It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (22)

  

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys where you can recap what you’ve read this week while planning ahead on what to read next! Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts added their own twist by focusing on kidlit, from picture books up to YA.

Clicking the covers will take you to the Goodreads page for that book, where you can add it to your “To Read” list!

Recently I’ve read:

Picture Books

    

I finally read I Want My Hat Back…and I was a little disappointed. I guess since it was so hyped on Twitter with some of my friends I expected a little more. It was actually a little disturbing!

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs was cute in typical Mo Willems fashion. The girl reminds me of Trixie from Knuffle Bunny.

I really thought Kel Gilligan’s Daredevil Stunt Show was super cute. I loved the illustrations. It’s fun to remember being a kid and how the most mundane things (eating broccoli, putting on clothes alone, getting in the bathtub) can seem MONUMENTAL.

MG/YA

      

Crash comes out in January, and it’s another fabulous book by Lisa McMann! I love the family dynamic between the siblings in this story. You can tell that they really look out for and care about each other. Poor Jules is in a pretty lose/lose situation with her vision! I can’t wait for book 2! (Thanks to the pubs at Simon&Schuster and Lisa McMann for providing and signing free copies at NCTE!)

I love following Sarah Dessen on twitter (@sarahdessen), and I know that she’s a fabulous author, but I”ve only read one of her books (Just Listen). I’m making it a goal to read more of her books because I need to be able to recommend specific book to some of my students. There were some things that I thought were too easy/predictable in Someone Like You, but I already have a student in mind who will be able to relate to this story.

My students absolutely love The First Part Last. I have a couple of students–girls and boys–who are parents, and they can really relate to the story of  Bobby and Nia. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while, so I snagged it when it was checked in right before break. I can check one off of my NerdPrintz challenge as well!

I loved the dares and notes written back and forth in Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares more than I loved the actual characters of Dash and Lily. While I still loved the story, I don’t think this is one that I will recommend to many of my students due to the fact that there are Big Words in this book. However, my husband picked it up while we were traveling this weekend, and he was intrigued by the story as well. I read it to him while he drove, and he’s reading it on the couch as I type this now!

This week I’ll start/continue reading:

So according to Goodreads, I am still (as of 12/31/2012) 41 books behind my reading goal. I blame my lack of Caldecott reading. When I set the goal in January, I envisioned myself reading more for Caldecott than I actually did. Boo me. So I have a lot of picture book reading to do today in order to meet my goal!

Here is my Christmas Break Bookstack again. I’m thinking I need to read Ask the Passengers, How To Save A Life, and Mexican Whiteboy first. Do you have any other votes?

Audio Book

I thought I would have more time to listen to this than I actually did this week. Can you believe my family didn’t want to listen while driving?! The audacity! So. Still listening!

What about you? What are YOU reading this week?