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 to share what you’ve been reading!

Thank you for visiting, today! We have two more weeks until closing on our new home (unless we get lucky enough for them to move up the date), but I did squeeze in a little reading. Maybe you’ll find something here to add to your wish list.

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Thunderhead
(Arc of a Scythe #2)
Neal Shusterman
January 9, 2018
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

With all the packing, cleaning, and landscaping going on in our current home, I’ve had little time to read with my eyes. I initially checked book #2 of this series out over two months ago. I even asked the library to extend my check out when it was due (which they did by a few days). So when I still hadn’t finished it at the end of my extended checkout period, I bought the kindle book so that I wouldn’t have to wait for a new copy. And when I made my purchase, Amazon offered the Audible book as a second copy for just an additional $7.49 over the e-book price. I like that the two reading options sync so that the reader can go back and forth between reading with their eyes and reading with their ears. And that’s exactly what I did — read a few chapters with my eyes, then slip to audiobook while I worked outside in the yard.! Anyway, this book left us on a crazy cliffhanger. Now I have to decide if I’m willing to wait for the 3rd book from the library or if I’m going to just purchase the e-book, again. This is my 3rd book for the Big Book Summer 2020 Challenge, hosted by Sue Jackson. I really like this series and especially enjoy the fact that it raises a lot of thoughts and questions about life and death.

You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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Just Mercy: A Story
of Justice and Redemption
Bryan Stevenson
October 21, 2014
Spiegel & Grau

I can’t gather my thoughts and words well enough to say what should be said about this book. What Bryan Stevenson does, day in and day out, is very important work. He’s an attorney who runs a nonprofit company to represent inmates who cannot afford their own attorneys. He focuses primarily on death row inmates and those have been sentences to life in prison. But it’s far more than that. I was stunned by the various experiences he shared and cried on numerous occasions. The abuses of the system cannot be denied — particularly when it comes to Black suspects who are incarcerated without fair trials and who are, then, abused after being jailed. I was appalled and just wanted to send all my money to Stevenson. But even with the finances, he must be so emotionally depleted at times. This is grueling work to not only to witness his clients being abused on a regular basis, but to additionally face racism as a Black attorney. I plan to watch the movie just as soon as we can purchase a copy (I think it was available for free for June, but I missed it). I cannot recommend this one enough!!

You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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Look! I Wrote a Book!
(and You Can Too!)
Sally Lloyd-Jones
Neal Layton, illustrator
July 23, 2019
Schwartz & Wade Books

I came across this picture book on Overdrive and thought it was pretty cute. A young girl explains everything she knows about writing a book, from where to get your ideas, to types of stories, to knowing your audience, and all the way to selling your book. As we work hard to teach children that they are writers and authors, add this book to the discussion — did she leave anything important out of the process? Great discussion material. The illustrations were rendered in mixed media. I’ll provide one page spread as an example, below:

You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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Harold & Hog Pretend For Real!
(Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! #6)
Dan Santat
Mo Willems
May 7, 2019
Hyperion Books for Children

Need I say anything about this book? Our family was HUGE fans of everything related to Elephant & Piggie. So witnessing Harold and  Hog as they pretend to be Elephant and Piggie was hiLARious! LOL I wish we owned the entire series!! I’ll provide one page spread as an example, below:

You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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How to Catch a Unicorn
Adam Wallace
Andy Elkerton, illustrator
March 5, 2019
Sourcebooks Wonderland

A few weeks ago I shared “How to Catch a Dragon,” also by Adam Wallace. So while this isn’t an official series, there are definitely similarities. In this story, the unicorn has magical properties, like the ability to ride a rainbow, they can shrink, shoot (fart??) glitter, have a shiny horn, and they are super fast! The children chase one sneaky unicorn through the zoo all day long, but eventually they’re outwitted. 🙂 This book doesn’t show how the artwork was created, but I’ll provide a page spread as an example:

You can add it to your Goodreads list HERE.
If you do not have a local bookstore, you may purchase it through IndieBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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To Be Read:

I’m just barely started on Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes and am hoping to finish it before next Monday. Sadly, I’m out of newer picture books and don’t intend to be getting a new batch until after this move. So I guess we’ll just see how the month pans out.

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Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2020 – 223/250
Big Book Summer 2020 Challenge — 3

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What are YOU reading?