Monday, December 22, 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.

Top Books


Last week I coordinated a "Favorite Books Survey" among the first through sixth grade students at my school. The kids also went home and surveys parents, siblings, and friends about favorite books. I am working on a series of compilation posts for each grade level, but the overall Top 20 Favorite Children's Books results are in. Did your favorites make our list?

Picture Books


Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg (2010). This book was #1 on our art teacher's book list for the Favorite Book surveys, and I know she is planning to celebrate this book and its concepts with students later in the year. I love the message of this book and the unique, tactile format. I think all students can learn from this book how to celebrate and move beyond potential "mistakes."


Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown and illustrated by John Parra (2011). This book tells the true story of the biblioburros of Colombia from the point-of-view of a young girl discovering the joy and wonder of books. I really appreciated how this version of the story helps children better understand what a world with minimal books might be like and to help them appreciate the wonder of easily accessible books and stories. (H/T Elisabeth at The Dirigible Plum.)

Poetry


Amazing Faces by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Chris Soentpiet is a great poetry resource. Read my full review, Amazing Faces: amazing poems, to read a sample poem and find out about how I use this book in my classroom.

Reading Challenges

With the New Year approaching, I am looking forward to finding and participating in some reading challenges for the coming year.


I am very excited to be joining in the Award Winning Books Reading Challenge 2015 hosted by Gathering Books. I have seen many of you blogging about your own challenges and would love to find out more. Please leave any suggestions in the comments.

Happy Reading!

8 comments:

  1. Wow! You have an amazing list of books! I love both Beautiful Opps and Waiting for the Biblioburro! These are now on my to read books list! I would love to read the second one with my classes.
    Katie
    Teaching Voracious Learners

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    1. Thanks, Katie, and welcome to #IMWAYR! There are many other "unusual library" style books out there, and I mentioned another, My Librarian is a Camel, in my series Around the World in a Single Book http://www.thelogonauts.com/2014/09/language-schools.html . You should also check out Jeanette Winter's version, Biblioburro.

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  2. I haven't decided what challenges I'm going to commit to next year. I love Gathering Books's Award-Winning Challenge, and I'll be doing Carrie's #MustReadin2015. I read about a Diversity reading challenge somewhere--need to find that one and sign up too. Beautiful Oops is one of my favorites this year. Glad you liked Waiting for the Biblioburro!

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    1. Thanks for the book and book challenge suggestions! I will definitely check out Carrie's challenge, and I'd certainly be interested in a diversity-based challenge too. Keep me posted!

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  3. I love Waiting for The Biblioburro, all those wonderful books about people who make sure people get books. I'll do Myra's challenge, & probably the Latino Challenge at Latinas in KidLit. Sheila at Book Journeys is hosting 3 different challenges, too. Have fun, Katie!

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    1. Thanks for all the leads, Linda! I definitely have some investigating to do ...

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  4. I absolutely love Beautiful Oops. It's one of my favorite inspirational picture books.

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    1. Thanks, Beth! I'm really excited to have discovered it.

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