#IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.
I
enjoyed a fabulous time away with a group of women friends last weekend. There
was love, laughter and serious conversation. Wine and spectacular food were
plentiful. I finished listening to one book on the ferry, but didn't accomplish
much reading other than that.
PICTURE
BOOKS
 |
| 5 stars |
Black
Girl Magic by Mahogany L. Browne & Jess X. Snow (Illustrator)
The
message in this powerful poem is brilliantly illustrated by Jess X Snow. It's an empowering piece that I connected to in part, just because I am a woman. I also had my eyes open to challenges
unique to black women.
 |
| 5 stars |
Questions
Asked by Jostein Gaarder, Don Bartlett (Translation) &
Akin Duezakin (Illustrations)
This
book is loaded with big questions. The questions are accompanied with beautiful
illustrations that highlight the importance of them.
Here
are a few of my favourites:
Can
I be sure my memories really happened?
Did a god create us? Or did we create
our own ideas of a god in our minds?
If
I was teaching my own class I might use a question a week to facilitate classroom
conversations.
 |
| 4 stars |
A
Blue So Blue by Jean-François Dumont, Editions Flammarion (Creator),
Michel Bourque (Translator)
Both
the illustrations and the prose are stunning.
A
young boy goes on a search for the blue of his dreams, "a blue so blue, it
was both dark and bright." He travels around the world across oceans,
prairies, and up the Mississippi River to listen to the blues, but can not find
that just right blue anywhere.
 |
| 4 stars |
Imagine by
Norman Messenger
I've
been watching students interact with this book over the past few weeks. A group
gathers round and they ooh and ahh over it as they turn the pages. Each page is
filled with wonder. There are puzzles and creative challenges to keep a reader
entertained for hours, and that is before beginning to appreciate the stunning
art work!
 |
| 4 stars |
Dog
on a Frog? by Kes Gray, Claire Gray & Jim Field (Illustrations)
With
all this wacky rhyming, this book and it's delightful illustrations was a lot
of fun.
 |
| 4 stars |
I
read the sequel before reading this, but it doesn't really matter. Both are
charmingly hilarious! These are perfect for beginning readers, or for starting out a poetry unit. It's almost impossible not to talk in rhyme when you are done!
 |
| 4 stars |
Little
i by Michael Hall
This
is a clever, quirky book about coming of age and accepting who you are, with the
main character being the lower case i whose dot has disappeared. It goes in search
of it and runs into all kinds of punctuation based images.
 |
| 5 stars |
The
Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mary Finch (Retelling) &
Roberta Arenson (Illustrator)
This
one was kid tested on kindergarten and grade ones this week. The illustrations
are gorgeous with an Eric Carle feel to them. To be honest, the story itself is
one I love to tell or read out loud anyway because it has all kinds of
potential for student interaction and it's just so much fun to read the voices
of the different characters. This one is especially fun because it has the
troll singing a hilarious song that I sang and had the children sing with me:
"I'm
a troll from a deep dark hole
My
tummy's getting thinner
I
need to eat and goat's a treat
So
I'll have you for my dinner."
 |
| 4 stars |
Say
Something by Peggy Moss & Lea Lyon (Illustrator)
A
girl watches other children being bullied but does nothing. It’s only when she
herself is bullied that she starts to realize how it feels. This motivates her
to sit beside a girl who is being excluded.
The
back of the book has two pages of suggestions for what you can do to stop
bullying. Lea Lyon’s artwork is beautiful.
NON
FICTION PICTURE BOOKS
 |
| 4 stars |
Tillie
the Terrible Swede: How One Woman, a Sewing Needle, and a Bicycle Changed
History by Sue Stauffacher & Sarah McMenemy (Illustrator)
Tillie
was not only inspiring and amazing in her time, she would be a pretty
impressive woman if she were alive today. Her accomplishments, being a woman
bike racer at a time when this was not an acceptable activity for women, are
what make her story memorable!
NOVELS
 |
| 4 stars |
Good
Dog by Dan Gemeinhart
Well,
that was a delightful tear jerker of a book. Dan Gemeinhart just gets better and better. The two ghost dogs,Tuck and
Brodie, are marvellous characters, but it is Patsy, that ghost cat who is most
fascinating. I wonder if her story will ever be told?
 |
| 5 stars |
Me
and Marvin Gardens by A.S. King
This is another
brilliant novel by A. S. King. It is both magical and profound. It addresses
the magnitude of environmental degradation we humans are perpetrating upon the
earth. At the same time it deals with the more ordinary issue of friends
growing up and apart. There are realistic issues of bullying, but the adults
mostly step up to the plate when they are finally made aware. Marvin Gardens is
an imaginary creature who eats plastic, and it is this strange creature who
kept me wondering through the entire book. I would love to discuss this with others.
ADULT
NONFICTION
 |
| 5 stars |
We
Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by
Ta-Nehisi Coates
This
is one of those books I am recommending that everyone who wants to understand
America should read. Coates' writing is powerful and profound. There are parts
of it that were hard to listen to because it details the dystopian reality of
being black in America and Canada too.
CURRENTLY
I'm
almost done listening to Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,
Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall
Kimmerer. I'm reading All That Was by Karen Rivers at home. At work
I've been reading Restart by Gordon Kormon during my breaks.
UP
NEXT
I
expect to be finished Braiding Sweetgrass tomorrow and will then start listening
to Sunny by Jason Reynolds. As soon as All That Was is
done, I'll start Baby Monkey, Private Eye by Brian Selznick.
PROGRESS
ON MY READING GOALS
#MustReadIn2018
14/25 1 in progress
#MustReadNFIn2018
5/12
25
Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 7/25
Goodreads
Reading Challenge 185/333
