It's Monday! What are you reading?

 It's August 2nd, and I'm back at work!  I've been reading a lot this last month--mostly young adult and grown-up books, because I know I will be reading a LOT of kids' books and professional literature over the next ten months.

YA/ Grown-up books:

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu, the first book in the Edinburgh Nights series, was really fun to read. 

Ropa lives in a caravan (RV for us American English speakers) in post-catastrophe Edinburgh, Scotland.  In the author's creative setting, it is accepted that some people can communicate with ghosts and do so for a living, paid for delivering messages back and forth.  Ropa, a ghost talker, is confronted by a distraught deceased mother who desperately needs help searching for her missing (live) son.  In the search, Ropa finds a network of underground magic and new acquaintances that may just help her with her mission.

The Pull of the Stars: A Novel was recommended for me by the Multnomah County Public Library on National Tattoo Day, based on my tattoos.  

Nurse Julia works in the Maternity/Fever ward of an Irish hospital during the outbreak of the Spanish Flu.  The entire novel happens in three days, as she saves and loses patients and babies, and falls in love only to experience profound loss.  It was an interesting book to read just as our own pandemic numbers start to surge once again...but I am always up for birth stories, sad as they may have been during that time in history.  And I learned of the origin of the word "influenza"--I'll leave that a mystery for you to discover.

I FINALLY finished The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gurdon.

I am determined more than ever to provide read-aloud opportunities for all grade levels in my library next year, now thoroughly convinced by Gurdon of the extraordinary benefits academically, socially, and emotionally.

Children's books I read with my summer school LAUNCH students:

The Best of Iggy by Annie Barrows, a Bluebonnet Award Nominee--thought-provoking and funny and fun to read-aloud.

The Oldest Student:  How Mary Walker Learned to Read, also a Bluebonnet Nominee.

Monster-themed books for my younger students:

It's been nice to get back into a reading groove this summer.  Dillo Readers, you still have two weeks to squeeze in some summer reading!  I'm looking forward to hearing about what you read during our break from school.  See you in the library soon!