Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts, decided to give Kathryn’s (at Book Date) “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” meme a kidlit focus, reviewing books in children’s literature (picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in the world of kidlit). If you enjoy this type of reading, join us every Monday!
Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson, February 14, 2017.
It’s 2213 and the sun in our solar system is dying, soon to become a supernova. Earth has already been devoured by the expanding star and humankind took all they could carry to Mars to set up camp and begin looking for a new solar system that can sustain human life. As the title suggests, this book primarily covers their last day living on Mars as we get to know Liam, his closest friend Phoebe, and a little bit about their families. This is a very action-packed book with many twists and turns. Who knew so much could take place in such a short amount of time? I don’t normally read much science fiction, but I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It’s full of marvels and mysteries that kept me guessing. The story really stretched my brain a bit to think about what could be reality for the human race, one day. I plan to read the brand new sequel, The Oceans Between Stars, as soon as I can slip it into my reading schedule.
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson, February 14, 2017.
I knew this one would be hard hitting. The story follows Jade who is one of the only black students attending a pricey private high school, on scholarship. She’s an artist who pieces together extravagant murals to showcase her thoughts and feelings about life. While she often goes hungry and worries over finances, her mom is teaching her to take advantage of every opportunity she can, including getting a shot at a full scholarship to college. Over the course of the school year, Jade learns about the importance of friendships, about speaking up even when she’s nervous, and about ongoing (often camouflaged) racism that too often goes unacknowledged:
I don’t know what’s worse. Being mistreated because of the color of your skin, your size, or having to prove that it really happened.
The story is also about the proverbial “village” where children are nurtured by a variety of adults in the community. Jade struggles to find balance between the wealthy world she desires and the one she was born into. She may need help in achieving her future goals, but she doesn’t want to be seen as “that girl” by someone pitying her or making rash judgments about the kind of person she must be, based solely on her upbringing. Piecing Me Together is a 2018 Newbery honor book and a Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner. I can’t say enough about it — it’s definitely worth picking up, if you haven’t read it already.
Granted by John David Anderson, February 13, 2018.
After reading Posted, I knew I would be reading more of Anderson’s books. Honestly, the cover of Granted caught my attention from the very start, and so it’s one of the few books I purchased right away. Granted was NOTHING like Posted, but it was quite delightful for very different reasons.
A wish is many things. It’s apprehension and anticipation. It is lucky coins and dandelion fluff and rainbows stretching to forever. It is loves-mes after loves-me-nots and a pile of plucked flower petals at your feet. It’s purple bikes and getting picked first and a passing grade in math. It’s the marvelous and the miraculous. It’s hunger and heartache. A wish is something extraordinary that you never hoped to have. Or something very ordinary that most people take for granted.
In this story, we learn a number of things about fairies and wishes, such as: how do fairies get their names, what types of jobs do they have, which human wishes count, and how does a wish actually get granted. We also learn about following rules and about when rules might need to be broken. I couldn’t put the book down for the entire second half, which is saying a lot when you have five children running around you. There’s so much love and imagination stuffed into the story. And seriously, who would expect a precocious little fairy to need to sing Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train to escape certain death? HAHA!
I also appreciated the start to Anderson’s acknowledgements:
When I was younger I wished on many coins and candles to be a published writer. Though I don’t doubt that luck, serendipity, and perhaps even meddling fairies were factors in making that wish come true, fulfilling that dream has required the hard work and dedication of many humans as well…
Mouse by Zebo Ludvicek Published: November 21, 2017
This was one of my favorite children’s books from this week! Mouse meets the letter “M” as he shares his cherry. The letter “M” morphs through several letters of the alphabet as they experience snack time, nap time, thunderstorms with lightening, and more. They ultimately discover the importance of friendship after their experiences. It’s such a darling children’s book and probably especially helpful for emergent readers. The adorable illustrations are rendered in digital mixed media.
To Be Read:
I have some family projects going on this week, so I’m only going to commit to one novel this week: Children of Blood and Bone. It looks really good. I’ll also plan to read Cinnamon and King of the Sky. Both look very intriguing — not your typical #kidlit. I’m excited! 🙂
Have a great reading week, everyone!
~Shaye
The Miller Memo 
Last Day on Mars and Granted sound like good books. My 5th grader read Ms. Bixby’s Last Day; she told me about it and I got teary eyed.
