It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!
It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It’s also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…you just might discover the next “must-read” book!
Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee decided to give It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – join us! We love this meme and think you will, too.
We encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.
Last Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Blogging Confessions
Friday: Minion blog tour with exclusive excerpt
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: This week I have been rereading a lot and am currently on vacation with Trent. I was able to fit in two wonderful books that I cannot wait to share with kids. First, I read Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, the current Newbery winner. I can definitely see why this text won. It is funny, clever, beautifully written, and super unique. I especially love how she combined prose with comics. I also read Comic Book Squad: Recess! edited by Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm, and Jarrett Krosoczka with stories by them, Dan Santat, Ursula Vernon, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Dav Pilkey, Eric Wight, and Gene Yang. What a perfect graphic novel anthology! It is as wonderful as it sounds.
We are actually off a book this week with Trent because of the travel. We’ll catch up, and I will hopefully have 8 books to share next week. This week we read:
- Maisy’s Colors by Lucy Cousins (I, personally, thought this book was a meh board book about colors, but Trent seemed to really like it. He took it right out of my hands to look at it.)
- Alice in Wonderland: A BabyLit Colors Primer by Jennifer Adams (I love these BabyLit books. They are a great way to introduce some classics in an appropriate way.)
- A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na (I loved this book. The art was BEAUTIFUL and the text was lyrical. This is definitely a library book that we’ll have to buy.)
- Corduroy’s Party by Lisa McCue (A cute story of Corduroy celebrating his birthday.)
- Rereads: The Going to Bed Book and Are You a Cow? by Sandra Boyton (My mom bought these for Trent, so we reread them for what, I am sure, is not the last time.)
Ricki: This week, I read Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina. This is tells the story of a high school girl who is relentlessly bullied. It will feel very real to readers. I loved it. I also read Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust by Loïc Dauvillier, a captivating graphic novel about a grandmother telling her granddaughter about her childhood experiences during the Holocaust. Henry and I also read and loved Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. I am very frightened of bats, but I loved this beautiful story.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: I am going to be doing a lot of rereading this week, but I hope to find some time to continue reading Touched by Paul Maurer which I started on Sunday. I also have Boys of Blur by N.D. Wilson and the newest installments of Amulet and Captain Underpants to read. We’ll see what I get to. Trent and I have plans to read some Pete the Cat this week.
Ricki: I tend to read my paper books much more slowly than my Kindle books. This week, I will be finishing A Snicker of Magic. Please don’t take my slow pace with this book to mean that I don’t enjoy it. It is my bedside book, and I am often exhausted from taking care of the baby. This is one of the best books I have read for the 8-12 age level. I think readers of all ages would love it. I also started Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. This is my downstairs book. 🙂 I am not very far into this one, but so far, I am very interested to see where it will go.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Movies (for their story)
Thursday: Because I’m Disposable Blog Tour
Thursday: SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
So, what are you reading?
Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!
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Ricki,I totally relate to your upstairs/downstairs book. I have my lunch break, in car, bedside books myself.
Kellee, I was reading Flora and Ulysses week by week to all my 2nd grade-6th classes. I was please to see how excited kids were each week for our continuing adventures with Flora and Ulysses. It reminded me again of the importance of reading aloud to children no matter their age.
I am so glad I am not alone in this! I have books everywhere. There are three within arm’s length of me right now!
First of all, “Special Announcement”? I love things I don’t know about, lol. Comic Book Squad: Recess! will be such a big hit! You two should try The Rainbow Chameleon by Yusuke Yonezu, my current board book artist. All his books are fun and have interactive elements which might go over the heads of your baby boys but people love the books.
The special announcement should be pretty exciting. We have it set to go at noon EST. We hope to see you here, Earl!
Comic Book Squad does sound fun, and I still have & want to read Yaqui Delgado…I loved Boys of Blur-very interesting. Have a fun week!
Both very much worth reading Linda 🙂
Have a wonderful reading week as well!
Hi, Linda! Yes, Boys of Blur is amazing! I definitely recommend Yaqui Delgado. I hope you have a wonderful week!
I can’t wait to read your post on the Schneider Award. They’ve been interesting to read. I love so many of them bc it’s great to see disabilities in books. Since I’m the parent of a child with a physical disability, I like having books to talk about how other people faced challenges. And a special announcement on Thursday?? It’s going to be a good week!
I read Comic Squad this week too, I love what they are doing for readers!
Tonight is the virtual book club for Snicker. I can’t wait to talk about this book more!
Michele, I agree with you that the books about characters who overcome disabilities are so, so important. We are excited for our special announcement. 🙂 🙂
Ricki-I love your distinction of bedside books and downstairs books. I find myself doing that a lot. I have a nice little booklight on my Kindle case so I will read Kindle books more often at bedtime and keep the bigger, unwieldy books for other moments of the day. I loved Snicker of Magic too. Kellee–I am still so impressed by your dedication to not only reading a book a day with Trent, but also adding an update each week. I started reading Flora and Ulysses but then my library loan period ended and it disappeared from my Kindle. I need to go buy a copy. Have a great reading week!
