It's Monday! What are you Reading?

There's a new meme on the block, an offshoot of that seasoned meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  The newbie is called It's Monday! What are you reading? - from Picture Books to YA and it is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.  The purpose is the same: to recap what you have read and/or reviewed and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week but with a focus on kidlit.

Well, after two weeks of vacation at the shore, I can't say I managed to read as many books as I would have liked to, but what with great weather and four kids around, it was also a little hard to focus.  And of course, my recently returned from China daughter was home for a few weeks before heading out to San Francisco and naturally, I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her.  

Nevertheless, I did manage to do some reading:

Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion and Betrayal by Mal Peet.  A sophisticated YA novel in part about two men in the Dutch Resistance towards the end of World War II and in part about the granddaughter of one of them in contemporary London.

Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert.  A sequel to The Ark, this YA novel continues the story of the Lechow family, refugees from Pomerania, in post-war Germany

Black Radishes by Susan Lynn Meyer.  The suspense story about an 11 year old French Jewish boy and his family trying to avoid the Nazis and survive in Vichy France until their American visas arrive.  Great for middle grade readers.

T4 by Ann Clare LaZotte.  A YA novel in free verse, it tells the story of a 13 year old deaf girl living in Germany when the T4 law is passed, the Nazis so called Euthanasia program that let they do whatever they wanted to people with disabilities.   

Little Orphan Annie and her Junior Commandos by Harold Gray.  A retelling of the comic strip the helped mobilize thousands of kids around the country to collect scrap for the war effort.  An interesting piece of history.  

Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen by Donna Gephart.  In this middle grade/young YA novel, a young east coast girl dreams of becoming a kid contestant on Jeopardy, in part to be able to see her divorced father living in California with his new family, her former best friend and her mother.  A nice coming of age story.








I was hoping to be able to read the following:
The Absolutist by John Boyne
Madhattan Mystery by John J. Bonk
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Becoming Clementine by Jennifer Niven