It's Monday, What are you Reading?

It is Monday and again I am joining in the meme over at Mentor Texts.

Hop on over and join in over at the Mentor Text Blog. Just click on the picture 
                                                 
It's awhile since I took part in this, reading dwindled to a stop as the final term of the year encroached and writing reports and end of year functions took precedence.

This was my read aloud to the class book for this final term.  We had read Because of Mr Terupt in 2011 and were looking forward to this one.  I have to say it was a bit of a disappointment for me, it seemed to lack a main focus. However the students enjoyed it and I see one of them has given it four stars on Goodreads to my three stars.

Newbery winner for 2012 is where I became becalmed in my reading, so over the weekend I finished it.  As it is semi autobiographical, it read a little like a memoir. I enjoyed the humour and especially enjoyed the Grim Reaper visit to Mrs Dubicki's place. Also liked the relationship of Jack and  Miss Volker.  A possible read aloud for 2013. Will have to see what else I read over the summer holidays.






What to read next?  My bookworm students have some words of recommendation to me:
Monique says -

The most amazing book I’ve read is Gone. That’s the title by the way.  It took me awhile to read, as it is quite thick.  But it was DEFINITELY worth the time! The book is by Michael Grant, of whom I look up to greatly as an author. The book is the first of a series of five, these are the names of all the books, Gone, hunger, Lies, (I’m reading that one right now)  Plague and Fear.

I will not explain Gone, it’s too complex. Hence the reason for you to read it, otherwise you will never know.

Jordan says -
Another book I really enjoyed was one of my own books that I got given for my birthday. The second book in the cherub series, Class A.
This book is one of those ones when all you want to do is sit down and finish it off.  I would recommend finishing the first book in the series before you read this one.

Simone says -
Guitar Highway Rose by Brigid Lowry, a New Zealand author. She has a really unique and quirky way of writing that’s really interesting and I really enjoyed this book. Back in January this year I also read another book by her called Lots Of Love From Georgia. It is a really good book and I recommend you read some books by her. She wrote another book called Juicy Writing that you read out to the class last year for some writing study. There is some really good tips in there for writing and I really like all of the books by her that I’ve read, but Guitar Highway Rose was by far the best one yet :D

The Rosie Black Chronicles - Book one AND two. The first book, Genesis, was recommended to me by Carol, (librarian) and I really really enjoyed it, so much that I read the sequel, Equinox, which was equally as great. In November, the third book in the series came out, it’s called Dark Star, and I hope to get it for Christmas. But since it took ages to come out, I might need to reread the first two books so I get the hang of what’s happening because I forgot some stuff that may be required to be in your head for Dark Star. Other than that, a really great series :)

Teegan says -
My favourite books from this year were Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, The Scorpio Races by Jo Knowles, Divergent By Veronica Roth ( I didn’t like Insurgent that much) Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari and Eve by Anna Carey. All these books except for Little brother are dystopian so I have come to the conclusion that this is my favourite genre. 

Me:
I have been given these recommendations and I will certainly follow up with Little Brother and Eve as Teegan suggests at some stage. In fact hoping to read all the suggestions!

For this week I am going to read:

Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, a favourite of Moniques.  She drew a calendar picture that is going to hang in the classroom for 2013, so I need to read the book so that I can interpret the picture!  She assures me it is good.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

It is Monday and again I am joining in the meme over at Mentor Texts.

Hop on over and join in over at the Mentor Text Blog. Just click on the picture 
                                                 

This past week I have been reading The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan.  It was the usual enjoyable roller coaster of:  into one challenge, out of it and into the next. I especially enjoyed the humour, and often found myself chuckling out loud.  As these characters age, a little more romance has been introduced! Of course in true style it ends with a cliff hanger.  I found I had to keep my wits about me as I read as there is so much to remember about relationships and gods....  One of my students is well prepared for this book, he has read the previous one a couple of times, so I am sure he is enjoying this one at the moment. In the meantime I have this one finished  and ready to go into the hands of another boy, who asked could he have it as soon as I had finished.  The boys in my class are the ones who enticed me into reading these books, now I am in the process of trying to get more girls hooked. I can't see why they wouldn't be.

My read for the coming week is Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, this year's Newbery winner. I haven't read anything by him before so I am looking forward to it.

It's Monday - What are you Reading?

It is Monday and again I am joining in the meme over at Mentor Texts.

