It's Monday, What Are You Reading? 5/19

I'm linking up with Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts today.

We just received a shipment of new picture books at our school to use as mentor texts.  It was like Christmas!  I wanted to sit in the book room and read, but alas, there were spelling tests to correct and other such fun paperwork to be done during my prep time on Friday.  I did manage to read a few, but there are many more that will be calling my name before the year is out.

Among them were two awesome books that I might just need to purchase for my own classroom.  Both are going to be staple mentor texts in my Writing Workshop next year, I'm sure.  The first,
Ralph Tells a Story, is author Abby Hanlon's first book. Anyone who has taught first grade writers has taught a "Ralph."  Ralph cannot think of anything to write, and so he rather comically avoids the task.  It does, of course, have a happy ending, which makes it a great book to have in the classroom.

I loved Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  Not only is it a great mentor text for punctuation, but there is so much in the story as far as theme, vocabulary, and character development.  The illustrations are simple and fun and work so well with the text.  This one is a must-have.

Finally, after a long and not-so-patient wait, I read John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.  I had previously listened to Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Looking for Alaska on audiobook and loved them both, so I was really looking forward to reading this one.  It did not disappoint.  As I finished, I wanted to go right back to the beginning and start again.

This week, I'm reading Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt.  (Hooray for another book set in Maine!)  I'm listening to Matched by Ally Condie on audiobook, which I suspect will probably take a while, but I'm enjoying it so far.