Here’s a first for me – I have only finished one book so far while I’ve been on Winter Break! It’s been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to sit down to read my mail let alone look at a book. I’m hoping this will change in a day or two and I can get to some of the books that have been sitting patiently all over my house this fall.

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.

Click on the covers for an in depth synopsis and others’ reviews

El Deafo by CeCe Bell

Middle Grade Graphic Novel, 2014
233 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
This is my favorite graphic novel that I have ever read. It is HILARIOUS!! and so, so sweet. It centers around the author’s childhood and losing her hearing after being seriously ill. Every page in this book has SO much to look at. The graphics are so well done and I laughed a lot.  I loved all the little stories that the author shared that dealt with being different and learning to live with her hearing aids and amplifier. I really hope this wins an award – maybe the Schneider – although, in my opinion, it is definitely Newberry worthy.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat

Picture Book, 2014
40 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
This picture book will melt your heart. The land of imaginary friends is so cool and unique. The pictures are amazing and I think that little ones will love this book and older readers will definitely relate to the storyline. I think this would be a great mentor text and generate lots of interesting stories in a middle school classroom.

The Book With No Pictures by BJ Novak

Picture Book, 2014
48 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
My husband and I gave each of our sets of nieces and nephews one copy of Beekle and one copy of The Book With No Pictures for Christmas. Last night, my husband sat down with his nephew Eli and read this book to him before bedtime. I tried to warn Eli’s dad that this probably wasn’t a great before bedtime book, but he insisted that it would be ok. Oh, how I wish I would have recorded the next 15 minutes of giggling turning into laughter and cries of “Read it AGAIN!”. I had to laugh to myself when Eli wanted nothing to do with bedtime after this book. Bottom line – this book is VERY funny! I could see it being a hit in any classroom. Even today my husband recited some of the lines out of nowhere and we laughed all over again.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Contemporary Fiction, 2013
480 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 3/5 Stars
This “panoramic” novel was recommended to me and while I stuck with it for almost 2 weeks, I barely held on. It was, in fact, interesting, and once I committed, I had to know what happened to these characters. I found the last fourth of the book to be really disappointing. 480 pages was way too much. I want to read more by this author in the future, but I think I will stick to her YA books.