IMWAYR

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

 

Tuesday: Teacher Appreciation Week!: Teachers Who Inspired Us #ThankATeacher

Wednesday: Tsu and the Outliers by E Eero Johnson

Thursday: Who’s Hiding by Satoru Onishi

Friday:  Summer Brain Quest and Star Wars Workbooks

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

Kellee
& 

Ricki

 We are spending our Mother’s Day Sunday with our families, so we’ll catch you all up on our reading next week 🙂 We hope everyone who is a mother, identifies as a mother, or fills the roll of a mother had a wonderful Mother’s Day! <3

Upcoming Week’s Posts

 

Tuesday: A Secret About Close Reading

Wednesday: I Am Gandhi by Brad Meltzer

Thursday: Guest Review: A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi

Friday: How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk

Sunday: Author Q&A with Lynn Brunelle, Author of Turn This Book Into a Beehive!

 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!

  and

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

Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Random Thoughts (on Exercise, Technology, Change, Disney, and Science & Pop Culture) From a Teacher Circulating During Testing

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review!: Don’t Ask a Dinosaur by Deborah Bruss & Matt Forrest Esenwine

Thursday: Sticky Facts series from Workman Press

Friday: 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt with an Interview with the Author, Book Trailer, and Giveaway!

Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “Defeat Your Fear of Writing” by Jan Eldredge, Author of Evangeline of the Bayou

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

 Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

Thank you for all the Jim happy birthday wishes last week! 🙂 Here is my two week update:

• The final book in the Nameless City series is a perfect conclusion to the story. If you haven’t read this graphic novel series yet, it is one of my favorites; you should definitely pick it up!
• Good Dog by Dan Gemeinhart is such an interesting look at the after life, and be on the look out for a tie-over from The Honest Truth.
• I was so happy to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Underneath last week!
• I look forward to reviewing Tsu and the Outliers for you this week!
• I’m working on a special project with Water in May by Ismée Williams that I will share with you when I am finished. Until then, I just want to say how happy I am to see diversity in Latinx and Hispanic representation in a book! My students are primarily from South American, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and many talk to me about not seeing themselves in books, so I am so happy to have met Mari, a Dominican-American teen.

On the advice of Michele Knott, I decided not to listen to First Rule of Punk since it has visuals that are essential to the story, instead I got:

• Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles is as beautiful as its cover. I loved Marvin, our narrator, and his story. If I can ever figure out how to put into words why this is one of my favorite YA novels I’ve read recently, I’ll write a review.
• Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson was EPIC! Wow. My students have read this book for years and told me it was one of the best nonfiction books they’ve ever read, and I’m so glad I finally got to it. Booth’s assassination plot was so crazy, and th manhunt after Lincoln’s assassination was even crazier!

  

With Trent:

• Dragons v. Dinos by Ann Bryant and Ben Redlich is an early chapter book that Trent and I read/listened to while driving to school over two days. I love the “read-to-me” options on Hoopla because it allows Trent to have the audiobook and the book. This story led Trent and I to have a great conversation about judging and acceptance which is a win-win to me!
• I loved being part of the Don’t Ask a Dinosaur blog tour, and I shared Trent’s opinion in my review.
• Continuing our dragon audiobook streak, Trent picked out Me and My Dragon by David Biedrzycki. While I didn’t like the narrator very much, that didn’t seem to bother Trent at all. We have listened to this over 3 mornings now.
• This weekend I received a surprise F&G copy of Lost in the Library by Josh Funk in the mail (SQUEE!!!!). Now, I promise to do a formal review on this one after I get a finished copy, I just want to say I love reading Josh’s words out loud and Stevie Lewis’s illustrations are perfection.

Ricki

This week, I made progress on most of my books, but I didn’t finish many. I read The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang and loved it. Kellee recommended it to me. It’s fantastic.

