It's Monday What Are You Reading?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

 

With Labor Day, it was only a four day week! But I so busy, it seemed tough to find time to read. So here's what I was able to read:

 

 

Ride Like the Wind: A Tale of the Pony Express: A Tale Of The Pony Express by Bernie Fuchs Descriptive text and beautiful paintings come together to tell the story of Johnny Free, an orphan rider for the Pony Express. Being a rider for the Pony Express was a very dangerous job. Riders had to face harsh weather conditions, wild animals, and hostile Native Americans. In this story, Johnny has a confrontation with warriors from the Paiute tribe. This story has a lot of drama and suspense as the reader experiences what it's like to have to face such difficult circumstances.

 

 

Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Susan Jeffers (Illustrations) Susan Jeffers focuses on the classic poem's verses that depict Hiawatha's boyhood. The beautiful paintings are so vivid and detailed and they match the beauty in the language of the poem wonderfully. This book is a good picture book introduction to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha.

 

 

One by Kathryn Otoshi Very clever and creative way to think about bullying and friendship and standing up for yourself. Very simple illustrations tell a powerful message.

 

 

New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers by David Halberstam (Photographs), Susan Meiselas (photos) 

 

 

 

The New York Times: A Nation Challenged A Visual History Of 9/11 by The New York Times, The New York Times

 

 

Aftermath: Unseen 9/11 Photos by a New York City Cop by John Botte

What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001--In Words, Pictures, and Video by CBS News

These are all great informational books with awesome photographs that tell the horrible story of what happened that day. While some of it is painful to look at and remember, my students weren't even born when this happened. These books share what is important in a very appropriate way. What We Saw has a DVD of CBS' coverage of the developing events. We shared about 45 minutes of it with the 5th grade classes at my school. The entire disc is 2 hours long.

September Roses by Jeanette Winter This is a lovely book that tells the story of two women who grew roses professionally in South Africa. They were on their way to New York City for a flower exposition when the terrorist attacks occurred on September 11, 2001. Once they arrived, they had thousands of roses that needed to be used somehow. It seemed natural that they should give the roses to the growing memorials at Ground Zero.

Hope everyone has an awesome week, with lots of wonderful books to read!