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
We celebrated our one year anniversary last week!!!
Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Posts in the First Year of Unleashing Readers
Thursday: What We’ve Learned This Year
**Click on any link to view the post**
Congratulations to our SIX book giveaway winners!!
Holly M. (Remember Dippy)
Gigi M. (Golden Boy)
Kelly V. (All Our Yesterdays)
Kristen H. (The Lost Planet)
Linda B. (All the Truth That’s in Me)
Cassie L. (Dead End in Norvelt)
Last Week’s Journeys
Kellee: Not to toot my own horn, but I am so impressed by how much time I am able to find to read these days. I love having reading in my life regularly again. This week I read some more amazing novels.
- First was A.S. King’s Reality Boy, and it does not disappoint. Like all of King’s novels, it deals with some tough subjects with a voice that rings true.
- Next was The Milk of Birds by Sylvia Whitman. I am glad I picked this one up. I didn’t know anything about it, and it surprised me (as did a couple other books I read this week). Milk of Birds is about two girls, one in Sudan and one in the US, that are pen pals. Through narrative and letters you learn about both of their lives. So good!
- Then I read Golden by Jessi Kirby, which is a contemporary high school story with a mystery twist.
- Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian was another that surprised me because I hadn’t heard of it. Actually it blew me away a bit. It is about Tom, a hugely popular high school soccer player and the Somali immigrant soccer player who he befriends, and how Tom’s life changes because of the new look at life he has because of his new friend.
- Imperfect Spiral by Debbie Levy is a book about Danielle who is babysitting a young boy when he is hit by a car and killed. The book looks at all of the effects of this young life’s loss.
- Dear Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden is about Cricket who is an orphan who lives in a home for boys and the anger he holds because of how rough his life has been.
Doesn’t that sound like an amazing reading week?!
On top of the novels, I read some great picture books as well (I’ll blog about them later): A Home for Mr. Emerson by Barbara Kerley, President Taft is Stuck in the Bath by Mac Barnett, Firefly July by Paul B. Janeczko, The Way to the Zoo by John Burningham, Picnic by John Burningham, Peppa Pig and the Great Vacation by Candlewick Entertainment, One My Way to Bed by Sarah Maizes, and Moo! by David LaRochelle. Trent and I also kept on reading our picture #bookaday:
- What Makes Elmo Happy? by Lee Howard (I love Sesame Street. Everything about it. I love that they teach lessons and still make it fun. Sesame Street books are no different.)
- Baby Animals at Night by Kingfisher (This is a great nonfiction board book. One I hope to buy. It looks at a handful of animals and what they do at night. I specifically loved that it looked at some less known animals like tarsiers and fennec foxes.)
- The Cat Comes Too by Hazel Hutchins (A simple board book about how a cat helps his owner.)
- What is That? by Tana Hoban (Tana Hoban’s books are wordless and in black and white to help catch babies’ eyes, and boy do they! The pictures always catch Trent’s attention. And it is fun to make up what to say for each illustration.)
- Brave: Magic in the Mist by Disney (I am a huge Pixar fan. I think everything they do is brilliant. This book is a cute adaptation of Brave, and I think it does a great job of holding the integrity of the movie. Also, it is in verse which adds even more to the story.)
- Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (I love Knuffle Bunny and was so happy to read it to Trent! It is one I need to buy so we can read it over and over and over again. I have the second one to read to him. Maybe this week.)
- Little Duckling by Rebecca Harry (A cute board book with sound that has a little duckling trying to find someone to teach him to swim.)
Ricki: Unlike Kellee, I had a rough week. My poor son had a very high fever and woke up every few hours crying. I was reminded of what it was like to have a newborn again. Thank goodness, he took a turn for the better today and is feeling well again. We only read three picture books, two I loved and one I didn’t. I fell in love with The Noisy Paintbox by Barb Rosenstock (and illustrated beautifully by Mary Grandpré). I learned a lot about synesthesia and will be buying a Kandinsky print. I loved learning about his magical childhood. I also enjoyed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. I have always heard about the book and was glad I found it in the library. I also read The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. This is our district’s K-2 summer reading text. My son is still only 7 months old, but I was curious about it. I thought it taught a good lesson, but it was very basic, and I can think of many other books that do a better job.
This Week’s Expeditions
Kellee: This week I plan on reading Wise Young Fool by Sean Beaudoin, Brother, Brother by Clay Carmichael, and Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick. I hope they continue the streak of great books I’ve been reading.
Trent and I will continue to read our picture books. We finished the board books from the library, but I have a pile of non-board picture books that we may dive into.
Ricki: I am halfway through Hidden Like Anne Frank: 14 True Stories of Survival by Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis. Whew. This book has been an emotional ride for me. I am learning about the ways in which people hid during the Holocaust, but reading about the narrators’ immense sadness and grief is weighing on me. I’ll absolutely be writing a full review on this one when I finish it, but I recommend it to anyone is looking for a powerful work of nonfiction.
Upcoming Week’s Posts
Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Classics AND Top Ten Classics We Want To Read
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!

















