It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 7/18/16

This summer has been such a busy one!  I’ve had stuff going on every weekend which really cuts into my reading time – especially because during the week, my work schedule changes daily depending on when we have programs and when I need to cover a desk.  That being said, I did manage to almost finish my reading goal this week, I have just a little left of  Our Teacher Is a Vampire and Other (Not) True Stories by Mary Amato.  I read The Voyage to Magical North by Claire Fayers which was super awesome – I loved the fantasy/adventure/friendship story!  And I also read The World Beneath by Janice Warman – a close-up look at how it was to live in apartheid South Africa in 1976 as a young black boy.  I know very little about apartheid, I know Nelson Mandela fought for equal rights and that few white people held power over the majority black people in the country, but I knew very little else.  This book was a real eye opener and really made me want to learn more about what was happening at that time in South Africa.  It was also a story that could work well as parallel to what is happening in the U.S. right now.  Obviously, we are not under apartheid rule, but similarities between equality and rights could definitely be discussed and at 176 pages it’s a fairly quick read.
This week, I’m going to finish up Our Teach Is a Vampire… and then I also want to read the second book in the Serafina series called Serafina and the Twisted Staff by Robert Beatty, which I’m super excited about because the first one was awesome!  And I’m going to read As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds.  Not too much this week – my mom will be visiting this weekend and I’m making a bunch of cupcakes for my soon-to-be sister-in-law’s bridal shower… we’ll see how they come out!  They’ll definitely taste good, I’m just not too sure how pretty they’ll be.

Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. Follow the links to read about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR community has read. It’s the best way to discover what to read next.