Author Guest Post: “What Would It Take to Love a Snake” by Sunya Mara, Author of Embrace the Serpent

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“What Would It Take to Love a Snake”

.I’ve always been afraid of snakes. They give me the primordial heebie-jeebies—a fear so deep in my blood that I’m sure my ancestors are recoiling, too. But, one day, I saw this king snake in my backyard — an enormous, black-and-white striped, insanely long creature — and for some reason, a little voice in my head said: what would it take to love a snake?

I had been tinkering with this idea of a girl who made magic jewelry, but it was at that moment that Embrace the Serpent really had a spark. Jewels and snakes go together often in fairytales—there are too many examples to name, but I’m particularly fond of “The Snake Prince” and “Muchie-Lal”—and I started wondering why. Why do fairytale serpents have bejeweled palaces? Why does a queen’s ruby necklace turn into a snake, and the snake into a prince? Why does a bride have to embrace a hundred-headed snake for an entire night without letting go, to save her bridegroom? Why do they go together, the things we covet and the things we fear?

One thought kept nagging at me. It’s a simple one: both snakes and jewels are found deep in the earth, hidden from sight.

That idea inspired me. That something could be lurking just beneath your feet—something that could be wonderful, or dangerous. And you can’t know which it is unless you’re brave enough to seek it out, to reach into the dark, the unknown, and take hold of it.

Saphira, the main character in Embrace the Serpent, is a girl who’s so afraid of the world that she lets someone else take the credit for the magical jewelry she makes. But, she doesn’t realize that her work is so extraordinary that powerful people are paying attention, including the Serpent King. That idea, of being afraid to claim your work as your own, and therefore limiting yourself to a cage of your own making—that became the crux of Saphira’s character.

She’s tested when the Serpent King sends his cleverest huntsman to find the best jewelsmith in the world, and he realizes that the unassuming little apprentice is the true genius behind these extraordinary works. Unfortunately, his scrutiny leads others to discover her, and sets of a chain of events that leads to Saphira making a dangerous deal with the Serpent King: she’ll help him, if he’ll give her the means to hide forever.

And that’s where the unlikely romance begins. As they journey together, pretending to be newlyweds, they begin to see each other as more than a means to an end. Both Saphira and the Serpent King have something to hide, and I wanted to capture the feeling of guarded people slowly opening up to each other, and finding that under the fear, there’s something to love.

Who we love shows us who we are. And sometimes who we really are is a surprise to ourselves—in a good way. Sometimes being loved changes the beloved.

That feeling of transformation—of becoming stronger because you have something or someone to be strong for—was the thing I most wanted to explore with this story.

Some of the books and movies that have been a touchstone for this story include Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen—all these have one thing in common, which is that the main character undergoes a radical transformation because they found a reason to be braver in loving someone else. I found those stories powerful, especially in the context of a world that seems increasingly self-centered and fearful.

Fear can be good, because it keeps us alive, but it also can keep us stagnant. You can only be sure no one will hurt you if you’re all alone, that you’ll never say something wrong if you never speak at all, and that nothing horrible can happen to you if you never leave the house—but centering fear seems like such a shame, when there are so many wonderful things to embrace instead.

That, I think, is what Embrace the Serpent is about. It came out of me as an antidote to fear. It reminded me of the power of delight, of choosing to be strong enough to care. I hope that if you choose to give Embrace the Serpent a chance, that Saphira and the Serpent King’s love story will take care of you the way it took care of me.

And, the funny thing is, I still think about that king snake. In a way, it gave me this book, and the adventure of writing it. It changed me for the better, and I’m grateful to it.

And I wonder, what would it take for you to love a snake?

Published June 24th, 2025 by HarperCollins

About the Book: “An exquisite jewel of a book.” —Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning

In this sweeping romantic fantasy, a dangerous deal binds a young jeweler’s apprentice to the mysterious Serpent King in a marriage of convenience, thrusting her into a deadly game between the cunning, fearsome ruler and his rebellious huntsman. Perfect for fans of The Wrath & the Dawn and Once Upon a Broken Heart!

The Serpent King is the most eligible bachelor in the land: a monster with dark and terrible magic and the ruler of the last free kingdom. Riches and power await his future bride—but so does a life forever trapped in the games of court.

That fate is eighteen-year-old Saphira’s worst nightmare. Ever since the Empire made her an orphan, she’s found freedom in being invisible. So despite her rare gift for harnessing the magic in gemstones, she lets an unscrupulous jewelsmith take credit for her increasingly sought-after work.