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I can’t believe I haven’t yet read Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. Every time I hear the title, I remind myself that I need to pick it up soon. I was pleasantly surprised by Posted. What a gifted author!
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Piecing Me Together is on my #MustReadin 2018 list.Your words here make me want to bring it to the top of my pile! Granted is on it’s way to me. I’m really looking forward to it!
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I do this thing where I take photos of my favorite pages while I read. And once I got a bit into the book, I realized that I kept stopping to take photos in Piecing Me Together. The thoughts and phrasing were so beautiful at times — I wanted to hold on to some of those really meaningful, even if painful, moments. I hope you enjoy it!
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I loved Granted! John David Anderson’s books are so different. Loved Posted, too, and Ms. Bixby’s Day, which was mentioned above, is amazing (but sad, too). Piecing Me Together is in my stack to read.
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Granted was so so sweet! And I’m looking forward to reading Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. Even the description makes me feel all the feels! I really hope you enjoy Piecing Me Together. There were some tough moments in there — things that hit me in the gut unexpectedly.
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Thanks for stopping by. Last Day on Mars sounds right up my alley. I love science fiction and post apocalyptic…..So OSOB…there is a website for it http://readtothem.org/programs/one-school-one-book/
We only do one book, as it’s quite expensive. Our school is large, preK-8. This is the schedule:
Book is picked.
Clues are created, the art teachers put up the clues in the hallway before the book is revealed, the kids are always excited for a new clue.
Books are bagged in paperbags.
We hold a schoolwide assembly with some fun activities.
Books are passed out, we all rip off the paperbags to reveal the books at same time.
Students are given a schedule to read the book.
Every morning, two trivia questions are asked, one for K-2 and one for 3-8. They win homework passes, computer time or free dress down days (we are a uniform school) if they get the question correct.
This is the third year we have done this. The first year we read one of the Humphrey Books, last year we read The Lemonade War.
If you send me an email and you are on Facebook. I’ll send you the link to our school. The OSOB assembly video is on there.
There is so much you can do with this…..I hope this helps.
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Oh WOW! Thank you so much for the info on OSOB. That’s absolutely fantastic!! I definitely want to see that video, so I’ll drop you my email. Thanks, again!
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Everyone is saying how good Children of Blood and Bone is, I’m really looking forward to it!
The other books you read are fantastic, such a great reading week!
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It’s going to be a great week! I’m about 1/3 of the way through Children of Blood and Bone and I’m REALLY enjoying it. Thanks for stopping by, Michele!
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Dave Anderson is one of my favorite middle grade authors! He never disappoints!
And I am so excited for the second book in Emerson’s series, but I think I may need to reread the first one to jump into the second.
Piecing is on my soon to read pile since it was honored so much at ALAMW and everyone says how wonderful it is.
Happy reading this week 🙂
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I totally agree on Anderson! And I’m thinking I should start the 2nd Chronicle of the Dark Star book by May so that I don’t forget some of the details from the 1st book. That was such a fun read! I hope you love Piecing… very touching and important! Have a great week, Kellee!
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I liked Last Day On Mars very much, and have the other two on my list but still haven’t read them, am sure they’re good. I did love Cinnamon & King of The Sky, have heard great things about Children of Blood And Bone. Enjoy the reading and your projects!
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It really should be a fun reading week. I’ve started Children of Blood and Bone and probably wouldn’t put it down except that I still have to parent. LOL Have a great week, Linda!
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I love your commitment to Children of Blood and Bone. I need to commit to that book next week, too. Doesn’t it look phenomenal?!
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It really does! I usually try to squeeze in three novels a week, but this one is a big one and seems like a lot to take in. So I’m VERY excited to make this one my one reading priority this week! 🙂
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Piecing Me Together sounds really powerful – and a must-read. I am looking forward to receiving my review copy of Children of Blood and Bone – but it seems like that will be a long time coming. Huhuhu.
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The meaningful hits kept coming with Piecing Me Together — so many great tidbits that I wanted to remember! And I’ve heard so many good things about Children of Blood and Bone, so it feels like I’ve been waiting forever (even though it was just published this month). I hope your copy comes in SOON!
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I think I’m going to have to read Last Day on Mars and The Martian – probably at the same time – as you suggested.
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Sounds like a plan! But you’ll have to ILL Last Day again, since I sent it back last week. Lol
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