Monday Reading

              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 

        Still wishing all of you educators good days and having fun and staying safe!
         Happy Labor Day! We've broken records recently with high nineties these recent days. Tonight a cold front is barreling in and we're going to have snow by tomorrow! It's the strangest year ever! 
GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!! It's time to share the name of the winner of my giveaway one week ago here! I put some sticky notes in the pot as you see and drew out Shaye from The Miller Memo! Congratulations! Contact me with your information so I can share it with the publisher!  Thanks to everyone who entered and to Candlewick Press for allowing me to do it!

Thanks to Candlewick 
Press for this copy!

             Those who love words will appreciate this small history of idiosyncratic people in the past who have dissected, persuaded others to take up a cause, created a book without the letter e, and computer-analyzed the Federalist Papers, etc. Twenty-six people of years ago are profiled by Paul Fleischman in two to three-page biographies, illustrated by Melissa Sweet in her color-filled collages that show off these little-known lovers of words! I took a few weeks reading and digesting this book, mostly new information to me. It reminded me of when I would browse encyclopedias and discover something entirely new and quite fascinating. One example reminded me of a visit with my students to the Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts where among other things, we learned of linguist Jesse Little Doe Baird, whose work revived the Wôpanâôt8âôk language of her ancestors. There is much to learn in this book for older readers and lovers of words!
              Added at the end, first is a terrific page by Melissa with a collage of "hello" and "goodbye" in varied languages, then source notes and additional articles about each person included. 

            You can read a special interview with Phoebe Wahl HERE at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast! 
             Leo and his dad live in this creaky old blue house. They aren't rich and sometimes when the heat doesn't work, they bundle up and dance to keep warm. They also heat the oven and make a pie! A little worry creeps in when builders around them are tearing down other houses and finally they get the notice. They must move out because their beloved home is being torn down, too. In beautiful colored collage pages, Phoebe shares this story, based on her own life experience, says "her" blue house looks just the same as in the book. To read of a loving family that faces moving and to learn that while grief is there, things that move with them are also things that make a home special seems perfect for our days today. Many children may be moving because of virus challenges, including evictions. This story will bring some hope.
             Phoebe offers an extra look at neighborhood changes with the endpapers, the front depicting the original neighborhood and the back showing the changing landscape. 

          Carrie Finison's debut poetic picture book will cause everyone to make a run to the nearest doughnut shop for at least a dozen of those special tasty treats! And that's what LouAnn, the bear is anticipating as she readies for winter hibernation, a wonderfully tasty plate of doughnuts! In clever couplets, the tale begins with the mixing and cooking when Ding Dong! the bell rings and it's Woodrow, the beaver, asking if the bear has enough to share. "Sure, says Lou Ann, and pulls up a chair." Thus begins this yummy and sweet cumulative tale of a bear generous for a long while, but sometimes, lesson learned, enough is enough! Quite a few animal pals come by to snack and although they share in LouAnn's bounty, they also are thoughtful and return later to make amends. Cute animal expressions and a colorful array of doughnuts in illustrations by Brianne Farley complete the story well. She adds endcovers from beginning to end that are delightful celebrations of doughnuts and the delight of eating them!