It's Monday! What are you Reading? 8/20

Every week Jen and Kellee host this meme on their blog Teach Mentor Texts for people to write about the books they are reading.  This meme focuses mostly on Kidlit and YA literature.  Head on over to their blog to see some great posts about great reads.

This week I did not get as much reading in as I thought I would.  I had inservices on Monday and Tuesday mornings.  Then my mother came to town on Wednesday and I spent the afternoon and night with her before we left for a women's retreat at camp which lasted until Sunday afternoon.  Since I was so busy, I had less time for reading but still got through some great books.

Books I Finished This Week:

I don't know why it took me so long to read this book.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor is an excellent book.  I am so glad that I have multiple copies of this book and will be able to have students learn about race issues in the South from this perspective.  

Postcards From No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers is a beautiful book which alternates narration between a teenager in 1995 in Amsterdam and a young woman living in Holland during World War II.  This book is a great piece of literature and I really lost myself in this amazing writing.  The issues that all of the characters are dealing with are complex and a certain maturity level is needed to appreciate the issues.  I am not sure I will take this book to my 8th grade classroom but it is a must-have for high school classrooms.  

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde is a fascinating fantasy story.  In this book, Giannine gets stuck in a virtual reality game and her life is dependent on winning.  She has to survive to be crowned the king and not be killed in the three days until her coronation.  This is an interesting science fiction story that is entertaining and fun.  I am looking forward to reading more by this author in the future.

Guts by Gary Paulsen is a great memoir which tells some of the real life adventure stories that inspired his Brian stories.  I will definitely read some excerpts from this book as mentor texts when we talk about memoir writing.

Books I am Currently Reading:

10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know--There are so many great ideas in this book that it is taking me longer to read because I am spending time marking it up and taking notes.  

Daughter of Smoke and Bone--I am listening to this one and really only get to it when I am working out.  It is a great motivator to get my butt on the spin bike so I can read more of this book.  

What I Will Read Next:

I still want to get to Readicide and Opening Minds.  I also want to read Tantalize, Beauty Queens, Enclave, and The Dark and Hollow Places along with anything else that I decide to grab off the shelf.  

I am trying to finish the summer strong and have a great number to post on my classroom door to let students know about my challenge.  I am planning to make a door display like Donalyn Miller does.  Her picture of her door was amazing and I can't wait to print out the images of book covers that I finished this summer to do a similar display.  I want to have a big number of books finished so that I can show kids that it is not impossible to get through 40 books in a school year.  I am currently at 85 books and would love to get to at least 90 before the summer is over.