It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Disclaimer: I receive a small percentage from books purchased using the links below.

For School:

I received my Junior Library Guild subscription and have been reading my way through the box.

 I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer was a moving book based on a true story. Irene and her family live on Nipissing First Nation in Canada.  At 8 years old Irene and two of her brothers are taken from their family by the Canadian government and sent to a residential school where they suffered abuse and were malnourished for the school year.  Upon returning home they told their parents of the abuse.  Their parents vowed to break the law, hide their children and never send them back to the school.

 Hilda and the Stone Forest (Hildafolk) by Luke Pearson is an adventure graphic novel.  Hilda has a secret life.  A life that is mixed up with all kinds of creatures and monsters.  She often lies to her mum about where she's going and what she's doing until her mum catches her sneaking through the wall.  When mom gets in a tug of war with Hilda they end up somewhere a bit... scary.

Dino-Racing by Lisa Wheeler is another cute book in the Dino sports series.  The rhyming is catchy. There is a lot of vocabulary if you don't know much about racing.  And I don't.  The dinosaurs race for 3 days across different terrains.  And you won't believe who wins the race!

How to Be a Hero by Florence Parry Heide has a little boy named Gideon in it who wants to be a hero.  Everything he knows about heroes he learned from fairy tales.  And all the heroes had to kiss a girl.  Ewww!  Gideon wonders into a grocery store to buy a candy bar where he was the ten thousandth customer to buy something!  His picture gets put on the front page and he gets to get a candy bar whenever he wants!  But wait... did a lady fall and drop her baby?

How This Book Was Made by Ma Barnett is a book I cannot wait to read to students before our author visit next month.  Barnett describes how books are made adding little twists that are funny. Adam Rex, the illustrator, does an amazing job adding to the story with his drawings!  The reader will learn all kinds of facts.  My favorite was that Barnett had 21 rough drafts.  21!

Hank's Big Day: The Story of a Bug by Evan Kuhlman and Chuck Groenink is a story of friendship. An odd friendship between a young girl and a pill bug.  After the pill bug eats a yummy dead leaf for breakfast he ventures past crickets, and worms and ants and other creepy crawlies to meet his best friend Amelia who takes him on an adventure.

A Hat for Mrs. Goldman: A Story About Knitting and Love by Micelle Edwards is a story about an older hispanic lady who teacher a young hispanic girl how to knit hats and pom-poms and do good deeds for others.  Sophia quickly realizes that Mrs. Goldman needs a hat too but won't knit herself one because she is too busy doing good deeds for others.  So Sophia knits her a hat.  But it's not very good and Sophia has to get creative.

Penguin Problems by Jory John Do you know some one who complains about everything? Like. Every. Thing.  That's penguin.  He complains about every single thing he can possibly complain about.  Then he meets a wise walrus who reminds him of the good things.  It helps... for awhile.

My Name Is James Madison Hemings by Jonah Winter is a book about James' life as a slave.  It's told in first person so we learn who his father is at the same time the he learn who his father is.  We are privy to the emotions of this knowledge and the questions James has about this.

I received a couple of free books from Capstone.

Winter: The Coldest Season of All! (My First Science Songs) by Lisa Bell is a sing-a-long book that comes with a CD.  I don't think I've every read a book like this before to my students.  I plan on reading it and playing the CD during story time sometime in the month of January.