#IMWAYR Sept. 8 JUMP!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers.

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.



Still in a bit of a distracted slump. The first weeks of school. Does anyone else come home and just fall asleep? I can't get at our school collection yet. Since having to give up my previous library card for a smaller system outside the city where I work ... it's just not the same. Super inconvenient location. I do have a bunch of ARCS on my Kindle, though, so I should get reading. At least my wrists/tingly fingers are not nearly as bad as they were. I can read w/o it hurting now!

One book that I did finish last week was called Jump, written by Julia Dweck and illustrated by Brian Allen. She contacted me about looking it over and when I heard it was about thinking outside the box (saw the cover and) I responded "Sure!" One of my goals this year is to actively encourage the kids to take risks and try new things. The process is just as important as the product and really perhaps even more so. Please follow directions but use your brain, too! Hello, Makerspaces, everyone?

My first thoughts? The illustrations are bright and colorful and cheerful. I love the addition at the end of a few factual tidbits about animal jumpers--not directly related to the story but a fun little extra. The last line is my favorite "To think outside the box you must First take a leap of faith and trust!" The smallest listeners will just enjoy the story and illustrations but with first or second graders you could start discussing what that actually means. Leaps aren't always easy. They're hard and scary. They can pay off! The majority of the rhymes and rhythms work very well for reading aloud. Some a little better than others but the author shows promise. I'll look forward to seeing more work.

The real test was to read it with my seven year old niece. Her thoughts? "He needs to meet a girl and then they can have more adventures and live happily ever after." She very much likes her stories to have GIRLS in them. ;)


I think the distractions are going to last at least another week. Putting the library back together means I'll probably come home and fall asleep by 7 again. But I'll bounce back soon. There are too many good books in the world to be read to get behind for long!