It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 1.14.13

Thank you to the following hosts of this Monday meme!

www.teachmentortexts.com

 http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/







I had a very powerful week of reading last week.  I randomly came across some beauties while browsing the public and school libraries and another that I was saving for this month in particular. 

-->This is beautiful story, published in 2007, about a young girl who must work hours each day in her Mali village grinding millet kernels and traveling far distances for water and firewood.  She must learn to sacrifice for the prosperity of her family and village and one day sees her hard labor come to fruition. I can see this being paired with Linda Sue Park's A Long Walk to Water.

I thought this was a gorgeous 2004 picture book.  Cynthia Rylant creates a beautiful poem to tell the story of how Native Americans gave names to the full moons of each month all throughout the calendar year.   Siegel's charcoal illustrations are stunning. 

An inspiring picture book biography of Booker T. Washington.  I went back to observe the illustrations after reading the illustrator's notes included at the end.

THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK OF READING:

There are no words that give this book justice... If you haven't yet read this stunning tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s most historic moment then do yourself a favor and purchase this now and read it.  Kadir Nelson takes Dr. King's most well known part of his "I Have A Dream" speech and paints BEAUTIFUL artwork to accompany it.  Also included is a CD of Dr. King's original speech. Don't borrow this one; buy it, savor it, give it as a gift.  You might need some tissue as well. 

This week I will be finishing (a PAGE TURNER!!!):

and also finishing this audio book:

Here is a fan made book trailer I found for Anna and the French Kiss:

 

I will be starting this week (and sooooo looking forward to):

What will you be reading this week? I invite you to comment below.  Happy Reading!