It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/1

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? --From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

I love long weekends and holidays.  My husband and I stayed home for this one so that we could have a super relaxing weekend.  Therefore, I was able to read like a fiend.  It was AWESOME!!!

Books I Finished This Week:

I love reading professional books that help me justify my professional practices.  I love that Donalyn collected so much research in this book to really support the reading workshop.  I do a lot of the things she suggested, but I am really glad to have templates for some of the record keeping that I always find to be so overwhelming.  Any teacher who is implementing reading workshop or thinking about doing so should read both The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild.

I was so excited to see that there were new books from Gene Luan Yang.  I have a class set of American Born Chinese and love reading that one each year.  Boxers and Saints is a set of graphic novels which tells the two sides of the story of the Boxer rebellion in China.  This is a piece of history that I really did not know anything about.  This is a genius way to tell the story so that the reader has to think about both perspectives.  It really made me think about the consequences of war and the stances that people take which quite often end in senseless violence.  I also love the cover art!

Ruby Red is a fascinating time-travel story.  I was really caught up in this story and flew through it.  I will definitely need to look for the other books in the series to find out what happens next.  I would recommend this one to grades 6 and up.

A colleague told me about Orphan Train and was kind enough to lend it to me.  This is an incredible story.  I love the way the author drew parallels between the character in the present day who was a victim of the foster care system and the character in the past who was sent on the orphan train to Minnesota.  I had heard of these trains, but did not really know the story of them.  The story pulled me in and I had a hard time putting this one down.  I highly recommend this book.

I got this one from NetGalley.  I really enjoyed Splintered so when I saw this sequel on there, I had to request it.  I am so impressed at how the author took the ideas of Lewis Carroll and twisted them into this incredible world that she has created.  This was another fantastic adventure with twists and turns and mystery and intrigue.  I hope the third installment comes out quickly because this one left me wanting more time in this world.

What I am Currently Reading:

I am listening to The Clockwork Prince and thoroughly enjoying the story.  I also started reading Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George.  From now until the middle of January, I will probably be spending more time reading adult mysteries from authors that I will see at the Key West Literary Seminar.  

What's Next?

I am thinking that I will probably read Unravel Me next.  I have been thinking a lot about Shatter Me and am eager to go back to that world.  I am unsure what I will be in the mood for after that.  There are piles and piles of books to choose from...

What are you reading this week?  I would love to hear from you in the comments.