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

I'm pretty happy with the variety of books I read this past week; I think I covered a wide age range appropriate for a kidlit reader! 

After reading Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming last week, I picked up The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde and Woodson's own This is the Rope at the library. The Selfish Giant was referenced in BGD as a story Jacqueline memorized as a child when she was finding it particularly difficult that she wasn't a great reader. I found it was good to read these two books right after reading BGD because it made the reading experience a bit fuller.

I was excited about starting Dash by Kirby Larson, and I was hoping to share it with my daughter (4th grade) because it's about a Japanese-American girl and her dog during WWII. I thought it would be a good way to introduce historical fiction -- and family history -- but I have to rethink when to share this book with her. My step-father's family was interned in Arizona during the war, and although I'm far from that experience (blood-wise and time-wise), learning/reading about that experience has always been really heart-wrenching. Dash is no different. By the end of the first chapter, I was already having heart palpitations thinking about Mitsi (the main character) being called a Jap and having slanty eyes made at her. It's important to me that my children know their family's history but it would be unwise to jump into this book without teaching her some background history. Despite the heart-squeezing, I'm enjoying the book quite a bit.

[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:

Ashley Bryan's Puppets: Making Something from Everything by Ashley Bryan

Batgirl (The New 52), Issue 35 by Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, illustrated by Babs Tarr

The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel

Circle Square Moose by Kelly Bingham, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

Druthers by Matt Phelan

Fly Away by Patricia MacLachlan

Grandfather Gandhi by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Evan Turk

If I Were a Book by José Jorge Letria, illustrated by André Letria

Marisol McDonald and the Clash Bash / Marisol McDonald y la fiesta sin igual by Monica Brown, illustrated by Sara Palacios

Maude: The Not-So-Noticeable Shrimpton by Lauren Child, illustrated by Trisha Kraussu

Nana in the City by Lauren Castillo

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Ritva Voutila

This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman, illustrated by Kristyna Litten

This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by James Ransome

The Way to the Zoo by John Burningham

Wow! Ocean! by Robert Neubecker

WHAT I'M READING NOW:

Dash by Kirby Larson

The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent (#2) by Marie Brennan

WHAT I PLAN TO READ THIS WEEK:

29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Lisa Brown