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.

Hopefully everyone had a fun and safe Fourth of July! It's so wonderful to be able to visit with family and friends, enjoy yummy barbecue foods, and of course, take in some fireworks. We were lucky that the fireworks in our community weren't rained out. With all of the holiday fun, I did manage to get a few books read. Here's what I've been reading this past week:

Middle Grade Fiction

Some Places More Than Others by Renée Watson 

I had the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this middle grade realistic fiction novel in exchange for a review. This awesome book definitely made me want to back my bags and visit New York City, especially Harlem. Like, Amara, the main character of this story, I’ve never been there before. But I do have family that lives near where the Baker family lives, so I love that I have a list of places to see and good things to eat if I ever get the chance to go.

Amara is nearly twelve years old and wants more than anything to visit New York City and learn more about her family’s history. Amara lives with her parents (and soon, a baby sister) in Beaverton, Oregon and has never visited her father’s family in Harlem. Her father works in an executive position for Nike and has an opportunity to take Amara to New York on a business trip.
The trip is exciting, but there are plenty of challenges that present themselves to Amara. Her father and grandfather haven’t spoken to each other in twelve years and have a strained, tension-filled relationship. It’s difficult for Amara to relate to her cousins, Nina and Ava, as they have had a much different upbringing than Amara and have much different personalities. New York City is very crowded, loud, and confusing for Amara, who is much more accustomed to the wide, open, clean and green spaces of Oregon.

But she also has the opportunity to learn so much about her family history, in addition to the history of African American pioneers, who fought and worked so hard for the rights and freedoms she enjoys today. I loved that the book is filled with Harlem history, and had me going to Pinterest to make a new bulletin board of places and things I want to see someday soon.
I also love that, in addition to all of the places Amara visits and things she learns, she also is written as an authentic adolescent girl who has believable conversations with her friends and family. There’s enough relationship drama to keep readers interested in what happens, but appropriately for middle grade readers.

And I also appreciate that this middle grade fiction novel shows normal kids and families that have church attendance and worship as an integral part of their lives, without it being a particularly religious book. Sometimes it’s tough to find books in which church-going characters aren’t portrayed as overly judgmental, fanatical stereotypes.

Picture Books

The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! (Pigeon) by Mo Willems 

Starting school can be very stressful, especially for a young pigeon who has never been there before. Pigeon is trying very hard to convince everyone that he doesn't need to go to school. But it becomes clear that he is frightened to go. He's worried about the teachers, the other birds, the amount of stuff he needs to learn, etc. Young readers will certainly be able to relate to his reluctance to go and may even be encouraged when he changes his mind about it. The fun familiar character and drawings will make this book a big hit and a terrific one to share with kids about to go to school, whether it's the first time or they've been going for a few years.

Back to School: A Global Journey by Maya Ajmera, John D. Ivanko 

GoodReads only has the Kindle Edition of this cool nonfiction picture book listed, but I read a hardcover edition that I found at my local library. It's new, so it's definitely worth looking for. The concept is simple: awesome photographs and descriptions of children attending school in different parts of the world. The illustrations do a great job of showing young readers things that they will recognize from their own school experiences, and of course things that are a little different. But the book goes a long way towards the unity that we want children to acquire - kids all over the world share the experience of going to school to learn, make friends, and live in community.

Misunderstood Shark: Friends Don't Eat Friends (Misunderstood Shark #2) by Ame Dyckman, Scott Magoon (Illustrator)

This fun sequel to Misunderstood Shark will have young readers giggling and grossed out (in a fun way)! Bob, who has been eaten by Shark, is very angry after being barfed up. Shark insists that he didn't eat Bob, it was all a misunderstanding. The back and forth includes fun facts about sharks and hilarious illustrations. This would definitely be a fun read aloud, but I would read the original Misunderstood Shark first if kids arene't familiar with it.