It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop hosted by Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.
Head over to Unleashing Readers to join the link up and share your reading!
It’s Indigenous Peoples Day! (NOT Columbus Day) I’m celebrating by reading, and there are stories out there that I want my students to know. I want my students to read and grow to be intelligent citizens who want better for our country, and our world. Here are some titles I recently read and loved:
Harvest House by Cynthia Leitich Smith – This is one of my favorite middle-grade/young-adult titles for fall. The countdown to Halloween is a perfect way to set this story (the chapter titles are a timeline — “23 Days Until Halloween,” etc.) and the characters seem like people I would be friends with if I were still in high school, especially Hughie and Marie. Then there’s Celeste, the ghost, who was murdered years ago. But I’m not giving anything away. A perfect, creepy Halloween story. Read it.
Red Bird Danced by Dawn Quigley – Ariel and Tomah are two urban Natives who are worried about Ariel’s missing auntie. Ariel is a ballerina who isn’t really into dancing like a bird while her auntie is away; Tomah tells jokes to cover up what he really feels. The two together live through the seasons together and learn to grow into the future by learning more about their pasts.
Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan – Summer and her cousin, Autumn, spend summer vacations with their families on the Cree reservation in Canada where Summer’s mom grew up. This year, the girls are old enough to understand what happened there many years ago when the reservation schools took children from their homes and “taught” them “American” ways. This happened to Kokum and Mosom. As Summer and Autumn begin to ask questions of their grandparents, they learn what makes the family so strong, and vow to become activists for saving their culture in the future.
It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?
Reading Teacher Writes 