It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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. Some of my very best reading recommendations come from this pathway!



People who know me as a reader know that I love Patricia MacLachlan's writing. I admire the way that she captures so much emotion in such simple words. Our PTO bought copies of  Snowflakes Fall

and recently presented them to teachers. I saw it on our principal's shelf and read it on the spot. I cried. Snowflakes Fall is a picture book that she wrote in honor of the people who died in Sandy Hook last year. Her writing combines with Stephen Kellogg's illustration to create a simple, but oh so powerful book about celebrating life and finding hope.  Definitely be sure to read this one on your own before reading out loud to a class full of children.  I'm not sure that I will ever be able to make it through the text without my throat shutting down.

I did have some less emotional reading as well since I had some time to spend at our local library while I was waiting for one of my daughters.  Pebble Plus books are fabulous nonfiction mentors for primary writers. Snow by Erin Edison was on the shelf and is full of text features and craft moves that will help young writers develop their informational repertoire. If you come across any of the Pebble Plus books, I recommend them!


Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes is sure to inspire conversations about guilt and conscience! I love the simplicity of the story combined with the complexity of the emotions. For anyone who is trying to inspire young readers and writers to say and write more about a text, this book will provide many opportunities. I would love to hear a classroom of second-graders discuss Penny's moral dilemma!





I know that I read The Button Box by Margarette Reid several years ago, because it definitely was familiar. I read it again at the library with the lens of a writing teacher. What a powerful mentor to teach students how many stories even a box of buttons contains! 




The rest of my reading time has been taken up by curriculum, blogs, and articles. My pile of chapter books remains high...

Happy reading!