It's Monday! What are You Reading? Books from BEA 2014!

Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsburg at Unleashing Readers cohost It's Monday! What are You Reading? weekly on their blogs.  To see what others are reading and recommending each Monday, or to participate, be sure to head over to these blogs.

On Friday, I was in my glory at BEA (Book Expo of America) in NYC surrounded by new and upcoming books!  This was my fourth time going to BEA and I will continue to go each year.  The Javitts Center is filled with high levels of energy and excitement for books!  It is a great opportunity to meet authors, learn about new books being released, get ARCs signed by authors, and be around thousands of people that share a passion for books and reading.  One of the best parts of the day is coming home from the conference to look at all the new ARCs and make my new TBR piles, as well as think about which books I will recommend to different kids in my class.

Some of the books I have read this weekend are:

I was so excited to get my hands on an ARC of Sisters by Raina Telgemeir, which is a companion book to Smile! Smile is a well-loved graphic novel in our classroom so I knew my students would be  excited to get a first look at Sisters which will be published on August 26th.  Sisters is about Raina's relationship with her sister, Amara, and how they have had their ups and downs.  The story is written in present day while on a road trip from San Francisco to Colorado, but has flashbacks to show how their relationship changed over the years and how having a new baby brother impacted them too.   Children who have siblings will definitely be able to relate to their relationship.   Mark your calendars for August 26th to read Sisters! 

Leroy Ninker Saddles Up by Kate DiCamillo is a new spin-off series of her popular Mercy Watson Series and will be published on August 26th.  I usually do not gravitate towards books that are for primary grades since I try to focus on books that I can read and recommend to my 5th graders, but I couldn't pass up reading this one.   Leroy Ninker has everything he needs to be a cowboy, except a horse. This all changes when he meets Maybelline, a horse, and immediately knows he must have her as his own.  The adventures begin as soon as he meets Maybelline so get ready to laugh and enjoy! Also be on the look out for an appearance by Mercy Watson towards the end of the book too!

I also picked up an ARC by Ella Burfoot titled How to Bake a Book, but according to her website it will now be Recipe for a Story.  This is an adorable picture book about putting together the important and necessary ingredients to write a story.  These ingredients include word choice, characters, feelings, problems, and even capital letters and punctuation too.  It is a very cute book for younger children when learning how to write a story and also for older children to use as a mentor book when writing stories.  This book will not be out until 2015…sorry!

I'm My Own Dog by David Ezra Stein is a perfect book to read aloud to students of all ages to talk about point of view and perspectives.  This is a hysterical book about a dog's point of view on how he has a human as a best friend.  From the dog's perspective, he is the one who takes the lead and has command over the human. In his eyes, he leads the human around with the leash, plays with fetch with the human, and lets the human follow him around.  It is a very entertaining book that kids of all ages will enjoy! This book will be published on August 7th.  :)

Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X is a picture book biography written by Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X.  This book was published in January so it is available to purchase and read now! This is a very inspirational story of Malcolm's childhood and how his parents and family taught him important life lessons that helped him become a leader.  In this book, the reader learns about his strength, determination, and passions as well as how his parents impacted his beliefs.  The author's message written by his daughter is powerful and gives more detailed information about his life.




Happy Reading and stay tuned to hear about more books from BEA next Monday! :)