It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10.7.13

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? from Picture Books to YA is a meme started by Kellee over at www.unleashingreaders.com and Jen over at www.teachmentortexts.com to share and wrap up our reading for the past week.  They expanded the original meme started by Sheila over at www.bookjourney.wordpress.com to include picture books up through YA literature.

Another slooooow reading week for me.  But, I finished a fabulous book!

I finished:

and oh how I loved it! I think this is Jo Knowles best book yet.  Every character was well thought out and I kept cheering on Josh and his commitment to change and focus on improving his life.  Some may say that he ran away from his problems, but I think he did the right thing for himself in order to become the better individual he wanted to be.  He was a well thought out and well rounded character and I think many teen aged readers (male or female) can relate to Josh.  A+ (in my opinion).

I then started for book club:

You can go to Goodreads here to read the summary for this book.  It's getting a lot of buzz so hopefully it will live up to all of it.

I want to read next before I see the movie:

A few other books in my TBR pile:

A couple of novels that have been out for a while but have yet to read (although I've seen the Perks of Being of a Wallflower and LOVED it!) and I just received an ARC of Ishmael Beah's new one.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you have a great week of reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9.30.13

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? from Picture Books to YA is a meme started by Kellee over at www.unleashingreaders.com and Jen over at www.teachmentortexts.com to share and wrap up our reading for the past week.  They expanded the original meme started by Sheila over at www.bookjourney.wordpress.com

This week was a slow reading week for me. But I was able to read a couple of picture books that I received from the SCIBA Trade Show event this past Saturday.  I had the privilege and honor to listen to each author/illustrator speak about their process in creating the book - I always love to hear the story behind the story.

I read:

BUGS IN MY HAIR by David Shannon was a great read! And what a topic! I think this is a great story to read aloud to primary grades to explain how this pesky bug ends up where it does.  It teaches without being preachy in classic David Shannon style.  Not a disappointment.

Love, love, love LOCOMOTIVE by Brian Floca.  This book was intensely researched by Floca and he created beautiful illustrations to accompany his rhythmic words throughout.  I believe this rich text can be used as a read aloud for both young and older readers.  A must have for all libraries in my opinion.

I am still reading and enjoying:

And I was ecstatic to receive an ARC of this on Saturday:

So many great books - so little time! I hope you had a great reading week! Thank you for stopping by!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9.23.13

     

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? from Picture Books to YA is a meme started by Kellee over at www.unleashingreaders.com and Jen over at www.teachmentortexts.com to share and wrap up our reading for the past week.  They expanded the original meme started by Sheila over at www.bookjourney.wordpress.com

This week I accomplished reading a few picture books and a chapter book. 

The picture books I read were:

 

Circle Unbroken and Night Boat to Freedom are books I came across in our school library.  I believe both would be great to use in the classroom as mentor texts for writing and would be great read alouds as well. 

 

Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride is one of those books that I have known about but somehow missed reading until now.  This is a work of art in itself, but would also be great as a mentor text for depicting what is fact and what is fictionalized by the writer. I absolutely loved this book.

 

I also finished:

 

Jumping Off Swings is an important book - I think Jo Knowles dealt with the topic of sex and teen pregnancy in a very gripping and openly honest way.  The story is told from the point of view of four different characters; I thought this was very effective. Because of the multiple points of view (Ellie, Corrine, Josh and Caleb), this is a book that many teens can identify with - not just those having sex.  Corinne, the best friend, (who is not having sex but is absolutely curious about it) was the point of view I really appreciated. .  I thought she was a true to life character and set a good example of what a best friend does without it being preachy. 

 

So now I am reading:

 

which is a follow up to Jumping Off Swings and continues Josh's story.  (Josh is the one Ellie had sex with and becomes pregnant by in Jumping Off Swings.)  Josh decides to go and live with his Uncle Larry to "try to forget" everything that happened between him and Ellie and the pregnancy.

 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a great week of reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9.16.13

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? from Picture Books to YA is a meme started by Kellee over at www.unleashingreaders.com and Jen over at www.teachmentortexts.com to share and wrap up our reading for the past week.  They expanded the original meme started by Sheila over at www.bookjourney.wordpress.com

Well, it was a slow reading week for me - Back to School  Night was this past Wednesday and I don't know about any of you, but that wipes out all my energy for the rest of week.  So every time I attempted to read I would nod off.  I plan to catch up this week.

I am almost finished with:

 

This is a very intriguing story and I meet with my bookclub this Wednesday to discuss it.  There are dynamic characters in this novel that I am eager to talk about.  I will let you know my final thoughts when I finish it.

 

And a few books that I have on deck:

  

                     

I have been looking forward to Patrick Ness' and Jo Knowles' new books!  But I have not read Jumping Off Swings yet (hangs head) so I will read this before Living with Jackie Chan .  I just love those titles and covers!

Thank you for stopping by - I hope you have a great reading week!              