Next week is finals week for us, so I am sorry I don’t have much to report. I read many students’ unit plans this week, though, and there are some incredible teachers entering the profession. 🙂

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee

  

• Now I’m on a James Swanson kick, and I am going to listen to Chasing King’s Killer next. I am digging learning about history!
• We’ve started in -class book clubs (an alternate version of lit circles) in class, and I have a group of students who chose Somewhere in the Darkness, which I haven’t read. I plan on keeping up with them to allow me to take part in their meetings.
• Our next Skype visit on the 18th is with Mitali Perkins, and I definitely need to read more of her work. I am going to start Funny Girl and hopefully You Bring the Distance Near this week (I’m also going to reread Perkins’s story from Open Mic which has the same characters as Distance when I’m finished).

Ricki

I hope to finish When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. It is simply fantastic, and I am kicking myself for not reading it when it first came out.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Teacher Appreciation Week!: Teachers Who Inspired Us #ThankATeacher

Wednesday: Tsu and the Outliers by E Eero Johnson

Thursday: Who’s Hiding by Satoru Onishi

Friday:  Summer Brain Quest and Star Wars Workbooks

Sunday: Happy Mother’s Day to all who identify as a mom 🙂

 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!

  and

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

Tuesday: Grading is Complicated: Ruminations of an English Teacher Educator

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review: The Reckless Rescue (The Explorers #2) by Adrienne Kress

Thursday: It’s a Puppy’s Life from National Geographic

Friday: Teaching Guide with Discussion Questions and Activities for Polly Diamond and the Magic Book by Alice Kuipers

Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “What Kinds of Storybook Characters Teach the Best Lessons” by Patty Costello, Author of Catalina and the King’s Wall

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

 Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

Hello, everyone! Sunday, April 29th is my husband’s birthday, so even though I originally planned on getting this post written, we just got home, and it is bedtime! I will catch everyone up next week 🙂

 Ricki

Apparently, it’s not a good week for us. I was falling asleep in bed and realized I didn’t write this post! Ha!

My son and I read the Sticky Facts books. There are facts below each picture, and they are delightful to read. I’ll be reviewing these later in the week.

I REREAD The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for the fifth time. My students are broken into three groups tomorrow. Twelve students are in each group, and they are discussing this book, Dear Martin, and All American Boys. I am excited to talk within the groups and across the groups.

Llama Llama Loves to Read is a great addition to the Anna Dewdney series. Published posthumously, this book features Reed Duncan as the second author. Duncan is her longtime partner, and he seeks to honor the work she left behind in various stages. I think that Dewdney would be proud of the way this one turned out. It is beautifully done.

My son and I are loving the We Both Read series. My Day by Sindy McKay is one of several books in this series that we’ve read together. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, the left page is the parent page (with more words) and the right page is the child page (with simpler words). In this book, there is just one word on the child page. In the more advanced book that we read earlier in the week, the parent page bolds new words, and the child page includes that word (among others). I try to avoid early readers, but my son really likes this one, so we have been taking them out of the library quite often.

This Week’s Expeditions

Ricki

I am loving Alone Together by Sarah J. Donovan. She is well-known and well-loved in the blogger world, and this book shows her deep knowledge of adolescence.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Random Thoughts From a Teacher Circulating During Testing

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review!: Don’t Ask a Dinosaur by Deborah Bruss & Matt Forrest Esenwine

Thursday: Sticky Facts series from Workman Press

Friday: 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt with an Interview with the Author, Book Trailer, and Giveaway!

Sunday: Author Guest Post!: “Defeat Your Fear of Writing” by Jan Eldredge, Author of Evangeline of the Bayou

 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!

  and

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.

CONGRATULATIONS
Danielle H.
for winning our giveaway of Rewind by Carolyn O’Doherty

Last Week’s Posts

 

Tuesday:  Kellee’s Middle School In-Class Book Clubs and Recommended Titles

Wednesday: On Gull Beach by Jane Yolen

Thursday: Mary’s Monster by Lita Judge

Friday: I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Sunday: Author Guest Post from Darby Karchut, Author of Del Toro Moon

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

 Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

I used this past weekend to get some work done and also to read some picture books that I’ve had waiting for me, piling up. I’m so glad I did–all were good, some were phenomenal.

