It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/12

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme startted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers.  This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take.  Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole host of titles to add to your to-read lists.

I had a fabulous reading week full of inspirational reads that put me in school year planning mode.  I also spent the day earlier this week following along with the #edmodcon sessions.  I got some spectacular ideas about how to amp up my use of Edmodo this year.  I am really excited to participate in Global Read Aloud this year, but I am trying to figure out whether I will read Out of My Mind or Stupid Fast with my 8th graders.  I am leaning more towards using Stupid Fast. 

Books I Finished This Week:

Adult Books

Dexter in The Dark by Jeff Lindsay is the third book in the series about Dexter.  I absolutely love this television show so when I saw that it was based on books I looked for them.  The book is written in the same kind of tone as the narration on the show and I really enjoyed reading it.  I will be looking for more books from this series in the future.  This is one I would only recommend to adults, but if you are a fan of mysteries it is one to check out.  
Sue Grafton will be at the literary seminar in January and my sister and I are going to try to get through as much of the alphabet as we can before then.  I really enjoyed reading the first book in this series.  If you love mysteries, you will like these.  

Graphic Novels

The Baby-Sitters Club: The Truth About Stacey (Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels, #2) was a really fun read.  I love BSC and I was so excited when I found the first graphic novel last year.  I finally decided to just order more of them this summer.  My students are going to love these books.  

The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne Saves the Day (Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels, #3) Another excellent graphic novel and fun read for me.  

The Dodgeball Chronicles (Knights of the Lunch Table, #1) by Frank Cammuso is a really cute graphic novel.  My students will really like it.  I love the play on the words of the names in the book and the nod to Aurthurian legend.  I will definitely look for the other books in this series to add to my class library.  
I have been thoroughly intrigued by all the discussions of this graphic novel on Twitter. When I saw the book at Half Price Books I just had to snatch it up.  I read this one basically in one sitting.  Richard Feynman was an incredibly amazing man and I was so fascinated by his story.  I will be looking for other books about this great physicist soon.  I highly recommend the graphic novel to teens and adults.  

Middle Grade/Young Adult

We Are Not Eaten By Yaks by C. Alexander London is a cute book for middle grade readers. I would recommend this one to fans of The Series of Unfortunate Events.  The adventure and narration are similar and would definitely appeal to that audience.  I enjoyed this cute story and definitely think upper elementary students would enjoy it.  
I was really excited when I found Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby in the clearance section at Half Price Books.  I know that this book is a favorite book of Kellee Moye and I was really looking forward to reading it.  Oh. My. God. This book is AMAZING! I read it in one sitting on a morning when I was not planning to read for so long.  And I cried the whole time.  This is a touching and beautiful story and will definitely inspire young people to think about their world in a new way.  I completely understand why it is one of Kellee’s favorites and it has now become one of my favorites too.  

Professional Books:

Penny Kittle is a genius.  She has great professionalism and her books inspire me to be the best I can be too.  Write Beside Me helped me think about the structures I have in place in my classroom and plan for what I will change this year.  I am so glad I picked this one up.  
This book is so inspirational!  I will definitely be going back to it again and again for ideas while lesson planning.  
I cannot express how much inspiration these two books gave me this week.  I will be posting a blog post later this week about the ideas that came from reading these books.  

Books I am Currently Reading:

I started reading Opening Minds by Peter Johnston.  I am planning to do a small unit about mindsets at the beginning of the year and I knew that this book would have some inspiration about this idea.  I also started reading Spilling Ink and Jellicoe Road.  I am still listening to Shadow and Bone.  

What’s Next?

I will be reading the third Gallagher Girls book this week because I have a digital library loan that came through.  It is ahead of the schedule for the Gallagher Girls readathon, but I am reading them as I get them.  I will also probably read the next Sue Grafton book.  After that, I will look at what I have on the shelves and on the Kindle.  I made a decision that I would only read books off my shelf for now.  I am going to try to resist buying books or going to the library for a little while because I have so many books to read that I already own.  
What did you read this week?  Do you have any recommendations?  Please share in the comments. 

Author: Andrea

I am an instructional technology coach in a middle school in Milwaukee, WI. I have been teaching for over 20 years in many grade levels ranging from first through eighth grade. I am a lifelong book nerd.

9 thoughts on “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/12”

  1. Wow-so much that is good here. I love the Kittle books, have just started re-reading Opening Minds, spent a day with Johnston & was so inspired. I have Teach Like A Pirate so I'd better get on that too! Thanks also for the reviews for students, like Hurt Go Happy. I have it but still haven't read it-must! Finally, love all stories about Feynman-he's in The Bomb too! Thanks Andrea!

  2. Thanks for stopping by! I listened to Jellicoe Road earlier this year and was so pleasantly surprised by much I loved it. I should probably make an off the shelf rule too, but for now I decided to focus on finishing series. I have so many started and I want to start new ones, but I am holding off. It's amazing out stressful this relaxing business of reading can be!

  3. Andrea, how popular are the Babysitter's Club GNs in your classroom? Hot demand or a particular type of reader likes them. I might try to bring this series back into my library thro the GN format. I recently weeded out all my Babysitter's Club books due to lack of interest. A new generation of readers might like the GNs.

  4. I too loved Feynman. The guy's life was so interesting. I have seen Hurt Go Happy many times on my library shelf and never manage to pick it up. I will try to read it this school year. Thanks.

  5. Definitely read Teach Like a Pirate! It was perfect to read at this point of the year to get inspired for the new school year.

  7. I really only had the first Babysitters Club graphic novel in my classroom toward the end of the year. I don't think I did that great at booktalking it so it really wasn't all that popular, but I am sure I will be able to sell them to the girls this year who are a little less mature than last year's class.

  9. Hello there Andrea. We don't have any of Penny Kittle's books here in Singapore and I did ask our academic group in my institution to order them as I am sure they would prove to be valuable to our teacher-trainees. Haven't read any of The Babysitters' Club series yet. Have a great reading week!

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