It's Monday! What are you reading? #21

It's Monday! What are you reading? is the original weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, but is now hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.  It's Monday! What are you reading? - from Picture Books to YA is a kidlit focused meme just like the original and is hosted weekly by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers .  The purpose is the same: to recap what you have read and/or reviewed and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. Twitter for #IMWAYR

What I read and reviewed

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt

I also read the following finalists for the Round 2 Middle Grade Fiction Cybils award:

Footer Davis is Probably Crazy by Susan Vaught
Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly
The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands

More on these after the awards are announced on February 14, 2016

And some wonderful picture books:

1- Lost. Found. by Marsha Diane Arnold, illustrated by Matthew Cordell - when bear loses his bright red scarf in the forest, a number of animals find and play with it, each in their own way.  Will bear get his scarf back?

2- Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by G. Brian Karas - even though it's cold and snowy outside, siblings Pauline and John-John decide to invest their savings in opening a lemonade stand.  Pauline uses the stand as an opportunity to begin teaching her younger brother about money.  Will anyone buy cold lemonade in the middle of winter?  Maybe. 

3- Big Bear, Little Chair written and illustrated by by Lizi Boyd - this is a fun book that helps kids understand size using comparisons of big, little and even tiny.  The book compares disparate objects, but repeats bear and chair in various way, keeping continuity, while offering the opportunity for kids to make their own size comparisons.

4- Farewell Floppy written and illustrated by Benjamin Chaud - what do you do with a best pal pet you think you have outgrown?  Here, the narrator takes his pet bunny into the woods so that Floppy can live out his days in the wild, but when his plan appears to have succeeded, the boy realizes how much he still cares for his bunny.  Will he be able to find him in the woods? 

5- At Night written and illustrated by Jonathan Bean - one night, after everyone in her house is asleep, a young girl just can't get to sleep.  Then, she feels a breeze in her room, takes her pillow and blanket and heads to the roof of her building, where she makes a cozy place to sleep in one of the chairs there.  Not to worry, her mom isn't asleep either and shadows her daughter the whole way.

6- Ninja Baby by David Zeltzer, illustrated by Diane Goode - from the moment she was born, and karate chopped the doctor, Nina was a ninja baby -  and diaper changing was a simple matter of hand to hand combat.  But when the Kung-Fu master shows up in the form of a younger brother, Nina learns a valuable lesson about sibling rivalry and sibling bonding.

7- Job Wanted by Teresa Bateman, illustrated by Chris Sheban - when an old dog asks a farmer for a job and a home, his is immediately turned down.  Dogs, the farmer tells him, do nothing be eat and don't give anything back.  Can the old dog prove his worth to the stubborn farmer?  You bet he can, and what fun watching him do just that.

This week, I plan to finish reading the two remaining books for the Middle Grade Fiction Cybils award and see what I haven't read when the Youth Media Awards are announced.

That's what I've been reading.  What are you reading this week?