Reading Teacher Writes

IMWAYR: January Starts Successfully!

I’ve been reading! I’m continuing A Rover’s Story, Love From Mecca to Medina, and Apartment 713, and I’ve already read some picture books that I wanted to get to in 2022. Here’s a new one you may like and recommend to your readers…Mega-Predators of the Past by Melissa Stewart and Howard Gray.

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR is a weekly blog hop with kid lit co-hosts Jennifer from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from 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. It’s a great way to share what you’re reading and get recommendations from others. We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs each week.

Book Review: HANDS by Torrey Maldonado

Book Review: Hands by Torrey Maldonado (Publishes January 24, 2023 — Nancy Paulsen Books)

How do you use your hands? Trev wants to learn to box so he can take care of his stepdad, who threatened Mom before going to prison. Trev thinks that “throwing hands” is the answer to his family problems. His friends and family members, especially the uncles, try to point Trev in a different direction. You see, Trev is smart. Never gets anything lower than 85% in school and is a fabulous artist. He could use his hands for good. The question is, what will Trev ultimately decide?

Hands is a story about a loyal family member who struggles with how to handle life. He’s “all good,” but not really. He worries. He tries to find solutions. He strives to discover himself as he works to use his hands. Metaphors include using “hands” in many ways, which lead Trev through his own story.

Middle schoolers will love this look at life: the dialogue is real, the inner and outer conflicts drive the plot, and the characters seem like family you want to talk with and protect.

Torrey Maldonado’s hands wrote another engaging, quick-but-meaningful text that teachers should add to their classroom libraries and librarians need to offer on their shelves. Recommended for ages 10 and up. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book Review: An American Story by Kwame Alexander and Dare Coulter

This is an important, necessary picture book, perfect for the classroom. Teachers and librarians should add THIS American Story to their shelves and read it aloud with their students. To be a true American, we need to acknowledge the America of the past and strive to be what we may become in the future — better humans.

The book names a teacher who is sharing history with her students, starting in Africa before slavery. Over time, Americans stole these humans and made them slaves. “For Free” is one repeating line, and other multiple-meaning words add to the feeling and the depth (and the horror) of the times. Kwame Alexander’s poetic language shows the dark past, but also reveals that African Americans refused to stop telling stories and loving each other, and fought for their freedom.

In the middle of the story, the teacher cannot go on. She doesn’t know how to teach the students THIS history. Her students say, “But, don’t you tell us to always speak the truth, Ms. Simmons, even when it’s hard?” Kwame Alexander wants us to know the truth and share it. We cannot escape the past or pretend like history didn’t happen. “You can’t change the past, but you can do better in the future.” Mr. Alexander allows us to hope and dream and act to change the world. The book has two specific purposes: to educate the reader and provide a way to share uncomfortable facts in order to move to a more hopeful, inclusive future.

Dare Coulter’s fabulous, rich colors provide life and meaning to Alexander’s words. (Pay attention to the colors that alternate the POV throughout the story.) She uses mixed-media techniques that invite readers in and command attention throughout the book, from the cover to the end pages. Her art captivates the reader and brings one closer to the historical account being told in a way that cannot be done with only the words. The pages are all gorgeous, riveting, sad, and hopeful. This book is truly a meaningful collaboration between Alexander and Coulter that should not be missed, and I’m going to follow the news about this book into next awards season, too.

An American Story is a text that needs to be read and shared widely. Adults, please read with your young ones. Recommended for ages 8 and up.

IMWAYR: Happy New Year!

It’s the second day of the new year already, and I AM going to keep up with my reading! My “One Little Word” is CULTIVATE, and I am taking action and nurturing my reading life with care and excitement. There were so many excellent books published in 2022, and many more to come in 2023. This week I plan to read some titles I didn’t get to in ’22.

Physical Books: Love From Mecca To Medina by S.K. Ali and A Planet Like Ours by Frank Murphy, Charnaie Gordon, and Kayla Harren are both on my desk.

NetGalley: If you know me, you know I’m bad at keeping up with NetGalley, but with my intention to CULTIVATE more time for reading, I’m off to a good start this year (I know; it’s only day 2!). I’m reading A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga. I’m usually interested in the moon, but Mars and the Mars Rover stories have been intriguing to me since the news reported on them recently.

Libro.fm: I’m currently listening to Apartment 713 by Kevin Sylvester and finishing The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (which is not a children’s title, but the author is from my city). I love it when authors are also the narrators of their own audiobooks.

Extra! Bonus! Happy Book Birthday, Kwame Alexander! An American Story publishes tomorrow! This is the first of my “Picture Books are Perfect for Middle School” titles for 2023. It’s not like anything Kwame has ever published, and you NEED to read the story of America…the ACTUAL American story of slavery. Dare Coulter’s vivid illustrations are like paintings – so beautiful and haunting all at once. History and social studies teachers everywhere should acquire and read this book with their students. Families should share this book with each other. I cannot recommend this one highly enough.

