It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/14

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 am finally almost caught up after being absent for a week of school a few weeks ago.  We had a professional development day on Friday and I was able to get some work done without students in class. I feel like my reading and writing workshops are both finally on track again.  Now, I just need to get caught up in math ;)

Books I Finished This Week:

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff is a touching story told in verse.  I loved this story and I know a few of my students who will absolutely devour this story.  I really liked that this was told from the point of view of a teenager who has a pretty steady home and comes across the young mother who is struggling. It was a smart move because the protagonist has the thoughts that most of us might have and it helped me to connect to the story that much more.  This is an important story about the struggles of the very poor and young mothers. I highly recommend this book for any class library grade 8 and up.  

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am STILL listening to Siege and Storm. I am finding it hard to find time to listen to the audiobook. I bought a device to be able to listen to my iPhone through the car stereo but it is difficult to find a station that gets clear reception.  

I am also reading The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa.  This is an interesting story, but I am having a hard time getting into it.  I think I am just done with vampires.  

I also started reading What You Know by Heart by Katie Wood Ray as a professional read.  

What's Next?

I have no idea what will be next.  I have such a hard time catching up with my reading lately that I don't really want to have any plans.  Parent-Teacher conferences are this week so it will be a busy one.  I am really looking forward to the day off on Friday!

What are you reading this week?  Do you have any recommendations?  Please share in the comments below.  

Celebrations 10/12 (1)

Welcome to my first CELEBRATE Link-Up post.  This is a fabulous idea from Ruth Ayres in which we write about something to celebrate each Saturday.  I am looking forward to participating in this link up each week and hearing about the awesome things happening in everyone's classrooms.

I have a lot to celebrate in my reading workshop:

• Every single one of my 8th grade students has a book that they are enjoying!
• In a conference a student spontaneously mentioned that the strategy we are focusing on is helping him to stay with the story.  
• Another student celebrated the fact that she was on page 100 of the book she is reading.  She mentioned that she doesn't usually get past page 5. 
• When I announced on Thursday that we were just going to read for the entire time, multiple students cheered.  
• I was able to sit down with my book and read with my students the whole reading workshop.  
• My students are reminding me to read aloud because they are so interested in the book.  I love the opportunity to teach a little bit about other parts of the world and about animals.  We are reading Endangered by Eliot Schrefer 
• I can offer my students even more titles to read because my Donors Choose project was funded. I purchased 3 Kindles so that I could share the Kindle titles I own with my students.  
• Students in my other Language Arts classes are noticing the books I have and requesting to borrow titles. 

What do you have to celebrate this week?  Please share in the comments or link-up on Ruth's blog.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10/7

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.

This week was a much better reading week.  I decided to spend a lot of my time on Saturday reading and relaxing so I was able to get through many more pages.

Books I Finished This Week:

I have been reading So Cold The River by Michael Kortya for a couple weeks.  It is a mystery book mixed with some magical realism.  I picked this one up because this author will be at the Key West Literary Seminar that I am going to in January.  I am really excited to find and read more by this author in the next few months.  The story was so fascinating and really kept me captivated.  

I was so excited to get my Scholastic box this week because this one was in there.  I have really enjoyed all of the Origami Yoda books and this one did not disappoint.  I love the message about testing that Tom Angleberger is including in The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Hut. This book made me want to have a Star Wars marathon so that I could remember who all these characters are.  

Tommysaurus Rex by Doug TenNapel was another book from my Scholastic box.  I love all of his graphic novels and enjoyed this one too.  I think many students will definitely identify with the protagonist in this book who loves his pets and finds a friend in them.  

I could not put this book down.  I know that my students will really enjoy it.  It is full of adventure and suspense which starts from the very first paragraph.  I was so interested in the details about the Hawaiian islands as well.  What would you do if you were the only survivor of a plane crash and stuck in the middle of the ocean with no provisions?  Would you be able to survive?  These are the kinds of questions that a reader will ask themselves while reading this book.  

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am reading Endangered by Eliot Schrefer aloud to my class.  As I read, I am remembering how brilliant this book is.  I love the silence that descends in the classroom because the students are so hooked on the story.  You know you have a good read aloud when a different student asks each day if you are going to read.  

I also am listening to Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo.  It is slow going but I hope to get back to working out this week so I should catch up a little then.  I bought a device to be able to play my iPhone in the car, but it is spotty reception.  I will mess with it more this week to maybe be able to listen to my book on the way to and from work.  

I just started The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa because a colleague lent it to me so it went to the top of the pile.  

What's Next?

I am thinking that I would like to read Make Lemonade this week and then possibly The Song of the Quarkbeast or Out of My Mind.  There are so many books in my piles to-read that it is hard to make plans.  I also have The Common Core Companion by Jim Burke and What You Know by Heart by Katie Wood Ray for professional reading.  

What are you reading?  Do you have any recommendations for me?  I would love to hear from you in the comments. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/30

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 Finished This Week:

I did not finish any books this week.  Zip. Zilch. Zero.  That is a first for me since I started keeping track. I hope to get back on track soon.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am reading So Cold the River by Michael Koryta. It is an intriguing mystery with a magical realism element to it.  I am really enjoying this book and will definitely look for more by this author before I see him talk in January.  I am also listening to Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo.  I absolutely loved the first book in the Grisha series and I am really liking this one so far as well.  I hope to get back to exercising this week so that I can get through the audiobook quicker.  

