It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 7.09.18

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

Don't miss these July sequels/follow-ups.  They are perfect for readers who are becoming more independent with their chapter book reading.

Do you know what you're reading in July?  Don't miss these July releases!

Picture Books


Mixed
by Arree Chung
This is a picture book that you can use for a wide range of ages because every age will get something different out of it.  Younger kids will see the mixing of colors and how it's great to get different colors.  Older readers will see the theme of how we all have our unique qualities and when we join together we really can create something wonderful and different.


Sugar and Snails
written by Sarah Tsiang
illustrated by Sonja Wimmer
An important book to read to show the importance of gender breaking norms.  This book takes a look at the old saying of what "boys and girls are made of" and showing we no longer should compare genders to any singular conformity.


Mom, Dad, Our Books, and Me
written by Danielle Marcotte
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Add this to your beginning of the year reads - I like this because it talks about the love of reading and it also talks about all the different ways you can read, it's not just pages in a book.


Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People and War
translated by Tomoko Tsuchiya Dykes
illustrated by Ted Lewin
Thanks to my Twitter friends I found this story.  Absolutely heartbreaking, but after reading it and having a conversation, I think it would be interesting to hear the thoughts.  
A story of how zookeepers had to put down the animals in a Tokyo zoo during the bombings in WWII.  


Perfectly Norman
by Tom Percival
I am so glad Kristen Picone told me about this book - love it!  Norman is perfectly normal until... he grows wings.  As much fun as they give him, he knows this is not normal.  So he hides them with his coat, but that just makes him miserable.  He's worried his friends and family won't accept him anymore.  
Wonderful book to use to talk about what we perceive as "normal".   I think this picture book is a good ladder to Wings by Christopher Myers.

Middle Grade


City of Islands
by Kali Wallace
Share this book with kids who enjoy reading books where the author has carefully crafted new and different worlds.  
Mara lives in a place that is made up of different islands and mages control the different areas.  Having knowledge of magic is special, and as always, it can be used in dangerous and wrong ways.
Because of the world building and many characters, I think students in the upper middle grade range will enjoy this story the most.

Young Adult


Graceling
by Kristin Cashore
This was my May #mustreadin2018 book... you can see I'm running just a bit behind!  Still working on my list.
I know many of you loved this book.  It took me a really long time to fall into it.  I enjoyed it, but wouldn't say loved it.  I do feel compelled to read the next two books.  I'm guessing they will be on my #mustreadin2019 list!

Adult


The Lost Family
by Jenna Blum
I don't read many adult titles anymore.  I have found them to be long and tedious.  I feel like they throw in more plot twists than necessary or have extra long descriptions just for the sake of making a longer book.  But I still like to read a couple each year, especially ones I know I might enjoy.
I picked this one because it focuses around some of my favorite decades to read about - WWII and after.  I find this time period fascinating and Blum does it very well.  Definitely an adult read, but it was one that I didn't tire of.


I'm not sure what I'm going to read next!  I have so much to choose from, I may need to close my eyes and just choose!