Monday, December 14, 2015

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12.14.15

IMWAYR 2015 logo

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

Authors that can vary their writing styles are amazing to me.  Be sure to check out Chris Barton's work.  His writing style is wonderful.  For a writeup on his work, check out this post.

Need some last minute holiday picture books?  Try these!

Last week was an amazing week in our household.  My daughter participated in her first Paralympic Can Am Open swim meet.  Please read about our experience and some amazing athletes in this post.

* I will be taking a blogging break next week, the week leading up to the Christmas holiday.  I will be spending time with family and friends and enjoying all of those moments that are part of the holiday season. The rest of this week I'll be listing my favorite books of 2015.  The week leading up to New Year's, I'll be listing the books I'm most looking forward to in 2016.  I hope you stop by and tell me your favorites or what you're looking forward to in the upcoming year.  Cheers! *

Middle Grade

I was very fortunate to get some ARCs of some wonderful upcoming 2016 books when I was at NCTE.  I am going to write up a separate post for each of the books and publish them a little bit before their actual publication dates.  I feel that when I am fortunate enough to have received an ARC of a book, it's worthy of its own blog post.  But in the meantime, be sure to put these 2016 releases on your TBR list.  They are must reads, although for very different reasons!

Masterminds: Outlaws 2.0
Masterminds: Criminal Destiny by Gordon Korman
5/5 stars
pubs Feb. 2
This book has it all:  mystery, suspense, adventure.


Pax by Sara Pennypacker
5/5 stars pubs Feb. 2
I think it's important to show readers how authors subtly weave multiple story lines together.  This is a perfect book to use for that.

Young Adult

All American Boys
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
5/5 stars
I really really really hope this book sees recognition on January 11.
I also really really really hope that everyone reads this book.  Whether you're a young adult or not.  Whether you're a police officer, teacher, social worker, lawyer, stay at home parent, eye doctor, sanitation worker... You get the point.
This book is so relevant.  So important.  
You know those One Community One Book programs?
This should be the book for One World One Book.
Because everyone should read it and talk about it.

Currently Reading


The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price by Jennifer Maschari
I've heard great things about this book from my book friends.  Looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, I am stuck in North Dakota.  If you read my Saturday Celebration post you know I am here because of my daughter's Paralympic swim meet.  The weather here is horribly foggy and all flights have been cancelled.  We're hoping to get out tomorrow morning, although the fog advisory goes through mid-morning.  Not sure when I'm getting home at this point.  I will try to comment on blogs on Monday, but it will all depend on our travel!  Wish us luck!

Last week of school before Winter Break.  Looking forward to time with friends and family and books!

12 comments:

  1. Loved Masterminds 2.0 and also Chris Barton's The Day-Glo brothers. Have to check to see if that is on the shelf and get it out today! Hope you make it back from North Dakota. WHenever I get delayed in flying, I think "Is this quicker than traveling by covered wagon? Yes!"

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  2. Sorry for the delays in North Dakota-hope you'll get out soon! I enjoyed your post about the ParaOlympics with your daughter! I'm really looking forward to Pax!

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  3. Can't wait to get my hands on Pax. Hope you are home soon! And have some great books with you?!

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  4. Thanks for sharing these and have a wonderful blog-cation! My copy of Pax is burning a hole in my bookshelf - need to make some time for it!

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  5. Hey, North Dakota! Almost home! (I'm in South Dakota. Whenever I say that, I still have to add, "Of all places." But I do love it.) I read a couple of my NCTE books this week too. Still have to read the first in Korman's series. Tempted to get it from the library today--never mind that I have piles and piles of library books to read right now. I'm also very eager to get Pax.

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  6. These books are all new to me. I hope you manage to get out of foggy North Dakota sooner rather than later. Our Minnesota fog has turned to Minnesota snowflakes today. Here's my week. Happy reading!

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  7. So many 5 star books to look forward to next year! Travelling in December can be such a hit-or-miss experience, I hope you manage to get home safely an swiftly! Thanks for managing to get a great post up, even with everything you've got going on right now!

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  8. All American Boys IS such an important book. I don't know if it will win any awards on January 11 (since it was expedited for publication, I don't know if that will put a negative mark on it) but it is definitely a book that deserves many awards.

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  9. Jason Reynolds is the #1 author on my Christmas Break tbr list. So much buzz about him and his books! Off to Amazon to click away....

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  10. Ah! You liked All American Boys! I am so happy to see this. It is in my stack of books to read very soon, and I am now even more excited to read it! :)

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  11. So glad the sequel to Masterminds is a good as the first. Thanks for recommending Pax - Great to find books that help students understand multiple story lines

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  12. I've been hearing so much about Pax - looks like a book to savour - enjoy your blogging break and Merry Christmas!

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