It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a community of bloggers who link up to share what they are reading.  For more information check out the host blogs: Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

What I Read This Week…

I Yam a Donkey by Cece Bell

This book is absolutely hilarious and very clever.  A yam tries to correct a donkey’s grammar which results in a whose-on-first routine.  The wordplay is very silly and the argument between the yam and the donkey is amusing.  In the end, there is a twist that is laugh-out-loud funny.  I haven’t read this book with students yet, but I shared it with the English Language Learner teacher at my school since she involves her students in many grammar lessons.  She found it very entertaining and is planning on using it in future lessons. 

How to Read a Story by Kate Messner

This wonderful picture book is a how-to about how to read a story.  There are ten steps that are easy to follow and helpful for beginning readers.  The list of steps is made more interesting with a story-within-a-story that is used to explain the steps.  Tips for readers included in the book, such as reading with expression, make it a great book to begin a discussion about reading fluently.  This is a book I’m going to share with my first and second graders.   

Leonardo, The Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

Leonardo is terrible at being a monster – he is not scary at all.  When Leonardo sneaks up on a sad, unsuspecting boy and the boy starts to cry, Leonardo thinks he has finally, “scared the tuna salad out of someone.”  When Leonardo finds out the boy was crying for a different reason, he decides to be a terrific friend rather than a terrible monster.  This book would be great for starting discussions about empathy.  

Hermelin the Detective Mouse by Mini Grey

After a mouse named Hermelin finds a typewriter in an attic on Offley Street he decides to help others on the street find their lost possessions.  He leaves typed notes for the owners of the items he finds and they begin to wonder who Hermelin is.  Hermelin becomes a hero, but he soon starts to think that he is just a pest.  Luckily for Hermelin a young girl is looking for a detective mouse and they form a partnership.  The illustrations in this book are very detailed and help to show what is happening.  Both the text and the pictures in this book present an interesting plot.     

Boris #1: Boris on the Move by Andrew Joyner

This is an early reader chapter book and the first in a series about Boris, a warthog who dreams of adventure.  This book is a quick read that would be appealing to readers who have not yet built stamina for books with more than a sentence or two on a page.  Every page includes bright, colorful pictures and there are dialogue bubbles interspersed throughout the book.  Boris learns that adventure can be found, as well as a surprise, in a place that isn’t very far from his own backyard. 

Appleblossum the Possum by Holly Sloan

This is a chapter book about a young possum named Appleblossum who is learning the rules about being a possum and accidentally falls down a chimney and finds himself among the humans who he has been told to avoid.  There is humor and adventure in the story.  There is also information about possums and nocturnal animals interwoven into the story so readers will learn something as well.  The message about family is very touching.  The pictures, although there aren’t many of them, capture an adorable possum family.