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. It’s been a somewhat slow week with planning for company and fighting a stomach bug. However, I did enjoy what I was able to read. I finished a young adult contemporary novel in verse and a handful of picture books. Hopefully you’ll find something of interest to add to your reading list.

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Punching the Air
Ibi Zoboi
Yusef Salaam
September 1, 2020
Balzer + Bray

This was a very moving novel in verse to read — a serious “punch” to the gut, at times. For while it’s a fiction novel, it’s based on many real life stories where the criminal justice system is clearly broken and abused. We’re too often in a hurry to punish someone for the crime, even when we lack firm evidence. This is one rather heartbreaking story of a young man facing such a scenario. It was incredibly touching when the main character, Amal, was looking for meaning in prison — including figuring out what he should have done differently to not end up behind bars. I mean, we’re talking about an innocent human being, here. Wow. I listened to this one as an audiobook. My thanks to Libro.fm for providing me with this title. I’m so glad this title is out in the world!

NOTE: Yusef Salaam is one of the authors of this book and, if you’ll remember, he was one of the Exonerated Five after being accused and convicted in the horrific rape case (Trisha Meili) back in 1989. It was only when another inmate made a full confession to the crime (and his DNA matched) that Yusef was released. When They See Us on Netflix is a social drama based on the experiences of the Exonerated Five.  

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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Brick by Brick
Heidi Woodward Sheffield
May 5, 2020
Nancy Paulsen Books

I love this story showcasing the pride of young Luis in the hard work his Papi does as a brick layer. We catch glimpses of Luis at school while his father is working in the hot sun, building a surprise for Luis and his Mama. The collage art is so beautiful and I love the inclusion of onamonapia, throughout. I would definitely put this one down as a Caldecott contender. The illustrations were created using photographs digital painting, and collage. Sheffield used brick photos to create Papi and Luis, emphasizing their strength and fortitude. 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 IndiBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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The Girl and the Dinosaur
Hollie Hughes
Sarah Massini, Illustrator
January 14, 2020 (U.S.A.)
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

My littlest is in love with dinosaurs, so I always love finding books on the topic that will spur on her imagination. In rhyming text, this book begins with a young girl named Marianne. She’s digging up dinosaur bones until she has enough to make an entire dinosaur! When she goes to sleep that night, she makes a wish that her bony dinosaur will come to life. And he DOES! In her dreams, of course. There are adventures and all sorts of magical elements they discover in their dreams. But the book ends the same way it began — back on the beach, with many children digging for more dinosaur bones. Perhaps they’ll each meet their dinosaurs when they go to bed, too.

The artwork in this book was created with watercolor, pencil, printed pattern collage, and Photoshop. 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 IndiBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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The Good Egg Presents:
The Great Eggscape!
Jory John
Pete Oswald, illustrator
Saba Joshaghani, illustrator
February 11, 2020
HarperCollins

I thought this book was part of The Bad Seed series since it features none other than “The Good Egg” and is written by Jory John and Pete Oswald (with The Bad Seed, The Cool Bean, etc.), but it doesn’t appear to be listed under the series list. Am I wrong? In any case, the story includes eggs coloring themselves and hiding from Shel. So it will be just perfect for a read aloud around Easter! With colorful pictures and adorable expressions, children will certainly enjoy the personalities and humor in The Great Eggscape! The artist used pencil sketches scanned and painted in Adobe Photoshop to create the digital illustrations for this book. 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 IndiBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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The Stray
Molly Ruttan
May 19, 2020
Nancy Paulsen Books

This cute little book is about finding a stray dog, but with an alien twist. Unfortunately, the dog doesn’t really belong to them, so there’s a bit of sadness at the end. *sniff, sniff* When I was a child, we found a super cute and friendly dog roaming around. When we had no luck finding her owners, we adopted her, bathed her, fed her, got her a collar, and we absolutely fell in love with her. Several weeks later, maybe even months, her owners suddenly turned up. We were sad to see her go, but glad to see them so happy. So yeah, this book may be a comfort to those who are in a similar situation or who are fostering a dog who eventually gets adopted! The illustrations were brought to life with charcoal, pastel, and digital 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 IndiBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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I Believe I Can
Grace Byers
Keturah A. Bobo, illustrator
March 3, 2020
Balzer + Bray

In rhyming text, the message of this book clearly shines through that we can do anything we want to do, if we truly believe in it. Mistakes happen, though, so we must learn from them. Also clear in this book is the fact that many different identities are represented: ethnicity, gender, size, physical differences or disabilities. The facial features are quite beautiful. The book doesn’t share how the artwork was created, but it almost looks like colored pencils were used. I’ll share 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 IndiBound HERE.
You may also choose to purchase it through Amazon HERE.

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10 Trick-or-Treaters:
A Halloween Counting Book
Janet Schulman
Linda Davick, illustrator
August 11, 2009 (board book)
Knopf Books for Young Readers

My six-year-old has been counting the days to Halloween for over a month, now. She is WAY too excited about putting on a costume and getting candy. So over the last week, she’s been reading and re-reading this old favorite. In rhyming text, the book counts down from 10 to none as children’s slowly disappear from the trick-or-treating group. They’re scared off by spiders, bats, a vampire, a mummy, etc. The sing-song rhythm and brightly colored images have kept my youngest coming back for more. I’ll provide one page spread as an example of the artwork, below:

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

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To Be Read:

I am in the middle of both Hatch by Kenneth Oppel and Brother’s Keeper by Julie Lee. And I’m saving my Ruth Bader Ginsburg picture books to share when I have to several here at once (still waiting on two ILL books to come in).

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Reading Challenge Updates: 

Goodreads Challenge 2020 – 255/300 (upping my challenge to 300)

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What are YOU reading?