It's Monday, What Are You Reading? 4/20/15

I’ve decided that if I had another eight hours in a day I’d be able to get a lot more done – four extra hours of work/play and four extra hours to sleep would be perfect!  Last week I didn’t get as much reading done as I wanted to, hence the reason Mark of the Thief by Jennifer Nielsen is still on my TBR list and not on my “I’ve already read this” list. 

 That being said, I did get the chance to read The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt, before hearing him speak on Saturday.  I wasn’t sure how I missed this book, but then I realized that it was published right in the middle of my graduate work and I missed a lot those couple of years.  It was really interesting and I really enjoyed it, but I wonder how today’s kids can relate to it.  My co-worker actually used this text as a student teacher and said that there was a lot of pre-reading required to teach the kids about the Vietnam War and culture during the time period, as well as learning more about Shakespeare.
I also got the chance to read The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein this past week and although I thought it was good, I enjoyed Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library better.  My favorite parts of these books are the books Grabenstein chooses to use in his own work.  It’s so fun to see so much literature in one piece of work. 

  As for the week ahead, it’s another busy week for me, but I plan on trying to start Mark of the Thief today.  I also received an ARC of Rutabaga: The Adventure Chef by Eric Colossal that was just published last month.  It’s a graphic novel, so it should be a quick read.  And other than that, since I’m not at work today, I’m hoping a few holds come in and I can add another book to my list for the week!