It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 4.30.18

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.

Last Week's Adventures

I love this book so much - The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl - be sure to check it out and enter the giveaway!

And the new Lou Lou and Pea is such a fantastic book for young readers who are looking for a longer read.  Don't miss the author interview with Jill Diamond!


Picture Books


Joseph's Big Ride
written by Terry Farish
illustrations by Ken Daley
Do you have an immigration collection?  If you do, you'll want to add this one to the list.  I love how a bicycle is the common item that brings kids of different languages together.


Honey
by David Ezra Stein
A book that celebrates summer?  I always love those!  
Apparently this is part of a series with Bear as the MC doing something during a season (the first one about fall, titled Leaves).  I love the vocabulary - a book that uses "aromatic" is always fun - and the humor - Bear gets stung in the nose for bothering busy bees.
Perfect book for young readers.


If I Had a Horse
by Gianna Marino
Absolutely beautiful - words and illustrations.  Themes that run throughout the book - bravery, strength, listening to others, friendship.  Hmmm, possible Mock Caldecott contender here.


Small Things
by Mel Tregonning
Whether you classify this book as a wordless picture book or a graphic novel, the important thing is having this available to readers.  An amazing book to start the dialogue about anxiety, this is a book that could save a reader, this is a book that is meant to have a dialogue with kids.


Goldfish on Vacation
written by Sally Lloyd-Jones
illustrated by Leo Espinosa
Cute story about goldfish pets being placed in a neighborhood fountain for the summer.  This encouraged kids to come together and play.  What made it an even more interesting story was reading the author's note at the end that explained the origin and background of the story.  
Since Islandborn, I am a huge fan of Leo Espinosa's illustrations!


Friends Stick Together
by Hannah E. Harrison
I think this is my favorite Harrison book!  Looking at friendships that really are opposites - this is a book I'll be adding to my #classroombookaday rotation in the beginning of the school year.


Big Bunny
by Rowboat Watkins
This is one of those books that grows on you as you read it out loud to a young audience.  And add this one to your collection for narrators - this one has a surprise in it!


Hello Lighthouse
by Sophie Blackall
This book is absolutely gorgeous, I think this may be her best work to date.  
However, I wonder how the story will resonate with young readers.
I loved the inclusion of information at the end of the book (actually the end pages!) about lighthouses.


Words and Your Heart
by Kate Jane Neal
I am so glad my friend, Kristen Picone, told me about this book.  It's such a perfect book to read at the beginning of the year, in the middle and at the end.  It's one of those books you want to pull out throughout the year to remind them the power of their words!

Informational Texts


She Persisted Around the World
written by Chelsea Clinton
illustrated by Alexandra Boiger
I may have liked this one even better than the first one.  As I mentioned in my review of the first one - read these stories and share them so their names are known, so their stories are the norm.

Middle Grade


The Explorers: The Reckless Rescue
by Adrienne Kress
I hope you read the first book in the series, it really is fun!  This one picks up right where the first one left off and then be prepared because the action doesn't stop!  Come back tomorrow for my full review.


Prisoner B-3087
by Alan Gratz
I read this book because my child is reading it (and annotating for signposts... right in the book.... she's writing in the book.... does anyone else see a problem with this?  It hurts my book loving soul) and I thought it would be good to be able to talk through the book together.  It's well written but one of the saddest and hardest books I've ever read.  I don't understand how people could have treated people like this.  Of course, I know outside of my own privileged world, things like this continue to happen.  There are people out there who place no moral value on another human's life.  Gratz said it well at the end that we can't even begin to understand what life was like unless you lived it.
Interestingly my daughter said she does not like the book.  After talking to her more, I think it's more she is upset by the events, but in her 7th grade world, saying it's "boring" is less of a social giveaway than it's hard to read.

Currently Reading


After the Shot Drops
by Randy Ribay
I haven't gotten too far but I'm really enjoying this book!

On Deck

My plan is to read Cress by Marissa Meyer and then Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed next.  Cress is my April #mustread title so I need to get cracking on that one!