It’s Monday! What are you reading?

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. You are guaranteed to find something new to add to your list.

I will admit that reading is a little strange lately. I have no idea when I might be teaching again due to this lengthy labour dispute between B.C. teachers and the employer with no end in sight. Thanks to all who read and offered messages of support with my recent post: Standing on the Sidewalk. It feels a little bittersweet when I find a book I love – I found last week I was taking books to the picket line and sharing them with the children there with us (my children and those of my colleagues). For me, so much of what I love about books is the possibility of the magic that is created when an amazing book meets a group of students. I so miss my students. Sigh.

The picture books I enjoyed this week:

Whose Nest? by Lynette Evans with illustrations by Guy Troughton

Such a fun and interesting title. Guess which creature belongs to which nest from a few sentences of hints and a peek at the nest. Lift the flaps to discover who uses the nest – from birds, to reptiles, to small mammals. The group of children I read this to (ranging in age from 5 to 11 years old) were all enchanted.

Gravity by Jason Chin

I love everything Jason Chin does and this book was no exception. Simple text conveys all young children need to understand about the concept of gravity. Stunning illustrations do much of the work. More information in the back of the book gives extra details for inquiring minds.

Dizzy written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Sean Qualls

The story of Dizzy Gillespie. I grew up in a house full of jazz so was intrigued by this biography. The illustrations are fantastic and the text conveys the energy of Dizzy’s rise to fame. How he came up with his unique style is so interesting.

Red Kite, Blue Kite written by Ji-li Jiang and illustrated by Greg Ruth

This was probably the wow of the week for me because I most wanted to rush it into a classroom of children and share it. Rich in truth and history (based on the story of the author’s family friend), this book is set during the Cultural Revolution in China. It is the story of father and son –  separated by distance and circumstances, they stay connected through kites in the sky. Heartbreaking but full of hope. Such a beautiful book.

Symphony City by Amy Martin

This book is a little bit challenging to connect with – on my second read I ignored the text and just payed attention to the illustrations. Sometimes, I think a book would be better as a wordless title. This book fits that category. Illustrations are full of wonder and a seventies vibe.

The Girl of the Wish Garden written by Uma Krishnaswami and illustrated by Nasrin Khosravi

The back story for how this book came to be is so interesting. The illustrations were first published in a Farsi version of the Thumbelina story and the author used the pictures as the inspiration for this retelling of her own Thumbelina story. Certainly not the Thumbelina story that may be familiar, but definite threads of the well known tale are present here. This book is all about magic, mystery and fantasy elements. Did I love it? Not completely but found the illustrations stunning and would be interested to read the text aloud with children to see their response.

Finished one novel: Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick your Ass by Meg Medina

What a book. Loved the power of the female characters – their resolve, their vulnerability, their strong characters. A book about bullies and walking in fear. But more importantly, a book about finding strength from many places to begin walking on. Highly recommended YA realistic fiction.

Next up? Enjoying The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel as a read aloud with my children. I am reading Cress by Marissa Meyer (one of my #MustReadin2014 titles)

A reminder for anyone out there with a #MustReadin2014 list, think about sharing an update on your blog for July 1st, 2014. Share using the #MustReadin2014 hashtag. I plan to share a list of the titles I have read since the last update. So excited to see what everyone has been reading and loving. I will host a link up here. Here is my Spring update – I confess I have only read four titles from my list since this post but have grand plans for a summer of reading!

Reading Goal updates: