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.

It's time for college football! Happily, the Ohio State Buckeyes are 3-0 and looking good for the season! The weather has turned hot again, so I've spent more time indoors reading (when I'm not watching college football, of course!). Here's what I've been reading this past week:

Classic Literature

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens, Hablot Knight Browne (Illustrator)

This Dickens novel was an effort to read, but for the most part, I enjoyed it. Many of the themes are still relevant today - the role money, power, and pride have on relationships seems to be a timeless subject. At times the book seemed to have too many characters with too many subplots, and so seemed to be a bit tiresome. I think my library has a DVD of a miniseries that was made of this book, and so I’m looking forward to watching it and seeing how it compares to the book.

Picture Books

Bruce's Big Storm by Ryan T. Higgins 

Everyone's favorite grumpy bear, Bruce, is back with another awesome picture book. Bruce and his friends are settled into his cozy house as a nasty storm approaches. While Bruce hates visitors and noisy neighbors, he allows them to shelter in his storm. As the storm goes from bad to worse, readers will see how these friends work together so that everyone is safe. There are some great messages in this book about the importance of helping our neighbors in need and being kind. A good companion book would be Look Out! A Storm! by David Milgrim.

Noodleheads Fortress of Doom by Tedd Arnold, Martha Hamilton, Mitch Weiss 

These silly stories will be appreciated by those readers who have ever known the fun of building a clubhouse or fort and getting into scrapes with a best friend. Mac and Mac go to the library and check out books: a joke book and The Fortress of Doom. While enjoying the jokes, the two find a pile of wood in the back yard and get straight to work building their own Fortress of Doom. The quick back-and-forth of the text and the humorous illustrations will make this a fun read for elementary kiddos. I like that the author has included notes in the back about the origins of the stories. This helps make it a decent mentor text for young writers looking around for inspiration for their next story.

Unicorns 101 by Cale Atkinson

Many young readers are enthralled with unicorns, and this fun picture book will be eagerly received. Written in the form of a nonfiction book with informational style text and boldly colored illustrations and diagrams, readers will learn all about these amazing mythical creatures! This could be a great mentor text for writers who want to describe fictional topics in an informational text style or for those that want an entertaining way to write nonfiction text. Either way, I see this as being a popular book on the shelf in a classroom or at home.

Red House, Tree House, Little Bitty Brown Mouse by Jane Godwin, Blanca Gomez (Illustrations)

With bouncy, rhyming text and boldly colored illustrations, this primary concept book will definitely become a favorite of young readers. Young readers are invited to count, pick favorite colors, and look for the little brown mouse on every page. This is a fun one to share with little children as a read aloud.

Squeak! by Laura McGee Kvasnosky, Kate Harvey McGee (Contributor)

Now that the nights are getting a bit cooler, we've been sleeping with the windows open to let in the fresh air. Inevitably, as it gets close to dawn, the natural world starts to wake up. It usually starts with the birds. And then the geese in the neighborhood pond start squawking. Then the dogs start barking. And then I usually get up and go get my coffee. The natural world in this lovely picture book awakens with the tiny squeak of a mouse. But that sets off a chain of awakenings that include chipmunks knocking pinecones into the river, fish splishing and splashing that awaken an elk, which awakens bears and wolves, and so on. The illustrations of the woodland area and its creatures are beautiful. This would be a terrific book to talk to young readers and writers about cause and effect. It also might inspire readers to listen to nature and see what sounds they hear.

Two Brothers, One Tail by Richard T. Morris, Jay Fleck (Illustrations)

Those that have ever enjoyed the close relationship one can have with a pet will definitely enjoy this sweet, rhyming picture book. The little boy and his dog are the subject of rhyming text that will have young readers counting eyes, legs, whiskers, and so on. As young children get practice counting and categorizing the attributes of these two friends, they'll also gain an appreciation of the special relationship these two have. This could also be a good mentor text for young writers that would like to describe their own special friendships with their pets.

Look! I Wrote a Book! (and You Can Too!) by Sally Lloyd-Jones, Neal Layton (Illustrator)

Oftentimes, young writers would love to be able to sit down and write a book that everyone would love. But it can be tough if you don't have a plan. This awesome picture book uses humorous, but informative text and illustrations to guide young writers through the process of finding good ideas, putting a story together, illustrating, and revising. This would be a terrific book to have in a classroom writing center to help young writers struggling to get started. It would also be a wonderful book to have on the shelf at home to inspire freetime writing.

The Worst Day of My Life Ever! by Julia Cook, Kelsey De Weerd

The little boy in this sweet picture book will resonate with many young readers who often have such a difficult time listening and following directions. RJ's day starts off badly when he wakes up with gum in hair. His attempts to get the gum out of his hair result in him missing the bus. At school he gets in trouble for running in the hallway, he gets a bad grade on his math homework because he did the wrong problems, and the day just gets worse. All through the day he is reminded by his teachers and his parents that if he would just listen and follow directions, things would go so much more smoothly for him. This would be a good book to share with young kids at the beginning of the school year as classroom communities are being developed. This book could generate a good discussion about why following rules are important and ways to help each other listen and be successful.