It's Monday - July 29th

Umm... it's the end of JULY? Can someone please tell me when that happened?

No matter, it's still time to share some lovely reading from the week. I was beginning to fall behind on my Goodreads goal, which made it the perfect week for checking out some new picture books!

Don't miss the other posts - visit Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.




Picture Books:
I'll be reviewing Beam of Light on Wednesday and plan to do The Boy Who Loved Math next week.

I enjoyed receiving a poem a day from Jane Yolen in July - and all she asked was that we read one of her books. So I grabbed Grumbles from the Forest from the library this week.

Sea Monster and the Bossy Fish was adorable! But what else would I expect from Kate Messner?

I spotted Uncle Bigfoot at the library - and grabbed it because it was written and illustrated by George O'Connor. Short and sweet, a cute picture book that will appeal to younger kids who like cryptids.

Good Night, Gorilla - I bought this one for a baby shower. It was my younger son's favorite as a toddler.


























Fantasy:
While both of these books show up as 4 star here, they were definitely different in quality in my mind. Girl Who Circumnavigated would be closer to 4.5 for me, and City of Glass 3.5 (Yes, I disagree with the "average rating" on Goodreads...)

GWCF was a literary delight. It reminded me of Phantom Tollbooth in style, with a fun narration style and lovely language. This was a perfect read for my stronger readers who will love the main character and enjoy the word choices. I finally bumped this to the top of my TBR pile (it was on the pile last summer, too) because I received an ARC of book 3. So now it's time to catch up!

City of Glass was fun, and a satisfying end to the trilogy, but wasn't as beautifully written. It was more of a fun summer read. I do look forward to the movie of the first book, though!

Newbery / Nerdbery

I continue to inch closer to the finish line with a read of

That makes 83 complete - for those playing at home. I have one left to go in the 70s, and then some scattered books in the next few decades to complete.

In case you missed anything:

Trim Castle - I sliced about my trip to this lovely location.

Zero Tolerance - I wrote a review for "Marvelous Middle Grade Monday" of this realistic fiction novel I enjoyed.