It's Monday, What Are you Reading? August 3, 2020

Please visit the amazing blogs: Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers who host this terrific meme each week.

Here are a few books I read last week at the lake. Click on the covers to go to the book's page on Goodreads.

A nonfiction graphic novel showing how women (very slowly) became part of space exploration in the US. 

I fell in love with the main characters, but all of the characters are extremely well-developed. The many story lines weave together beautifully and Pennypacker does an excellent job of making the setting feel like a character. 

This one was not for me.

This book is quite different from many historical fiction books. The reader travels through time with a sharecropper family from the Mississippi south. I was invested in the characters and wanted to see how it continued to develop. 

Obtained from Netgalley.

I read the digital galley, which did not have all the images quite yet so I did not get to see all the maps and illustrations. It is filled with really interesting facts about the staff that have supported the First Family for decades. 

Obtained from Netgalley.

Wow! A beautiful collection of old and new poems by the US Poet Laureate, Noami Shihab Nye. My faves were Always Bring a Pencil and Gate A-4. 

Obtained from Netgalley.

Currently Listening

Currently Reading

It's Monday, What Are you Reading? July 20, 2020

Please visit the amazing blogs: Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers who host this terrific meme each week.

Here are a few books I read last week. Click on the covers to go to the book's page on Goodreads.

Loved it! Full Review tomorrow. 

Alan Katz writes silly books and poems and this series is no exception. None of the information is actually true and the events never happened. There is a very short (factual) biographical section at the end. It has fun illustrations and kids may like it, but it was not my cup of tea.

I LOVE books about lesser-known, but super-important people. German born Emmy Noether was a gifted mathematician in a time when women were barely allowed to attend college. Her research was vital and she even helped Einstein with his Theory of Relativity. Of course, men took all the credit for her work. This book would make a nice companion to science units and to examine gender stereotypes and fairness. 

Currently Reading

Still Listening

Next Up

What Are You Reading Friends?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? July 22, 2019

Please visit the amazing blogs: Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers who host this terrific meme each week.

Here are a few books I have been able to read over the last couple of weeks. Click on the covers to go to the book's page on Goodreads. 

This one was not exactly my cup of tea, but many kids will like it. Grades 2-4. 

So glad I found this series from Capstone. Great for late 2nd to early 4th. 

Daisy finds that she can talk to animals in this delightful series. Grades 2-4. 

Really sweet story to add to your collection of #Ownvoices.

Currently Reading

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What are you reading friends? 

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai

Pie in the Sky 
by Remy Lai
Published May, 2019
Henry Holt & Co.
385 Pages
Fiction
Review copy provided by publisher


Goodreads Summary
When eleven-year-old Jingwen moves to a new country, he feels like he’s landed on Mars. School is torture, making friends is impossible since he doesn’t speak English, and he's often stuck looking after his (extremely irritating) little brother, Yanghao.
To distract himself from the loneliness, Jingwen daydreams about making all the cakes on the menu of Pie in the Sky, the bakery his father had planned to open before he unexpectedly passed away. The only problem is his mother has laid down one major rule: the brothers are not to use the oven while she's at work. As Jingwen and Yanghao bake elaborate cakes, they'll have to cook up elaborate excuses to keep the cake making a secret from Mama.
Told in prose and graphic novel elements, this middle-grade novel is about a boy's immigration experience, his annoying little brother, and their cake-baking hijinks!

My Thoughts

Remy Lai has done a wonderful job portraying what it can be like for children who relocate and do not speak the language of their new country. Jingwen is confused, embarrassed, frustrated and angry. It doesn't help that his little brother seems to be making friends and learning English far more easily. Jingwen's desperation is palpable as he feverishly tries to finish making all the cakes he and his father had talked about making for the Pie in the Sky cake shop, hoping that he will feel better by honoring his father. 

Although the book is 385 pages, parts of it are presented using a graphic novel format which help move the story forward. Australian people are drawn looking like aliens and their speech bubbles are nonsense symbols representing how Jingwen sees them. 

This book offers many discussion possibilities for students. It can serve as a mirror for students who are English Language Learners and a window for native students to see what new students may be experiencing as they acclimate to a new country. 

I would recommend it for grades 4-6. 

I would also not recommend that you read Pie in the Sky on an empty stomach. Those cakes just sound so yummy! 

Images from the Macmillan website.

See What Others Have to Say About Pie in the Sky:

Fuse 8 from School Library Journal

Kirkus

Publishers Weekly

Visit Remy Lai's website