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
- Teaching Family History and Immigration for Elementary. An overview of the genealogy and family history lessons I taught my third graders.
- New Book Alert: Loving vs. Virginia. A documentary novel-in-verse about the landmark anti-miscegenation case.
- Poetry Friday: Guidelines. A powerful poem with audio by Naomi Shihab Nye.
- Diverse Books for Children: Love. We could all use a little more LOVE in the world. Come share your love-themed posts or find some great recommendations with #diversekidlit!
Picture Books
The Composition (2003) by Antonio Skarmeta and illustrated by Alfonso Ruano [an Américas Award Winner]. My students are currently studying the history of Latin America and the long history of occupation and dictators. This book makes a great tie-in by showing the impact of a totalitarian regime - where even a simple assignment can serve a darker purpose.
The Wall: growing up behind the iron curtain (2007) by Peter Sis [a Caldecott Honor and a Sibert Winner]. I found the structure of this memoir a little hard to follow at times (the way the story overlaps with factual details), but it was a very insightful and relatable look at living under a repressive regime.
Happy in Our Skin (2015) by Fran Manushkin and illustrated by Lauren Tobia. I appreciate what this book is aiming to do - and the illustrations do a great job of celebrating all kinds of people and families - but the rhyme really doesn't hold up, making it hard to see sharing this book even with younger elementary students.
Happy Reading!
The Wall is definitely on my TBR list. Thank you for sharing the other two titles.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteOh dear, yes, I'm very particular about rhyming texts because I tend to use picture books for story times. When the rhyme doesn't flow naturally it can just grind your reading to a halt, and if you lose momentum you can lose your wiggly audience!
ReplyDeleteExactly! And I picture your wiggly audience as the target for this book. (There were a few pages where I couldn't even figure out how to force the words into the previous rhyme scheme. Oh well.)
DeleteThe Wall is a gem - just a stunning book.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read The Wall, but it sounds like an interesting book to pair with Cloud and Wallfish.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. Cloud and Wallfish bothered me at times for seeming to take everything a little too lightly, and The Wall would certainly help bring a little more reality.
DeleteI really love The Wall and The Composition - I have just marked Happy In Our skin as one of the books I will be borrowing from our library this weekend. :)
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing what you think!
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