But when the king sends his most clever huntsman to find the best jewelsmith of all, the spotlight lands on Saphira. Faced with choosing between falling into the Empire’s grasp or marrying a monster, she chooses the latter — even if it means getting increasingly caught between her cold, serpentine husband and his cunning, handsome huntsman.

About the Author: Sunya Mara grew up in six different cities across five different states and now calls Los Angeles home. She studied film and business at the University of Southern California and went on to write and illustrate at Kobe Bryant’s Granity Studios. When not telling stories, she spends her time haunting old movie theaters and staring at museum walls.

Thank you, Sunya, for sharing your fear that became power in this post!

Sofia’s YA Book Nook: The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys

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Sofia is a 13-year-old brilliant reader who aspires to be a book reviewer. Since she was 8 years old, on select weeks, Sofia shares her favorite books with other young people her age! She is one of the most well-read youth that we know, so she is highly qualified for this role!

 

Dear readers,

Please let me introduce you to this masterpiece of historical fiction, The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Septeys and Steve Sheinkin! This is a two perspective book that takes place in Britain during the Second World War (1940). The two main characters are Lizzie and Jakob, two orphaned siblings. Jakob is older and has already moved away from home and works in “Government Communications”, which really means he is a code breaker in Bletchley Park, deciphering messages from the Germans. On the other hand, Lizzie is still living in their old house in London, being taken care of by a Nanny. This all changes though when her Grandma in Ohio sends her butler to come fetch her and bring her to Cleveland, before the war escalates. Though when the butler takes Lizzie back on a ship to America, she escapes and goes to find her brother, who she hasn’t seen in forever. Once she arrives in Bletchley, she discovers the place is shrouded in mystery, and sets out to explore!

Goodreads Summary

This middle grade historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother’s death. Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act… Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II-Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother. The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother’s disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?

My Thoughts

Wow, I must say, The Bletchley Riddle is an amazing book! I found it really interesting to learn about top secret code breaking in England during the Second World War while also being entertained by Lizzie and Jakob’s shenanigans. Over the course of the story, you can see the two siblings growing together and caring about each other, even though Jakob’s protective nature always remains. While Jakob is working on the enigmas, Lizzie is trying to find their mother, who she believes is still alive even though she was proclaimed dead when the Nazis invaded Poland, where she was at the time. With both of the siblings making breakthroughs in their own right, this book is very fun!

On Amazon, this book is recommended for ages 11+ and I agree with that rating.

**Thanks so much, Sofia!**

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 6/23/25

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? For readers of all ages

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop we host which focuses on sharing what we’re reading. This Kid Lit version of IMWAYR focuses primarily on books marketed for kids and teens, but books for readers of all ages are shared. We love this community and how it offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. The Kid Lit IMWAYR was co-created by Kellee & Jen at Teach Mentor Texts.

We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

Happy reading!

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Wednesday: Student Voices: Benefits of Reading and School Libraries from Annarita A., Leo S., Scarlet-Gray S., Arden W., and Diogo R.

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

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Kellee

I am taking a bit of a break from IMWAYR during this summer though I will be sharing some amazing Student Voice posts during that time, so please check them out! OH, and please keep linking up, checking out Ricki’s updates when she posts, and commenting on others in the community 📖💙

My next update will be August 11th, and I look forward to sharing what I read during the rest of the summer (because that’ll be the first day back to school for my students 😲!), but you can always you see what books I’ve been reading by checking out my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

Young Adult

Flamer by Mike Curato is a phenomenal book. I was reading it for the second time, but it is like a punch in the gut every time. I love this book so much.

Adult

I loved Monica Wood’s How to Read a Book. A friend recommended it, and I really enjoyed reading it. Wood does a phenomenal job depicting complex characters that reflect humanity.

Adult Romance

I adored each of these charming romances, which are getting me through the world at this moment. 🙂

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Thursday: Sofia’s YA Book Nook: The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys

Sunday: Author Guest Post: “What Would It Take to Love a Snake” by Sunya Mara, Author of Embrace the Serpent

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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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Author Guest Post: “Scared Safe: How Horror Literature Can Comfort Young Readers” by Ann Dávila Cardinal, Author of You’ve Awoken Her

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“Scared Safe: How Horror Literature Can Comfort Young Readers”

When people learn what kind of young adult novels I write, I often get the comment, “Oh, I can’t read horror. I’m too scared!” I always respond with, “Oh, me too! I’m so afraid, I’m medicated!” I usually get a confused look in reply, “But . . .you write horror?”

