It’s Monday What are you Reading? 12/10/18

One of the last Mondays of 2018 and I am really surprised that there is no snow on the ground yet. I expect it any day. A snow day would be a great thing for me to catch up on reading. I have not found as much time as I would like lately with holiday events taking up more time. I am pleased to link my post with other bloggers at teachmentortexts.com and unleashingreaders.com, great places to find info on new books each Monday (thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki for hosting each week).

Books I Finished This Week:

The Hollow Boy is the third book in the Lockwood and Co. series, and I think it was my favourite of the three. The characters are developed enough that they have a banter that adds lighter moments to the scary (by MG standards) scenes. In addition to the humour, this book clarifies more of the back story of one of the three main characters, and adds an important fourth member of the team. In this series, children are used as agents against ghosts who have become much more prevalent due to “The Problem,” and in this installment there are a few significant cases for the ghost hunters, but the last scene is particularly memorable and would be fantastic on film. The ending leads a reader to want the fourth book quickly, and luckily this five book series is already completed, I can move to the fourth book sooner than I did to this third one.

 

This is a really great picture book that gives a young girl’s perspective on how she can be kind. The text works as a bit of a how to for readers, they get to see some of the many ways that they can be kind to others. Some are easy and some require more thought. I highly enjoyed the illustrations as well. This was a really great book that I waited too long to acquire for my library.

This was a funny picture book that I think classes are going to have fun with this title making predictions. There are some surprises that are going to make this fun, and the pictures are very funny. I think my students in the library that are fans of the Hat Trilogy by Jon Klassen might take to this one as well.

This is an #ownvoices picture book about communities coming together to celebrate the coming of the Winter Solstice, a very significant event for Indigenous people in my province of British Columbia. The text of the story is a poem and there is a little bit of information about the Winter Solstice at the beginning of the story and at the end a bit about all of the solstice and equinox periods. I would have liked even more and I should really find another non-fiction book of the Winter Solstice to pair this with, although it might be hard to find something for early primary students. The art is attractive, but the animals appear a little cartoony for some (surprisingly vocal) young listeners. This will be a very useful book this year as the Winter Solstice comes while we are still in school, and my school is planning a ceremony around it.

Currently Reading and On-deck:

These are my three current reads. Spontaneous is a YA book that, so far, is literally about a school in which students have started to spontaneously combust. This is a bit of different choice for me, but I loved Aaron Starmer’s The Riverman trilogy and foung him to be funny on Twitter, so far the main character has a humourous voice and it is a bit of a paranormal mystery, like a very kitschy episode of The X-Files. Grump is my family’s read aloud. We have read all of the previous Liesl Shurtliff fractured fairy tales. The best parts of her books are when one character appears in a world very different from their own such as when Jack appears in the world of giants in Jack. We are just at one such part in this tale of a dwarf who doesn’t really fit in. My class and I are enjoying Two Truths and a Lie together as well.

I am hoping to finish Spontaneous and then move to one or more of the novels on my Must Read in 2018 list. I am considering these titles:

That is a summary of my week, I hope to read what you have been up to in your space. Happy reading!