It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 6.29.2020

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.

How is it already the last Monday in June??  I feel like June is often the fastest month of the year.  Other months get super busy, but June - with its long days, great temperatures, lazy days - flies by since it's the start of summer.

Last Week's Adventures

Be sure to take a look at the new book by Melissa Stewart - Ick!  Readers will be pouring over these gross - I mean, amazing - facts!  Stop by and read the author interview and see some great interiors of the book!

On the Chapter Book Summer series, take a look at the new series by Harper Chapters.  If you have readers that like the Scholastic Branches series, you'll want to check them out!


Picture Books


How to Be a Pirate
written by Isaac Fitzgerald
illustrated by Brigette Barrager
I got this book from.... the library!!!  Our library has opened up for contactless pickup.  Right now they are only having patrons pick up books that were on hold when the quarantine day started.  I had 2... and one was for school so that was no longer needed!  This weekend I get to pick up more holds.  Books that I put on hold during quarantine were retrieved and books that had been ordered and have now been processed are ready.  So excited!
While this book is a how to book, it's also a tattoo telling story, and I love those!  A grandfather tells his granddaughter how to be a pirate by talking about what each of his tattoos represent - being brave, quick, independent, and fun!  
The endpages tell the story too, so don't miss them!


Max Explains Everything: Puppy Expert
written by Stacy McAnulty
illustrated by Deborah Hocking
The next book in the Max Explains Everything series, this time Max gives his readers the steps needed for when you get a puppy!
Publishes July 7th


Now for some beginning of the year reads!


First Day Critter Jitters
written by Jory John
illustrated by Liz Climo
Cute beginning of the year school story.  Animals are shown with a trait that is typically known for their animal that makes them nervous about the beginning of the year - joey wants to stay in his mother's pouch, parrot repeats everything and is worried people won't like that, rabbit hops everywhere because of his nervous energy.  When they meet their teacher and finds out he is nervous too, it helps them work together and have a successful day.
Publishes July 7th.


All Welcome Here
written by James Preller
illustrated by Mary GrandPré
Written in connected haiku poems, a beginning of the year school day is explored by a cast of characters.
The one that really bothered me was a boy who was walking into his classroom, waddling and quacking like a duck and the teacher says, "yikes, he's in my class!"
My favorite was the library haiku that compared it to "the school's heart beat."


Danbi Leads the School Parade
by Anna Kim
It is Danbi's first day of school in America and at first everything is different and she has trouble figuring things out.  But once she finds something she can do with all of the children she has fun. When kids find time to play, it's amazing how it can be a barrier that can cross  language and cultures.
Publishes July 7th

Middle Grade


Love, Ruby Lavender
by Deborah Wiles
I went back and looked when I purchased this book... 2015!  It's been in my pile for sometime, which is why it made it on my #mustread list for this year!
I really enjoyed meeting Ruby.  She's a dimensional character and is made up of equal parts good and equal parts snarky!  I loved getting to know all of her sides and seeing how her family, setting, and events made her who she is.
A perfect book for readers who enjoy heartstring books... I'm thinking Natalie Lloyd readers would enjoy getting to know Ruby!


each little bird that sings
by Deborah Wiles
Book #2 from the Aurora County series.  I would say this book gave me the same feels as Because of Winn Dixie.  And like Love, Ruby Lavender, Wiles gives us another character that is complex and then mixes in secondary characters that add to that complexity!  
Wiles includes the author acknowledgments at the beginning of the story, which is important because she explains how a piece of her life is in the writing of this story.
Have tissues....

Graphic Novel


Stepping Stones
by Lucy Knisley
This is Knisley's first step into middle grade and I really really hope it's not her last!  Based on her own experiences, Knisley gives us the character of Jen.  She's an only child from a divorced family.  She's always lived in the city, but not she's moving onto a farm with her mom and her mom's boyfriend.  She misses her dad, who appears to be busy at his city job, and the business of the city.  She does not enjoy life on the farm and taking care of chickens, which has become her responsibility.  And to make matters worse, her mom's boyfriend's kids come and stay on the farm on the weekends.  The girls don't always get along because their personalities are a little different.  But over time things start to change.
While I did not love the mom's boyfriend, I think this situation is also real.  I've seen a lot of reviewers talk about how he was abusive and never apologizes for it.  It will be a good conversation to have with readers.  But I also think there are readers that will see themselves within this situation and may feel comforted by it.  Just a thought.
Get multiple copies of this one, you'll need it!

Nonfiction


Stamped
by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
If you haven't heard of this book by now, well, now you have, and now you need to read it.
I've put off learning more about how I can be anti-racist, by being, well, racist.  Meaning, I didn't think I needed to do this work, since I considered myself to be anti-racist.  But that's actually not what being an anti-racist is, nor is that understanding what being racist is.
I think this is a good book to start with if you're wanting to actively start doing anti-racist work.  You have to understand how our government's systems have continuously worked to raise the white person and simultaneously make the black person be less.  I could probably go through this book 100 more times before I fully understand everything I should understand.  I do understand that what I was taught in the classroom was wrong.  There are things I learned that happened out of the classroom that are wrong too.  Thanks, white-washed media.
I think the important thing with this book is to also make sure it's in the hands of kids.  Make sure more teachers of middle school and high school readers know about this book and get it into the curriculum.  Start now.

Adult reads


The Giver of Stars
by Jojo Moyes
Jojo Moyes wrote my favorite adult read, Me Before You.  There's not a chance I will see the movie because I really don't want that book ruined for me!  I've actually put off reading the sequels because I'm pretty sure they won't live up to the first one.
I've read other books by Moyes but this one was definitely different from her other books.  It takes place during the New Deal era and tells the fictional story of the Kentucky Packhorse Librarians.  The majority of the story was really good and I have never read anything about these women.  Although fictional, it was interesting to learn more and think about what these women did, getting books to readers.  It took awhile for me to get into the story.  The beginning was a bit boring, but I'm glad I stuck with the book.  Then the ending wrapped up quickly and neatly and it was over.  Lots of detail and then.... done.
But if you enjoy historical fiction and you like librarians :) this is a good one to read.  I did read about some controversy between this book and another title about the Kentucky Packhorse Librarians.  I saw accusations, but I'm not sure anything was ever proven.  I guess I'll leave it at that?

Currently Reading


The Aurora County All-Stars
by Deborah Wiles
This is the third book in the series, and for a long time, the last book in the trilogy.  But Deborah had another story in her head and in 2018 published another book, a long line of cakes.  I was able to pick this one up from the library, so I'm guessing that will be my next read!  I'm excited to see Ruby Lavender makes an appearance!


Hope you have a great 4th of July weekend!