I know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense at first glance, but I’ve always loved scary stories, even when I was quite young. My three older brothers usually had Creature Features on, a weekly television broadcast of cult horror movies, and my mother was always reading some gothic horror novel or another, so I was right there asking them all my questions, peeking at the screen from between my fingers. Yes, these things gave me nightmares, but no, that didn’t stop me. After many years of being a horror fan, I began my writing career with a young adult novel about the Latine boogeyman entitled Five Midnights. From that point on, I was hooked. After writing in this genre for over ten years and meeting a lot of other writers and readers, I’ve come to realize that a lot of us are like this: these stories scare us too, but we also find comfort from reading, watching, or listening to tales of the macabre. I have a theory why, at least in my own case.

Like many childhoods of that time, mine had its traumas. I was the fifth of five children, with sixteen years between me and my eldest sibling, and for five of my first eight years my father was dying of ALS. As you can imagine with all that was going on for my fairly large family, I often went unnoticed, quietly sitting in the background as my brother George watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or listening in on conversations about my father’s disease that were not appropriate for my young years. After my father passed, with only two of us kids left at home, my mother turned to alcohol for comfort. Me? I started buying horror comics, reading about dolls that came alive at night and killed their owners, corpses that rose from the grave to exact revenge. I was drawn to these dark tales because they made my difficult life seem bearable, particularly those that featured kids who, like me, had no autonomy, no voice, but when faced with the most unimaginable horrors they managed to triumph in the end. Weird as it was, those stories made me believe that there was hope, because though my young life sucked, at least there weren’t zombies breaking down the front door of our home. I am clearly not alone in this response; in fact, I came to find that it is supported by studies as well.

In his paper entitled, “Scaring away anxiety: Therapeutic avenues for horror fiction to enhance treatment for anxiety symptoms,” behavioral scientist Coltan Scrivner, PhD states, “Horror media may provide a unique avenue for individuals to manage anxiety by offering controlled exposure to fear, opportunities for cognitive engagement, and experiences of mastery over negative emotions.” He goes on to talk about the benefits of “scary play” for juveniles, “Much of human play takes place in the cognitive playground of a fictional world. Through fictional play, people can learn what a particular situation looks like and imagine how they would react and deal with it. As with more physical types of play, cognitive play with fiction can also serve as a rehearsal for negative emotions and how to manage them.” So, horror stories give young readers an opportunity to practice their responses to trauma in a safe and fictional environment.

During a recent interview I was asked how writing horror for teens differs from writing horror for adults. My answer is always the same: hope. When you’re writing for young people, you’re writing for a vulnerable population. You have responsibility toward your readers. With adults, you don’t have to consider audience at all, you just write. And in the case of adult horror, it can be as dark, violent, or disturbing as you’d like. But with young people, I feel that even the darkest stories should end with a certain amount of hope, and, perhaps, agency for the young protagonists. But along the way, the road can be pretty dark: today’s youth can take it.

In any young adult novel, it is partially our job as writers to throw as many roadblocks at our main characters as possible, sometimes in the form of trauma or truly horrific things, because, put simply: conflict makes for a more interesting story. The more conflict, the better. No one wants to read about someone’s perfect life, because I don’t believe anyone actually has one. It would seem empty. I often think about the first time I read the Lord of the Rings. I couldn’t stand the fact that Frodo and Sam continued to encounter unspeakable evil for thousands of pages, and I gnashed my teeth for hours at a time. I was like, “Just let them throw the damn ring into the fire already!” But it kept me turning pages. No one wants to read a version where they’re magically flown to Mount Doom, Frodo doesn’t have an internal battle with evil but rather just tossed it into the lava, middle earth is saved in the first fifteen minutes, and there was much rejoicing. Rather, it is the act of overcoming that elevates a tale to one that we love and reread over and over. And it is these kinds of stories that almost always end with hope.

So, whether or not you are someone who enjoys horror, you will probably encounter a student or other young person who expresses interest in books of the scary persuasion. What I’d like to ask of you, is this: don’t assume about the child is drawn to these kinds of stories because they are receding into darkness, but rather consider that they might be trying to claw their way out of it, and books of this kind help them do just that. Because in the darkness of horror, young readers often find the light they need to face the real world.

