It’s the first Monday of 2019, what are you reading?

#IMWAYR is a great weekly check-in on the reading that people have been doing that focuses on kidlit. Hosted each week by the great people behind the websites teachmentortexts.com and unleashingreaders.com, this is a great place to grow your to-be-read list. An inclusive group of book bloggers will share their titles, and contribute to the online discussion in the comments sections of their blogs.

I missed posting on my weekly reads during the last two weeks of 2018, and I read a lot, so I won’t post all of it, but I do want to highlight a couple of books I really enjoyed, and write about the books I read in the first week of 2019.

Highlights from the last two weeks of 2018

My family finished this read aloud, the fourth fractured fairy tale by Liesl Shurtliff. They are all excellent. Each has a title character whose story is told, and all exist in the author’s own fairy tale world. I think they could be read in any order, but it is best to start with Rump.

The second in a monstrously huge MG/YA series full of monsters. This has more world building than any book I have ever read.

This was a book I had heard a lot about online, and it delivered, as advertised, as an exciting middle grade tale about kids trapped in a game. It made me read Jumanji later in the week (which I loved). One unexpected thing: I felt it was obsessed with food.

The fourth installment of this early chapter/graphic novel is at times cute and informative. This was a great addition to a series that is a wonderful add to an elementary library. This newest addition comes out on February 5, and I picked up an early version through NetGalley.

I think the Jane Goodall book is my favourite of the series, but both of these are really inspiring.

The last novel I read in 2018, this 2002 Newbery Medal winner is a quiet, profound story from an excellent story teller.

Kids go monster hunting in this opening book of a graphic novel series. I think it has enough humour to get passed around regularly in my library in 2019. I had just picked it up.

The First Week of 2019

I missed picking up this one when it first came out, but my wife has it in her library and I grabbed it the other day when she was moving her stuff in. I really enjoyed it. Dark humour and despite the familiarity of the There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly plot, it felt fresh. I am not as big a fan of the earlier collaboration between these two of The Shape Trilogy, but this one I really loved. I need to go back and read Sam and Dave Dig a Hole after reading this one.

I really enjoyed this upper MG novel, in particular, its look at a girl struggling to with the transition between middle and high school. Annabelle seems to want to grow up a little faster than she should, and watching her thinking change as she navigates might be a good window for young readers and a mirror for older readers. I often do not love books in which characters are crushing on people, but this book had some great wisdom and some bad choices for readers to learn from. It comes out in May, and I think it is a worthy add to my collection. I got an early copy from my ARC sharing group Book Portage.

I finally managed to get this away from students long enough to read it myself. One of my students just finished it before the break and I knew that I had to read it before school went back in so it could back in circulation. If you are not familiar with the Track series by Jason Reynolds this is the fourth and final installment and they are filled with great dialogue and characters. I always appreciate how the difficult choices the young people go through seem real. I have said for a while that I think a prequel on the coach Otis’ life would be great, and although we get a bit more info on his life here, I am still hoping for more. This might be my favourite of the series.

Currently Reaading

Two Truths and a Lie is a classroom read aloud that we should finish in the next two weeks or so. We are enjoying it. The Lost Hero is my family’s latest read aloud, the first in The Heroes of Olympus series which takes place after the events of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (The Lightning Thief being the first). It is a re-read for me, and my oldest. My youngest wanted to read it herself and we thought this was a better way as my 11 year old really wanted to re-read it too. Sweep is my personal book right now and I only just started it, but a grade seven library patron (who is an Auxier Super Fan) requires me to read it and I am happy to oblige having enjoyed three of his previous works (The Night Gardener, Peter Nimble… and Sophie Quire…).

Hope your reading year is off to a great start! Thanks for stopping in and seeing what I have enjoyed lately.