It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8/4

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.

Books I Finished This Week:

El misterio de la cripta embrujada by Eduardo Mendoza is a mystery with a very unique protagonist.  It is a well-written book and many people really like it.  I did not like it very much.  I found it hard to connect with the protagonist and he kind of disgusted me.  I think I just have a hard time connecting to books with an odd person as narrator.  This happened to me with Perks of Being a Wallflower as well.  I think many people would enjoy this book.  It just wasn't my cup of tea.

In The Fourteenth Goldfish, Jennifer Holm takes a premise that seems utterly unbelievable and somehow makes it believable. I love the way she weaves the love of science into this book.  Kids who read this book will find out about some famous scientists as well as connecting with Ellie, the main character.  I highly recommend this book!  Look for this one later this month.

As many other bloggers have said about this book, it will be an important one to add to class libraries when it comes out in the fall.  The protagonist and narrator of this book is a girl with Asperger's syndrome.  There are many challenges for her in her daily life.  As an adult, I just wanted to get in this book and beat some sense into her father.  I think this will be an excellent book for students to read because they will be able to connect with Rose through her connection with her dog, Rain.  I cannot say enough great things about this book.  You should order Rain, Reign by Ann M. Martin when it comes out in October.

I had not read any of the Squish graphic novels before this week.  It is such a cute series.  I will definitely keep looking for these books to add to my class library.

This graphic novel is about the author and how he started writing comics.  I think it will be a great book to have in the class library.  I really enjoyed reading it.

I started reading Article 5 by Kristen Simmons at bedtime one night.  Big mistake.  I read until I couldn't keep my eyes open any more...way into the wee small hours.  Then, I read the next morning until I finished the book.  This is another dystopian book and I could definitely imagine our world getting to this state.  The romance part of the book bothered me a little bit because it is another book in which the girl doubts whether the guy loves her and spends a lot of time being insecure about the relationship.  I think it rings true to how a teenager would be in a relationship, but it always bothers me a little.  I feel like getting in her face and yelling "IDIOT, of course he loves you!"  Overall, though, I really liked the book and will be looking for the other ones in this series.

The Literacy Teacher's Playbook by Jennifer Serravallo is a very interesting professional read about reading assessment and analyzing the data.  I read this one on the Digital Campus on Heinemann's website, but might need to order a copy to keep nearby.  Her approach to collecting and analyzing data is straightforward and easy to follow.  This is such an important skill to develop in order to really do the best we can for all students.  I highly recommend this book to reading teachers in elementary school.

Books I Am Currently Reading:

I am still working my way through Bird by Bird and Escaping into the Open.  I also am still reading Gulp! and listening to The Clockwork Princess. I also just started reading En el tiempo de las mariposas (In the Time of the Butterflies) in order to continue reading in Spanish.

What's Next?

I borrowed a copy of The Right to Write from my mother so I hope to get to that this week.  I also just got Absolutely, Almost from the library. Otherwise, it will really depend on my mood.

Blog Posts This Week

What did you read this week? Any recommendations for me? I would love to hear from you in the comments!