It’s the first Monday of December already! What are you reading?

December 3. Only four weeks left until the end of 2018. That is hard to believe. This is one of the five final times this year I will have the opportunity to post on my reading week and link the post with others at teachmentortexts.com and unleashingreaders.com. At this point in the year, the other readers that post here will be helping to form the bulk of my Must Read in 2019 list. Thanks to Jen, Kellee and Ricki for hosting these posts.

Books I Finished This Week:

Usually, I have a picture of the book here. There really are no pictures of this one in the usual places. I have seen them on Twitter but did not feel like stealing someone else’s picture. This book is an ARC that comes out in September of 2019. Now, you could guess if you want….

 

Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt

What a great book! This novel-in-verse fits right into the House Arrest/Knockout world that K.A. Holt has previously written in. If you know those two earlier books, you know they powerfully delved into the feelings and emotions of Timothy in House Arrest and about a decade later, his little brother Levi.

This book takes place about the same time as Knockout and delves into the relationship between Levi’s best friend, Tam and her friend Kate. Readers of Knockout will recognize some of the tough moments that Levi went through, but this time will be living them through Tam and Kate. This is completely their story.

Their story is one of feeling different from the normalest, normal. About trying to figure out how to be who you are when the expectations are different. It is a really important story for kids who are trying to figure out where they fit in their world. Which is really just about everyone, and that is who should read this, everyone.

When this book first started, I knew it would have some Cree words in it, and the use of the language was what drew me to it. Also, I really like bannock.
It looked like it was going to be a Red Riding Hood parody at first, but once the bannock was misplaced it became a story about a little girl who is supported by the new friends around her to problem solve. I think little ones will love how the story comes together at the end.
A Cree glossary is included at the end, but if you are reading this out loud to a library group, as I might, you should likely go over this first. This is a really cute story and important to show young readers an Indigenous perspective and contribute to language revitalization of one of many cultures throughout North America.

This is a slightly older book that I hadn’t discovered until recently in my school library. It published in 2000. It has a nice message about how we are always connected to the people that we care about, even when we are separated. A very good title for separation anxiety.

This is another one I missed out on for a couple of years, but it is a really funny and at times, factual look at just how a book gets made. It covers the author writing it, the editing process through a publisher, an illustrator working on it, the actually construction and one final step that I won’t reveal. Lots of really great humour here as you would expect knowing the author and illustrator.

There is a lot going on in this picture book that was nominated for a 2017 Caldecott. It starts as a really sweet story that many of my students could relate to, getting up early to go fishing with their father. In the end, it is about so much more. There are some subtle pieces about immigration and poverty and family. The art is also so good. I really enjoyed this book.

Currently Reading

I am still currently reading these three books, and they are all very good. I got interrupted by reading some of my book fair books, and also by the arrival by mail of Redwood and Ponytail. I hope to finish The Hollow Boy this week, a very exciting series if you have never tried it, and the humour is really picking up as we know the characters relationships and flaws. The other two are read alouds and I will be with them for quite a while.

Thanks for checking on my reading this week, I hope to also see what you have been reading as well.