I will be honest: reading a book a day with an infant is TOUGH! We have thus far been able to read books equal to one a day each week though! And I love sharing what we’ve read 🙂
Flora is definitely worth finishing–you’ll love it.
Have a great reading week as well!
Andrea,
I suspected I wasn’t the only one! I hate when it takes me weeks to read a book based on its location, and I want to tell people, “Really! It was awesome! I know it took me a long time to get through it, but I loved every minute of it!” 🙂 🙂 Have a great week!
Definitely adding Comic Book Squad to my purchase list for the first of school. Thanks for the heads up!
I am so glad I went out and bought it because I know of so many students who are going to love it!
I so loved Flora & Ulysses (I was Flora last week at Nerdcamp). I have Boys of Blur on my to be read list along with Snicker. I will be watching for your reviews. Counting by 7s and Yaqui were two of my favorites last year. Have a great week!
That’s awesome Crystal! I want to see a picture!
Both (and Counting by 7s) are on my soon TBR list too 🙂
And isn’t Yaqui great?! Piddy goes through some tough things that just made for such a powerful story.
Happy reading this week! 🙂
I am glad to hear great things about Counting by 7s. I am really enjoying it thus far. The main character is so likable! Have a great reading week. 🙂
As I mentioned on Twitter, I listened to Flora & Ulysses on audio and didn’t realize it was part-graphic novel until I checked it out online before writing my review. It was still good as an audio, but that is definitely one to read on paper.
Stellaluna!! My sons loved that book, especially my oldest. he even had a little Stellaluna finger puppet to go with it. We read it over and over.
If you want to better appreciate bats, there is a great middle-grade series by Kenneth Oppel:
http://greatbooksforkidsandteens.blogspot.com/2010/10/middle-grade-reviews-bats-and-cats.html
Hope you both enjoy your books this week –
Sue
Book By Book
A Stellaluna finger puppet? That is incredible! I have had a Kenneth Oppel book on my nightstand for weeks. I really need to check out his work! Thank you for sharing!
Ricki, I do the same thing with different books for different reading situations and locations. Sometimes it takes me quite awhile to finish a book I really love. Snicker is one of my favorites of the year for sure. I have started Counting by 7s a couple of times but haven’t made it very far. It’s on my #Mustread list, though, so I know I will finish it at some point this year! I loved Yaqui–also one of my favorites for the year. I read Hidden this week too–such a surprise to discover it on the new books shelf of my tiny local library this week! Kellee, I have Boys of Blur from the library right now. Really need to get to it. I didn’t know there was a new Capt Underpants! Will have to get that to read aloud to my boys. Rereading is such a pleasure, one I don’t make enough time for.
You seem to be in the know, as you have started or read many of the books we’ve read. I hope to make it all the way through Counting by 7s. So far, I really love it.
I had to go back and reread this post as I got all distracted by the note about your special announcement on Thursday. I am very curious. Kellee loved A book of Sleep – just gorgeous. Ricki my plan is to read Snicker this week too – maybe we can compare notes next week.
I’m excited for the announcement too 🙂
Isn’t A Book of Sleep amazing? It is one I am definitely going to want to reread just to look at the intricacies in the illustrations if nothing else.
Happy reading!
Carrie, I would love to compare notes about Snicker! I will be sure to finish it this week. 🙂 It is one of those books that require a lot of little flags. The language is beautiful!
I loved Flora and Ulysses. Such a quirky, heartfelt book.
I need to get around reading Yacqui Delgado soon!
Quirky and heartfelt are perfect adjectives for the book. I love Flora.
Happy reading!
I need to read Flora! Everyone is talking about it!
Ok, you two have already discovered Jan Thomas right? Rhyming Dust Bunnies, etc… Hope so. I can’t help but laugh my way through all of her books… I also love Andy Rash’s Are You A Horse? So those I had to check in on this week, not sure why, unsolicited book advice. Kellee- will be curious to see what you think of Boys of Blur, have had very different feedback from different reader friends. Ricki- I get to reread Counting by 7s in August and write 60 battle of the books questions for it, can’t wait to treasure that book again! 🙂
I have NOT discovered Jan Thomas! I am slowly learning about picture books. YAL is my forte, so I am working on becoming a picture book expert. 🙂 Thank you for sharing! I will look in the library for Jan Thomas books. 🙂
NO! I don’t know Jan Thomas. On my way to GRs now! And I’ll look up Andy Rash as well. Thank you!
I look forward to reading Boys of Blur. I am doing some rereading right now, so it is on the back burner but soon!