Hop on over and join in over at the Mentor Text Blog. Just click on the picture 
                                                 

I read this and enjoyed it. I have a few more in the series that I will put into the class library and I hope some of the girls will enjoy it. Maybe I could talk some boys into it too!  They are so mad on the Greek Gods from the Rick Riordan books. Recently I put the George O'Connor graphic novels of the Greek Gods into the class library and they have been ambushed.  Pow! Very popular.

This was one of my Newbery challenges, I started with a little trepidation, readers seem to either love or hate it!  However while I was not head over heels in love with it I found it interesting. A somewhat mixture of genres - I was reminded of Lois Lowry and the The Giver with the idea of sameness and differences on the planet they go to to free their Dad.

It was a pleasure to read this 50th Edition and read about the author and see some of her drafting of the book at the end of the book.



This week I am going to read The Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I have the whole set for the classroom, I am not sure if I will read them all, but would like to try a few for the sampling!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It is Monday and again I am joining in the meme over at Mentor Texts.

Hop on over and join in over at the Mentor Text Blog. Just click on the picture 

This past week I read Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata, 2005 Newbery Award Winner.  It was a great insight into what it might be like for an immigrant family in a new country. It was about family, hardship, courage and loss. 

I also read Sidekicks by Dan Santat - graphic novel.  This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it, I know it will be popular in my class. I thought it incorporated some great values around loyalty, forgiveness and friendship.

This coming week it is going to be A Wrinkle in Time and I would like to read one of the Goddess Girls to sample them - probably Artemis the Loyal.

It's Monday. What are You Reading?

It is Monday and again I am joining in the meme over at Mentor Texts.
Hop on over and join in over at the Mentor Text Blog. Just click on the picture below.

Gifts by Ursula Le Guin is the first in a trilogy, and is about Orrec and Gry, who live in the Uplands. The different clans have gifts that they pass on through father/son, mother/daughter. These gifts are to be used in the service of their community.  

As Orrec and Gyr grow they learn about their gifts and they come to realise that their gifts can be viewed in a different light. Gry has the gift of calling - animals - so that they come for the hunters.  Orrec supposedly has  the gift of unmaking - with a glance of his eye he can unmake (kill) a person. As they learn about and wrestle with their gifts they grow in their understanding of who they are and who they want to become.

It took me awhile to get into the book, but at some point I slipped into it, and lost myself to the world around me and entered the world of Orrec and Gry.  For some reason I always thought Ursula Le Guin was British, but I see I am wrong and she is an American.  This book has made me want to go back and reacquaint myself with the Earthsea books as it is at least twenty if not thirty years since I read them!

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Newbery Award Winner 1977, by Mildred D. Taylor was my other read for this week.  I really loved this book with the delightful Cassie and the rest of her family.  This family never lost their dignity and humaneness in spite of the injustice and prejudices of those around them.  

I borrowed this from The Stack at our public library - hardcover and well read, almost at that level where I go -" ew! too yucky dirty to read!"  I want this to be available to my class so I have ordered a class copy and the next two that follow as well.  I remember reading Black Like Me as an 11 or 12 year old and it opened my reader eyes to another world. I had the same kind of awakening when I read Kathryn Stockett's The Help, when it came out,  it was set in a time when I was growing up in another part of the world, I kept thinking this was happening when I was alive.  While it's easy to relegate these books and the issue of racism to the south in North America, yet these books ask us to examine our own treatment of the people around us, wherever we live.

This week I plan to read Voices by Ursula Le Guin, the book that comes after Gifts, and I will also make a trip to the library to see if I can pick up another Newbery book to read for the challenge. A couple of Lunch Lady books have arrived so will probably read them as well.

Happy reading everyone!

Meme What are you Reading?

Again I am joining in the meme over at Mentor Texts.
Hop on over and join in over at the Mentor Text Blog. Just click on the picture below.

This last week I read The Red Pyramid, the first of the Kane Chronicles.  It was good and I enjoyed the humour.  This book had a lot of action and adventure as well as Egyptian mythology.  It is not my favourite genre, however I enjoyed it enough to read on into the series.  So sometime this year I will read the next one.

I also have been listening to Insurgent - and am about half way through. This book too is full of action!  What did I just say about lots of action, can't be listening to myself.  I am really enjoying this audio version.

For the coming week I plan to finish listening to Insurgent and then reading Holes by Louis Sachar.  It is one I have been planning to read for ages, also being the 1999 Newbery medal winner, it means I cross

 another medal book off my list as read.

I am also reading all over the web as I gather information on digital storytelling and the making of videos aspect of that.  This morning I was just reading Matthew Needleman say that media literacy is important, and by making a movie it helps us to analyse and think critically about visual media. So I still have a lot of reading to do just on his blog!