What's Next?

I plan to read Song for the Quarkbeast next.  I also would really like to get to Crank by Ellen Hopkins soon.  The 5th Wave is also burning a hole in my shelf.  

My reading will also be spent on some information about Multiple Sclerosis.  I was diagnosed with this condition two weeks ago and so my time is consumed with learning what this means for me.  Part of the research I am doing is reading some of the very medical articles that my sister the doctor is sending me.  

I also want to get back to reading some professional titles and some blogs.  I hope this week feels more normal and back on track.  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/23

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.

This week was another slow reading week for me.  I spent some of the week in the hospital and had some life-changing medical news so my mind was not exactly on my reading.  I was out of school all week so some of my time was spent creating sub plans, but mostly I mindlessly watched HGTV.  I hope that this week I will be able to escape into my books a little more, because I think that is some of what I need.  

Books I Finished This Week:

This was actually a pretty perfect book to have with me for the endless waiting in the emergency room.  It was not a book that required a lot of attention but was distracting enough to help me feel less nervous.  I am not really loving this series that much and my sister feels the same.  We are probably going to give up on the goal to finish the whole series.  I might skip ahead to some of the more recent books in the series to see if I like them better. 

I needed an easy book to distract my mind a little bit in the last few days.  The Pretty Little Liars books do not disappoint in being an easy distraction.  The books are by no means literature, but I find them really entertaining and I am glad I am reading the series.  

I found Love That Dog in the clearance section at Half Price Books this weekend.  I sat down and devoured it in one sitting.  What a great celebration of poetry and writing!  I LOVED this book!

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am still listening to Siege and Storm and just started reading So Cold The River by Michael Kortya, which is a mystery book.  

What's Next?

 I just hope that I can get myself to pick up a book and read.  I am going back to work today and I feel overwhelmed already.  I know I will also be reading quite a bit of research and information about medical issues in the next few months as well.  I will just play it by ear and pick up what I feel like reading.  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/16

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:

I am still enjoying this series.  Did not love this one as much, but I am sure I will continue liking the books.

I am really glad I read through all the Gallagher Girls novels.  They are so much fun!

I had preordered this one, so it was a nice little surprise in the mailbox this week.  I devoured it! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Kate Messner and this one is my favorite.  It was so intriguing learning about concussions and then that clinic was so creepy.  I love the way suspense built throughout the book and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.


Books I am Currently Reading:

   I am still listening to the second book in the Grisha series.  I really like this fantasy world and the characters that live there.  I am loving the narrator for this one as well.  I also started reading E is for Evidence.

What's Next?

   I honestly don't know what is next. I am super busy and now this week I have some health issues that I hope will get resolved quickly...but it is hard to read with a preoccupied mind.  It sucks because now I have missed two days of school in the last two weeks and it is only the third week of school!  I hope things get back on an even keel soon and then I will be able to read like crazy.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/9

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.

The whirlwind of work that begins a new school year overwhelmed me last week.  My blogs have suffered a bit in the last few weeks because I am caught up in the mile-long to-do list that continues to grow.  I also have been supporting my husband as he learns how to run a classroom.  That means that a lot of the time that would usually be reading time for me has been taken up with looking over his lesson plans and showing him how to use a teacher's guide and other things that a cooperating teacher would usually do for a student teacher.  It is so fun to see how he is enjoying his job and I know he is going to be an awesome teacher.

My bedtime reading is not happening as much either.  I am so exhausted at the end of every day that I hardly make it through two pages before I start dropping the book.  These are the books from the last two weeks since I missed last Monday's post.

Books I Finished:

Adult Books

I really have enjoyed all of the Robert Langdon books by Dan Brown.  This is another one that has a lot of action and some really interesting symbology.  There are a lot of people that are really down on this author, but I think his books are entertaining and thought-provoking.  I would recommend this one to people who enjoy a good mystery.  

Young Adult/Middle Grade Books

Like all of the other Pretty Little Liars books, Killer is a fun mystery and a light read.  The characters and situations are very different from the television show at this point in the series and I really like that.  I would recommend this series to teens that like mysteries.  

Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter is another fun Gallagher Girls book.  Cammie continues to be in danger from the mysterious circle. She starts to find out that maybe she can't trust everyone that she thought she could trust.  I am impressed at the way the author is able to keep the book light and funny while also dealing with some pretty dangerous and dark themes.  I can't wait to read the next one this week even though I fell behind on the #GGReadathon.

Once by Morris Gleitzman is a haunting story.  I really enjoyed the audio because the little touches like music between the chapters really enhanced the mood.  The narrator in this book has been kept in the dark about what is happening in Nazi occupied Poland and his confused explanations for what happens make the story that much more tense.  This is a great book to add to the collection of books about the holocaust and to give another perspective.  I will definitely be seeking out the other books in this series. 

Books I am Currently Reading:

I am about halfway through D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton and I have started listening to Siege and Storm (Grisha #2).

What's Next?

I hope to find some more time for reading this week.  I want to read Out of Sight, Out of Time this week to catch up with the readathon.  I also want to read The Song of the Quarkbeast before Wednesday when Jasper Fforde will be visiting my school.  If I am able to find the time, I will start with book E in the Sue Grafton series as well.