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?