Sunday, March 11, 2012

Reading Monday - Slice of Life 12


Reading Wrap-Up is my twelth slice with Stacey and Ruth at the Two Writing Teachers March SOLC  

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor textsthanks to Jen and Kellee!  Please visit to find out what others are reading!

  It's Monday! What are you Reading? is another meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books for your TBR list. 
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I had the pleasure of filling in for the librarians last week while they taught a class in the tech lab.  While I say pleasure, it’s also a challenge for me to be in our school library.  Once I start browsing, it’s all over; the books pile up to read!  At least it didn’t cost me any money.

In between helping students I managed to read some terrific picture books:


A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka – This year’s Caldecott winner. – A wordless picture book that would be good with students to help them find the details that help ‘tell’ the story.  It’s a cute story.
A Day’s Work – by Eve Bunting – illustrated by Ronald Himler – Any Eve Bunting is good.  This is a sweet story about a boy who helps his grandfather to find day labor work.  He makes a mistake that would be a good discussion by readers about honesty and consequences.
The Greatest Skating Race – by Louise Borden – illustrated by Niki Daly – Based on an adventure with two children having to help a friend escape the Nazis by skating the canals of The Netherlands to another country.   The illustrations are beautiful; the story is inspiring.          
        I recently bought Hans The Hedgehog – by Kate Coombs – illustrated by  John Nickle because I read her wonderful blog, The Book Aunt –   I can imagine reading this aloud to enjoy with young children as well as to use as an example for students writing their own fairy tales.  It has all the lovely parts:  love and faith, honesty and integrity, and the happiest of endings.   Kate talks about her newest book that is on my TBR list, Water Sings Blue, on the link above.

        Wonder by R.J. Palacio – I think I slowed down my reading of this book because I read it, and sometimes re-read pages, thought much about it, and savored it.  So many have written about it that I won’t say more than it is a wonder-filled read that touched my heart for so many children (and adults) that face physical challenges.  I thought of those I know personally and the soldiers coming home from our long fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.  If you want to read a longer and beautiful review, read Tara's post yesterday at A Teaching Life.   I believe the book can make a difference in how one looks at others, making a beautiful conversation with a group.
       I finished The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne for the book group I’m teaching.  We’ll have our final book group meeting next week.

Next:  I’m sticking to one book:  Same Sun Here, by Silas House and Neela Vaswani.  It’s starting well and so far is interesting to read a book written in letters.  I haven't read many pages yet because I'm reading so many blog posts in the Slice of Life Challenge.

Finally, I am stealing a quote from a book reviewed on a Nerdy Book Club post I read recently.  The quote is from a paranormal book titled Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi: “I spent my life folded between the pages of books."  I haven’t read the book yet, but isn’t that quote terrific? 

Happy Reading!

23 comments:

  1. Wow - I am impressed with your reading life. This past week, I have barely had time to read much more than the newspaper before or after work. However, I sure have read some great blog posts and have quite a list of books to do - soon!

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  2. Great list of books. Hardly get time to read for my own personal enjoyment. My students and I read a great book today, Mrs Parata and the cuckoo.

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  3. So glad you enjoyed WONDER - I loved it! And I just finished Same Sun Here, it was awesome.

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  4. We are still enjoying Wonder at our house. I love the quote about living folded in a book! I think we have a young student studying hedgehogs!

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  5. My kiddos loved A Ball for Daisy--some even wrote stories to go with the illustrations!

    I've seen so many great comments about Wonder, I think I need to check that one out!

    Enjoy your reads!
    Amanda

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  6. I just bought "Same Sun Here" - thanks for the shout out for "Wonder" by the way. That's my book of the year! I'm doing lots of reading about the Common Core - but enjoying hat as well.

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  7. I love Wonder! I'm planning for April to be a reread month and even though I just read Wonder, I think it's definitely owed a reread. I love it! I hope you jump in on our Same Sun Here conversation! :)

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  8. As always, you give us lots to read. I have Wonder in my TBR pile. I put it at the top even though I just bought it, because of all the wonderful things people have written about it. I'm thinking of it as a read aloud for my freshmen...

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  9. Same Sun Here and Wonder are both on my pile to read soon. There just never seems to be enough time!

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  10. I always love the glimpse into your book stack! I loved Shatter Me! It is a more mature book, but the romance in that book puts Twilight to shame. (as does the quality of the writing, the lack of vampires, etc.)

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  11. Ooh, I love the quotation you shared at the end! I imagine myself curled up reading... inside a giant book... delighted shivers! That line alone makes me want to read that book to see what other beautiful lines I would discover!

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  12. Love the quote and that you shared not just books, but some thoughts too. Makes me want to go dig through my pile and start my next book!

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  13. I love the quote! Love your reading list you shared.

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  14. Same Sun Here sure sounds intersting. What a reader you are. You are one with books.

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  15. What a reading life you live! I have just bought the last Wonder at Barnes and Noble, but don't have time to read it, yet. I am anticipating an awesome book by all the buzz in slices. Fabulous quote!

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  16. That was a great quote. Thanks for sharing these bits of books to pique our interest!

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  17. Love the quote, “I spent my life folded between the pages of books." Wonder how we would word this now? "I spent my life illuminated by the glow of my Kindle."

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  18. Wow! What a great week- I am jealous and impressed!

    Happy reading this week as well :)

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  19. Wow, that's a lot of reading in a week! I haven't heard of a few of those books...I'll check them out! I'm more than a little jealous that you were able to spend time in the library. What a great way to spend time, among the stacks.

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  20. Linda,

    Thank you for the book news. A few more to add to my TBR list. You have been folded between the pages of many books! Love it. We are all stitched together with blog reading too. ~ Theresa

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  21. I can only imagine the pile after a week in the library. You are absolutely right when you say appreciate that at least they didn't cost you anything.

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  22. A friend (who shall remain nameless) inspired me to do the poetry challenge too. And I'm a nervous wreck about it. I do write a little poetry, but usually not for other people. And I don't quite get the format even though I totally love basketball and March madness. Not to mention that I am trying to learn Spanish this week too! Yikes!

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  23. These are beautiful selections indeed. I am salivating over Wonder. You're right, it's been well-loved by people who have read it, I am sure it would not fail to move me as well. I'm excited to find this in our libraries. I have only just recently finished reading Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go, and couldn't stop gushing about it. Im having a tough time writing the review though. Picture books are more my forte when it comes to reviews. I'm also deeply into an academic book which you might also be a little familiar with: "Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children's Literature" as edited by Dana Fox and Kathy Short. I am immersing myself in the politics and discourse of multiculturalism in children's lit. Sometimes, I just want to put hands around my ears to drown out the voices, but I know that it also opens my eyes in terms of understanding the nuances and subtleties of the books that I read better. But I feel like Eve after eating the apple from the forbidden tree, somehow. Vulnerable, naked, and wondering, and drowning out the noise while at the same time marveling at the new insights gained. Oh well, more to discover. :)

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