It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date, and adapted by Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts with a children’s/YA focus. The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. These weekly roundups are a great way to discover new blogs and bloggers, share titles, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.
What a week…
In other (yet related) news, I decided on the spur of the moment to participate in The Caffeinated Book Reviewer‘s HoHoHo Readathon, with the goal of sharing a few diverse seasonal reads. So far I’ve shared a Christmas story set in Japan by the incredible Alan Say, an adorable Kwanzaa story, a collection of winter-themed poetry, a colourful, lively look at Christmas, Cuban style, a Christmas story from Nunavut, and a Hanukah picture book from one of my all-time favourites, the inspiring Patricia Polacco. That’s a lot of great diverse seasonal reads! I’m hopefully going to be sharing another one or two seasonal picture books before the end of the readathon, so definitely stayed tuned, and be sure to subscribe to my blog to make sure you don’t miss out on any upcoming posts (*shameless self-promotion!!*)!
Honestly…I haven’t really been reading much of anything other than seasonal picture books this week…everything has just feel a bit crazy in these parts. My heart has been hurting and my brain has been racing, and I just haven’t really been able to focus on too much of anything.
I have been reading a lot of blogs this week though, so instead of my usual book reviews I’m going to share some of the great blog posts I discovered while curling myself up and hiding away in a cocoon of blankety sanity…
If you’re interested in LGBTQ issues, especially in light of everything that’s been happening in the States, I help manage the blog for my library association’s LGBTQ section, so do be sure to check it out and subscribe. We just had a little interview with award-winning YA author Tess Sharpe, which we’re pretty thrilled about! You can also follow us on Twitter, we’re @BCLA_LGBTQ.
One of my co-bloggers over at The Book Wars, the ever-talented Nafiza, wrote a brilliant post on Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian. You need to read it.
The Logonauts wrote about the Stonewall Book Awards! So many fantastic titles to add to your shopping lists.
Carrie at There’s a Book For That shared an inspiring and supremely useful list of diverse books to share in your classroom, at your library, and at home with all the children in your lives.
In dark times, poetry can be the perfect balm to soothe the soul and inspire the mind. I participated in Poetry Friday as usual this week, and I highly, highly recommend taking some time to visit some the many different blogs that joined in this week’s roundup and immerse yourself in beautiful, beautiful poetry.
That’s everything for this week – a bit of a switch from my usual Monday post, but hopefully it will inspire you to explore some new blogs and connect with some of my favourite bloggers.
Have a great week everyone.
Wow, it sounds like you’ve found some amazing diverse holiday reads! And I think lots of people could use a good inspirational post right about now, so this was a great idea for a post
Also that cat gif is too cute! Feel better!
I’m definitely in the festive mood after finding all these great books!
Good luck with the readathon! It’s always fun although I confess I’m not doing well this year. But hey there’s still time right?
Thanks for the links. In light of everything happening I think we can all use a little cheer. And a little diversity.
Love that cat pic!
I think we all feel like that cat some days….
Looks like you had a fruitful week! I don’t read picture books but the seasonal ones sound cool!
The holidays books are lots of fun! Though it’s still a bit too early to really be thinking about Christmas (well, not for the shopping mall, but for me anyway)!
Sorry your week has been all over the place but it’s great that you’ve been looking at blogs so much. I am checking out everything you mentioned.
I hope that this week is going to be so much better for you!!!
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.
I love the blogging community, I can always rely on my favourite blogs to inspire me with great posts.
Lots to take in here, Jane, and I will come back to read some of those diverse blogs. I know Carrie’s of course, but not the others. Thanks!
Let’s hope this week starts to feel a bit better for all of us!
AGREED! Let’s all keep our chins up!
Thanks for sharing the Stonewall post! Love that you are already onto so many great, diverse seasonal titles. I think it’ll make for a great #diversekidlit in December, but I haven’t even begun to think about books yet. Ooops …
I can’t wait to share all of these!
I’ve got The Inconvenient Indian in a pile somewhere. I am now following @BCLA_LGBTQ, although I am not a Twitter enthusiast really. I am wondering if you know of a blog, written by my niece, Casey Stepaniuk. Casey is a SLAIS student at UBC and writes for book riot and writes a blog called Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian at https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/
Now I have to go and read my book club book.
AH Casey is your niece?!? That’s too funny!! Casey is a big part of our group!! Wow, talk about a small world!!
I love the lists you’ve shared here today. Those are so helpful as we go into these next 4 years…
Absolutely. We need books that fight hate and embrace and spread love and hope as we move forward.
I am with you on not being able to read right now. I just can’t seem to focus on anything. It’s been a crazy week! I really appreciate you sharing the Stonewall post and the blog for your library’s LGBTQ section. I’ll be checking out both!
Love your cat picture! I’ve felt very stressed out, too. I’m definitely ready for Thanksgiving break next week. Thanks for the great blog tips. Some of the best teaching ideas come from blogs. Have a great week.
I think a lot of us have been feeling that way right now! Thankfully we’ve got some holidays coming up to look forward to. I learn so much from blogs, too!
Thanks for sharing these titles – thoughtful books, each one of them.
You’re very welcome, and thanks for stopping by!
Always on the lookout for diverse books and I particularly enjoyed Nafiza’s post about The Inconvenient Indian.
The cat gif looks so much like someone I know. Too cute!
Jane, thank you for sharing my post. I also feel like I wanted to curl up and away but of course I read and read and grieved and mourned. What a world. Looking forward to checking out some of these links you shared.
I had similar feelings this past week and most of my reading was escapism. Thanks for the graphics. They made me smile.