It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

For more great lists from bloggers participating in "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?", visit Teach Mentor Texts!

4 Books I've Absolutely Loved Lately

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich

A Dog Called Homeless by Sara Lean

February Mosaic

This month's photos are documentary: Poetry Friday poem observations; book purchases; the quote wall by my classroom door (future blog post); Louise Borden, Ralph Fletcher and Vicki Vinton at the Dublin Literacy Conference (future blog post); English Shepherd mom with her English/German Shepherd pups that we temperament tested.

Coming Soon: March

It looks like March is going to be an expensive month! So many great books I am looking forward to!

**click**

That click in the title is the sound of us pressing the "pause" button on our blog.

We'll be back in a week.

We just need some time to THINK and REFLECT on yesterday's Dublin Literacy Conference, and some time to READ and WRITE ABOUT all these books that are piling up around us!

Poetry Friday -- Lit Conference Preso

Maria (Teaching in the 21st Century) and I are going to be presenting about Poetry Friday at the Dublin Literacy Conference tomorrow. If your ears are burning, now you'll know why!

Sheri has the round up at Sheri Doyle: reading, writing, reflecting on children's literature.

Starring Jules (As Herself)

Starring Jules #1: Starring Jules (As Herself)
by Beth Ain
Scholastic, on shelves March 2013

Jules is a list maker, a worrier, and a girl with a whole lot of pizzazz. Her friendship with Charlotte is on shaky ground, but she is hopeful that she'll become friends with the new girl from London.

Jules' pizzazz is spotted by a talent scout and she is given a chance to try out for a mouthwash commercial. The only problem is that that mouthwash is orange flavored, and Jules has an irrational fear of the flavor of oranges.

This is going to be a fun series for readers who love Clementine, Frankly Frannie and Just Grace. Although Jules has an artist mom, a chef dad, an apartment in New York City, and a teacher from Cuba ("...her English sounds like the music they play on the beach in Florida."), Jules is ordinary enough to strike a chord with all kinds of readers.

White Fur Flying

White Fur Flying
by Patricia MacLachlan
Margaret K. McElderry Books, on shelves March 2013

Alice and Zoe's family in White Fur Flying is involved in Great Pyrenees (Pyrs) rescue/fostering. They have enough space and time and love to take in Pyrs until the right home can be found for them. They even have a rescued parrot named Lena who is quite the talker.

In a parallel/opposite story, the new family next door to them consists of a stiff aunt and uncle and very scared and silent nephew, Phillip, who is staying with them while his parents work out some difficulties.

The patience and insight of the girls and the unconditional love of the dogs work together to bring all the threads of this story to a satisfying conclusion.

#DubLit13

It's almost time for the Dublin Literacy Conference!

Hope to see you there!

Watch for tweets all day Saturday at #DubLit13.

Like Bug Juice on a Burger

Like Bug Juice on a Burger
by Julie Sternberg
illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Abrams, on shelves April 2013

This sweet little novel in verse is the sequel to Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie.

In this book, the main character, Eleanor, is going to go to summer sleep-over camp. Her grandmother gives it to her as a gift, remembering that Eleanor's mother loved it when she was Eleanor's age.

Eleanor does NOT like camp -- the food is bad, she's the only one who can't swim, and she misses her parents and New York City.

Luckily, she makes a new friend. Joplin is VERY tall and VERY different from Eleanor, but she winds up making ALL the difference to Eleanor.

Poetry Friday -- Take a Deep Breath and Count to Ten

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Claudio Vaccaro

SOME DAYS ARE LIKE THAT

My teacher’s sitting in her chair,

her head between her hands.

She’s mumbling and muttering…

I think she just said SAND!

This really isn’t like her.

I know she lives to teach.

But that was unmistakable…

my teacher just said BEACH!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

It's been a rough week. Sometimes the only thing that kept me sane was my poetry writing goal. 

Linda has the roundup today at TeacherDance.