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Sunday, February 5, 2012

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2/6/12





It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!
After doing the meme for a couple of weeks, we realized this would be a fun meme to start up with a kidlit focus - anyone reading and reviewing books in children's literature - it can be picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, you name it in the world of kidlit and it's in! We have loved being a part of this meme and we hope you do too!  We encourage everyone participating to go and visit the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and to comment on as many posts as you can. We love talking books and believe in sharing and discussing what we're reading. We hope you join us!

Last Week's Book Adventures:
Jen Says: I had an amazing reading week last week. I really am spoiled because I get so many great book recommendations that I rarely read a novel that I don't love and give 4 or 5 stars. I loved The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens, the audio was superb (What do you expect? it's Jim Dale!). I devoured Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani. I love the letters back and forth to each other and the discussions and topics that come up. It will be out next week on the 14th and I definitely recommend it! I also loved Anya's Ghost and Sidekicks both stellar additions to the world of graphic novels. I'm writing my updates early so I'm not sure what I think of The Mighty Miss Malone or From What I Remember... yet but I'll post my update in the comments when I can!

I thought A Ball for Daisy was cute and it definitely spurred a conversation with Peanut about respecting other people's things and then being a good friend by replacing something if something goes wrong. It was sweet. BUT I am so excited by Extra Yarn! I love it. It has cameos of my I Want My Hat Back friends and it made me happy. I can't even tell you how hard Peanut and I laughed when we saw the bear in a sweater dress. Inside I was quietly screaming, "Take that, Bear!" And it makes me rethink I Want My Hat Back to see the bear and the rabbit in Extra Yarn and I wonder if I'm thinking into it too much...either way, great book. Excellent message that makes me just feel happy about life because I can relate to Annabelle.

Kellee Says: I had a great week of reading as well- specifically with graphic novels! This week I finished Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Babymouse: Mad Scientist by Jennifer L. and Matt Holm, Sidekicks by Dan Santat, Squish #3: The Power of the Parasite by Jennifer L. and Matt Holm, The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Evil Penguin Plan & The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Fishy Business by Maxwell Eaton, and Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre- WOW! All really fun reads! I specifically loved Zita and Sidekicks though I am always a big fan of Babymouse and Lunch Lady.  The Flying Beaver Brothers are going to be big with fans of Babymouse, Squish and Lunch Lady- very similar illustration and coloring styles as well as story lines. 


Now, when it came to YA books this week- it wasn't so successful.  I only finished The Locket by Stacey Jay which was a pretty interesting take on time travel though was very reminiscent of Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall.  I started some others and abandoned them, but no reason to share as I'm sure other readers would love them. 


I also read some picture books: Queen of the Falls  by Chris Van Allsburg, Melvin and the Boy by Lauren Castillo, Up Cat & Up Dog by Hazel Hutchins, and Bad Kitty for President by Nick Bruel.  I also read a children's nonfiction book by Kelly Milner Hall, Alien Investigation. Quite a range! Up Dog & Up Cat were very early reader picture books while Queen of the Falls, Alien Investigation and Queen of the Falls would actually be better for middle grades.  Melvin and the Boy, which was also my favorite, fell right in the middle.


OH! I almost forgot! I read Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw as well and it was a book written for specifically for a cat loving reading teacher like myself. It was adorable and so well done. 

Reviewed Last Week:
Hades: Lord of the Dead (Olympians)      My Brother's Shadow
Just click on any picture above to go read the review

Upcoming Book Adventures: 
Jen Says: I have so many great audiobooks to choose from that I don't know what to pick! That's a great problem, right? I think I'm going to listen to How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr and then Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins because Kellee has said they are both great. I'm super in the mood for a romance and I know Stephanie Perkins will not let me down with Anna.

I also have The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate to read as a real-life-physical book and On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming to read on Henry, my NookColor. It's really hard for me to plan out my picture book reads because usually I just pick up whatever is on hold for me at the library or whatever I grab as I'm there. I will be reading Phlieas's Fortune by Agnes de Lestrade with my freshman in high school this week. I love this story. It's a dystopic picture book! I just realized that...anyway, it's about a boy who lives in a world where he has to pay for words but he doesn't have a lot of money and he really wants to tell a girl how much he cares about her.  

Kellee Says: This week I am hoping to get more YA books read, but we'll see if anything grabs me. Once again, we'll see what happens! 


As for non-YA books, I am currently reading Shel Silverstein's Everything on It and Kadir Nelson's Heart and Soul which are both wonderful in very different ways.  I am still listening to Matt Cruse's second adventure Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel which is getting horribly suspenseful and I wish I could be sitting in my car listening to it right now! I have about 30 minutes left of listening and then when finished I will start Fire by Kristin Cashore which I am very excited to get to (although I just found out that it isn't Full Cast Audio, so I hope it is just as good as the Graceling audio).  

This Week's Reviews:
 
All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky     Now Is the Time for Running
Check back throughout the week to hear about these books. 

So, what are you reading this week? 
Please link up below and don't forget to check out other blogs to see what they are reading!


Happy reading everyone! 
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