• Trent really loved the Peter Rabbit movie, so when he saw this book adaptation, he wanted to read it so badly! It isn’t a literary masterpiece, but it made my boy happy 🙂
• Llama Llama Loves to Read by Anna Dewdney is one of my favorite Llama Llama books, and it showed me that Trent knows how to read GO and STOP–yay!
• Penguin and Tiny Shrimp Don’t Do Bedtime by Cate Barry was probably my favorite fiction picture book we read. It was really funny and made me and Trent laugh out loud.
• The Secret Kingdom by Barb Rosenstock is as brilliant as I knew it would be based on her guest post. I loved learning about Nek Chand, a man who wanted to keep beauty even as society was tearing it down.
• Earth Verse by Sally Walker is full of haikus about the Earth and geology which made the volcano-obssessed me pretty happy. It was a perfect mix of science and poetry, and the back matter was really interesting and helps make the haikus make more sense.
• A Seed is the Start by Melissa Stewart is as good as everyone is saying. She does a great job of providing information in interesting, lyrical, yet scientific ways.
• Same goes for Maria Gianferrari and her book Terrific Tongues. I had no idea that tongues were so fascinating, but they are!
• Crawly School for Bugs by David L. Harrison immediately seemed like a companion to Leaf Litter Critters! I could see them working so well together!
• Dreaming of You by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater was a sweet book about what animals dream about.
• Blue Grass Boy by Barb Rosenstock is another interesting biography from Barb that tells us the story of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music. I loved how she explained the inspiration for Monroe’s music.

• Book or Bell by Chris Barton looks at what happens when you can’t put down a book, even when the bell rings at school to go somewhere else.
• I sadly didn’t know of Belva Lockwood until Hillary Clinton ran for president and many threw her name out there saying Hillary wasn’t the first woman to run, so I was so happy to read A Lady Has the Floor by Kate Hannigan to learn about her amazing life and brilliance.
• Born to Swing by Mara Rockliff introduced me to another amazing woman that we should all know about: Lil Hardin Armstrong, Louis Armstrong’s second wife who was more famous (and arguably talented) than he was and helped him become famous. She was a piano prodigy who revolutionized woman in music.
• Run Wild by David Covell looks at the wonders of just running free and enjoying the outside world.
• Orangutanka by Margarita Engle is a reread for me, but it was the first time Trent and I read it together. With just finishing Rescued by Eliot Schrefer with my students, it was a great time to read this fun and poetic book about these amazing animals.
• Islandborn by Junot Díaz is as perfect as everyone, including Ricki, has said. What a beautiful way to talk about heritage, specifically Lola’s.
• Josh Funk’s newest picture book, How to Code a Sandcastle, combines his day job and his writing with our protagonist using her coding skills to have her robot help her build the perfect sandcastle. It is a great introduction to coding!
• A book you need to add to your empathy text set: Adrian Simcox Does NOT have a Horse by Marcy Campbell looks at poverty, judging, and imagination.
•  The Adventures of Wrong Man and Power Girl by C. Alexander London shows that dad is super even if he does the wrong thing a lot of the time. Luckily Power Girl is around to help save the day!
• School People compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins is a must get for every teacher! It is a compilation of poetry about all the different people who make a school what it is.

• Trent and I finished DC Superhero Girls: Date with Disaster this week, and by the end of the graphic novel, Trent had obviously gotten used to the format and was really into it. I loved experience this first full graphic novel with him.
• I’ve now finished the fourth Cucumber Quest book, and the waiting for more in the series begins…..
• Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol is a semi-autobiographical story of Vera’s trip to Russian summer camp in Connecticut. Full of situations that anyone can connect to and other situations that will make you laugh out loud, the story is a coming of age graphic novel for all.
• All Summer Long by Hope Larson is also a summer-long coming of age story, but Bina’s story looks more at friendship, gender expectations, and music. I definitely connected to this one more, but Be Prepared gave me better insight into a culture I am not part of.

 

• I cannot wait to review The Reckless Rescue for you all on Wednesday!
• Dan Gemeinhart is another author who I am starting to realize is one I can trust to write a story I would love. Some Kind of Courage was some kind of book–just amazing. Wow! And the narrator for the audiobook was perfect! I cried of sadness and happiness while reading. Just so many emotions! Wow!

 Ricki

There is no way I can compete with that!

I listened to (and loved) The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore. I loved the integration of legos, and I admired the brave, 12-year-old Lolly. This is a powerful book about grief.

