Monday, November 16, 2015

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 11/16/15


It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture 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.


Last Week's Posts

  • Looking Forward to NCTE ... ! I am feverishly preparing for my NCTE roundtable presentation this Saturday. This post has some of the initial details, and I will also be updating it later with the handouts and resources from my presentation on "the diversity of diversity." 

Picture Books



Friendshape (2015) by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. To conclude the Global Read Aloud, we shared three books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. (I have previously shared about both I Wish You More and Little Miss, Big Sis, which I adore and both of which I have already given as gifts.) My students just ate up every single page of Friendshape. The combination of puns, incredibly-creative illustrations, and important messages really hit home with them. This is one that has been constantly re-read during independent reading time.


Stick and Stone (2015) by Beth Ferry and also illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. Another pun-filled books about friendship, my students and I enjoyed this story also. The plot is a bit predictable and moves quickly (little to no character development, motivation, etc.) but enjoyable. We had a great conversations as a class when I asked students to defend their favorite choice between these two books. (For the curious, Friendshape emerged victorious, but Stick and Stone had many defenders as well.)


When Sophie's Feelings are Really, Really Hurt (2015) by Molly Bang. A long-arrived sequel to the 1999 Caldecott Honor book, When Sophie Gets Angry ... Really, Really Angry, Sophie and her tree are back for another feelings-driven plot. This book has some great things to say about art and expression, but I was a little disappointed in the resolution. Apparently the solution for when your feelings are really, really hurt is for the teacher to step in and explain everything. For a preschool audience, that might be enough, but for my third graders, I was hoping for a little more.

Happy Reading! (Hope to see many of you at NCTE!)

9 comments:

  1. I'd forgotten about the earlier Sophie book, now will need to look for this one, too. Your presentation sounds good. Hope you enjoy it & all of NCTE.

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    1. Thanks, Linda! Looking forward to the overwhelming crazy that I am sure is NCTE.

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  2. Lichtenheld's illustrations are always super cute. And I can't resist a good pun.

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  3. Nice looking group of books. Have fun at NCTE. Even though it is relatively local for me, I'll be staying at work. We haven't any school budget for conventions this year. Check out my week here. Happy reading!

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  4. Stick and Stone is a delightful book and I am looking forward to reading When Sophie's Feelings are Really, Really Hurt. Minneapolis is a lovely city, but is a bit far to travel. Good luck with the presentation and have a fabulous time.

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  5. I hope you have fun at NCTE! I will be there, too, so I hope we run into each other! Good luck preparing for your presentation!

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  6. WE didn't know about Molly Bang's sequel. We love When Sophie Gets Angry and can't wait to read this new title. We are heading to NCTE on Thursday. Can't wait to connect with everyone.

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  7. Great to read your thoughts about the Molly Bang sequel - I didn't even know there was one, so thanks for the heads up! Best of luck on your NCTE presentation, I'm sure it will be hugely successful! :)

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