Reading Teacher Writes

Sharing a love of literacy with fellow readers and writers

Tag Archives: Derrick Barnes


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“Picture Books are Perfect” – Review of I Am Every Good Thing

I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James is the newest must-read picture book for middle school, and everyone else! This is a joyful celebration of all good things: gravity, moonbeams, cinnamon rolls, skateboarding, using a microscope, being polite, paper airplanes, swimming…and being human! I love the language — “I am a lightning round of questions…” reminds me of my former 6th grade students and my current grandchildren. The references to family, creativity, respect, worth, and love make this the feel-good book of the year.

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IMWAYR: Books for School and Home Learning

I am reading for school and home purposes this week.

I finished…

I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes. What joy! I recommend this for every reader, young and old! Amazing and inspiring!

Flamer by Mike Curato. FIRE! Flamer is going to win awards, I’m sure. Trigger warning: it’s a tough one, and has foul language. I think late middle school through adult MUST read this. Thank you for writing, Mike! We needed this story in our lives.

This week I will read…

The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love, and Truth, edited by Wade Hudson

For school, I read…

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes and

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.

Both awesome stories — my students will be happy to receive these in their book boxes this week! Thank you to Scholastic for providing access to books for our middle schoolers.

It’s MONDAY! What are YOU reading?

 

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is a weekly blog hop with kidlit co-hosts Jennifer (at www.teachmentortexts.com) 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.