It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA

[To rehash the concept :: post what you read last week, what you're reading now, and what you plan to read this week. If you have a review of the book(s), great! If you have a picture of the book(s), wonderful! If you have a book giveaway, fantastic! If you just list the title(s) of the book(s), not a problem! Make it as simple or as complex as you need it to be. At least, that's the message I got. This version of the meme is hosted by Jen and Kellee of Teach Mentor Text, which, in turn, was inspired by Sheila over at Book Journey, who hosts the original It's Monday! What Are You Reading?]

WHAT I READ LAST WEEK:

Andre the Giant: Life and Legend by Box Brown

Mama Built a Little Nest by Jennifer Ward

My Yiddish Vacation by Ione Skye

What's Your Favorite Animal? by Eric Carle and Friends

Weasels by Elys Dolan

Winston & George by John Miller

WHAT I'M READING NOW:

Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

WHAT I PLAN TO READ THIS WEEK:

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA

I'm back to concentrating on library books ... I've made it my mission to "collect" area library cards. So far, I have four cards, and I currently have books checked out from three of them. It's good motivation to read the books quickly because there's no guarantee I can renew them, and I'm not often in the area of where some of these libraries are and I can only return them on specific days. And this week, I was also able to finally visit the Young Readers Center at the Library of Congress.

The Arlington Library was kind enough to allow Capitol Choices members access to their ARC collection so we can read as many new books as possible. I brought a bagful of books home and I hope I chose some books that are good enough to nominate for our current In Progress List.

But I also had a chance to go to Politics and Prose, so I also browsed their shelves and tried to catch up on some new releases and selections for Capitol Choices. I love having options of where to get my reading materials from!

[To rehash the concept :: post what you read last week, what you're reading now, and what you plan to read this week. If you have a review of the book(s), great! If you have a picture of the book(s), wonderful! If you have a book giveaway, fantastic! If you just list the title(s) of the book(s), not a problem! Make it as simple or as complex as you need it to be. At least, that's the message I got. This version of the meme is hosted by Jen and Kellee of Teach Mentor Text, which, in turn, was inspired by Sheila over at Book Journey, who hosts the original It's Monday! What Are You Reading?]

WHAT I READ LAST WEEK:

Abuelo by Arthur Dorros

A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz

The Boy and the Airplane by Mark Pett

Bugs in My Hair! by David Shannon

Chengdu Could Not, Would Not Fall Asleep by Barney Saltzberg

The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook by Joanne Rocklin

Found by Salina Yoon

Froodle by Antoinette Portis

Hannah's Night by Komako Sakai

Hot Dog! Eleanor Roosevelt Throws a Picnic by Leslie Kimmelman

K is for Kabuki: A Japan Alphabet by Gloria Whelan & Jenny Nolan

Matilda's Cat by Emily Gravett

Mustache Baby by Bridget Heos

Number One Sam by Greg Pizzoli

Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan 

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

Splash, Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke

Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock

The Voyage by Veronica Salinas

A Walk in Paris by Salvatore Rubbino

What Do You Do With an Idea? by Kobi Yamada

When Lions Roar by Robie H. Harris

Wilfred by Ryan Higgins

WHAT I'M READING NOW:

What's Your Favorite Animal? by Eric Carle and Friends

WHAT I PLAN TO READ THIS WEEK:

Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

3rd Grade Book Club :: The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook

My daughter recently joined a book club with some classmates (all girls), which I was quite excited about because she's not always the most enthusiastic reader. I'm afraid that reading is becoming a chore for her and I was hoping that a book club would motivate her to read regularly and to read books she might not normally choose. Unfortunately, it hasn't gone exactly as I hoped and, in fact, in some respects it's become a bigger chore because I keep bothering her about trying to finish the books.

Anyway, we hosted the group this month and I wanted to share what we did for the book Maya chose, The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook by Joanne Rocklin:

• discussion questions (from the author's website and from the publisher's website)
• solving rebuses (ice cream flavors and countries)
• snacks, including fried zucchini
• folding origami cats

All in all, I think it went quite well for my first Book Club. The discussion didn't last terribly long, but it got heated at times because it always does when you have Dog People vs. Cat People!

Gaithersburg Book Festival 2014

[That's me, the morning Stage Manager for the Jim Henson Pavilion]

I volunteered at the Gaithersburg Book Festival yesterday, which was a wonderful introduction to working at a book festival.

My job was Stage Manager for one of the pavilions in the Children's Village. It sounds like a fancy job, but basically I worked with the sound engineer to make sure the mics worked and I held up the signs letting the authors know how much time they had left for their presentation. But, let me tell you, I milked the opportunity as much as I could and talked to the authors who were presenting in my tent. It was a pretty impressive lineup ... I was volunteering during the following authors' presentations:

Chris Van Dusen

Tad Hills

Brian Floca 

Kate Samworth

Lola M. Schaefer

After my shift ended, the following authors were presenting (although I didn't stay to see them since I was wandering around seeing other pavilions and authors):

• Geoff Rodkey
• Kathi Appelt
• Uma Krishnaswami
• Tom Angleberger (I did briefly speak to him and his wife, Cece Bell, earlier in the day when they came to see Chris Van Dusen speak)

Although it's great to help with the authors in your own tent, the one downside of volunteering is that you miss the presentations going on in other tents. I wasn't able to see Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman (they had a huge crowd, not surprisingly), but I did catch Dave and Ben Hatke's drawing presentation, and YA author Jon Skovron (he wrote Man Made Boy and seems to be an expert on Mary Shelley).

And I was super excited that I at least got the chance to say, "Hi" to Raina. We've met on several occasions and she has always, always been so gracious and friendly. It pleases me to no end that she actually remembers who I am! She has thousands and thousands of fans so it's really touching (and amazing) that she makes an effort to remember her readers. I've definitely become a fan of hers as a person, not just as an author/graphic novelist. If you ever get the chance to see her, please do. And if you haven't read any of her books, what are you waiting for?! Go read Smile, Drama, the Babysitters Club graphic novels, and the upcoming Sisters (publication date August 26, 2014).

I'm hoping my next volunteering opportunities will be the National Book Festival and Small Press Expo.

[Bonus pic :: fan and author Chris Van Dusen getting his copy of Locomotive signed by Brian Floca]

Kwame Alexander @ Politics and Prose

First and foremost, if you get a chance to see Kwame Alexander, please do! He is so good with the tween/young teen crowd.

Even though I'm not a huge poetry person myself, I was really drawn into his presentation and the energy he brought to his reading of The Crossover, which is a novel in verse. I had checked it out for my son who likes basketball, and I'll definitely be reading it next. I also bought a copy of it for his school's library.

I took the liberty of recording some of his reading because I think it's really important to hear how this novel should sound. And I apologize in advance: I didn't get a chance to edit the videos or upload the last one I took ...