Reading Monday - Slice of Life 12

Reading Wrap-Up is my twelth slice with Stacey and Ruth at the Two Writing Teachers March SOLC  

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor texts, thanks to Jen and Kellee!  Please visit to find out what others are reading!

  It's Monday! What are you Reading? is another meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books for your TBR list. 

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I had the pleasure of filling in for the librarians last week while they taught a class in the tech lab.  While I say pleasure, it’s also a challenge for me to be in our school library.  Once I start browsing, it’s all over; the books pile up to read!  At least it didn’t cost me any money.

In between helping students I managed to read some terrific picture books:

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka – This year’s Caldecott winner. – A wordless picture book that would be good with students to help them find the details that help ‘tell’ the story.  It’s a cute story.

A Day’s Work – by Eve Bunting – illustrated by Ronald Himler – Any Eve Bunting is good.  This is a sweet story about a boy who helps his grandfather to find day labor work.  He makes a mistake that would be a good discussion by readers about honesty and consequences.

The Greatest Skating Race – by Louise Borden – illustrated by Niki Daly – Based on an adventure with two children having to help a friend escape the Nazis by skating the canals of The Netherlands to another country.   The illustrations are beautiful; the story is inspiring.          

        I recently bought Hans The Hedgehog – by Kate Coombs – illustrated by  John Nickle because I read her wonderful blog, The Book Aunt –   I can imagine reading this aloud to enjoy with young children as well as to use as an example for students writing their own fairy tales.  It has all the lovely parts:  love and faith, honesty and integrity, and the happiest of endings.   Kate talks about her newest book that is on my TBR list, Water Sings Blue, on the link above.

        Wonder by R.J. Palacio – I think I slowed down my reading of this book because I read it, and sometimes re-read pages, thought much about it, and savored it.  So many have written about it that I won’t say more than it is a wonder-filled read that touched my heart for so many children (and adults) that face physical challenges.  I thought of those I know personally and the soldiers coming home from our long fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.  If you want to read a longer and beautiful review, read Tara's post yesterday at A Teaching Life.   I believe the book can make a difference in how one looks at others, making a beautiful conversation with a group.

       I finished The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne for the book group I’m teaching.  We’ll have our final book group meeting next week.

Next:  I’m sticking to one book:  Same Sun Here, by Silas House and Neela Vaswani.  It’s starting well and so far is interesting to read a book written in letters.  I haven't read many pages yet because I'm reading so many blog posts in the Slice of Life Challenge.

Finally, I am stealing a quote from a book reviewed on a Nerdy Book Club post I read recently.  The quote is from a paranormal book titled Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi: “I spent my life folded between the pages of books."  I haven’t read the book yet, but isn’t that quote terrific? 

Happy Reading!