I certainly did. And I turned out alright. (Well, more or less. 😉

Published June 17th, 2025 by HarperCollins

About the Book: Fans of You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight and Your Lonely Nights Are Over will love this thrilling YA horror about a string of disappearances and “accidental” drownings in the Hamptons, the changing relationship between two best friends, and their desperate attempt to not be the next victims of a Lovecraftian monster terrorizing the coastline.

Gabi should be thrilled to be visiting his best friend for the summer. But with its mansions, country clubs, and Ruth’s terrible new boyfriend, Frost Thurston, the Hamptons is the last place he wants to be. And then Gabi witnesses a woman being dragged under the ocean by what looks like a tentacle . . .

When no one—not the police or anyone else—seems to care, Gabi starts to wonder if maybe the beachside town’s bad vibes are more real than he thought. As the number of “accidental” deaths begins to climb, the Thurston family name keeps rising to the top. And what’s worse is that all the signs point to something lurking beneath the water—something with a hunger for blood.

Can Gabi figure out how the two are intertwined and put an end to the string of deaths . . . before becoming the water’s next victim?

About the Author: Ann Dávila Cardinal is a writer and part-time bookseller with an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her young adult horror novels include You’ve Awoken Her, Breakup from Hell, and Five Midnights and its sequel, Category Five. Ann lives with her husband in a little house with a creepy basement and is always on the lookout for parts of monstrous creatures floating in the Vermont rivers as Lovecraft wrote about. Visit her online at anndavilacardinal.com. 

Thank you, Ann, for sharing the research behind the need for horror!

Student Voices: Benefits of Reading and School Libraries from Annarita A., Leo S., Scarlet-Gray S., Arden W., and Diogo R.

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Benefits of Reading and School Libraries

“Impacts of Reading” by Annarita A., 7th grade

Love Heart Made With Book Pages | A love heart shape made us… | Flickr

Reading can be beneficial, not only to learning scholars, but even to full grown adults. Reading is amazing for everyone. It can help with so many things, varying from improved memory and concentration to mental health. Reading can even reduce the risk of dementia! After school most people stop reading. But some people refrain from reading even in their school years ! Reading while you are young can help so much. Let’s go over the benefits and impacts of reading. At the end of this post I will link some book recommendations. 

CONCENTRATION

Reading can provide long term benefits to concentration. It increases the amount of white matter in the brain which is known to help focus and learning skills. It also improves attention spans. Concentration is very important and in the present world our attention spans are slowly drifting away to social media. So instead of scrolling through your favorite apps, take a few minutes to open a book and read! 🙂

ENHANCED VOCABULARY

Have you ever stumbled across a word and have absolutely no idea what it means? Well when you are reading you will most probably stumble across those words more often. Especially in more advanced reader books. When you come upon the words your brain will learn to connect these words with context clues and slowly you will learn what that word means.

INCREASED CREATIVITY

Reading books, more specifically fiction books can boost your creativity. Immersing yourself in different worlds and characters can definitely help you. It will boost your brain’s creativity and help with the real world. Especially if you are thinking of or have a job that requires a lot of creative thinking!

MENTAL HEALTH

Reading is also amazing for your Mental Health. Have you ever felt so stressed out? Well open a book and start reading. Reading books can help reduce stress and can make you forget about the stressful things. It can also help with sleep. Have you thought about  why parents read to their children at night? It can also reduce heart rate and blood pressure. Reading overall can make you feel calm and relaxed.

HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT BOOK FOR YOU

Well all these benefits I went over can only help if you actually read! Reading can be really, really fun and you will enjoy it so much. But first you need to find a good book that you will enjoy. Most kids hate reading because they are usually forced into reading books that others pick for them. They can’t find something that they would like. So find something that clicks with you. To do that you need to think about what you like. For example if you were interested enough to get this far into this post, you might like reading non fiction or informational articles/books. If non fiction doesn’t really connect with you, you can explore different options. For example if you love magic and adventure you can find books like that. My recommendation is Harry Potter by J.K Rowling or Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland. Or if you are more into Mystery/ Dystopian fiction I would recommend Cinder by Marrisa Meyers. If you like Murder Mysteries, A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson is the most amazing Murder Mystery series EVER! These are just some of my personal recommendations. There are so many other books out there. You just have to find the perfect one for you!

