It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys and invites bloggers to recap what they’ve read this week while planning ahead on what to read next! Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers added their own twist by focusing on kidlit, from picture books up to YA.

It’s been a few weeks since I posted, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading! While things were a bit crazy at school with projects and a major Picture Book Tournament with my 8th grade classes, I did manage to read a few books.

Here’s what I read:

(Click on the book covers to add these titles to your Goodreads TBR piles)

Arcadia by Lauren Groff
2012
Adult Fiction (a little historical fiction, but also dystopian as well…)
My Goodreads Rating: 4/5 Stars
This book has been in my TBR pile since November 2011. Yes, you read that right. I picked it up at NCTE11 and just hung on to it, moving it from pile to pile. I’m glad I saved it, because it is a beautifully written book. The idea of living on a commune was pretty fascinating and I loved the main character’s point of view. I was a little out of my comfort zone in a few sections, but overall a pretty solid piece of fiction!

The Monster Who Lost His Mean by Tiffany Strelitz Haber
2012
Picture Book
My Goodreads Rating: 3/5 Stars
Cute picture book about a monster that learns it’s not what you’re called, but who you are that counts. Good bedtime read for little ones.

Flight of the DoDo by Peter Brown
2005
Picture Book
My Goodreads Rating: 4/5 Stars
The waddlers (flightless birds) want to learn how to fly after being pooped on one to many times by the geese who fly by. They make a very unique flying machine and head off on an adventure with surprising results. My eighth graders really liked this one as it made it to our Picture Book tournament’s final four!!

That is NOT a Good Idea! by Mo Willems
2013
Picture Book
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
I adore this picture book and its surprise ending! So funny! This book was our #1 seed for our Picture Book tournament and all of my other classes that didn’t participate in the tournament begged me to read it to them. They enjoyed the similarities to Little Red Riding Hood and guessing what was going to happen. A great title!!

The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb
2013
MG/YA Non Fiction
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
This is a riveting informational book and had me on the edge of my seat while pouring through its pages. The book covers the capture of Adolf Eichmann, one of the Holocaust’s most notorious criminals, who was responsible for killing millions of innocent people. Who knew he would be hiding in Argentina with his family? It would take a very elite team of spies to capture him and bring him to Israel to be tried for his crimes . Fascinating read that is a great addition to any war or Holocaust study.

Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller with Susan Kelley
2013
Professional Read
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
I devoured Donalyn’s first book, The Book Whisperer, and it helped me transform my teaching and mindset about what is best for students when it comes to reading. Her follow up book reinforces her core beliefs about choice in independent reading, how to fit it into reading workshop, and using readers’ notebooks, but it also talks about how to create life long readers, which is my number one goal with my Focus Reading classes that I currently teach. I found it reassuring and a great resource to come back to time and time again.

Here’s what I plan to read next: (Click on the cover for more info from Goodreads)

I’m officially on Winter Break for the next two weeks and have a book stack that I would love to get to so I can share all of these titles with my students on our first day back. Here’s what’s on my reading plate!

What are you reading to finish up 2013? Have you started planning you Winter Break book stack yet?

Happy Reading!

Lesley ♥