It's Monday! What are you reading? September 14, 2015 #IMWAYR

It's Monday which means it is time to catch you up on what I have been reading. I will be linking up with Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts for #IMWAYR.

Honestly, this week was so incredibly busy with grad school that I mainly started two new audio books. I mentioned in my post last week that I was interested in reading some of the novel fractured fairy tales to possibly look at doing a round of literature circles with my students using these fairy tale spin-offs.  I was first inspired after reading A Tale Dark and Grimm.  This book has a wonderful sense of voice, which would make it a great read aloud for older students. It would also make for a great lesson on narrators. Overall though, it moves a little slow for me to just sit and read.  I started getting bored about half way through.  I did use this book as an introduction to a lesson on voice in my middle school Speech and Debate class this week (with 7th and 8th graders). I still think it is maybe a little too dark for some of 5th and 6th graders, but I may just use it as a choice in my literature circles.

On audio, I began The Fairy Tale Detectives (A Sisters Grimm novel). This book reads better to just sit and read independently.  It has a more smooth and engaging plot.  I am still working through it, but I think this one will make a great choice for my literature circles to use along with The Land of Stories.

The other audio book I began is The Red Queen. I am really enjoying this one so far. Amazon describes it as Graceling meets The Selection.  I would say this is actually a pretty apt description. It also has aspects that remind me of The Hunger Games.

What are you reading right now? I also am finally trying to do better about documenting my food and workouts at my personal blog Balancing the Backpack. You can read about my meal plans for this week HERE as I try to get back in a routine now that school has started.