Monday Reading - New Books - Great Reading

  

    Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! Happy Spring, everyone!

 Thanks to Peartree Publishing for this copy.

       Noel Foy & Nicholas Roberts have written a book just right for anyone starting a group project, showing how those with diverse talents can help with problem-solving, how acceptance of differences can be both fun and helpful, along with trying and trying again for success. Young Sky, a little bird that still can't fly believes that the whole world is its nest. However, when he falls out, he isn't sure what to do so sets out looking for his mother. Along the way, he meets a few new characters, asking "Are you a bird like me?" What happens after meeting a squirrel, a giraffe, and a butterfly is both funny and inspiring. Colleen Sgroi's illustrations of the animals' actions and emotions create feel-good pages along with a bit of tension. Will Sky ever get back to its nest and his parents?

      

           Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following books!

Owen Davey's pop-up books (earlier about dinosaurs and then mythological creatures) offer small bits of information while ensuring that the creature created to "pop-up" takes center stage. Each page also gives the area where the animal lives. Those included are both marvelous as pop-outs and sad to see as well because of their plight. There's the California Condor that I've been fortunate to see, an awesome bird! Also, the Western Gorilla from Africa and the Whale Shark that is found worldwide. Davey shares that they are not actually sharks but are the world's largest fish, and can grow longer than a bus! This will be a younger reader's introduction to this category, enticing and informative.

1st published by Nosy Crow, LTD in England

          A young girl says goodnight to her mother as her mother goes off to work. The girl tells about all the important night work going on while others sleep, like the delivery people who deliver the "goods" to a bakery so the baker can be ready for morning breakfasts. Others include office building cleaners and security people, the police, paramedics and ambulance drivers, medical staff (including a midwife delivering a baby), and even parents up at night with babies. The story by Polly Faber is enhanced with the full-page illustrations by Harriet Hobday centered on the dark blue of night, lights in windows of city buildings and stores. For younger readers to learn about those important people taking care of many needs while many are sleeping. There's a fun surprise at the end when readers will discover that young girl's mother's "nightjob". It's a nice, informative book for the early grades.

        This book of poems by Betsy Franco is full of trickery, about math! She covers lots of topics, not only "Counting in Dog Years" and includes palindromes, geometry, fractions when talking about summer vacation, and even multiplying mice! All in clever rhyme, with hilarious creatures and kids in the illustrations by Priscilla Tey that are full of action on every page. There's an especially funny one about the number of missing socks after washing! Students can use these in math class or for inspiration in writing poetry about math. It's laugh-out-loud fun!

          Tony Piedra's book tells a story of a tiny treefrog (as the title says), but opening the pages, readers know they're going to learn so much along the way from egg to frog. With Mackenzie Joy's beautiful realistic illustrations taking us to Costa Rica's forest, the countdown begins. Readers will soon realize that the countdown means a fight for survival against many predators, like a dragonfly nymph, a carmine skimmer, and as the tadpoles get bigger, the bare-throated tiger heron. Each page is a delight and early on, Joy creates a beautiful, vertical double-page showing tiny tadpoles plunging out of their eggs into the water. There is added information at the back about the treefrog's journey to survival. One fun fact: After this perilous journey, treefrogs never again return to the water.

          Last, one I think everyone's talking about is the recent one by John Schu and Lauren Castillo, a paean to a story. You will see numerous favorite books in the pages, see children heading to the library, finding books that thrill and bring them knowledge, sate the curious minds, but set them off for more! I showed it to one of my librarians who also loved it and noted even the book call numbers were right! The bonus is that when you pull the cover off and look inside, it becomes a fabulous poster, for the classroom or for your own home. Don't miss it!

What's Next: I am still reading The Girl From Earth's End by Tara Dairman. Time has been filled with so many other things, will finish this coming week! It's intriguing but dense and I am reading slowly!