It’s Monday! What are you reading?
I have been sharing a reading photo of the week each week. This photo is special to me because it is my students at 2:30 p.m. on the last day of school – doing what they do best – reading! (and eating twizzlers, a special treat from our Teacher Librarian, Ms. S)
Here are our favourite picture books (fiction edition) read aloud in the 2014/2015 school year – all of these made it into the favourite read aloud bin over the year.
Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. Follow the links to read about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR community has read. It’s the best way to discover what to read next.
I read a lot of books that I really wanted to share with this group of students this week so not much new reading.
But some lovely reads were new to me:
Float by Daniel Miyares
Wordless and wonderful. Themes of discovery, persistence, problem solving and creative thinking. And simply beautiful.
Worst in Show written by William Bee and illustrated by Kate Hindley
Super silly. I have a thing for monsters so I found this book quite amusing.
Soon written by Timothy Knapman and illustrated by Patrick Benson
Perfect for a story time with younger students. We love elephants in my classroom so this book is special.
Not my Girl written by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard
This was the fourth picture book dealing with residential school experiences that I read with my students. I am so grateful that books like this exist to enable us to talk about this time in history and its impact on Aboriginal children and families with school age children. We did incredibly rich writing with this book.
Jack by Liesl Shurtliff
We finished this book on the very last day of school. The best response, “This book was so perfect because it had more than one happy ending!” We loved how Jack tied to Rump in such unexpected ways. Another fantastic read aloud by Shurtliff! We can’t wait for Red!
Updates on my 2015 Reading Goals:
2015 Chapter Book Challenge: 30/80 complete
Goodreads Challenge: 224/415 books read
#MustReadin2015: 12/24 complete
Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: 47/100 titles
Diverse Books in 2015: 23/50 books read
Up next? I am still reading Call Me By My Name by John Ed Bradley – and have this stack coming along with me for my week away – I may not get to all of them but hoping for at least 6 novels read!
There's a Book for That 
Hi Carrie, Reading AND Twizzlers!! How fun! I love your reading photos. I have not read Jack, but I loved Rump. Do you think Jack is as good? Your book stack looks great! Fish in a Tree is a huge favorite! Enjoy your week!
I am so excited to read Fish in a Tree -will be starting tomorrow! Jack was wonderful in the beginning, not as action packed as Rump in the middle but then had a wonderful finish. Kids liked it a lot.
Love hearing about your last week, Carrie. Have a great week away. I have Jack, and love that it has connections to Rump. Float and Soon look wonderful, must finds!
Float is an amazing wordless title. I am very excited now to see how Red connects to these other Shurtliff titles!
I, too, am discovering have a thing for monsters. I will read pretty much any books with monsters in it. I think my favorite right now is Big Bad Bubble by Adam Rubin
I just read Float this morning and absolutely loved it.
I love Big Bad Bubble too! Isn’t Float amazing?
That is the perfect ending to a school year! I haven’t read Not My Girl to a group, but I read When I Was Eight to a group who were studying First Nations. We did a venn diagram comparing their lives to Margaret’s. We had some very powerful conversation from it. I’ll post my pile of books later in the week! Have a fabulous summer!
These titles are very powerful – the writing and discussions that resulted were very powerful in my room as well.
Loved Not My Girl, great exploration of it… Bought Jack for my library but didn’t get a chance to read it yet, can’t wait!
Lots of fun – when worlds collide between Jack and Rump . . .
Lost in the Sun was much better than I expected it to be. And I liked Jack, even though Rump wasn’t something that interested me. Will have to be on the lookout for Red. Thanks for the recommendation.
I think Red will be out in 2016.
What a wonderful book stack! Lots of good reading there. I didn’t love Rump, but my son did–just ordered Jack to share with him this summer. We’re still on that picture book kick, but I’d like to have a longer chapter book going too. Enjoy your week away!
Thank you! I think I loved Rump more to be honest but both titles so much fun to read aloud in a classroom.
Great-looking TBR list, I love the Penderwicks! I’m curious what other titles you shared with your students about residential schools. I’ve read Not My Girl and Cheyenne Again, but would love to add more.
We read Shi-shi-etko and Shin-chi’s Canoe as well as When I was Eight which comes before Not my Girl.
A couple of those are in my #mustread pile too!
Glad your class enjoyed Jack 🙂 I reread Rump this month and at some point will go back and reread Jack. We had a fascinating Skype visit with Liesl. I loved talking to her about the 2 books! And yes, can’t wait for Red!
I quickly read Float, now I need to go back and savor it before I write about it.
Liesl is so lovely – we also got to Skype with her last year when we read Rump. Kids loved reading both titles as a class.
Beautiful selection of picture books, Carrie – and many of the books in your stack are in mine as well. I’m loving Lost in the Sun, at the moment.
I look forward to reading many of them – one done day one 🙂
Loved the picture of your kids! Float is an awesome book. I loved it. And my advice is to move Fish in a Tree to the top of your stack. Awesome book. I have a recommendation to add to your stack: Rain Reign. My favorite book this spring. Even better than Fish In A Tree, in my opinion. Try it!
I am starting Fish in a Tree today! I have read Rain Reign and LOVED it! I so agree that it is a title with gushing about!
I remember preparing a similar stack for our 12-day trip in Manila/Boracay. I managed to read around four I believe so not bad. 🙂 Love the picture – particularly the book bins – each child should have a book bin indeed of beloved reads. 🙂
Hi Myra – You just never know what you might want to read! I am on book 3 on Day 4 so not too bad.