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MONDAY FUNDAY – May 29, 2017

May 29, 2017May 29, 2017 Jane the Raincity Librarian 19 comments

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 some of the titles you’ve been enjoying, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.

Be sure to check out an interview I did with our very own fearless Monday hosts with the mosts, Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers! You can read the post over on The Book Wars, and a very big thank you to Kellee and Ricki for stopping by and sharing their thoughts with us. We’ve started a new monthly feature on The Book Wars where we hope to feature a different children’s book blog every month, so definitely come back at the end of June for another amazing interview.

I also did a review of Kwame Alexander’s incredible verse novel Booked  last week, and I absolutely can’t recommend it enough. If you work with young people, if you are a young person, or if you ever were a young person, Alexander’s voice just rings so incredibly true. You can check out my review here, and be sure to find a copy at your local library and experience it for yourself.

Here are a few books I’ve been reading this week!

North South East West

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A little bird is ready to leave the nest, but where should she go? She travels north, south, east and west, but home is the place she loves the best. Margaret Wise Brown’s text is nice enough, but it’s Greg Pizzoli’s illustrations that really steal the show here. The simple geometric images are so colourful and fun, and really help balance out the sweet text. I honestly don’t know if I’m as much a fan of Margaret Wise Brown as I should be, being a children’s librarian and all, but I’ll eagerly read anything with Pizzoli’s name on it!

Shark in the Park

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Kids love anything with cut-out pages, especially if they involve a guessing game. Timothy Pope has a new telescope, and he’s trying it out in the park when he spots a shark! Or is it….? Lots of silly fun for preschoolers, especially if you have any shark lovers in the audience, which I definitely do!

Diary of a Tokyo Teen

Christine Mari Inzer spent the summer before her sixteenth birthday with her grandparents in Tokyo, exploring the city where she was born. Christine is part-Japanese, but she spent most of her childhood in the United States, so Tokyo felt both welcoming and familiar, and strange and foreign. Diary of a Tokyo Teen is an illustrated memoir of that fateful summer, when Christine not only reconnected with her Japanese family and heritage, but also learned a great deal about herself, and grew as an independent young woman. Inzer self-published a version of Diary of a Tokyo Teen when she was still just a teenager, and this professionally published version expands on the original edition with additional colour illustrations. Inzer is an utterly charming narrator and tour guide, offering a wonderful mix of childishness and maturity that makes her story extremely relatable and enjoyable. I actually had an experience similar to Christine’s when I was about the same age – I spent several weeks with my grandmother in New Zealand, which was my first time travelling away from home by myself, and many of Christine’s musings really brought back memories, and definitely made me smile. Her descriptions of Tokyo and the surrounding areas also left me desperately longing to go back to that incredible place, and absolutely had me wallowing in some major Japan nostalgia. A sweet, funny, heartfelt and eye-opening travel memoir that’s definitely worth checking out.

Hope you have a great week, everyone, especially you lucky Americans with your long weekend! It’s been gloriously hot and sunny here in raincity, and I am loving every minute of it!

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About Jane

Jane is a tea-drinking Canadian picture book author with a rather sizeable cardigan collection.

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19 comments

  1. admin says:
    May 29, 2017 at 8:18 am

    North, South, East, West looks adorable! I hope you enjoy it and your other books.

    My It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? post.

    Reply
  2. Stacy Mozer says:
    May 29, 2017 at 11:31 am

    I loved your interview with Kellee and Ricki. Booked and Crossover are two of my favorite novels. Diary of a Tokyo Teen looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  3. lindabaie says:
    May 29, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    Happy for your continuing sun, Jane! Diary of A Tokyo Teen sounds like a book many teens would love. I’m glad to hear about it!

    Reply
  4. Sara says:
    May 29, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    I could not resist Diary of a Tokyo Teen! I am so not a teen, but I still want to read this. I am a fan of manga though 🙂 Never too old, right?

    Reply
  5. Elisabeth Ellington says:
    May 29, 2017 at 2:37 pm

    Thanks for sharing Diary of a Tokyo Teen. I’ve read the self-published version and really liked it so will have to look for this edition. Booked and The Crossover are two of my favorites to give to reluctant readers; it’s hard not to be hooked by these stories!

    Reply
  6. Beth Shaum (@BethShaum) says:
    May 29, 2017 at 2:43 pm

    I definitely need to check out Diary of a Tokyo Teen!

    Reply
  7. cweichel says:
    May 29, 2017 at 3:00 pm

    That was fun to read more about Ricki and Kellee at The Book Wars. All these books here look interesting. I like everything Kwame Alexander writes and have been a hard core fan of Margaret Wise Brown for decades.

    Reply
  8. Kathy Martin says:
    May 29, 2017 at 3:16 pm

    I picked up Booked at work one day and read a few pages but didn’t get a chance to continue it. I’ll have to add it to my wishlist. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

    Reply
  9. Crystal says:
    May 29, 2017 at 4:37 pm

    I will definitely be reading the Tokyo GN. I love travel memoirs. North, South, East, West also looks great. Thanks!!

    Reply
  10. kozbisa says:
    May 29, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    I have been hearing tons about the Alexander book. Going to check out your review right now. The Diary of a Tokyo Teen looks excellent too.
    Sam @ WLABB

    Reply
  11. TeachersforTeachers (@ClareandTammy) says:
    May 29, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    Shark in the Park looks like a book emergent readers might also enjoy. Thanks for telling us about it

    Reply
  12. Michele says:
    May 29, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    Other than BOOKED, all of the other titles are new to me. Very different books, I’m excited to find them!

    Reply
  13. Donna (@Girl_Who_Reads) says:
    May 29, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    Looks like you have some fun reads. Check out what I’ve read, am reading, and will read this month.

    Reply
  14. Pussreboots says:
    May 29, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    Booked and Diary of a Tokyo Teen are both on my wishilst. I’m getting ready for Armchair BEA this week. Come see what I’m reading.

    Reply
  15. Greg Hill says:
    May 30, 2017 at 12:21 am

    Diary of a Tokyo Teen sounds great. Would love to learn more about the Japanese culture. And Shark in the Park sounds fun.

    Hope you had a great weekend and hopefully the warm weather stays!

    Reply
  16. Ricki Ginsberg says:
    May 30, 2017 at 3:26 am

    Diary of a Tokyo Teen looks really great! I hadn’t heard of it, so thank you for sharing it!

    Reply
  17. Akilah says:
    May 30, 2017 at 3:58 am

    Diary of a Tokyo Teen sounds really fun. I might have to check that one out for my daughter (she loves Japanese culture).

    Reply
  18. La La in the Library says:
    May 30, 2017 at 6:11 am

    I am adding Booked to Goodreads, and thanks for the heads up about the other titles. Have a wonderful week. 🙂

    Reply
  19. Drangonfly says:
    May 31, 2017 at 4:19 pm

    oh I think I would LOVE to read Diary of a Tokyo Teen!!! and I requested book. Of course! after that review! wow

    Reply

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Jane Whittingham


Welcome to my blog! Here you’ll find musings about writing, book reviews, program ideas and other bits and bobs from my life as a book-loving author-librarian-mum.

  • Home
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    • BUNNY LOVES BEANS
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    • ANIMALS MOVE
    • ONLY THE TREES KNOW
    • WILD ABOUT CAMPING
    • QUEENIE QUAIL CAN’T KEEP UP
    • A GOOD DAY FOR DUCKS
    • WILD ONE
  • About Jane

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