Monday, October 20, 2014

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelfImages via Goodreads unless otherwise noted. 

Last Week: 

To save time and space here on the blog, I will just highlight a few of the best from the week. Laughing Tomatoes and Firefly July were two wonderful collections of poetry. I loved The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus. What a fascinating person! Leroy Ninker Saddles Up, The Fly and How to Outrun a Crocodile provided me with a lot of laughs and smiles. I read Floating on Mama's Song because it's illustrated by Yuyi Morales and I am trying to read all of the books that she has written and illustrated. It's beautiful as I expected, but the story is also a lot of fun. 

Another one that stood out was Playing Loteria. What's special about this book is that the boy is going to stay with his grandmother, or abuelita, on his own. The key here is that he doesn't speak a lot of Spanish and she doesn't speak a lot of English so he is concerned about the visit. There aren't a whole lot of stories dealing with this language issue, but there are children that experience this and others that don't even realize this happens. It reminds me of one other picture book, Sitti's Secrets where a girl goes to visit her grandmother with the same type of situation though a different language. I look forward to sharing Playing Loteria and maybe even introducing the game.

The Coming Week:

I am really enjoying City of Bones more than I expected to given that someone I know told me the love triangle annoyed her. I'm listening to it, so it's slow going. I haven't gotten very far in Foreign Gods, Inc, but will still likely finish up this week. I have mixed feelings about The Meaning of Maggie, but it is a quick read and is certainly interesting (I'll explain more once I finish). How it Went Down is tough reading and I am not very far into it yet. I will be very busy this week, so I am not sure how much more I will get to, but will likely finish these. It should be a good week for books. I hope you have some good reading ahead of you too.

5 comments:

  1. I'll be interested in your thought about the Meaning of Maggie - I loved it, but there were some issues....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the title, Playing Tomatoes, Crystal, will look for it! And also Playing Loteria. When I went to Mexico with my students we practiced Spanish with Loteria all year-what fun! I love the Roget book, already have loaned it to a student who loves words! Just the right time out for her!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I read City of Bones a few years ago, but never read the rest of the series. I liked it, just never returned. I can't wait to read Maggie, I've heard such great things.
    I can't wait to read Leroy, I have it, just haven't gotten to it yet.
    I loved Jess Keating's debut, especially after meeting her at NerdCamp!
    Have a great week, Crystal!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We can't wait to read Floating on Mama's Song. We don't know Yuyi Morale's work and from your description it sounds like a "must read."

    Thank you
    Tammy and Clare

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love Yuyi Morales and her books - as soon as I saw the book cover, I already had a feeling it was hers. Lots of great books here, as per usual, Crystal. :) Haven't even tried reading any of Cassandra Clare's novels - I did watch the movie though with my 12 year old girl who was fascinated with the film. :)

    ReplyDelete