I REREAD If You Could Be Mine for the fifth time. I dare say that it gets better with each reading. I love this book, and I am looking forward to talking about it with students tomorrow! Besides discussing the book, we will be talking about it in the context of censorship.

My kids and I reread a hundred or so picture books, but none were new!

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee

• My book club’s virtual author visit with Dan Gemeinhart is on Friday, and Good Dog is the last of his books that I haven’t read, so I am planning on finishing it before then.
• The Underneath by Kathi Appelt is RAVED about by so many, and it is turning 10 this year–obviously it is time for me to finally get to it!
• The Sunshine State Young Reader lists for next year were just announced, and First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez is on the list; luckily, it was one of the books I’ve gotten from Audible, so I am going to start listening to it.

Ricki

My son and I are reading The 78-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths. I’ve never read any of the treehouse books (GASP!), but now, I get it. I suspect that we will be reading every book in this series together. My son loves it!

I am excited to start Alone Together by Sarah J. Donovan. I admire this author, so I am looking forward to diving into this book!

Upcoming Week’s Posts

Tuesday: Grading is Complicated: Ruminations of an English Teacher Educator

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review: The Reckless Rescue (The Explorers #2) by Adrienne Kress

Thursday: It’s a Puppy’s Life from National Geographic

Friday: Teaching Guide with Discussion Questions and Activities for Polly Diamond and the Magic Book by Alice Kuipers

Sunday: Author Guest Post from Patty Costello, Author of Catalina and the King’s Wall

 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!

  and

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

 

Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Disability and the Body, Literature Circles/Book Clubs

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review and Giveaway: Bone’s Gift by Angie Smibert

Congratulations to Jeff S. for winning the giveaway!!!!

Thursday: Islandborn by Junot Díaz

Friday: Kellee’s #mustreadin2018 Spring Update

Sunday: Blog Tour with Author Guest Post and Giveaway!: “The Importance of a Diverse Cast of Characters” by Carolyn O’Doherty, Author of Rewind

Giveaway open until Friday!

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

 Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

I focused on graphic novels this week because I was so excited to read so many, and I was able to read four of them:

• I love the Star Leagues series by Mike Lawrence! It is so full of girl power and team work and aliens and sci fi and wonderful adventures! And book two, League of Lasers, does a great job continuing the story.
• The first Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G. book was such a hit in my classroom, when I heard that the next three were coming out quite quickly, I knew I had to get to them, and thanks to Netgalley I was able to read the third one early. Each GN takes the hero through a new kingdom and a new monster.
• Kitten Construction Company by John Patrick Green seems like just a cute story on the surface and it may be, but I really think that it is a social justice book in its own way looking at people who are looked at as not equal no matter how qualified they are.

I also finished two audiobooks this week because they were just SO good!

• I loved the new Upside Down Magic book! Dragon Overnight takes the Upside Down Magic kids to sleepover camp at a Dragon rehab center. And obviously things happened that are hilarious and thought-provoking.
• The first Unicorn Rescue Society book, Creature of the Pines, by Adam Gidwitz is so special–it is funny and smart and thoughtful and mythical and everything! And the audio was superb! It is a must get.

Trent and I read quite a few new-to-us book this week!

• What This Story Needs is a Pig in a Wig by Emma J. Virjan is such a fun rhyming book. Trent is just learning how rhyming works, so this was a perfect book for him.
• Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant is a cute story but it is made by Christian Robinson’s artwork. But I love anything with penguins, so it made me happy!
• Blue Umbrella from Pixar and Coco from Disney were two audiobooks that we listened to on our way to school this week. Both were good representations of their movies.
• The King of Too Many Things is another gem from Laurel Snyder! Every time I thought I had read everything by her, I find another book, and I love it, too!

