#IMWAYR May 11, 2015

I love Mondays. I love reading other bloggers posts about what they have been reading. I enjoy reading their comments on my reading life. If you want to join in, check out Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Rickie from Unleashing Readers who host this weekly event.

I contemplated writing a post this weekend focused on my favourite Mother's Day books, but then I started thinking about my mother. I ended up with this post for her. A Few Important Things I Learned From My Mother & Why She's My Hero

Our recent book fair was successful so I finally sent off the book order that has been accumulating for ages. Here are a few of these titles that have arrived and are on display this week

What Forest Knows by George Ella Lyon & August Hall (Illustrator)

I purchased this book because the cover is so beautiful. (and it got rave reviews) Inside is even more stunning as text and images combine to celebrate the seasons in a forest. This is a book to savour, to read the text and pour over the images. And then to do it all again and marvel at how perfectly it all comes together.

The Iridescence of Birds: a book about Henri Matisse by Patricia MacLachlan & Hadley Hooper (Illustrator)

As a young boy Matisse lived in a dreary town with grey sky and grey buildings.  His mother surrounded him with colour and encouraged him to play with colour in many ways. Sometimes with paint, but also in more concrete ways, like arranging fruit and flowers. There are so many connections for students to make in this book. I'm planning on showing this to my primary teachers in hopes of encouraging them to do more artist studies next year.

Neighbourhood Sharks by Katherine Roy

I was expecting more from this book. It's beautifully illustrated and I was completely sucked into the beginning narrative. It's when the book switched from this into an older style non-fiction format that it lost me. I'm not saying that I don't think there are good things about it. The labeled diagrams are brilliantly done and provide accessible information to the reader. It's just, my older readers tend to do more and more research online, and there is too much information on the pages for my younger readers to get into independently. Perhaps it's my aging eyes, but I also found the font against the coloured pages challenging to read. On top of all this, there is no index or other kinds of text features. I wish this had been presented in a different layout.

Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre

Oh My Goodness! Sayre's photography is glorious. This is the kind of book that makes time stop as it pulls you into these captured moments. I loved that the end of the book has condensed text full of science about rain. It's there if you want to read it, but doesn't interfere with the pure poetic beauty of text and images together. This is a stellar book for those primary weather units or for older students who want to know more about rain and like to read information books.

I've managed to finish a few novels this week.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black & narrated by Lauren Fortgang

I enjoyed this story of a smart strong young woman who makes a deal with the fairy folk to help her brother. I was beguiled by Black's world building and character development. Fortgang's narration fit the story perfectly. Carrie Gelson if you are reading this, I want you to know that this Holly Black title was just right for me, and not too scary at all. After hearing Black speak at Serendipity, it's easy to understand how she came up with this magnificent creation. Unfortunately, it's one of those YA titles that I have to put on the grade seen shelf.

After reading so many fabulous posts about Rebecca Stead's new book, and being a serious fan, and realizing it was going to take a very long time before I actually got a hard copy in my hands, I joined NetGalley in hopes that I would get a copy to read. I'm not sure it was a good idea as I tend to load up on too much to read already. So far I've read a couple of books and started another, but now Stead's newest is there waiting for me.

A Wolf At the Gate by Mark Van Steenwyk (from Netgalley)

I liked the illustrations. In fact this is why I chose it, but the text is preachy and filled with too much telling and not enough showing. The only reason I finished it is because it is short. I wouldn't bring it into my library, but catholic schools might like it.

A Day in Canada by Per-Henrik Gurth (from Netgalley)

I like these bright illustrations, and that it shows the different kinds of activities people are involved in in different parts of the county. What I would have liked to have seen is these places identified on the map either at the front or back or even as an inset on each page.

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick Narrated by Adam Verner

War stories aren't my favourite genre, but I listened to this because I like McCormick's work generally, and this deals with someone with a head injury. I am close to someone who has had a TBI and go to a support group with her for people like her. While I know that each TBI is unique, there are some aspects I've come to see as universal. So I paid close attention to Matt, her character's symptoms. There were times when I thought McCormick's portrayal was realistic, but from what I have seen, individuals with TBI are exhausted and tire much faster than is shown here. If the military actually returns soldiers like Matt to the field before they are improved, this is dangerously unfair to them and to their companions. 

I just discovered that I have The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart at home from the library and it is due on Tuesday. I have to get reading that. 

To make matters worse, I'm already in the middle of a number of books. 

I'm about halfway into Winger by Andrew Smith. I'm enjoying it, but it isn't gripping me like Grasshopper Jungle did. 

I've started reading The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable FIB by Adam Shaughnessy, another title that I got from Netgalley. I love the cover and the story sounds promising. I'm reading it at school on my school iPad (when/if I get time)

Coming up, when I'm done everything else, as as incentive to read fast, I've got Goodbye Stranger. I've also got The Case of the Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett cued up to listen to. I'm ready for something light and fun.