IMWAYR is a weekly blog hop with kid lit co-hosts Jennifer from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers. The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. It’s a great way to share what you’re reading and get recommendations from others. We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs each week.

I am honored to be in New Orleans, LA for the #LibLearnX23 conference (ALA’s newest winter offering). I filled two full boxes and sent them home today, but I’m keeping a couple of titles out because I know I’ll read them at the hotel and on the plane. I’m still listening to Apartment 713, too.

Libro.fm: Apartment 713 by Kevin Sylvester is sooo good on audio! Kevin is a fantastic read-aloud voice!

NetGalley: The Gray by Chris Baron is fabulous! I’m over halfway through and I’m loving the characters and the horses. The “Gray” is a place inside the mind of Sasha, the main character, but Mr. Baron also uses colors throughout the book to set up metaphors and show the reader the mood of the setting. (Teachers: check out your state standards of reading literature; I can meet so many standards using this book! I know, it’s not the main purpose of reading, but as a teacher, I will use The Gray, for sure!)

Physical Books: At the conference, I picked up two books I’ve been looking forward to: Sunshine by Jarrett J. Krosoczka and A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat. I will need multiple copies of these books on our library shelves, I can tell already.

It’s Monday! What are YOU reading?

By the way, the Youth Media Awards 2023 announcements were today and I, apparently, need to read more! I hadn’t even heard of the Caldecott or Newbery Medalists before! Time to catch up!