 Ricki

I am away this weekend at the AERA (American Educational Research Association) conference! I am hoping to learn some great new things to share with everyone! 🙂

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee

• We are slacking on our graphic novel reading, but my goal is to finish Date with Disaster with Trent this week!
• I am so excited to read the second book in The Explorers series, Reckless Rescue! If you read my review you know it ended with a TERRIBLE cliffhanger, so I could not wait to find out what happened!
• I still have one more Cucumber Quest book to read!
• My book clubs next virtual author visit is with Dan Gemeinhart, and I have read all but Some Kind of Courage and his newest, Good Dog, so I was happy to find Courage as an audiobook which I’ll start this week.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

 

Tuesday:  Kellee’s Middle School In-Class Book Clubs and Recommended Titles

Wednesday: On Gull Beach by Jane Yolen

Thursday: Mary’s Monster by Lita Judge

Friday: I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Sunday: Author Guest Post from Darby Karchut, Author of Del Toro Moon

 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!

  and

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

Tuesday: The Stress of Teaching and Advice for Remaining Positive

Wednesday: Sports Illustrated Kids: The Baseball Fanbook by Gary Gamling

Thursday: You’re My Little Cuddle Bug by Nicola Edwards

Friday: Secondhand Heroes series by Justin LaRocca Hansen

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

 Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

• *Screaming from rooftops!* If you have not read Nielsen’s Ascendance Trilogy, get to it! So much epicness and adventure and action and humor all in one series!
• Stung and Cured by Bethany Wiggins were quite interesting books. I can see why those who don’t like them didn’t, but I did overall. Actually, I may have liked Cured better than Stung! If you like post-apocaplyptic, dystopians with a bit of romance, then you’ll like these!
• I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted is so different than any of the other three books I read; however, I love when I read very different books that both are so special! I am so happy to review this title soon.

 Ricki

I Am Ghandi by Brad Meltzer is an absolutely stunning graphic novel which features 25 acclaimed graphic novelists. I am really excited about this book, which will appeal to all ages. My four-year-old was mesmerized by the artwork and enjoyed learning about Ghandi’s life.

Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell is an absolutely stunning story that allows young people to consider ideas like class, poverty, and imagination. This one is due out in August, and I suspect it will be well-loved by readers.

Run Wild by David Covell, set to be published this June, reminds us that it is so good to be alive. The words in this book dance off of the pages. It made me want to open my doors and race out into the world.

I REREAD Graceling by Kristin Cashore for my Adolescents’ Literature course. We had some fantastic discussions about the fantasy genre, and this book was great fun to talk about.

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee

 

• I was so excited to start the 4th Upside Down Magic book, Dragon Overnight, when I finished Shadow Throne, and it is totally living up to its expectations! I love the characters in this series and all of the truly realistic themes that are touched upon in this fantasy series.
• League of Lasers is the 2nd book in the Star Scouts series by Mike Lawrence, and I am so excited to read it. I also got some other :01 graphic novels from Netgalley that I hope to read; I’ll share which ones next week if I get to them!
• Trent and I are still reading Date with Disaster, and I love that he loved DC Superhero girls!

 Ricki

My son and I started Sci-Fu by Yehudi Mercado. He’s loving it, and he doesn’t realize that I am editing out a lot of the words. It’s not written for a four-year-old, and he thinks any book with pictures is written with him as the audience. I’m enjoying it!

Upcoming Week’s Posts

 

Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Disability and the Body, Literature Circles/Book Clubs

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review and Giveaway: Bone’s Gift by Angie Smibert

Thursday: Islandborn by Junot Díaz

Friday: Kellee’s #mustreadin2018 Spring Update

Sunday: Author Guest Post from Carolyn  O’Doherty, Author of Rewind

 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!

  and

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

Teaching Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday: Teaching My Son to Read (by Ricki) Part II

Wednesday: Blog Tour with Review and Educators’ Resource Guide!: Bat and the Waiting Game by Elana K. Arnold

Thursday: Guest Review: Miles Away From You by A. B. Rutledge

Friday: Moon by Alison Oliver

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

 Last Week’s Journeys

Kellee

Yay Spring Break! And thank you for understanding about last week! My Future Problem Solvers teams did AMAZINGLY! I have one 6th grade team and one 11th/12th grade team that qualified for internationals! I’m so proud of how brilliant they are!

