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?