It's Monday - Books Loved Last Week

              Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with others who post their favorites.  Your TBR lists will grow! Happy Reading!
          Share with the hashtag #IMWAYR    
       Best wishes to all of you who are going back to school whether online or in the buildings. I know you are challenged and hope every start goes as smoothly as possible!
Today is also the exciting #PB10for10 hosted by Cathy Mere at Reflect & Refine (instructions here) and Mandy Robek at Enjoy & Embrace Learning. This year, link up with Mandy by commenting on her post. 

              I'm sharing a mixture of books read last week, back in the swing for some new and some old!

          In the gentlest and most caring of ways, Gae Polisner and Nora Raleigh Baskin show a year of Joy's life after her closest friend, Lukas, has died. Joy and Lukas have been best friends since second grade when discovering their birthdays are only one day apart. In alternating chapters, they return to their friendship memories, their personal family problems, Lukas up to a year ago, and Joy since that birthday time for them. Hints sprinkle throughout of the final "hunt" that Lukas has been creating for Joy's birthday all through the years. As a reader and a former teacher of young teens, I began to love these two, their heartfelt feelings for each other, Lukas worried that he may have gone too far in the final clue for Joy while Joy shows the deep grief for her friend as she lives one year more. It will be a book for readers who need to read about experiencing loss in order to begin understanding others' feelings or if they need to understand their own. It's a beautifully done collaboration.

Laura Purdie Salas has written a special story that is not her usual marvelous poetry books, but one just right for young ones heading to school for the first time. I imagine Laura did not expect that the book would be out when schools struggle about opening because of the pandemic. Nevertheless, it's a book that will especially help for any child with sensory issues, one who prefers a quiet room mostly alone. 

       Clover Kitty loves her life, perhaps thinks a friend would be nice sometimes, but mostly, she's satisfied. Then her mother announces that the next day is the first day in kittygarden and off she goes. It's not a good day with classmates getting so close, a teacher who uses a very loud gong, and naptime with a scratchy mat. The next day Clover decides to stay home and her mother lets her take time to figure out how things can be better. A new friend, Oliver, helps, too, so Clover goes off again, with new plans to enjoy her days, like earmuffs for that twangy gong! For parents and children with sensory issues, this can be a good book to read together and, like Clover, make plans that help with those school challenges. Hiroe Nikata's illustrations of cute "cat" students show all the emotions from sad to frustrating to happy! 

         I have loved Edward Gorey's 'nonsensical' books for a long time, am excited that here is a book for those children who find themselves a bit alone in what they like to do and create, Gorey's story. He never let go of his different way of doing things, ended up illustrating for others, finally realized he wanted to make his own books. And he did. When no one would publish, he published them himself. There was controversy, yet he stayed true to thinking "the world was an uncertain place where anything could happen. And in Edward's stories, it did! With Chloe Bristol's Gorey-like illustrations, every child will love reading more about a favorite book creator, or if they don't know him at all, will look for his books! There is an author's note that tells more and added sources.


            Published in 2000 by a favorite author, I wanted to share this intriguing story, made realistic with detailed illustrations by C.B. Mordan with ink on clayboard. A young girl living high in an apartment building is sad because the electricity goes out in a thunderstorm, thus nothing to do--no radio, TV, computer, etc. Her grandmother says she can tell a story and the granddaughter says, but there'll be no pictures. Indeed there are! Lost in the woods while looking for a dog, Grandmother tells the story, with string. You can see the creations and the back of the book explains how they are made. I imagine everyone has made a string figure or two, but this is a new way to use them, to tell a story! 

Thanks to Candlewick for these special picture books!

        From Steve Light who also gave the youngest readers Black Bird Yellow Sun is a new board book exploring opposites, especially for those who also love and know cats! He includes the simplest of shapes, like a sofa or a window to show some usual opposites like up and down and long and short but also includes more that are abstract, like empty and full or straight and curvy, all with those two cats. There's also a tiny blue mouse to discover on every double-page and a bit of a storyline, perhaps following a day in the life? I'd love to read this to a young toddler!



             I am a Nana (Grandma), too, and adore this loving story by Ann Stott about a young child's Nana who goes to every sports event, every art show, cheers for each accomplishment of her grandchild. She's a winner, too, earning a medal in the senior tennis tourney, but when she stumbles at a basketball game (looks as if she broke an ankle), roles reverse and the child becomes Nana's biggest fan. Andrew Joyner illustrates with great humor and action between these two but also in the crowds at all the activities. It's fun and a super book to read with a grandchild!




          From Atinuk and Angela Brooksbank who created the marvelous B Is For Baby, readers get a taste of Nigerian village life and also a few new words. Lami is a terrific chicken catcher. Others, like her brother, are best with bulls, but she is the best at catching chickens. Brooksbank's illustration fill with action and expressions as Lami runs through the village catching chickens which is where we can see a lovely double-page spread of that entire village, "with lots and lots of chickens". Page by page, people shout "slow down" (Sannu! Sannu!) And we meet friends and family watching Lami run fast after, yes, chickens. One time, however, she runs too far, up a baobab tree, catches the chicken, but wait, she also falls and sprains an ankle. How she learns from her Nana Nadia's advice is clever and Lami does not lose her "title"! What a fun book about this young girl, but also those in her family and village. Interest to learn more about this different life may end in further research!



          As a human being, I believe we should be aware of the importance of our actions by learning about connections in life no matter how small an act may seem. As a teacher, I encouraged students to look for them often. For example, if I don't plant flowers that encourage bees, will they find other places that are enough food? If I don't water my lawn in my semi-arid climate, am I aware that the grass and those insects that live there will disappear? And what about the birds that eat those insects? These are simple examples, but there are connections to be learned from the youngest age to the oldest in nearly every part of our lives. It's important to know that they exist and our actions count, too.
           Susannah Buhrman-Deever, with the help of Matthew Trueman's realistic and beautiful illustrations filling the pages, shows how the parts of the kelp forests connect to each other that includes sea otter survival a large part of their healthy existence. There are simple explanations part by part with short facts in smaller text added within the pictures of kelp forests full of varied creatures, along with those sea otters. They are needed especially to keep the sea urchin population smaller. Eagles are also included in this inter-connected system! Buhrman-Deever tells the history of when those important otters nearly disappeared when too many were hunted for their fine pelts in the 18th and 19th centuries. 
           The book offers a clear case of the importance of balanced systems, perhaps would be a mentor text to jump off into research of other things connected, for younger children, a way to show how one action starts a chain and it's not always a positive end. 

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I also finished the adult book by Kate Quinn - The Huntress. Wow, long, involved, frightening to imagine the cruelty that happened during WWII, those who have hidden with their secrets. And it's good to also imagine those who have not kept looking for those still hidden. 

Now: Alpha Maniacs, cannot resist a book by Paul Fleischman or one illustrated by Melissa Sweet! And finally it's time to read Tight by Torey Maldonado! I've had it for a while!