It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 1/22/18

Etta, Bella, and I are eager to share our latest reads for It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR is a community of bloggers who link up to share what they are reading. Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers and Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give it a #kidlit focus and encourage everyone who participates to visit at least 3 of the other #kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

Our Reads This Week:

R is for Rebel  by J. Anderson Coats

Three generations before Malley was born, the country of Milea was conquered by the New Wealds. After her parents were imprisoned for being resisters to the new government, Malley was sent to a national school. The school’s mission is to reform Malley and other young girls to be loyal Wealdan subjects and train them for domestic service.  From the very first chapter, it is very clear that Malley is her parents’ daughter and is not willing to be reeducated.  She wants to do something song worthy, like her Milean ancestors. At first, she thinks she is alone in her fight, but as the story unfolds, Malley notices that other girls quietly subscribe to the same beliefs as her.  She soon realizes that resistance is all around her in many different forms.

R is for Rebel is a novel that left me thinking and questioning.  As Malley stated,  “It’s one thing to lose something; another thing to entirely give it up.”  When I first began reading, I wasn’t quite sure if R is for Rebel was a historical fiction or a fantasy.  In the end, it doesn’t matter because like other dystopian novels, Malley’s story teaches us an important lesson-to always personally fight for what you most value.

Special thanks to J. Anderson Coats for providing our #bookexcursion group with an ARC of R is for Rebel.  Look for its release in February 2018.

Isadora Moon Goes to Schoolby Harriet Muncaster

Isadora is special because she is half fairy and half vampire.  The time has come for her to attend school, but does Isadora belong in fairy school or vampire school?  In this first book of the series, Isadora amusingly discovers whether she is more fairy, more vampire or perhaps, she is something all her own. After all, different can beautiful too!

Young readers at my school will definitely sink their fangs into this transitional chapter book series.  Harriet Muncaster’s illustrations are gorgeous using only black and pink colors.  Students will be able to relate to Isadora who is learning about her own identify and how she fits in.

Currently, there are four published books in the U.S..  The fifth book, Isadora Moon Goes to the Ballet will be released on January 23, 2018.  Special thanks to fellow #bookexcursion member Amber Webb for introducing me to the Isadora Moon series.

The Bat Can Bat by Gene Barretta

Homonyms, homophones, and homographs?  No wonder children get confused!

Permission to post visual granted from Kearson’s Classroom Blog.

Gene Barretta to the rescue! Author of picture books such as Dear Deerand Zoola Palooza is back with The Bat Can Bat, a fun and engaging picture book that teach homonyms, words that have different meanings but sound and are spelled the same.

Set at an athletic event, The Bat Can Bat features 2 homonyms on each page spread.  Readers can use context as well as the illustrations to identify the different meanings of each homonym.   The illustrations are especially important because they provide a visual to support students in understanding each word’s multiple meanings.  Last year, my school had a school-wide focus on teaching multiple meaning words. The Bat Can Bat would have been a great resource for teachers.  Makes me want to revive our initiative!

Special thanks to fellow #bookexcursion member Allison Stout for getting an ARC of The Bat Can Bat from Macmillian Children’s Publishing at the 2017 NCTE convention.

Featured Dog Selection of the Week

Wanting to spread the dog love, Beagles and Books has a weekly feature of highlighting a literary selection with a canine main character.

Frankie by Mary Sullivan

The story begins with Francine affectionately called Frankie leaving the shelter.  As soon as Frankie enters her foster home, she takes in her new surroundings especially things like a ball, bone, toys and a bed.  Frankie quickly realizes all these things belong to Nico, the family dog, and Nico is not willing to share.  Will Frankie get her own toys or will Nico learn to share?

Frankie is a story with few words but a lot of heart.  The adorable illustrations visually tell the story and capture both Frankie and Nico’s emotions. Frankie hits close to home because the story was inspired by author/illustrator Mary Sullivan’s real foster puppy Frankie and a portion of the book’s proceeds are being donated to the shelter Austin Pets Alive.  Shelter pups are dear to my heart because both Etta and Bella are rescues. Luckily, from the first day we brought Bella home, Etta has been very willing to share and still does.

Etta, Bella, and I thank you for visiting Beagles and Books.  Have a great week! Happy Reading!