Monday, December 15, 2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


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 "Foolish" Wise Man is a folktale trope common across the Middle East and Central Asia into India, often traced back to a thirteenth-century Turkish folk philosopher. This text set highlights both single tales and anthologies from multiple countries and names. Read more about "Foolish" Wise Men and see the whole list here.


The Storm Whale (2013) by Benji Davies. This endearing, sparse tale tells the story of young Noi and his fisherman father. When Noi finds a beached baby storm whale, he knows he needs to act fast, even if it initially means acting alone. The story is simple and not particularly surprising but still quite sweet.


Any Questions? (2014) by Marie-Louise Gay. This lovely meta-picture book includes Marie-Louise Gay's advice about creativity, brainstorming, and story writing. A bit long for a read aloud, this book could instead be parceled out over the course of a fiction writing unit.


If ... a mind-bending new way of looking at big ideas and numbers (2014) by David J. Smith and illustrated by Steve Adams. This new nonfiction book offers a more visual and metaphoric look at big numbers and big concepts, similar to how the his earlier If the World Were a Village took facts about the world and its population down to the "village" level. I felt like this book was a bit more disjointed, due to covering a wide-range of topics and numbers as well as a constantly-changing use of visualizations. So, it's ok, but not as engrossing as the village concept.

Poetry


The Poem that Will Not End: fun with poetic forms and voices (2014) by Joan Bransfield Graham and illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker. This rhythmic story centers around the main character's inability to escape the poems he keeps finding all around him. The end of the book includes a glossary of poetic terms and forms, including references about which poems in the book match each form. This book reminded me a lot of the incomparable Math Curse for the central theme that poetry (like math) is everywhere!

Happy Reading!

4 comments:

  1. I'll be looking for Any Questions and If. These seem like titles that would interest my students greatly! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. You're welcome, Kendra! Definitely check out If the World/America Were a Village too, if you like If.

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  2. I love Any Questions. I got to meet Marie-Louise Gay and hear her read this book aloud. What a treat.

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    1. Wow, how cool! I can only hope she did a Q&A after too. ;)

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