Happy New Year! It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop I co-host with Kellee and Ricki from 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.

It’s a great way to share what you’re reading and get recommendations. We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

One Little Word 2023

I learned about One Little Word at http://www.aliedwards.com many years ago as I found writing inspiration at Two Writing Teachers (http://www.twowritingteachers.org). In 2023, I want to get back to the basics with my writing and business ventures. My #OLW2023 is CULTIVATE.

What is One Little Word^®?(From the website)

In 2006 I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January—a word to focus on, to live with, to investigate, to write about, to craft with, and to reflect upon as I go about my daily life. These words have each become a part of my life in one way or another—a process I document via simple creative monthly prompts from January to December.

You’re invited to join me in choosing your own One Little Word^®.

CULTIVATE means applying oneself to improving or developing one’s mind (or manners). As a lifelong learner, I will further develop my mind in 2023, but I will learn with more purposeful outcomes. As an adult with ADD, my learning activities are disorganized most of the time and even haphazard in development. Setting goals is not my problem – I plan well. Implementation is the key to the new year. According to an article I read on www.mindful.org, “…if we’re wishing for a more meaningful life but not actively doing anything about it, we probably won’t fare very well. Rather than hoping we will discover or figure out the meaning of our lives someday in the future, it may be possible for us to take ownership of cultivating and experiencing a meaningful life on a day-to-day basis.”

Happy New Year! What is YOUR “One Little Word” for 2023?

Cover Reveal! The Great Caper Caper (Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast #5) by Josh Funk

Cover Reveal of Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast #5: The Great Caper Caper by Josh Funk & illustrated by Brendan Kearney

My family has followed the Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast series since the beginning (2015). My granddaughter and I were #TeamLadyPancake and my husband and daughters were #Team SirFrenchToast. Once, we had an incident with running out of maple syrup, but Josh Funk took that scenario to a whole new level in his first installment of the series. Now, all these years later, we still look to these characters to brighten our mornings!

Here’s a description of the newest book: Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are back in a Las Veggies heist for the ages! Pancake and Toast awake one morning to near-darkness. Who could possibly have stolen the fridge light? And what if the fridge is—gasp—dark all the time? Not to worry; Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are on the case! Along with their friends, they assemble blueprints, collect supplies, and investigate. Will they bring the fridge back to its bright self, or will they have to live in semi-darkness . . . forever?

Josh: Hi, Jennifer. Thanks for having me over to chat!

Jennifer: We are excited to see what’s next in the series! When did you realize that Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast had more adventures coming?

Josh: As soon as I saw Brendan Kearney’s sketches for the very first book I knew I wanted to write more stories in this amazing world he’d created. I mean, all I gave him were the names “Lady Pancake” and “Sir French Toast” – he came up with all of the details from the strawberry hat and the whipped cream hair to the wafer crown and the chocolate mustache! I knew I had to explore more inside the fridge world!

Jennifer: I love the play on words/vocabulary with multiple meanings. How long did the book take to write?

Josh: Thanks! According to Google Docs, it took about two weeks to write the first draft – and then another three months to revise – and that’s before I even sent it off to my editor. We then continued to edit for another four months before sending it off to Brendan to begin illustrating. To be honest, in publishing, that’s actually pretty quick.

Jennifer: Well, it’s certainly a long time for us readers! Will we be seeing our favorite characters again in The Great Caper Caper? Are there new characters for us to meet?

Josh: Yes, and yes! In many ways, this book is a reunion of sorts for characters who’ve shown up throughout the series. As you probably know from any heist book or movie, you need a whole team to pull a caper – and Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast recruit not only Baron von Waffle, but characters major and minor from all four of the previous books (Of course, you don’t have to have read any of the previous books to enjoy this one).

And the new character, Count Caper, is as despicable as capers get (I don’t like capers, btw – the food kind).

Josh: Thanks so much for hosting the cover reveal! Here it is…

The Great Caper Caper by Josh Funk and illustrated by Brendan Kearney is available for preorder from your favorite book retailers and releases on September 20th, 2022, published by Union Square Kids.

Josh Funk is a software engineer and the author of books like the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series, the It’s Not a Fairy Tale series, the How to Code with Pearl and Pascal series, the A Story of Patience & Fortitude series, Dear Dragon, Pirasaurs!, Albie Newton, and coming soon: My Pet Feet (8/23/22), It’s Not the Three Little Pigs (10/25/22), and Dear Unicorn (fall 2023)! For more information about Josh Funk, visit him at http://www.joshfunkbooks.com and on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @joshfunkbooks.

IMWAYR: Falling Behind in the Snow

Winter is here, the snow has come to town, and I’m falling behind in my reading. You would think I had more time to read over the weekend, being stuck inside and all, but the weather headache took over and we had to shovel, too. Hopefully this week will be better.

