It's Monday! What are you reading/

Back in March, our annual state library conference was cancelled, which means I didn't get to return to my library with an armload of books like I usually do.  But Penguin Random House has filled the gap a little bit, with some free ARCs (advance readers' copies) that got sent to my house!  

These books aren't completely edited yet, so they won't go on the library shelves; they'll be added to the giveaway stash I keep for Bluebonnet Bingo and clear account prizes.

I am on a superhero kick, so I picked up Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor to start this weekend.  It opens with a tragedy: Nnamdi's father, the chief of police in their Nigerian town of Kaleria, has just been murdered.  Nnamdi can think of nothing but revenge for the next year...but how does a twelve-year-old boy stand up to well-embedded crime bosses?  The answer arrives the night of his father's memorial service, when Nnamdi receives an Ikenga from his father's ghost.  The Ikenga temporarily transforms him into a grown man with strengths he has yet to discover.  Forty-five pages in, and I'm hooked--and hoping Nnamdi will avenge his father's death and bring order to his town.

Tomie dePaola is one of my favorite author-illustrators, and I was saddened to hear of his passing less than two weeks ago.  Perusing my home bookshelves, I found a paperback copy of 26 Fairmount Avenue, dePaola's first chapter book memoir.  His child-voice is so clear in the retelling of the events that happened while his family's first stand-alone house was being built, beginning with a hurricane! This short book is a great example of memoir writing in detail for students.

It's Monday, and I'm reading something old and something new.  What is on your reading pile this week?