It's Monday! What are you reading? 6/18/12

Jen and Kellee at TeachMentorTexts.com host a weekly meme entitled "It's Monday! What are you Reading?"  This is a chance for people to share the books that they have been reading throughout the week, especially focused on kid lit and YA lit.

This week I did a lot of reading since I did not have to plan for students.  I was working on packing up the classroom but was able to use my evening hours for reading rather than planning.

I was excited on Monday to go pick up a stack of books that I had requested at the library.  I have been busy requesting books that have been recommended by fellow teachers and that have been written by the authors participating in Teachers Write this summer.

I finished: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, Fallen by Lauren Kate, Sidekicks by Dan Santat, The Pull of Gravity by Gae Polisner, Wonder by RJ Palacio, Brody's Ghost by Mark Criller, and a grown-up book Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson.

I decided to do the Newbery challenge and started to read The Story of Mankind but I will take Mr. Schu at his word and make this a non-stress challenge for me.  I cannot get through this book and I don't want to waste precious reading minutes on it any longer.  If someone were to ask me about the book, I have read enough of it to give them the gist of what it is about and I do not see recommending this book to anyone anytime soon. I am counting it finished and moving on to The Journeys of Doctor Doolittle.

This week my tbr pile includes: Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles,  The Fault in our Stars by John Greene, Babymouse (multiple titles are waiting for me at the library), Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, Weetzie Bat by Francseca Lia Block and Last Train to Paradise by Les Standiford (This one is a non-fiction book about the building of the railroad from Miami to Key West--not YA or kid lit but one from my tbr shelf)