It's Monday, What Are You Reading? December 2, 2013

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme began by Sheila at Book Journeys as a way to share what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and what is in store for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading. I first learned about it at Teach Mentor Texts. 

30 days of Picture Book Month posts have now been put to bed. I love the challenge each year of writing a daily themed based post. It's like getting back into physical shape. Before, each blog post would take me so long to write but having to write daily, I relearned how to be efficient and set parameters for myself. As a result, I have been asked to do more guest writing and have begun wondering how I will juggle so much writing with two jobs, two grandkids, and several committee meetings in the weeks ahead. A few minutes after I submitted a set of interview responses for The Children's Book Review, I received an email from author Kirby Larson reminding me I had promised to write her an article about my Bluebonnet Book Club program. A few months ago I also agreed to write something for My Town Tutors. I have also been wanting to contribute a Nerdy Book Club post and Donnalyn Miller sent out a tweet calling for volunteers. This might be the right time. That is after my big Holiday Family Reading Celebration this coming Saturday.

I am very excited about my upcoming literacy event. Each December I host a big family themed reading event at Barnes and Noble. I have asked several community organizations to join forces with me to promote families reading together and reading for the sheer joy of reading. Many community members are helping me with guest appearances and read alouds. We will have an Elf on the Shelf, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, a Twas the Night Before Christmas PJ storytimes. Our university Student Reading Council students are coming out to help me and put on a Readers Theatre. We will have craft activities and a visit from a real robot-Curby the Recycling Robot and a "Going Green" storytime. 

Yesterday, I secured volunteers from

 Vader's First 501st Legion-a Star Wars costume character organization who promote an interest in Star Wars at community events. In other words, they are "Bad Guys Doing Good." I am expecting Boba Fett and Stormtroopers. I have requested a big book display of Star Wars books to be set up. Star Wars has a unique way of drawing readers in. It would be so cool if families would dress up as their favorite Star Wars characters too. 

I predict I will probably read about 30 books myself on December 7th. I hope I find some really terrific titles. 

Here is what I read this week:

Beautiful Creatures: I enjoyed the book but then I saw the movie and I was frustrated with all the changes. It almost ruined the book for me until the ending. The ending was fantastic. I did like that change. I also saw Catching Fire today-the screenwriters, producers, and directors did a great job of staying true to the essence of the book. Even my self professed movie critic of a son said it was a great job.






If you want to read the blog post for each book, please click on the available links. 

My Family's Clothing themed books

Retile themed book

Jungle themed book

Holiday themed book

Monster themed book

Well, that's a little bit of my reading week. I hope you have had a lovely week too!

Julee