It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/6

It's Monday! What are you reading? --From Picture Books to YA--is a weekly meme hosted by Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts.  Head over to their blog for links to many great blogs and a plethora of good book suggestions.

I had a really great reading week!  There was a lot of variety in the books I read and I enjoyed my reading time.

Books Finished This Week:

Amy Timberlake will be visiting my school next week.  I am so excited to meet her and to have my students experience an author visit.  In preparation for her visit, I read One Came Home.  I absolutely loved this historical fiction book.  The mystery was intriguing and the characters were likable and fun to spend time with.  I would recommend this one to grade 4 and up.

This one is another fun one from Amy Timberlake.  The Dirty Cowboy is a funny picture book and I think students will enjoy the read aloud.

I loved Mind Games by Kiersten White.  It was such an unusual premise and the book really surprised me.  I really liked the way the story was woven through flashbacks and with the voices of the two sisters.  I am absolutely more interested in reading other books by this author now.  I would highly recommend this one to teens and adults alike.

I am super excited to meet Kiera Cass this Wednesday at the Dark Days tour in Milwaukee.  I listened to The Selection on audiobook and it took me forever to get through the book, because I only listen during workouts.  I knew I couldn't do that with this one.  In fact, I requested it from the library before it came out so I could be one of the first to get it.  Then I proceeded to read it in one sitting.  I have to say that I was pretty mad about the love triangle in this series.  However, after reading The Elite I may be able to forgive the author for this.  I cannot wait to read the third book and find out once and for all how things are resolved for America.  This world is such an interesting place and the selection is so similar to the reality shows like The Bachelor that I can't help but be sucked into the whole scene.  I absolutely recommend this series to grade 8 and up.

I finished reading this one this weekend so that I could listen in to the last meeting of my literature groups today.  I absolutely loved this book and am looking forward to continuing to offer it as one of the selections for literature groups.  I thought the author did a great job of playing with style in this book and it was a great introduction to footnotes for the group.  It is another great book that deals with the issue of an autistic child in a family and the stresses that having a special needs child can have on a family.  I love the way this is highlighted without making the book have a depressing tone.  Tink has a hilarious writing voice and I found myself laughing out loud in multiple spots.  I highly recommend this one to grades 8 and up.

I enjoyed No More Dead Dogs and I know that my students who read this one for literature circles did too.  It is a funny book that deals with middle school issues in a real way.  I liked the alternate narrators because it gave almost opposite points of view and really made me think about all of the kids and the reactions they had to the ridiculous situations.  I also liked that towards the end of the book the teacher has a few chapters and we get to see him as more human.  I am not sure middle school students really ever see their teachers as humans and I appreciated that the author brought in the teacher perspective here.


What I am Currently Reading:

I am reading Madhattan Mystery by John Bonk.  I am reading The Pull of Gravity to my class right now and really loving the re-read of this one.  I am still listening to Days of Blood and Starlight.  The last thing I am reading right now is a math PD book for a book study at school.

What's Next:

I think I will play it by ear this week.  I have a lot of work to get done and I don't think it will let up anytime soon with the end of the year looming on the horizon.  I am going to the author event on Wednesday and will probably  absolutely come home with more new books (even though I should not be buying any more).  We'll see what happens.

Happy Reading!