It's Monday! What are you reading? 12/24

Every week I participate in this meme hosted by the lovely ladies over at Teach Mentor Texts.  Jen and Kellee had the brilliant idea to adapt this meme to talk about the great young adult and children's literature that we are reading.  Head over to their blog for more great reads and a plethora of recommendations of great kidlit.

Books I Finished This Week:

The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch is the second book in the Hangman's Daughter series.  It is a murder mystery set in medieval Germany.  I love the interesting characters in this series.  It is fun to read about a historical period that I do not know much about and I am intrigued by the idea of the hangman as a healer.  These are good mysteries and make for very interesting reading.

I really enjoyed Legend by Marie Lu.  It is truly a dystopian book in that the protagonist truly does not know that her world is not the way that she has always believed it to be.  I love the way that Day and June find kindred spirits in one another.  I am looking forward to reading the sequel.  The other thing I loved was the alternating points of view.

The book Endangered by Eliot Schrefer is one that I would not have picked up if I hadn't seen the gushing tweets of Jillian Heise.  I did not realize that this was such a powerful story and I am so glad I paid attention to her recommendation!  I bought this one through the Scholastic book catalog for a very reasonable price and will be looking for more copies to add multiples to my class library.  The story takes place in Congo and as you can imagine it is a powerful story of survival in a war-torn country.  It is also a very informative book about bonobos and their habits.  I love learning about animals in books!  I consider this a must-read and will be trying to put it in the hands of all of the readers in my classroom.

Rebecca Stead has such a fun style in her writing.  I really loved the characters in this book and sympathized with Georges throughout the story.  Liar and Spy is a great mystery and fun to read.  I would recommend it for middle grade readers.

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles is a sappy romance book with which I can see many students relating.  I think the two protagonists are complex characters with a lot of layers and it is fun to see them learn to recognize a kindred spirit in each other.  I was interested in how their story would go and enjoyed the book.  It is definitely young adult with a few things wrapping up a little too perfectly...maybe more of a fairly tale that could happen but most likely wouldn't happen.  I, however, am an adult with a little more cynical view of the world and I know the girls in my classroom will love this one!

Books I am currently reading:

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.  This one grabbed me right away and is quite different from what I was expecting.  So far, I really like the story.


Books on the Horizon:

I will probably get to a lot of books that are stored on my Kindle.  Since I am travelling, I will prefer to read those books than have a bulky suitcase.  Some books that I might get to while traveling: Stupid Fast, Cold Kiss, Eve, IQ84, or The Night Circus.