NetGalley: I opened The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S.(as told to his brother) by David Levithan. I think students are going to love this one!

Physical Books: In book mail this week, I received a gift from Erin Soderberg Downing, my Minnesota nerdy book friend and author, and I’m already half way through When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie (due April 6, 2021 from Pixel + Ink). The Peaches family is headed out for the summer in a used food truck. Mom left a legacy with her invention (they’re millionaires!), and Dad wants to live out Mom’s dreams, traveling the country and selling pies. He doesn’t think about the one thing that maybe he should have before making the plans…no one in the family knows how to bake. This book is funny, heartwarming, and thoughtful. I don’t know WHAT I would do if I had a million dollars…(probably buy more books!)

Libro.fm: I haven’t been in the car — too much snow — so I’ll continue Cicely Tyson’s Just As I Am this week, maybe.

It’s MONDAY! What are YOU reading?

IMWAYR: New Books!

Just a quick note here today, then it’s back to reading. There are so many new books out this year already, and they are all fabulous so far. Here’s what is going on this week: NetGalley: I finished Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca. This story pulled at my heart strings while also taking me back in time to the school life that was so…”Oh my god!” and the 80s music that is still the best. I loved the references to the school dance, the songs, the friendships (stable and tricky ones), and the family that has drama…you’ll just have to read this one. Trust me.

Physical Books: My plans always change, but for this week, my goal is to read The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. Baptist. Their covers are both wonderful and they come highly recommended. Libro.fm: I need to get into the car and drive for a while to continue Cicely Tyson’s Just As I Am. I was sad to hear of her passing, and this memoir brings her and her loveliness back. She wrote, “Just As I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside…” I’m only a few hours in, but I’m loving it. It’s MONDAY! What are YOU reading? IMWAYR is a weekly blog hop with kid lit co-hosts Jennifer from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from 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. It’s a great way to share what you’re reading and get recommendations from others. We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs each week.

IMWAYR: Congratulations to the #alayma Winners!

I think it’s part luck that I chose Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri to read this week, because today the book won the Michael L. Printz Award! I spent most of the day reviewing the complete list of ALA’s Youth Media Awards and celebrating as each book was named during the live webcast. (For the list of #alayma winners, click here.) I chose correctly! My top pick for the Caldecott Medal was We Are Water Protectors, and it won! Congratulations to @MichaelaGoade for this well-deserved win! Thank you for writing this important book, @CaroleLindstrom. I chose incorrectly. Whoa! I wasn’t even close on the Newbery Medal! Congratulations to @taekeller for winning this most distinguished award! I still have When You Trap a Tiger on my TBR list. I guess I’d better pull it out next. It’s MONDAY! What are YOU reading?

My Final Newbery and Caldecott Predictions, 2020

It’s the most exciting time of the year for #kidlit readers — the ALA Youth Media Awards, including Newbery and Caldecott, will be announced on Monday, January 25th, and I AM READY! Honestly, with the 2020 pandemic and virtual school, I wasn’t able to share books with students like I had in previous years, and I don’t have students’ insights into the picks this year. I have been thinking about which books I want to win medals and honors, though. Best wishes to ALL the creators who gave us books in 2020 — I’m sorry it was such a weird year in publishing, but you all deserve to be recognized anyway. Here are my final picks, just 2 days before the big day:

My choice for the Newbery Medal: King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender (Scholastic Press, 2020).

Talk about “distinguished!” I read this book back in February 2020 when it was published, and then listened to the audio version on Libro.fm. It won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and I’m sure it will come away with at least one more award by Monday. Hopefully it’s the Newbery Medal.

My choices for Newbery Honors: Show Me a Sign, by Ann Clare LeZotte (Scholastic Press, 2020) and When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (Dial Books for Young Readers).

Both of these titles scored at the top of my “distinguished” list, as well. Either one could grab a medal, but I think they will come away with honors. I can’t wait to hear the announcements!

My choice for Caldecott Medal: We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade (Roaring Brook Press, 2020).

In my opinion, this gorgeous picture book is special in many ways, and I hope that Michaela Goade wins the medal. The illustrations add to the text in such a way that children understand the significance of the message AND enjoy the book AND appreciate the art — this title has “Caldecott Award” written all over it.

My choice for Caldecott Honors: I have a whole list here. I cannot decide! I’m glad I don’t have to — the Caldecott committee had their hands full of excellent choices this year. I’ll just wait to see the outcome…

All Because You Matter by Tami Charles and Bryan Collier (Orchard Books, 2020), Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann (Neal Porter Books, 2020), and I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020).

Now we wait. What are YOUR choices for book awards this year? Tune into the Youth Media Awards (ALA Youth Media Awards) live webcast on Monday morning (8 am CT). Visit ALA’s streaming platform at http://ala.unikron.com or follow on social media.

What is One Little Word®?(From the website)

What is One Little Word^®?(From the website)