It's Monday! What are you reading?

 I deviated from my summer reading pile AGAIN--because I am a sucker for any book that has "library" in the title.  This week, it's The Midnight Library: A Novel by Matt Haig--and yes, it has had me reading until midnight a couple of times already!

It's another grown-up book (I'm making up for a year of reading kidlit for my job, I think!).  Nora Seed has lived a life of trying to meet others' expectations, failing at every turn--or so she thinks.  Having depression doesn't help, and a particularly dark day leads to a drastic decision that doesn't have quite the result she was expecting.  I can't write much more without giving too much away...but suffice it to say that this book will have you thinking about decisions both big and small and the paths they lead us down.  Do you ever look back on your life and wish you could have done things differently?  What do you think would have happened if you did?

It's Monday, and I'm reading a "windows" book, as I'm not one to regret decisions that are already said and done.  What books are keeping you up past your bedtime these days?

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I will be taking a break from Monday book posts for the next month as I return to the library for summer school duty.  "See" you in August!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I know I'm a little late to the game...but oh, my!  Went into book coma today on the couch, just had to finish this one (another young adult novel, sorry, elementary school readers):

I love mysteries, especially with strong women as protagonists.  I love learning about indigenous cultures.  I was an 80s teenager.  Is it any wonder I loved Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, which checked off all three boxes?  The reader doesn't even have to doubt the authenticity of the cultural references--the author is Native American, who professes to writing this novel as a much-needed "mirror" book.  I am hoping we get to see more of  the main character, Daunis Fontaine, in future stories.  This book is recommended for high school on up.

(If you haven't followed this blog before, "book coma" refers to that sweet spot in reading when you fall into the story of a book and just can't put it down.  My to-do list remains undone today...)

Back to kidlit:

I am halfway through Book 1 of George Takei's graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy.

So far, this is not what I was expecting to read of the Takei family's time in the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s--because George Takei was a child then, and saw things through a child's eyes. The story is told as flashbacks from a more recent TEDTalk by Takei, so we know that he is speaking out against the injustice of the government actions that caused thousands of Japanese-Americans to be incarcerated, without due cause, during World War II. This book is a powerful nonfiction addition to our library shelves; the graphic novel format will appeal to our elementary school readers.

I finished another nonfiction Bluebonnet Nominee, Follow Those Zebras: Solving a Migration Mystery by Sandra Markle:

Each year, a herd of zebras seems to disappear from the Chobe River, only to return the following rainy season.  It took two teams of scientists and GPS collars on the zebras to figure out where they were going--and it was farther than anyone thought.  Lots of photographs, maps, references to the scientific process, and nonfiction text features such as a glossary, index, bibliography, and recommended reading will keep this book in circulation in our library.

I checked out this book from the library just for me--My First Book of Haiku Poems: a Picture, a Poem and a Dream; Classic Poems by Japanese Haiku Masters by Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, illustrated by Tracy Gallup.

These are not "cutesy" poems meant to cater to children--they are thought-provoking lines written in both English and Japanese, accompanied by dreamscape-like pictures that prompt their own interpretation.  Comments and suggestions on each haiku poem make for instant poetry lessons; there's even an uncaptioned illustration at the end, with a request to write your own accompanying haiku.  Brief biographies of the different Japanese masters are provided.

It's Monday, and I'm making my way through my summer reading pile while constantly adding to it!  What are you reading during these balmy days of summer break?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I am one week into my summer break, and I am spending a lot of time reading! 

My grown-up books:

Finally finished Untamed by Glennon Doyle!  So many good lessons and aha moments in her book.  This one is definitely for grownups--sorry, elementary students.  I think I took so long to read it because I had to pause every chapter or two to "chew" on Doyle's ideas about being an authentic human and making the world a better place for all of us.  If you are one of those people who thinks "why can't we just go back to the way things were"...then this would be a good book to start to answer that question.

I am trying to finish up another book I started a while back--A Phoenix First Must Burn, a sci-fi anthology edited by Patrice Caldwell.  Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, and all of the stories in Caldwell's collection are written by Black female authors; loving the different perspectives and strong women in these short stories.  This book is for YA on up. 

The other two books-for-learning that I'm continuing to read are The Enchanted Hour and Think Like a Monk; I'll write about those when I'm done.

Now for the kidlit:

I finished two more Bluebonnet Award nominees!  Act, by Kayla Miller, is a graphic novel set in middle school.

I thought it was going to be about acting...but it is about activism.  Olive is an empathetic sixth grader who doesn't think it's fair that students who can't afford field trip fees have to sit at school and miss out--but what can she do about it?  After doing some research and talking to friends and family, she decides to act--first by running for student council, then by organizing a fundraiser.  I really like the factual references to peaceful protest and activism that the author includes at the end of the story, as well as age-sensitive reading suggestions.

I got to practice a bit of my Spanish (but leaned on the English translation for comprehension) in the dual-language Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello by Monica Brown, illustrated by Elisa Chavarri.  

Sharuko is a nonfiction biography of a famous Peruvian archaeologist who is largely responsible for uncovering the importance of the pre-colonization indigenous culture of Peru.  The illustrations are bright and colorful, and the story is inspiring as well as educational.  I can see students wanting to learn more about Peru and the Incan culture after reading this Bluebonnet Nominee.

It's Monday, and I'm juggling several books at once, as usual!  What books are you reading from your summer stack?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

 As promised in the last post...here is my summer reading pile, or some of it, at least!

Some of these are books that have been on my reading pile for a long, long time--I am bound and determined to read them this summer!  The majority of the kidlit is from the 21-22 Bluebonnet Nominee list, so I can get a headstart for the coming school year.  I am planning on finishing The Enchanted Hour this week, and read through A Hatful of Dragons yesterday--that is a fun book of poetry that I will be recommending for all sorts of reasons to my 3rd through 5th grade teachers this year (vocabulary, foreshadowing, clever art/page work).

Because most of these books are being read with work and learning in mind, I am planning on throwing another book or two onto the pile that will be "mind candy"--just for fun.  And I do have a professional book or two in the wings to kickstart next school year.  I'm finding that I prefer reading nonfiction in the morning, and ending my day with fiction.  

I've got my summer reading plans pinned down and piled up!  What are you reading now, and what will be your next book to read this summer?  Do you have a pile of books as well?  If so, share a picture of it in the comments!