• Sunny by Jason Reynolds: Wow. I hope this isn’t the end of this series because each one is such a special treat. Sunny is quite different than the first although readers will find the format and story just as engaging.
• Bat and the Waiting Game by Elana K. Arnold: See my review from last week 🙂
• Bone’s Gift by Angie Smibert: I’ll be reviewing this next week!
• Breakout by Kate Messner: This is a 500 page book that I couldn’t put down and read so quickly! It is so special. I loved the variety of formats within the narrative and the multiple and diverse points of view. It is so applicable for many ages and it brings up issues for conversation in a respectable yet clear way. And it is such a darn good story!
• Two Naomis by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich: I can see why my students loved this story! It is filled with family, friend, and school drama that so many different kids can connect to. And we were so lucky to Google Hangout with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich on Friday (check out my Twitter Thread to see some pictures and my favorite quotes)!

With Trent’s books, I’m primarily focusing on either new books to Trent or me, books we haven’t read in a while, or books he’s obsessed with. Listing all of the books we read in the car or sitting in the living room would be crazy, but I feel guilty about it, so I wanted to just say something 🙂

• 8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel ÷ 1 Dog = Chaos by Vivian Vande Velde: Reading this book with my mom and Trent when we visited Baton Rouge during Spring Break is going to be one of those memories that stay with me forever. My mom and I took turns reading, and we read to Trent every day. It is such a heart-filling experience to be able to enjoy a book as a family!
  
• With Easter upon us, we also read a bunch of fun Easter books that I pull out each year. Llama Llama was my favorite–I just think she has such an year for rhythms and rhymes.

Ricki

It’s been a crazy week for me. I’ve been planning an event to have the Get Lit players come to our university, and it sucked my time away. I did finish a few books!

I loved the nontraditional format of Thornhill by Pam Smy. It’s very similar in format to a Brian Selznick book, but it falls closer to the horror/mystery genre. It was a very engaging read and kept me intrigued. The integration of art and prose is wonderfully done—the prose is set in the 1980s, and the art is set in present day.

Your My Little Cuddle Bug by Nicola Edwards is a charming board book that reminded me of a Mem Fox text. It’s a warm and fuzzy type of book. 🙂

Who’s Hiding by Satoru Onishi is a fun, interactive book where kids try to determine which character is hiding, angry, etc. It is a fun take on the search-and-find books.

Hoot Hoot Pop-Up Fun is a pop-up book winner. As a mom of two young kids, I read a lot of pop-up books, and the pop-ups are very clever in this book. We spent a solid ten minutes on the wolf page making the wolf howl and howl.

We also read a book called Shake Dogs Shake Puppies by Carli Davidson. The book is about 400 pages of photographs of dogs and puppies shaking off water. My younger son spends a lot of time perusing this book–even though I think it was intended to be an adult coffee table book.

This Week’s Expeditions

Kellee

• The Shadow Throne by Jennifer E. Nielsen: I have 25 minutes left in the audiobook, and I cannot wait to finish it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Stung by Bethany Wiggins: This is our next faculty book club choice, and so far I am liking it, but I already know that it is going to be a split discussion because a couple of teachers have told me they really didn’t like it. I look forward to having the conversation. If nothing else, I know that kids adore it. It won the Florida Sunshine State Young Reader Award for grade 6-8 in 2016.
• DC Superhero Girls: Date with Disaster: Trent picked this book out at the book store, and he and I are reading it a chapter at a time. This is his first full graphic novel, and as long as I point at the word bubbles, he’s doing a great job following along!
• I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted: After Stung I look forward to picking this one up to read and review.
• Upside Down Magic: Dragon Overnight by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins: When I finish Shadow Throne, I am going to start the 4th Upside Down Magic book, and I am so excited! I love this series.

Ricki

I’ll be REREADING Graceling by Kristin Cashore for my class. We are doing Sci Fi/Fantasy this week, and the houses are reading Graceling, Feed, and Unwind. I am excited to hear what they think about the three books.

Upcoming Week’s Posts

Tuesday: The Stress of Teaching and Advice for Remaining Positive

Wednesday: Sports Illustrated Kids: The Baseball Fanbook by Gary Gamling

Thursday: You’re My Little Cuddle Bug by Nicola Edwards

Friday: Secondhand Heroes series by Justin LaRocca Hansen

 So, what are you reading?

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