It’s Monday! What are you reading? 7/9

Jen and Kellee at TeachMentorTexts.com host a weekly meme entitled “It’s Monday! What are you Reading? From Picture Books to YA”  This is a chance for people to share the books that they have been reading throughout the week, especially focused on kid lit and YA lit.

Books Finished this week:

I read a number of professional books this week.  I am trying to figure out how to make my reading and writing blocks more intentional and organized.  There are a number of district mandates that I need to follow.

Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles is a practical guide and I will definitely be pulling this one out multiple times this year.  This book gave me a few ideas about how to tweak my literature study and a great sample schedule and calendar.

  The Book Whisperer is an excellent resource to have for any teacher of reading.  I have been very excited to find the Nerdy Book Club and all of the support on Twitter.  I can’t believe that it took me so long to pick up this book and read it.  I misunderstood at first about the target audience of the book.  I wholeheartedly agree with Donalyn Miller that this type of reading classroom is the way to produce life-long readers.  It was a great read for me this summer because it helped to validate what I already knew.  My classroom was this kind of reading space when I had younger students and the flexibility to design my curriculum. Now, with middle school students and a more structured set of mandates from the district, my reading classroom has suffered.  This book helped me to rethink some of the structure in the requirements for my students and I am glad that I decided to read it.  I will be recommending it to many teachers in the Fall when I get back to school.

Power Tools for Adolescent Literacy was another book I read.  This was a quick read because it is filled with practical lesson plans.  Many of the suggested strategies are things that I already do, but there were some gems in here.  I will definitely be pulling this book off the shelf while planning this year.

Inside the Writer’s-Reader’s Notebook by Linda Rief gives another set of suggestions about how to set up a notebook.  It was interesting to see how this middle school teacher sets up her expectations to work with the multiple classes that she works with.

A Writer’s Notebook by Ralph Fletcher is not exactly a professional resource but I read it that way.  I am trying to figure out how best to guide my students in setting up writer’s notebooks and how to set up my own.  This book is full of ideas and I enjoyed reading it.

The rest of the books I finished this week were young adult or children’s books.

The Dark Frigate  was part of the Newbery Challenge.  I didn’t hate the book but it took a long time to hook me.  I would not recommend it to any students unless they were big fans of Treasure Island or similar books.

Houdini: The Handcuff King by James Sturm is a graphic novel about Houdini.  It was fun to read the graphic novel and the real biographical information mixed with a sort of glossary at the end that explained some of the historical points in the story.

Pearl by Jo Knowles was another book that I am sure my middle school students will love.

Dragons in the Waters by Madeleine L’Engle:  I found this book in my library while browsing.  I was excited about the fancy new cover that makes the book seem much more intriguing.  I LOVED all of L’Engle’s books when I was younger and loved this one on the second read.  I need to seek out all of her books with these new covers and stock my class library with her awesomeness…not just the class set of A Wrinkle in Time.

The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic is a book I read about in a post from Teachers Write.  This picture book is an excellent example of how profound picture books can really be.  The subject of how a child perceives his world after his mom dies is heartbreaking but this would be an excellent mentor text for voice because you can really feel that this is a young person talking.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is a wonderful book and would be a great book to recommend for a Civil Rights unit.  I can see why it was nominated for so many awards.

Tales From Silver Lands…UGH!  This was a hard book to get through.  I usually like traditional tales but these were dry and oh-so-boring.

Empty by Suzanne Weyn is a book I will recommend to students.  I really wasn’t all that thrilled by the writing in the book.  The first 50 pages or so read a lot like a Sweet Valley High book or something similar.  The subject matter is interesting and it is good food for thought.  I can see middle school students being intrigued by this book and going to find out more about oil supplies and renewable energy.

Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes is a great story.  I expected it to be more sad than it was and that was a pleasant surprise.  I enjoyed reading about Martha and her family trip complete with a tween romance gone wrong.  I thought the relationship she had with her grandmother was quite touching.

Books I am Currently Reading:

So What do They Really Know? by Chris Tovani
Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
La Linea by Ann Jaramillo

What’s on the horizon in reading:
I have an entire shelf of books to read…I have forbidden myself to request any more books at the library based on recommendations that I see on Twitter until I read more of my shelf.  I don’t know which books but I will be getting them from that shelf.