#IMWAYR May 28, 2018


#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
Frog on a Log by Kes Gray, Jim Feld (Illustrator)

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



19 comments:

  1. I love the look of this version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. It sounds like a fun read-aloud too. I am going to see if our library has it.

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  2. Will look for Black Girl Magic and that Three Billy Goats Gruff, Cheriee. Both in their own way look great. I know about the chapter books, whew, so many that I want to read! Imagine is one we've all loved, a special gift to my youngest granddaughter, one of her favorite books. It is a wonder! Glad you had fun with the "girls"!

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    1. I'm pretty sure you were my motivation to read it in the first place!

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  3. Good Dog is on my list to read. The Frog on a Log and Dog on a Log? books sound like they would be a hit with readers.

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  4. I still haven't read any of Dan Gemeinhart's books. Tearjerker + dogs is usually not a combo I can handle!! Is it uplifting tearjerker or get therapy after reading tearjerker? So many new-to-me picture books! Thank you for sharing! I am also eager to read Me and Marvin Gardens, but my library still doesn't have it. Might just have to request a purchase!

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    1. It's uplifting kind of tearjerker, even if it is kind of sappy!

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  5. Oh, most of these are new to me! I'm off to the library to place some holds!

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    1. All of my holds that were on order, came in all at once! I'm swamped and don't have enough time.

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  6. You win the "I made Shaye add the most TBR books to Goodreads this week" award. Seriously excited to see some of these books. I have young readers all over the place from emergent to YA and you never fail to bring up books that would be great. I'm going to have to wait for Sunny since none of our libraries have it and our book buying budget has now hit ZERO this month. I'm so glad you loved Good Dog!! Have a great week, Cheriee!

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    1. I am not sure if this is good or bad. If I have to read my TBR pile before I die, I'm going to live forever!

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  7. So many wonderful picture books I had never heard of before! Thanks for sharing. Just added a bunch to my TBR pile :)

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  8. Me and Marvin Gardens is one of my absolute favourite titles! LOVE this book!

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    1. Yes! We need to get together over wine or coffee. I desperately need to talk about what Marvin represents!

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  9. I just requested Black Girl Magic from my local library. Really looking forward to reading it. Have a wonderful week.

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  10. I loved learning about Tillie!

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    1. Me too! She is a character to emulate, no matter what age you are.

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