CONCLUSION

After reading this do you realize how amazing reading is? Reading can be so good for many things like concentration, mental health, and creativity! After you read this post I hope you will be convinced to start reading or if you already read a lot, you can check out my personal book recommendations from above. I hope this post convinced you to read and collect all the amazing benefits from it! 🙂

“Benefits to Reading” by Leo S., 8th grade

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When you come to think of reading you may see it as just a way to make the   time go by faster or simply a way of entertainment. However reading can help you in many different ways that you probably haven’t heard of before.

IMAGINATION

One of the things that reading can help you with is developing your imagination, especially non-picture books. You know how when you read a book with little to no pictures and you have to imagine how the characters look and the setting. Well this actually makes your brain and your imagination work since you are having to force your brain to imagine everything happening in the book since the book itself can’t show you everything. And graphic novels are great and all but if you actually want books to benefit your imagination then text-only books are the way to go.

BETTER TEST SCORES

Not only can reading help develop your imagination but it can even make you get better grades on tests and assignments in school! You know how on most tests you have to do some reading especially for language arts tests. Imagine if there is a question that tells you to find the definition of a word or there is a confusing word in general in the question. If you happened to read more books before that test then you probably would have a much easier time doing the test and would probably get a better grade. Not only would it help on language arts tests but also for science and math since it could help you to read more carefully and have a higher chance of getting the question correctly.

ATTENTION SPAN

Your test grades and imagination aren’t the only things that can improve through reading so can your attention span! Reading long books trains your brain to get used to having to deal with longer events or even movies. Because most kids in middle school often have lower attention spans so it becomes harder to pay attention in class and when you are watching movies or even short videos at home. Reading could make you able to watch a 3 hour long movie without wanting to watch something else in the first 10 minutes of the movie. Overall doing this could even make you want to read longer books as well!

(Don’t get the attention span of a goldfish!)

DECREASES STRESS

Now one of the best things that reading can do for you is decreasing your amount of stress. You see imagine if you were worried about a test in school or an event, reading could help calm your mind. Reading can even make you sleepy sometimes since you are making your brain work while you are reading and it has for me and when you are tired you may feel less stress then before reading. Not just that decreases stress if you are reading a book that is funny then laughing could make you feel better. And if you were reading an interesting book then it could keep you excited or invested in the story making you forget about the things you were worrying about.

So overall you should read whether it’s in the summer or this week, reading gives you so many benefits. It gives benefits like lower stress, a bigger imagination, a longer attention span, and even better grades in school. So overall I would recommend reading 2 books a week if you can because reading gives you tons of great benefits for you.

“Reading Has Several Positive Effects on the Mind” by Scarlet-Gray S., 7th grade

THE EXPLOSION OF KNOWLEDGE by AllanSantos26 on DeviantArt

Reading can have several positive effects on the mind. Reading can help us learn new words. Every time we read a book, no matter what book it is, we discover new words that can improve our speaking and writing skills. Using these new words that we’ve learned from reading when we talk or do our schoolwork can help us speak more clearly. Reading also helps our creativity by getting our imagination working.  For example, when we read a mystery book, we try to figure out the clues with the characters, which can help us think more creatively. Also, reading can make us more empathetic. Like when we read about different characters and their experiences, we start to understand their feelings, which helps us be more considerate and more open minded. So in conclusion, reading helps us learn new words, boosts creativity, and helps us understand others better. So, the next time you read a book, remember that you are learning new skills. Reading is a very important thing to do and can have many benefits to our minds.

“The Positive Effects of Having Libraries in Schools” by Arden W., 8th grade

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School libraries are more than just a collection of books; they are warm and inviting places that encourage  curiosity, fun, and opportunities for learning 

As the school year kicks off, school libraries play an important role in helping students grow as readers and thinkers, from picture books and graphic novels to chapter books. Engaging with a variety of different genres not only boosts their creativity but also sharpens their critical thinking skills. 

Most children start school at the age of 5, a time where they are improving their communication skills and engaging more with their peers. Reading helps children articulate their ideas more effectively, especially in academic settings or when interacting with classmates. This is why having a school library is so important. 

A warm and welcoming school library invites students to explore its cozy spaces, embarking on adventures through the stories on the shelves, holding countless books and endless opportunities to learn.

Some of my most fond and cherished memories are tied to the school libraries back in elementary school. My school librarian always recommended the best books for me based on my interests at the time. Her dedication to her job definitely made visiting the school library a wonderful and enjoyable experience. 