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9.9.13

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? from Picture Books to YA is a meme started by Kellee over at www.unleashingreaders.com and Jen over at www.teachmentortexts.com to share and wrap up our reading for the past week.  They expanded the original meme started by Sheila over at www.bookjourney.wordpress.com

Yikes! It has been almost a month since I last blogged - school started three weeks ago and I have been busy.   New grade, new school, new subject matter - it has all caught up to me.  But in the classroom we are now in a groove for the most part, and I have some reading time back! So here is what I read over the past couple of weeks:

Picture Books:

 

 

 

 

Every single one of these is an excellent book and I would highly recommend for all classroom libraries to have.  My personal favorite out of these is Faithful Elephants.  Jillian Heise and I had a quick conversation on Twitter about Faithful Elephants and mentioned a few titles that could be connected with it: The One and Only Ivan, Endangered, and An Elephant in the Garden.

 

Chapter books I finished over the past two weeks:

 

  

 

 

Rules of Summer is a quick read that is told in third person omniscient from the two main characters: Rory and Isabel.  Philbin does not create distinct alternating chapters for the two characters so at times it is not clear (more so at the beginning of the story) which POV is being used as their voice is not differentiated enough.  But, overall it is a good read for 8th and up.  It is one to recommend for readers who enjoy books by Susane Colasanti and the like.

 

Okay.  LOVED Counting by 7s.  This book is getting a lot of Twitter buzz and I think that buzz is well deserved.   Willow Chance is one of those characters you just want to wrap your arms around, sit down and have a conversation with, and want to make the world a better place for.  Go read this now.  :)

 

I am currently reading:

 

 

I am reading this for book club.  You can read the summary here at Goodreads.  The main character, 26-year-old Ginny, is a woman living with Asperger Syndrome and her parents have just died unexpectedly.  The story line is interesting and I am enjoying it so far. 

 

Thank you for stopping by!

 

 

 

It's Monday! What are You Reading? 8.12.13

Thanks to Jen over at www.teachmentortexts. and Kellee now at www.unleashingreaders.com for their take on this Monday meme first created by Sheila over at www.bookjourney.wordpress.com where we share what we've read over the past week.

I am back from my camping trip and ready to get back into routines and into the classroom!  We report back to our classrooms this Tuesday and have students next Monday.  I am looking forward to this year's journey as I have moved to a different school (within the same district) and am changing grade levels.  I am UBER excited! I will be teaching 7th graders this year and really looking forward to meeting them all.

It was a slow reading time for me the past couple of weeks - I thought I would have read more during our camping trip, but alas, discovered more hiking than anticipated.  All is well with that though. 

The past couple of weeks I only finished a couple of books:

       

I absolutely adored Golden by Jessi Kirby.  This is a great book to hand to those tween readers who are looking for something more mature than middle grade books.  Personal Effects is a good choice to hand to some boy readers; I liked it, but did not love it as others have. 

 

I started:

 

 

This is our book club pick for the month of August.  You can go here on Goodreads to read the summary. 

 

Not sure what I will read after this.  School will be in session so I may start something based on student inquiry.  Thank you for stopping by and hope you have a great week of reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 7.29.13

Thanks to Jen over at www.teachmentortexts. and Kellee now at www.unleashingreaders.com for their take on this Monday meme first created by Sheila over at www.bookjourney.wordpress.com where we share what we've read over the past week.

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted for this Monday meme - I've been out of town the past couple of Mondays but have been able to finish a few chapter books. 

Here is what I've read:

 

I really enjoyed Eleanor and Park and liked it, A LOT, but I didn't LOVE it like others have seemed to.  I thought the writing was excellent and liked the third person omniscient point of views and thought that Rowell executed this well.  I enjoyed Park's parents tremendously and appreciated the nuclear family Rowell included in the story. 

 

Something Blue and Summerland are both adult novels by authors that I tried for the first time this summer and really enjoyed both of them. Summerland was excellent and could even be considered somewhat of a crossover read, in my opinion.  The story is told from various characters' points of view in third person omniscient, and a few of those characters being the teens in the story.  Here is the synopsis from Goodreads. 

 

I am currently reading:

 

 

 

And not sure what to read next (when I will be in the mountains enjoying the great outdoors and some fishing and hiking):

       

    

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Summer Card Camp 2 Week 2, Day 1

Hello there!  I just returned from spending a week at the beach and it was lovely! But I definitely had a crafty, paper, and inky itch.  So I fiddled around today and created a card - I have a lot more "homework" to catch up on.  I will be gone again for a few days and will be even further behind but oh well. 

So here is the card I came up with today following sketch 1 and the new color combo for this past week:

This is the first circle card I've made and I need some practice! I used my Cricut to cut the circles and it seems to cut the circles a little bit off - or I needed to turn the circles around until they matched up better.  I also need to work on the sizing of circles - hard to tell in the picture, but I had to create a fold with the blue circle piece as well so that the card could fold up. ( I think it's time for me to invest in some circle framelets dies.)  :)

Thank you for stopping by!

Summer Card Camp 2 Day 5

Hello everyone! Below is the card I made for homework following one of the color combos given today (top one on the right color combo).  I used gelatos for the first time on the background (with an embossed resist) - they are FUN to use! And I LOVE the shimmery colors.  LOVE - LOVE - LOVE .  I didn't try any of the techniques shared today because I desperatley wanted to try using out the gelatos and just focused on that using a color combo. (It's hard to tell in the picture but the lace and string are a cream color.)

 And this card below I made the other day - the one on the left is the way I had it originally and I didn't like the sentiment and the way it looked, so the one on the right is how I ended up changing it.  I like the one on the right better! What do you think? :)

BEFORE

AFTER