IMWAYR: 12.30.19

It's been a crazy holiday break in Ohio. With temps in the 50s and 60s we've spent a lot of time outside. As the weather cools this week I hope to get in some major reading. I have 10 titles I'd like to finish before I return to school on Jan. 6. What are your reading plans for the rest of break?

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A Reading Year in Review!

2019 is coming to a close and I can honestly say there have been some amazing books that have hit the shelves this year. If you follow me and my lovely crew on Instagram or Twitter, or if you have been a loyal reader here on our blog, you have seen the books we have been crushing over all year. 

This year I have spent a lot of time gathering and reading books that have characters of color and are written by authors of color. I have shared many of these books with you all here and via social media. I have also shared these titles with my students. I feel that it is so important to open our students eyes to the beautiful colors of the world! 

I hope that you all have loved reading about all our reading adventures (good and bad) and about all the amazing authors we had a chance to meet and interview. I would also like to thank all of those authors for taking the time out of their busy writing schedules to talk with us and bring our readers inside information about the process of writing a book!

With that being said, here are some of our favorite reads from 2019....

What have you been reading and loving this year? Comment some of your favorite book from 2019, or head over to twitter and follow the conversation and gather a list of amazing 2019 releases!

Thanks for stopping by and as always happy reading!

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Most Popular Books this Year...and What to Read Next

This is not a definitive list of "best" books. With so many MG and YA books out there, it's truly impossible to narrow down our favorite reads of the first half of the school year. This list is focused on YA books that have been most frequently checked out of our classroom library. It doesn't include great MG titles like Barbara Dee's Maybe He Just Likes You or Raina Telgemeier's newest graphic novel, Guts.  Or stunning debuts like Kate Allen's The Line Tender. Or even Jason Reynolds' brilliant novel in ten blocks, Look Both Ways.

This list also doesn't include tried and true YA titles such as:

• All the Bright Places
• The Hate U Give
• Gym Candy
• The Memory of Things
• Children of Blood and Bone
• Scythe
• Heroine
• Refugee
• Hearts Unbroken
• The Crossover

In short, there are a lot of brillant MG and YA books out there. And there are a lot more coming in 2020. I've paired some class favorites with soon-to-be-released titles. I hope you find something that looks intriguing!

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Most Popular Titles in My 5th Grade..so far :)

Every year is much more different than the last. Each student comes in their own, their own stories, their own memories, their own emotions. They find the stories that either help them escape these. They search for stories to help them not feel alone. Or they find those stories that help them to understand what their friends or other classmates are going through. As a lover of books, I choose what I read aloud wisely. Basing our read alouds primarily this year off of Project Lit - we started with Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Not long after students were fighting for Patina, then Sunny, and then Lu. You could say that introducing them to a series was definitely successful. Then we moved to A Long Walk to Water to review empathy and understanding of those that we may not always come into contact with. Students developed a deeper understanding in that moment about how good their life truly is in comparison to others. Our last read aloud was Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry. Having their own classmate with Tourette's, Forget Me Not brought awareness to my students of what their classmate may be going through. Then we had the opportunity to Skype with Ellie and they truly were able to develop that empathy even deeper. 

I decided to ask each of my 54 students this year SO FAR what's their TOP book choice. This in no way will be the final choice, I am sure of that, and it may even change tomorrow, but I think this is so interesting! 

Drop below in the comments what your students are reading and LOVING:) 

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