The Pre-Christmas It’s Monday What are you Reading Update

This might be my final, It’s Monday for the year, but for sure the last one before Christmas. Those first few days after the Christmas Break have been super busy but I did manage to finish one book today and several over the week. I am happy to be able to link my post with other book bloggers at unleashingreaders.com and teachmentortexts.com and thanks to everyone for hosting us once again.

Books I Finished This Week

Two very different books here. I read A Birthday for Cow with a pre-school group and it was great fun. The Giggle Gang seldom disappoints listeners to read alouds. Lots of laughs in this one. The Outlaw is a much more serious picture book that I have yet to read to kids after finding it through our Monday group (wish I could remember for sure who posted this one two or three weeks ago- I think it was Cheriee Weichel). This will bring up lots of questions about how people might make amends for past misbehaviours and if they deserve grace. If your school is anything like mine, or my children’s, this is something kids can connect to and think about.

I kind of wish there was a Canadian version of Fry Bread, and there is certainly Awasis and the World Famous Bannock, but this book has some other great things going other than just being about fry bread or bannock. The sensory aspect is well done, the way it describes people coming together over food is excellent, and the illustrations from Caldecott nominee Juana Martinez-Neal are really great. The back matter also has a lot of cultural information about fry bread, but also more importantly about injustices done to Native Americans. This is a great book.

I also enjoyed Carl and the Meaning of Life with an earthworm who does not feel he is important, but when he stops doing what he has always done and tries to find out more about his purpose, it become clear that he was indispensable. This will be a really fun read in the Spring when our school starts up its garden.

Emmanuel’s Dream is a book I have been meaning to pick up and read for a couple of years at least. It might be a reminder to some about this inspirational story of a boy who beats all the odds and accomplishes many things he is not supposed to with only one working leg. Or if you are like me and missed this one when it came out, you might want to check this one out. The Sharing Circle is a recent purchase of mine, I was attracted to the fact that it has a fairly local illustrator and several of our classrooms have a regularly meeting sharing circle. This book is a good introduction to the concept and uses animals to show an example of how it could work.

All Ears, All Eyes is a book that I will end up loaning out to teachers who are looking for more books to practice visualizing with their classes. There is lyrical text that lends to this, but I preferred looking at the illustrations where animals seemed to blend in to the background and nighttime scenes. I think younger students will like finding animals like the owl on the cover. Croc & Turtle was a book I think I saw on Jana the Teacher’s blog a week ago. I enjoyed the friendship in this book, and the compromise that needs to be made by friends.

This book I finished today, a sometimes creepy story of a girl who can cross over to a world inhabited by ghosts. She has navigated in-between the two worlds since a near death experience of her own. As her parents examine places that are haunted as part of their work, this becomes something that she cannot avoid even if she wants to. When her parents  head to Edinburgh, Cassie gets a little over her head. If you have students looking for a spooky MG, they might find this worth a try. I won’t rush to find the sequel but this one was okay, and it was on my Must-Read list as I saw it was very popular on the Goodreads MG list in 2018.

Currently Reading

My family and I are enjoying Race to the Sun (in e-ARC format). We are about half finished but finding it hard to find time to read this week with all Holiday related socializing. I just started The Roar, my oldest daughters addition to my to-read list this year.

Thanks for checking out my reading week, I hope everyone has a great Holiday break and catches up on time with family as well as reading.