It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA!
It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme started by Sheila at Book Journeys and now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. 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!
Kellee and Jen, of Teach Mentor Texts, 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
**Click on any picture/link to view the post**
Tuesday: Ten Non-Shallow Beach Reads
Wednesday: Mastermind by National Geographic
Thursday: Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie
Friday: Kate DiCamillo: Collaborative Summer Library Program Summer Reading Champion for 2016
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee
From Thursday to Sunday this week, I was at the Future Problem Solvers International Competition at Michigan State University, so I was not able to write my IMWAYR post. I’ll update you all next week 🙂
Ricki
Many of you know Emmanuel Guibert’s graphic novel Alan’s War. Guibert is a French cartoonist who tells the true story of Alan Cope, an American GI in France in WWII. How the World Was: A California Childhood depicts Alan’s earlier childhood experiences, growing up during the Great Depression in California. The graphic novel is unlike others that I’ve read, and I really enjoy Guibert’s style. The chapters read like vignettes of Cope’s childhood; some of the scenes are graphic, and many are quite moving. This text would be excellent for close reading, and I don’t think readers even need to read it in its entirety to appreciate and understand each chapter.
I finished The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart in one sitting, and I totally agree with the hype. This book is excellent! It took me awhile to get to it, and I am glad I was finally intrigued enough to pick it up. It reminds me of so many works of literature that I love, yet it was quite different. I highly recommend this one.
Henry and I also read a lot of great picture books this week. This morning, we sat in his room for two hours and read about 50 books in a row. He enjoys laying across my pregnant belly and tells me he is reading to his baby brother. It’s these moments that make me love life. I won’t list the books here because most of them are older books or rereads. We did enjoy Chupie: The Binkie That Returned Home by Thalia.
This Week’s Expeditions
Ricki
I continued reading the unnamed book by my author friend. I am 75% done and enjoying reading it before bed. It’s a great sci fi, but she’s asked that I not reveal any information yet. She’s feeling really shaky about it. I have lots of feedback for her, so I am excited to see where it goes!
The Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel has been on my TBR list forever. I added it to my #mustreadin2016 list this year, and am happy to say I am 2 hours away (audio) from finishing it! At first, I didn’t like it, and I was so bummed, but I realize now I made a huge mistake. This book is simply fantastic! Kellee’s voice was in the back of my head. She told me it was a great read. Because we usually agree, I give it a second chance.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Ten Reasons We Love Being Moms to Readers
Wednesday: Candlewick Press Nonfiction Picture Books
Thursday: What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada
Friday: Can You Canoe? And Other Adventure Songs by The Okee Dokee Brothers
Sunday: Author Guest Post!
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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So sweet to imagine your little guy reading to his baby brother already.
I don’t think I’ve read The Dark Endeavor. I’ll have to watch for it.
It’s very good! It came out a few years ago, but it is very enjoyable!
My students and I loved The Honest Truth. Tough to read without tissues, though.
I agree. It was a very moving read!
Rikki’s chances of participating in the 48 Hour Book Challenge if it’s held next year might not be the best, but if you’d like to mention it to your followers, that would be great. We definitely need a once a year kidlit party!
http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/2016/06/sic-transit-gloria-mundi-48-hour-book.html
Not a problem! Shared! It looks like good fun!
I really want to read The Honest Truth, and that graphic novel sounds great, too!
Are you almost done with school for the summer?
Enjoy your books this week –
Sue
2016 Big Book Summer Challenge
My school year never ends because I am dissertation writing. 🙂 I am excited for the Big Book Summer Challenge! I have so much to do for my dissertation before the baby arrives, but I hope to join!
It’s so interesting writer-friends’s books. I hope your feedback helps. I loved Gemeinhart’s follow up novel.
Oh, great to hear! I need to read the follow-up! I love to read manuscripts right off of the cutting room floor. Okay, maybe this one was a bit before that. 🙂
I’m so glad you gave This Dark Endeavor a second chance, Ricki. I absolutely loved it and I thought the audiobook was fantastic. I especially loved that it was a YA title that I could put in my classroom library because it is completely appropriate for middle school. I can sometimes be hard to navigate what’s appropriate and not appropriate for middle school (especially a Catholic middle school).
I can imagine that that is incredibly tricky! I am not sure why, but I was not sure if I would like it after the first few chapters. I probably would have continued on either way, but knowing that so many had liked it gave me an extra push. I think I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I started it. It is so good, and I am loving it now!
Kellee, I saw your pic, I think on Twitter, I didn’t realize you had travelled to MI with the team! I bet the humidity free air was fun to breathe for awhile, or was it just too cold??
Ricki, I saw your All American Boys review on Goodreads, so glad you loved it! Great review!
Ah, yes! I realized I’d never reviewed it! Thank you for your positive feedback!
That National Geographic book has a great series on nonfiction facts. At our local library we once had the help of the librarian who hunted down three of them. I never thought they’d be into that kind of stuff but I love how they surprise me. They have so much fun sharing tidbits that catch their attention.
Yes! I completely agree. We were excited to review this book!
Ricki I appreciated your post about Thunder Boy Jr. It seems like The Honest Truth is one of those books people either love or hate. (I’m on the love side) I liked that it posed a lot of questions. I’ve tried twice to get into The Dark Endeavor, but I’ve never been a fan of Gothic novels, and this one didn’t change my mind. Truthfully, I don’t do scary of any kind….
Interesting! I haven’t heard of anyone hating The Honest Truth. I can’t see what’s not to like! I recommend giving This Dark Endeavor another try. As I said, I wasn’t sure I would like it. I totally understand that sometimes it just comes down to taste, though! 🙂