It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 2-18-19
Thanks to our dynamic hosts: Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kelle at Unleashing Readers. Head to either blog to find reviews as well as dozens of links to other blogs filled with reviews and recommendations!
Books I've Recently Read:
The Lost Girl by Anne Ursu
Walden Pond Press, February 2019
I posted here about this amazing new novel!
Lost in the Antarctic: The doomed voyage of the Endurance by Tod Olson
Scholastic, January 2019
209 pages
Nonfiction
Recommended for grades 4+
This is the first title I've read in the Lost series, but I'm thinking it's time I start adding them to my classroom library! This story of Shackleton's voyage is full of interesting, and harsh, information. I kept ripping my bookmark to make markers for parts I wanted to mention. So, here's a taste of what you'll find inside:
The photograph of Grytviken Whaling Station on South Georgia Island is at once amazing and heartbreaking. The descriptions of the sights and smells stayed with me.
There's a photograph of the crew playing soccer on the ice in an effort to pass the time and boost morale. The stark image of the ship in the background reminds us that we never know what a new day will bring, or take away.
The poor penguins.
The poor dogs.
I'd say the poor men, but they willingly signed up for that trip, in what seems like a major waste of national resources to me. I'm still puzzling over what on this trip was worth risking their lives for, and worth living in torturous conditions for. Still puzzling.
Kid Gloves: Nine months of careful chaos by Lucy Knisley
First Second, February 2019
256 pages
Memoir
Oh my goodness, I love this one so much. I'm no stranger to Knisley's work, but after reading this book (in one sitting) I feel like I know her deeply. This truly touching and raw story of Lucy's journey to womanhood and motherhood is one that we often keep hidden inside. It wasn't until I became pregnant, and then a mother, that so many unknowns came to light. We do a poor job of being real about these things here in America. Luckily I found an amazing support system of women through my journey-all of which I wish I could give this book to.
I don't know how I would have felt reading this book pre-baby, or during pregnancy. It might have frightened me, to be honest. I do know how I feel about this book as a mother of two small kids-I feel all the love for it. I cried at parts, from sadness and an aching pain for Lucy, to utter joy for her and her husband. Ugh, I just want to go read it again! And I also want to remember to treat myself with 'kid gloves' when needed.
I love it so much I've just got to share it!
I'm Currently Reading:
I'm excited to be teaming up with Walden Pond Press and taking part in The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly Blog Tour next month! You know there will be a giveaway!
Thanks for stopping by!
I am anxiously waiting for my library's order of Lost Girl to come in. I am first in line thank goodness! Thank you so much for the heads up about Kid Gloves: Nine months of careful chaos. I am also a Lucy Knisley fan. I plan to read it and then maybe give it away as a gift to my daughter in laws.
ReplyDeleteI am also hoping to read The Lost Girl soon, although I don't have a copied lined up yet. I think the Lost series would be a good addition to my classroom library as well. Thanks for the shares!
ReplyDeleteI'm right in the middle of The Lost Girl and really, really enjoying it. I've also requested another book on Endurance, so I'll have to line up this one for my TBR list, too. Nicole, thank you for sharing Kid Gloves. I hadn't heard of this title and I would seriously LOVE to read this one. I've spent years working for a state nonprofit group supporting a large birthing community and even speaking before our state senators on proposed legislation that could help provide more options to the women/families in our state. After listening to many friends, family members, and statewide women discuss all their experiences (including my own, which was quite the pendulum swing through the birth of our five children), I find this topic utterly fascinating. We recently began weeding our home library and my husband made a huge pile of pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding books for us to go through together and decide which to keep and which to donate. I think we're just going to have to buy a bigger house so we can keep them all and keep lending them out to our college students (who have so many questions and who lack support). LOL Hope you have a wonderful reading week!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so, so thankful for all the free supports available for new and expectant parents in my neighborhood. Becoming a parent for the first or tenth time can be a wonderful time, but also a terrifying and stressful time, and it's so, so important that parents be supported, because supporting parents is an investment in the health and happiness of babies, children, and the whole community!
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