grade books to put on your radar:

@bibliophilebeth #booktok #middlegrade #librariansoftiktok #schoollibrarian ♬ Pirates Of The Caribbean - Main Theme - He's A Pirate - Geek Music

I recently read and loved:

We Sang You Home by Richard Van Camp, illustrated by Julie Flett

While I am not a parent, even this book made me emotional imagining reading this to my own child. The poetic text is made even more beautiful with the gentle illustrations. A great book to gift to new parents.

See You Soon by Mariame Kabe, illustrated by Bianca Diaz

Queenie must spend the next two years with her grandmother while her mother is in jail. See You Soon is a picture book that asks adult and kid readers alike to emotionally invest in a family story that often doesn't get told in the pages of a children's book. This book is a beautiful testament to the love shown in all kinds of families, particularly the ones that are often othered by those who are part of a "traditional" middle class family who frequently see their stories told in the pages of books.

Pair this with Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena and use it as a reading ladder to Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka.

To Change a Planet by Christina Soontornvat, illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell

Christina Soontornvat has written a picture book that addresses climate change both with urgency and hope. The economy of language in this book is also worth noting... there are no superfluous words. Everything is so carefully placed and precise without sounding like it's trying too hard. Currently reading: Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World by Scott Keyes Currently reading with my ears: Notorious by Gordon Korman

It's Monday! What are you reading? 5-9-22

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 been a heavy week, friends. I hope you are all taking care of yourselves and have the support you need. 

Since the last time I posted, I decided, after the announcement of the person who will soon be buying Twitter, along with the steady decline of that platform and how people behave and use it, I've decided that I'm likely going to delete my account. I still have my account for now, but will no longer be actively using it. If you'd like to engage with me via social media, feel free to follow me on Instagram or TikTok.

I recently read and enjoyed:

Now What? How to Move Forward When We're Divided (about Basically Everything) by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers

As a longtime and loyal listener of Pantsuit Politics (as well as a show contributor by creating a teaching guide for their infrastructure series and also created an episode for their premium channel for teacher appreciation week called 5 Things Teachers Wish the General Public Knew) I didn't find necessarily anything new in this book. After listening to Sarah and Beth multiple times per week for the past six years, this book was a way to reinforce their greatest hits in writing. I enjoyed reading it and spending more time with them, but I didn't necessarily feel like there were any new revelations. For those picking this book up without having that experience with them, this book will be revelatory. To me it was a nice visit with some ladies who have felt like friends for the past six years. Suggested Reading by David Connis When an elite private school's administration and board vote to put a list of 50 books on their "prohibited media" list (interesting how they don't want the students to use the word banned), Clara Evans decides to run an underground library out of her locker. Welp. This book has become even more relevant and prescient in 2022 than when it was published in 2019. Starfish by Lisa Fipps She had me at: "It's unknown how many students' lives librarians have saved by welcoming loners at lunch," on p. 31 I finished this book last night and haven't gotten Ellie's story out of my head all day.  The Wild Garden by Cynthia Cliff Jilly and her grandfather love exploring the wild place near their village where they forage for food as well as observe the animals and plant life, so when the townspeople decide to expand their community garden into the wild place, Jilly and her grandfather know they must do something to bring awareness to the community that a bigger garden doesn't necessarily make a better garden. Currently reading: Moonflower by Kacen Callender Currently reading with my ears: Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore