It’s Monday – what are you reading? May 28th

It's Monday, and that means a recap of my week of reading. Thanks to Teach Mentor Texts for hosting this each week. Check them out for more book ideas!

I wanted to hit 30 Newbery books by the end of May, and I made it! About 1/3 done now. Also, I posted on Saturday about my summer reading plans, which will include Newbery and a lot of science fiction. Check out that post, if you haven’t already, and let me know if you’re interested in joining me for my SciFiSummer!

Newbery

Sarah, Plain and Tall – I don’t think I’ve ready this one since I had children, and it felt so much more powerful now. I’ve always liked it, but it made me tear up right from the beginnings.

Roller Skates – Wow, I think this is two in a row from the 30s I’ve liked. I need to go back and look for the gender themes over the course of the Newbery books. I love how free she is to wander NYC on her own. I was sad one of the plot points never got fully addressed, but overall I enjoyed it.

Thimble Summer – Another sweet one. I now have the urge to go back through the books I’ve read so far and look for patterns in how girls are portrayed. Maybe once I finish the 50s. I have a feeling there will be pendulum swings similar to the swings in how women were/are portrayed in comics.

Bedtime Read aloud

A Swiftly Tilting Planet – L’Engle. I’d forgotten just how challenging all the jumps around in time are in this book. I was thrilled to have my 8 year old love it. He did stop me frequently to discuss what was going on, which was another thing I loved. We’ve now moved on to Many Waters (about the twins)

Comics:

I got to read Batman and Robin (issues 1-9), Batman (from the New 52 up through issue 9) and Nightwing 8. One of my friends was over, and he brought his ipad. We exchanged devices to read, so we could both get caught up on the Night of Owls cross over event. I also noticed, with excitement, that Goodreads now has the comics listed (since the trades of the first 6-7 months have been published, which gives an ISBN number). Yay for my reading now "counting"!