It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? originated as a meme that started by Shelia at Book Journeys, then it passed onto Kathryn at The Book Date. Then the Unleashing Readers, Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee decided to give it a twist by having a #kidlit focus. So this is a time to share what you have been, currently are, and will be reading soon!
If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle grade, young adult, or anything in those genres – then join us! This is also a great opportunity to see what others are reading and you might find your next “must-read” too!
If you join in the fun and you Tweet, tag your tweet with #imwayr!
Another week of school has flown by. Starting tomorrow we will start doing a bit more curriculum to get into a swing of things. I am eager to start but I still have so much to learn! My class is so sweet and I’m so glad they cherish our read aloud times. My first KidLit & Coffee Book Club meeting went great. About 15 staff members came and shared their ideas for what they envision our group to discuss and look like this year. Tomorrow I am meeting with our librarian to start taking those ideas and forming a structure and outline for our future meetings. Our Director of School-Community Relations wants to come to our next meet on the 14th to take pictures and highlight our program in the district news. So that will be exciting, too! Can’t wait to share more with all of you.
Here’s my August reads:
I am hoping to continue this momentum of reading into this month and read some great spooky books, too. Happy reading everyone!
- Whole-Hearted Librarianship: Finding Hope, Inspiration, and Balance by Michael Stephens
- This book discussed the prior experiences of Stephens at past conferences and he dived into the changes throughout the years of being a librarian. It was a quick read and was insightful to hear how the library is ever-evolving into what the public needs.
- Definitely Dominguita: All for One by Terry Catasús Jennings
- This is a series perfect for kids who are starting to read shorter chapter books. It is engaging, funny, and the mystery makes it fun to make predictions along the way. You do not have to read these in order, but it definitely would be worth it so readers can make better sense of who the characters are and what their past adventures were.
- The Good, The Bad, and The Spooky by Jory John and Pete Oswald
- I just adore this series so when I saw that this was released a bit ago I put it on hold ASAP. A fun read perfect for Halloween and fans of The Bad Seed!
- My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits and pictures by Gabi Swiatkowska
- Yoon writes her name in Korean but soon has to learn how to write it in English too. She does not like the way it looks and how it doesn’t feel like her name so she tries out different names when she is at school like CAT and BIRD. This story helped us discuss the importance of our names and how if we were in Yoon’s shoes how difficult it would be to write your name in a different language than you are used to. We did a compare and contrast with this story and the next one below–it was a wonderful discussion.
- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
- A great story about a girl who moved from Korea to the US and how she is nervous the kids at school will mispronounce her name, so she decides she doesn’t have a name. Soon her classmates are intrigued and want to help her find a name so they create a name jar where they put suggestions on a piece of paper in hopes that one of the names will fit her. Eventually she feels comfortable enough to share her name, thanks to a new friend, and her classmates work hard to make sure they pronounce her name right.
- Strange Planet: The Sneaking, Hiding, Vibrating Creature by Nathan W. Pyle
- This was a laugh-out-loud read aloud! My students loved the criss-cross floppers aka waffles and the deathblades aka kitten claws. Many of my students now want to buy the activity book that pairs with this book, too.
Shop the books above and support me and local Indies:
- Whole-Hearted Librarianship: Finding Hope, Inspiration, and Balance by Michael Stephens
- Definitely Dominguita: All for One by Terry Catasús Jennings
- The Good, The Bad, and The Spooky by Jory John and Pete Oswald
- My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits and pictures by Gabi Swiatkowska
- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
- Strange Planet: The Sneaking, Hiding, Vibrating Creature by Nathan W. Pyle
- Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City by Christian McKay Heidicker
- 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
Have you ever read any of these books? Share with me what you are reading below!
Xo, Sierra
Books. Iced Lattes. Blessed. 
I love the name books, have had students write about their names after interviewing parents & researching them, too. I just got the new “The City” from my library, will start it soon! Have another great week this week, Sierra!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so glad you’re enjoying school—and congrats that the book club is going so well that it will be in the district news!!! That is so exciting. These books all look wonderful—I’m especially intrigued by My Name Is Yoon and The Name Jar! It’s great to see so many picture books talking about the importance of names—I know that’s also a premise of Thao and Your Name Is a Song. Thanks so much for the great post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love your August reads image! What a cool way to chronicle the month! Looking at the visual, I have only read 1 of the books–I obviously need to check out all of the books you loved (though I particularly need to get the new Jory John one for Trent).
Happy reading this week 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person