It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! I'm joining Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts to blog about we've read this week. Make sure you stop by their blog to check it out!

This week I read:

HOKEY POKEY by Jerry Spinelli
Published by: Random House
Published: Jan. 8, 2013

Hokey Pokey is a middle grade book, but it's unlike any MG I've ever read. It takes place in a NOT REAL place named Hokey Pokey. When you first start reading it, you don't know exactly what is happening, but you keep reading and try to figure it out. (At least I did.) Jack is the main character, and his bike has been stolen by a girl named Jubilee. He really wants it back because it's his whole life. He has a history with the group of boys that he hangs out with and he's seen as their unofficial leader/hero. The surroundings and events of the story don't make sense sometimes because they're not what you expect, but the great writing compels you to reread and decipher it. You get the sense that they have a shared experience: some event that has transported them all to Hokey Pokey to this fate. I read the book, turning the pages, asking the questions, getting some answers, and then having more questions. There is a cloud of backstory to the plot that readers have to pull themselves through in this book, but the journey is worth the steps you take to get there. You hope for the end to get the answers. Along the way, you're reading literature that you know is stretching limits for how a story is told. For me was a story about growing up: the memories, the rites of passage, and sadness that comes with its end, and not remembering it all. We look back on our childhood and only remember some events. We wonder if we've forgotten some of the good parts, too. We had our own little worlds as kids; our own interpretation, our own reality. If we could back and live it again, would it seem as confusing as Hokey Pokey is for Jack?

I'm glad I read the book because it was a journey I needed to take as a reader -- and as someone who loves children's literature, too.

THE 13-STORY TREEHOUSE by Andy Griffiths
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Published: April 16, 2013

This book will be out soon. Thanks to MacKids for the ARC!

Andy and Terry live in a treehouse that is unlike any other. It comes complete with a bowling alley, theater, swimming pool, and marshmallow machine. They have lots of fun in the treehouse, but they are also kid authors who really need to finish the book they're writing! Distractions keep occurring! Adventures ensue! Sea monkeys run rampant! This book and its illustrations are so crazy and fun that readers will definitely have fun reading it! Great for a 4th grade classroom library!

GIANTS BEWARE! by Jorge Aguirre & Illustrated by Rafael Rosado
Published: April 10, 2012
Published by: First Second

I read this book because it's on the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List for 2013-2014 and because I love graphic novels. I think I really loved this book because I really liked the main character! Claudette is a brave kid who has one goal: to fight the giant. She is passionate and relentless and always hopeful! Do you know someone who is so passionate about their goal that they are inspiring to watch? That's what Claudette is like. I loved the story and the illustrations and Claudette's little brother -- a kid who loves to bake--is cute, too. Another character who joins them is Marie, and she just wants to be a princess. We've had graphic novels on our state award list before, so I'm anxious to see how it does next January!

What I'm reading now:

• THE WATER CASTLE by Megan Frazer Blakemore: I am really enjoying this one! 

• Several chapters for library school--Learning so much! 

What are you reading?