It's Monday-First of 2015

                  First Monday of 2015, time to share the latest books and link to our hosts: Jen at TeachMentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers. Sheila at Book Journeys started a meme to share all kinds of books read each Monday, then Kellee, Ricki and Jen formed theirs for only children's lit. Come visit, and tweet at #IMWAYR.

           This story tells about a young boy who plays and loves the violin, but whose father is the manager of a losing team in the Negro Baseball League. He insists his son has to get outside and stop playing his “fiddle” inside, thus Reginald has to go along to become the team’s bat boy. During the time he isn’t needed, he begins to practice his violin. Magic happens because the players relax and begin playing better. The story helps young children have a beginning look at this time in 1948 when the end of this league is coming. The better players are slowly moving to the white leagues. (Jackie Robinson was first.)  The weaving of a father/son conflict with the history is told well. It’s a good and interesting story. Lewis’ illustrations are lovely watercolor showing a variety of scenes that accompany the story.

         It’s a book to “see” rather than hear about, a book to read to the little ones and then giggle, giggle, giggle. They will love it, and understand it, be ready to help when asked! This will be a terrific book to teach prediction and to enjoy anticipation.

             With the happiest of illustrations and humorous rhyme, little girl Wilma Le Wu searches for a name that fits. She thinks her name is boring! At the Change Your Name store, she chooses more than one name that sounds wonderful, and off to France, Bahrain, Belize and Africa she goes. Those places happen to be wonderful, but just don’t fit Wilma. After the exploration, a satisfactory solution is found. Read the book to see if you guessed the ending! It’s a great story for discussing names and interesting names that come from other countries or cultures. Some may even be a classmate’s name!

                It’s a clever story of a family whose computer breaks (oh no!), & down from the attic come that lonely typewriter. We discover what this strange machine is, how it works (no screen, no plug, no batteries), but it saves the day for Pablo who needs to write a report on penguins. And it adds a few fond memories for the older ones in the family. The graphic look of the illustrations are interesting, and of course the text is in a typewriter font-what else?

                   Immigrants hang out at certain street corners to get picked up for a day’s work, hard work, but never guaranteed to be more than a day. This story tells of Francisco’s abuelo (grandfather) who just arrived in the U.S., who doesn’t speak English, so Francisco goes along to help him get work. Unfortunately, he lies to a man about their gardening skills and they make a terrible mistake. Francisco learns about honor no matter what the need is, and they do get a second chance. This would make a good conversation about immigrants and the hard work they do, but also about doing what is right.

What's Next, What's New? Still reading The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee. At school, reading Steve Sheinkin's Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny & The Fight for Civil Rights.