It's Monday! What Are You Reading 10/21/13 by Natalee Stotz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA! 

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. 

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. 

I've got quite the stack of books to be read, and I'm eager to get to them. Until I do, however, at least one stack is well guarded!

My most recent read was actually a re-read of Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. 

This fall I had the opportunity to hear Lois speak at USM in Portland. My husband has read the entire Giver Quartet, but hadn't read Number the Stars and I encouraged him to read it. I remember reading it back when I was teaching middle grades, and was struck by the beauty and simplicity of the story. Since it had been so long since I read it, I felt a re-read was due. It was as beautiful as I remembered.

I have also recently finished Flesh and Bone, book 3 of Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

This series has been popular with many of my students, I have a freshman boy racing through the series right now. Tonight his mom informed me that over the weekend he chose to read rather then playing video games. If you're not familiar with the Rot & Ruin series, it is about a post-appocolyptic world where zombies are a reality. But the series isn't just about zombies. It is about dealing with loss of a loved one, the value of relationships, the meaning of humanity, and doing what is right in the face of an evil world. 

I have about an hour left of my current audio book, Along the Way:The Journey of a Father and Son by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez with Hope Edelman.

A long time West Wing fan, I have sought out nearly everything that Martin Sheen has been in. The Way, a movie written and produced by Emilio Estevez and staring Martin Sheen quickly became my favorite. This memoir uses the frame of the writing and filming of that movie to tell the journeys of Martin and Emilio. It tells not only of their relationship to each other, but that of Martin and his own father. The audio is read by both Martin and Emilio, and I am convinced this is the best way to experience this story.

I am always encouraging my students that it is okay to abandon a book that just isn't work for them, and this week I practiced what I preach with The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater.

I just couldn't get into the story. I'll try again later. The same thing happened with book 1, The Raven Boys. I couldn't get into it the first time I started reading it, but later I tried again and loved it.

This week I hope to start Jeannette Walls new novel, The Silver Star.

While difficult to read because of the subject matter, I loved The Glass Castle. Jeanette is an incredibly talented writer, so I look forward to reading her novel.

Natalee Stotz is Head of High School at Windham Christian Academy in Windham, Maine. There she teaches English for grades 9-12 as well as Civics. She also advises the preK-12 school on curriculum, professional development, and literacy. Her passion is for connecting readers with books, and her goal is to create life-long readers. You can follow her on Twitter, @nataleestotz, or read her blog at nataleestotz.blogspot.com