It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 7.07.14

This weekly post comes from Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers.  It's a great source to find new books to use with your students.

I hope everyone enjoyed the (hopefully) long holiday weekend with friends and family!

I had a pretty good reading week.  I'll describe some of my favorites and note others that I read.  You can always check my Goodreads page for more description!


Picture Books


My Teacher is a MONSTER! by Peter Brown
5/5 stars
Peter Brown can do no wrong as far as I am concerned.  I love his illustrations - Creepy Carrots and Mr. Tiger Goes Wild are some of my favorites.  This one is just as good.  And the story?  I was laughing out loud. I love when the kid is out in public and he runs into his teacher, and what does he do?  Raise his hand before he talks to her.  So many good parts.   I can't wait to read this with students in the fall.  Great for point of view and characters changing.



The Change Your Name Store by Leanne Shirtliffe
4/5 stars
Wilma Lee Wu wants a new name.  Where do you get one of those?  The Change Your Name Store, of course!  But before you walk away with a new name, you have to "try them on gently, then go for a ride" in the name's country of origin.  Great book to use in a social studies unit and talk about cultures.  Great book to share in a primary classroom.


Zoe's Jungle by Bethanie Deeney Murguia
4/5 stars
Imaginative play at a park is at the center of this book!



Mister Bud Wears the Cone by Carter Goodrich
3/5 stars



Five Trucks by Brian Floca
3/5 stars


Informational Texts


Food Trucks! by Mark Todd
4/5 stars
I read this book in preparation for day 2 at nErDcampMI next week - 3 food trucks are coming our way for lunch!  This book was great - I loved the fun illustrations, they were very detailed.  Short verse that gives a little bit of information about the food truck and additional info is offered in captions around the illustration.  


I Am Rosa Parks by Brad Meltzer
4/5 stars
I like this series, but I have some difficulties with it as far as it being used as informational texts.  I know they are drawn in a comic book style, but I don't like how the main character is always depicted as a younger character - dressed in an older style but drawn younger.  Also, there has not been any source notes or info about how the author got his information.  This book, while still showed Rosa as a young girl even during the infamous bus scene, had text that was more rich in information than Meltzer's previous books.  There was a clear theme and clear understanding of what Rosa Parks stood for.  At the very end of the book there are some original photographs of Rosa.  I'm glad those were included.  I think this series has the potential of being a good introductory biography series, but with maybe a couple of tweaks.


Middle Grade


How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied by Jess Keating
5/5 stars
My Goodreads review:  This has been the year for debut authors.  It seems that I've read several this year that have just stuck to me in different ways.  This one was no exception.
Jess Keating gets middle school right.  It's hard.  It's full of kids who get pleasure from cutting down people.  It's full of times of your friends being the ones to bring you up.  It's full of times of your parents embarrassing you, but also times when your parents show you who you really are.
And Jess Keating shows all of that in her book with plenty of witty comments.  Here are some of my favorites, I laughed out loud to all of these:
pg. 49 "I swear, if there were a place called Bright Side, my mother would be queen.  Complete with a little crown of stars and glitter and happy unicorns of opportunity."

pgs. 70-71 "Next year's students getting to see my work?  That would be like someone seeing inside my doodle notebook.  That's practically like seeing someone in their underwear."

pg. 73 "For the first time in my life, I didn't even want to draw, which probably meant I was dying from some awful disease that I'd picked up from crummy math class.  I always figured integers were contagious." {I am so with you, Ana!!}

pg. 86 "You can't stay anonymous and stand in front of a crowd of people at the same time.  That's like vanilla ice cream wanting to be mint chip.  And I am so sticking with Team Vanilla."

pg. 149 "I bit my lip to keep from saying anything.  I was still too emotional, and there was no way I was going to get all Sweet Valley High on her." {oh, how I laughed at that one.  That had to be meant for the teachers and parents - a SVH comment???  Love it!}


Currently Reading


This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh
I am more than 1/2 way done and am loving this book so far!  And she has a new one coming out in August, yippee!

for different cyber PDs, I'm reading:

          
Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller
Read Write Teach by Linda Rief

and I'm going to really make an effort and get through

Readers Front and Center by Dorothy Barnhouse
She has some great thoughts in this book!

On Deck


The Land of Stories:  The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer
I need to plow through this one - my daughter and I are going to meet him on Friday!

So many books.  Just need time :)
What are you reading?