Monday, August 15, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 08/15/16


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


Picture Books



Return (2016) by Aaron Becker. It's here, it's here! The glorious and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy begun with Journey [a Caldecott Honor book] and continued with Quest. Return brings a new character into the fold - the girl's father, who begins the story by ignoring her kite-flying pleas. I was so pleased with how this story ties the whole series together, and I cannot wait to reread all three of them and analyze the hints and connections within them. Will this be the book to take home the gold Caldecott medal?! (A review copy of the book was provided by the Candlewick Best in Class mailing. All thoughts are my own.)


Follow the Moon Home: a tale of one idea, twenty kids, and a hundred sea turtles (2016) by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Meilo So. Inspired by true events, this picture book tells the story of a classroom of activists who use their observational skills to identify a problem in their sea-side town: baby sea turtles mistaking house lights for the moon and dying before making it to the ocean. This is a great one for teachers to inspire their own activists - and their own towns! (H/T Several #pb10for10 lists.) Adding this to my list of wonderful books illustrated by Meilo So ... and to my Caldecott 2017 watch list!


My Name is Gabriela: the life of Gabriela Mistral / Me llamo Gabriela: la vida de Gabriela Mistral (2005) by Monica Brown and illustrated by John Parra [winner of the International Latino Book Award]. This biography of Chilean poet and writer Gabriela Mistral does a good job of telling the story of her life and influences on the way to her winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. My only complaint about the book is that it does not include any of her original poetry. (Bilingual in English and Spanish.)

Our first writing unit in seventh grade is poetry, and I am hoping to include many Latin American poems and poets to sync with the Social Studies curriculum. Please share if you have additional poet suggestions or favorite poems by either Gabriela Mistral or Pablo Neruda!

Happy Reading!

7 comments:

  1. I'm so glad Return is out! My kids have adored this story line, and I can't wait to see it!

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  2. I have not yet read the Becker books. I've heard so much about Return and the others I'll have to check it out. I'm picking up Follow the Moon Home from the library and I'm looking forward to reading that one, too.

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  3. I remember absolutely hating poetry all throughout school, which is such a shame, and it took me well into my adulthood to let go of the ghosts of Language Arts past and give poetry another shot. I'm sure your students are in far better (not to mention open-minded) hands than I was 20 years ago!

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  4. Loved Follow the Moon Home. So much to do with that book. We are living in Florida for the summer and we got to go to a sea turtle rehabilitation place last week. It was fascinating. And when we go to the beach we have to be watchful for the sticks that show a nest!
    I saw Return at ALA, so beautiful. Can't wait to have the actual copy in my hands (I sent it to school...no room for more books in the car!!)

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  5. Wasn't Return perfect?! I loved the conclusion!
    Follow the Moon Home looks brilliant! I love the concept, and I love turtles :)

    Happy reading this week!

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  6. I'm so excited to get a copy of Return. My Name is Gabriela looks very interesting.

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  7. I've only read the first in Aaron Becker's series. I just put a hold on return, and at the same time discovered that the first two are available to read at my local library. When I go to drop off books today, I think I'm going to have to reread them. I don't know if you have read Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, but I think you could read some of the poetry in that book with your grade sevens. It is pretty powerful stuff.

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