It's Monday! What are you reading?: 04.04.16

Apr 4, 2016
4 min read

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Date. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book! Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

The following are roll over reads that I've been working on for a couple weeks now. I will get them done this we by golly! I'm hoping that both pick up the pace a little bit.

Have you tried out Audible? I'm loving this audiobook app on my phone and testing it out to see if it is worth the monthly investment. Some books are just better audio.

There are a couple books that I wasn't able to get to before having to return them or handing them over to a student. So you will see those in a future #IMWAYR post!

This week I'm excited to add some brand new books to my to-read pile. The first one is a nonfiction picture book called Green City: How One Community Survived a Tornado and Rebuilt for a Sustainable Future by Allan Drummond. It is the story of the Greensburg, KS tornado and how they rebuilt their city, which is truly amazing! I'm excited to read this and know that this will become a popular read here in Kansas.

The next book is Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Allison McGwee. Honestly, I didn't know anything about this when I added it to my hold list at the public library. I just saw it on a couple lists of people I trust and then saw it on the counter at our middle school check out counter and decided to give it a try. Looking at the summary now it looks like a story about a disappearing sister and a "shadow fox." Sounds much like Diamond Willow by Helen Frost, which has some reincarnation themes. We will see how this one goes.

The last book for this week is Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit. It's been on my list long before it came out. I saw it recommended for readers who loved The Book Thief and immediately wrote it down. If you've known my reading life at all, you know that my go to favorites are WWII/Holocaust based, so I'm beyond excited about this one.

I know that I won't get through my whole list this week due to a crazy schedule of traveling and a medical procedure, but my biggest fear is being short on books so I must be ready. ;)

In terms of adult books, I can't wait to get my hands on Brush of Wings by Karen Kingsbury. It's the third and last book in the Angels Walking series that I've just loved even though it is out of my normal realm of reading. I've also got When Breath Comes to Air by Paul Kalanithi checked out on ebook. It is the personal account of a neurosurgeon facing terminal cancer, so I know it won't be a light read. The audiobook I'm now listening to is a YA novel called The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe. It's a dystopian read about a virus that sweeps through civilization. Obviously, another light read.

I was able to comfortably add a few books to my list because I finished a few books this week. One was The Village that Almost Vanished by Steve Brezenoff. This was one from the Field Trip Mystery series that my third graders are obsessed with. Now that I have read one of these books, I can see what they like it so much. It is one of the few chapter books on their level that provides a true sleuth plotline. I liked how there were subtle hints along the way as to the whodunit. As a teacher, I also liked how there was a "dictionary," more research from the main character, and extension questions and activities for the reader. I will definitely be purchasing the rest of this series for next school year!

The second book I read was Hello, I'm Johnny Cash by G. Neri. It is actually on the Kansas booklist next year. To be honest, when I saw it for the first time I was skeptical and thought that "my kids won't like this book." I am humbled to say that I was proved wrong. It is a biography and told in poetry format, but once the young readers get past that I think they will love this story of Johnny Cash. I didn't know much about him myself, but loved to learn about his upbringing and connection to Elvis.

I finally finished the audiobook of How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon. This is the aftermath of an African American teen shooting told in many different perspectives of what they claim really happened. There are characters you trust, and characters that make you question what is really happening. The ending wasn't as strong as I would have liked, but I would definitely recommended the audio book to give voice to all of the characters.