It’s Monday What are you reading? 7/2/18

I am hoping to get back in the habit of posting and linking these posts with Jen at teachmentortexts and Kellee and Ricki each Monday. It encourages me to read the other great posts and learn about the many terrific books that people are reading.

Books I read since my last post:

Cute and fun story that appeals to creative young minds. All the uses for a stick! A teacher down the hall from me had her kids do a great writing assignment based on this one. I wish I had a picture.

Hilarious story of a rotten potato who just knows he is beauty contest ready. There is a great message for young and old, but its also just really funny and will make a great library read aloud for most groups.

Well illustrated book about the bossiest kids on the playground. I was entirely enamored with the ending as I thought the title characters did not really get the full message that I expected, but there would be room for lots of discussion for groups that read this book.

A good story about overcoming fears and supporting a friend. I might pair this with Jabari Jumps, which might have been the most popular picture book that I read this year with kids.

It took me far too long to get to this book which has great illustrations and a powerful message about… life, of course.

This is a nearly wordless picture book that I should have found much earlier. Lots of great inference there for young readers. I am kicking myself for not having this one to pass to my new found fans of Aaron Becker’s.

A steampunk set in an alternate 1870s America, this was a little slow for me to get into but that is likely because of the world building that was needed. The idea of an America in which Europeans did not conquer and where the land is controlled by some kind of confederation of indigenous peoples was interesting. Europe is seen on the map as a place where “there be monsters”. However, it did not quite work for me as well as I had hoped. I am not sure my students will be able to follow a lot of the references. It ended with a lot of questions for me about how these groups developed their own unique cultures within the confederacy. There was significant attention to the backstory of the “monsters” or Mangleborn and how they rise and are subdued throughout history but not quite enough of a battle at the end. Still, such an interesting premise and a very ambitious book.

Another of the Elephant and Piggie reads series from a writer that I know more of as an illustrator from her work in The Princess in Black series. As expected, this was a humourous story about dinosaurs who encourage each other not to scratch until one cannot take it any longer. I wish the characters were named or more developed but these stories work when they have very few words per page, and as is the case with Elephant and Piggie stories kids will love the little dialogue boxes over the heads of the characters and try to read along with the dinosaurs.

 

Currently Reading:

It’s summer, so the short answer is anything I can get my hands on, but the truth is I have been collecting more than I have been reading lately so I have a lot to try. Last time I posted I thought I was reading Granted, and this week that might be true if I hadn’t lent it to a student for the summer. I want to read The Hate You Give before I accidentally see a trailer, so I think that might be next. I also have Tight and Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish from my ARC group, Book Portage.