“The Impact of a Library Inside a School” by Diogo R., 8th grade

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A school library isn’t just a place to find yourself some books, and I’m going to prove it to you.

1) A Safe Space

Inside a library students can read, study, and do other things without being interrupted, making them get more focused and also have a good time, which is very important for the mental health of a student, to just have a time off

2)  Literacy

Books are the main purpose of a library and one of the most important, because books are so versatile, they can be used to study, they can be used to solve problems, they can be used to have fun, and way more other things, they are the key for everything in life.

3)  Technology

Most school libraries have something related to technology like tech help, which saves lives, because no one wants to have a broken computer. Which is the future of learning, because technology makes learning way easier and simpler, which will make smarter and smarter kids.

Conclusion

School libraries are one of the most important places in a school, because they are a place that develops a student’s brain, by reading books, by giving them time to focus, and the technology to study. Libraries also have the power to help students have some time off to relax and have a good time.

Thank you so much to my student voices today and their look at reading and school libraries!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 6/16/25

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
For readers of all ages

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop we host which focuses on sharing what we’re reading. This Kid Lit version of IMWAYR focuses primarily on books marketed for kids and teens, but books for readers of all ages are shared. We love this community and how it offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. The Kid Lit IMWAYR was co-created by Kellee & Jen at Teach Mentor Texts.

We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

Happy reading!

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Kellee

Since I last updated you, I have finished the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins! Reread or read this if you haven’t. It truly is as great as you remember or as people are saying!

  • Mockingjay: I know everyone has an opinion about the end of Mockingjay, but I just truly admire the arc throughout the entire trilogy. (Though I do have a huge opinion on the epilogue, too!)
  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Okay, so I didn’t really want to read this book. The newest book coming out made me go back and pick this one up. President Snow is one of the worst characters in book history, so I found no appeal in learning about him as a child; however, I will say that I was intrigued by the early Capital history and the secondary characters in this book. It was worth the read, if nothing else for all the Easter Eggs and tie ins.
  • Sunrise on the Reaping: This book, on the other hand, stands strong with the original trilogy. I mean, wow. If you’ve read it, you know. I loved getting to know characters we already knew some and meeting new characters. Also, it was so suspenseful and heartbreaking and an emotional rollercoaster! So. Good.

I also listened to one audiobook with Trent while we were driving around to camps:

  • I Know Your Secret by Daphne Benedis-Grab: Trent wanted to listen to a mystery, and of the ones I listed for him, he chose this one, and he and I had a good time making guesses about the secrets and antagonist and resolution throughout the book. I do think this is a great reader ladder for middle schoolers before going to One of Us is Lying and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

 And you can always learn more about any of the books I’ve been reading by checking out my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

It is my week off; I will update you all next week.

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Kellee

I wanted to let you all know that I am taking a bit of a break from IMWAYR during this summer though I will be sharing some amazing Student Voice posts during that time, so please check them out! OH, and please keep linking up, checking out Ricki’s updates when she posts, and commenting on others in the community 📖💙

My next update will be August 11th, and I look forward to sharing what I read during the rest of the summer (because that’ll be the first day back to school for my students 😲!), but you can always you see what books I’ve been reading by checking out my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

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Wednesday: Student Voices: Benefits of Reading and School Libraries from Annarita A., Leo S., Scarlet-Gray S., Arden W., and Diogo R.

Sunday: Author Guest Post: “Scared Safe: How Horror Literature Can Comfort Young Readers” by Ann Dávila Cardinal, Author of You’ve Awoken Her

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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!

 Signature andRickiSig

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 6/9/25

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
For readers of all ages

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop we host which focuses on sharing what we’re reading. This Kid Lit version of IMWAYR focuses primarily on books marketed for kids and teens, but books for readers of all ages are shared. We love this community and how it offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. The Kid Lit IMWAYR was co-created by Kellee & Jen at Teach Mentor Texts.

We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

Happy reading!

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Sunday: Author Guest Post: “Not If But When” by Madeleine Roux, Author of A Girl Walks Into a Forest

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

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Kellee

It’s my week off! You can always learn more about any of the books I’ve been reading by checking out my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

I just arrived home from a trip to Wyoming! I had some great time to read, but it’s late, so I’ll post all of my most recent book updates next time!

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We are taking a week off from posting this week! We hope you are dipping your toes into the summer, too!

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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!

 Signature andRickiSig