Monday, December 8, 2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/08/14


It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from pictures books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.

Picture Books


The Look What Came From series is a fun series of nonfiction picture books about specific countries or continents, featuring their discoveries, inventions, and contributions. You can read my full article about the series here.


Sam and Dave Dig a Hole (2014) by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klasen. This book did not do a lot for me on my first personal reading, but this one has lit up my classroom. Students were interrupting conversations and insisting that others read this book (or insisting that they read the book aloud to friends). They cackled hysterically over the illustrations and found the ending intriguing rather than random. (Many immediately went back to compare the beginnings and endings.) I know this one will feature heavily in their Caldecott conversations, if not in mine.

Two (2014) by Kathryn Otoshi. This follow-up to the wonderful One and Zero is another take on friendships and relationships told through numerical characters. In this story, Two is feeling left out when her best friend One starts hanging out with Three and sets off an odds-vs-evens fight. This book generated some heartfelt conversations and discussions among my students, and they also loved the over-the-top math-related puns.


The Farmer and the Clown (2014) by Marla Frazee. This wordless picture book will doubtless be part of many Caldecott conversations this year, and the expressions of emotions is powerful. This was one of those books were I was completely drawn into the story while reading it, but after stepping outside of that moment. the whole thing seemed a bit random and odd. I'm interested to see the discussions around this one.

Happy Reading!

2 comments:

  1. Sam & Dave is a book I love reading with actual children--it's such a different reading experience! At NCTE, Jon Klassen talked about how worried he was that children wouldn't get the ending at all--wouldn't see the differences in the illustration and would be confused in a bad way about what happened. (Since adults often are!) But he said that 100% of the time, the kids get it. So fascinating!

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    Replies
    1. The first student I watched read the book did spot the differences right away. It's hard to know about the rest, because the book became word-of-mouth so fast, that the differences were immediately pointed out by other students!

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