It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

{Celebrating the books we’ve read in the past week
&
the titles we are currently reading.}
This meme is originated by Jen and Kellee at TeachMentorTexts. Thanks!


This was a sweet little read that I enjoyed. Reena and her family move from the city to Maine and to a whole new rural life. Pigs? Yep. Cows, snakes, and horses? Mmm-hmm. A crazy lady who accuses Reena and her brother of being rude? Oh yes, that is Mrs. Falala.
Reena is sure that she will hate it in Maine. But what she doesn’t know will surprise her.
Written in prose mixed with verse, this book is sure to please.
From the HarperCollins site:
Fans of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog and Hate That Cat will love her newest tween novel, Moo. This uplifting tale reminds us that if we’re open to new experiences, life is full of surprises. Following one family’s momentous move from the city to rural Maine, an unexpected bond develops between twelve-year-old Reena and one very ornery cow.
When Reena, her little brother, Luke, and their parents first move to Maine, Reena doesn’t know what to expect. She’s ready for beaches, blueberries, and all the lobster she can eat. Instead, her parents “volunteer” Reena and Luke to work for an eccentric neighbor named Mrs. Falala, who has a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a snake named Edna—and that stubborn cow, Zora.
This heartwarming story, told in a blend of poetry and prose, reveals the bonds that emerge when we let others into our lives.
•
I also finished listening to

Man! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this one. I even found the narrator, Dan Bittner, on Twitter to compliment his reading. He was able to use distinct voices for each character: Finn, the main character; Petey, a teenage girl; Roza, a native Polish speaker; and The man with icicle eyes—creepy…; and even a goat. (Bah!)
This is also a bit mature for my sixth graders, but I hope some of them read it someday.
Here is the blurb and a sample of the recording:
Bone Gap
—Winner of the 2016 Michael L. Printz Award for
Excellence in Young Adult Literature
—National Book Award Finalist
Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren’t surprised. After all, it wasn’t the first time that someone had slipped away and left Finn and Sean O’Sullivan on their own. Just a few years before, their mother had high-tailed it to Oregon for a brand new guy, a brand new life. That’s just how things go, the people said. Who are you going to blame?
Finn knows that’s not what happened with Roza. He knows she was kidnapped, ripped from the cornfields by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember. But the searches turned up nothing, and no one believes him anymore. Not even Sean, who has more reason to find Roza than anyone, and every reason to blame Finn for letting her go.
As we follow the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap—their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures—acclaimed author Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness—a story about how the face the world sees is never the sum of who we are.
Sample audio from Audible.com
***
Did you catch my
this past week?
•
Soon we will keep track of how much reading we are doing together as a class. This is what it will look like:
How many books did students in each class read?
PERIOD 2&3 READ ?? BOOKS THIS PAST WEEK.
PERIOD 8&9 READ ?? BOOKS THIS PAST WEEK.
•
For every parent who leaves a comment on TODAY’S POST with what YOU’RE reading, I’ll give your child a BUSTED ticket…