It's Monday - Loving These Books

              Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with others who post their favorites.  Your TBR lists will grow! Happy Reading!
          Share with the hashtag #IMWAYR    

        Still wishing all of you educators good days and having fun and staying safe!

I have a giveaway post HERE today!

            Thanks to Netflix, I've read this verse novel by award-winning novelist Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five that follows the tragic result of one night Amal Shahid, sixteen and an artist and a poet, but seen in a different and biased way because he is black. This night, a fight over boundaries that have appeared because of gentrification becomes Amal's tragedy. His time in a juvenile detention center even though innocent is shouted and cursed, cried and whispered by him through poignant words written by Zoboi and Salaam. 

Consider the months lived recently and then read Amal's words with empathy if you want to know his truth. In part:
"On the day of my
conviction
I forget
my school ID
number
my top three
colleges
my class schedule"

The book comes out tomorrow! Don't miss it! 

Thanks to Candlewick Press for these books!

first published in the U.K.

          Out in a week, the first book in a two-book series, young middle-schooler Jake Green finds himself in a land of the dead where he learns perhaps too much about the undone, specters and poltergeists, and other haunting people he didn't know existed. There is even an Ambassador at the Embassy of the Dead and a secretary named Maureen. The real adventure happens when Jake takes a shortcut down a dark alley and is handed a box because he said the wrong thing, well, the wrong thing because it threw him into an adventure he struggled to believe he was in! He ends up with a deadly gang, the young Cora with her hockey stick forever trapped in a trophy until Jake let her out, and the Undertaker Stiffkey who turns out to be wiser than Jake first imagined. It's a survival story that Jake manages because he's supposed to be going on a school overnight. He texts a best friend that he is absent because he's sick and his mom and dad that all is okay. 

            Jake turns out to be unusual as Stiffkey and Cora soon learn. He can see them! It's a race to put back a severed finger that is in that box. Creepy, yes, but actually an adventure that does not stop one's racing heart as crazy things happen around every corner. There is the fun part that, because jake's father has given him a few driving lessons, he manages to escape from his home by driving away in his father's camper. (Ghosts don't drive.) And the most fun is watching Jake keep going and never stop no matter how spooky things get. Will Mabbit manages to carry the action on and on. Here's an example from the end of one chapter: "And that's when things really got exciting." I enjoyed this tale thoroughly.

           

first published by Walker Books - Australia

         Sue-Ellen Pashley's story will make readers frown for a while, then smile, then frown and smile again. That jacket, a wrapped gift shown on the title page, goes first to Amelia who loves it and wears it, "preschool, to Auntie Kath's house, to the park, to bed!" She did love it until it was too small. Yet then it was just right for younger sister, Lilly. I imagine you're guessing that it's a story of that jacket's history and the ending is like the gift has been wrapped up again with a beautiful bow. Thea Baker's mixed-media illustrations fill the pages with colorful fabrics and texture along with the up and down emotions. 

         I know during this socially-distancing world we live in means illustrations in this may not show the reality of what all preschools are doing now, but I know they are continuing the same playtimes, just more apart. Out walking one day I saw a group with a visiting firetruck and crew. They stood apart but still were looking very excited about the visitors. Pearl's mother has a dance studio and tells the story about her learning there as the youngest dancer. She knows a lot about dancing, and her mother shares that more kinds of things can happen in preschool. She then goes to her first day, takes Violet, her stuffed mouse (who has also danced). It's a happy and calm story of the fun at preschool that will help a few fears with the young ones just ready for the first time. Fortenberry's softly colored illustrations (outlined in black) fill the pages with a whole bunch of diverse kids, happily engaged in all kinds of fun activities.

What I'm Reading: Still reading Alpha Maniacs. I am enjoying it, but because of all the other reading, taking my time with it, piece by alphabetic piece. I am reading an adult book and have a few new books from the library, will choose one of them.