Monday Reading - Lots to Share

  

    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!    

     It's a lovely story set in World War II, as Hitler conquers France and eyes Great Britain, finally, sadly, begins The Battle of Britain. But the story really begins when Emma Taylor's father saves her from the fire in their beloved bookshop. Sadly, he does not survive and Emma is left without family, an orphan in need. The bulk of the story finds Emma later, now widowed as well, with a young daughter, Olivia, and desperate to find work. There are legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her. 

     The rest of the story, filled with wartime worries, sending Olivia to the country which does work, doesn't work, and on. The tension continues as readers also hear about Emma's co-workers, and her neighbors in the apartment where she and Olivia live. There is frightening loss, frightening hours in bomb shelters, but also there is loving kindness in their midst. I began to care for all the characters, hoping they would make it, wondering why some are unkind, knowing that Madelin Martin will deepen the story as we readers learn about these lives. It's so complicated. I enjoyed the book, often asking myself, "What would I do?" 

       Knowing some of the history of Lending Libraries and reading about Martin's research in her Author's Note was fascinating, too. And, I loved reading about books discussed, both personally and at the lending library, titles readers will recognize here in the 21st Century, titles still read and loved! 

 

         In various places in our world, we see or read of another calling for people to do one thing to help. It may be for one person, for a neighbor, or a neighborhood. It might even be something considered small, offering a smile to someone or picking up something that has fallen in a grocery. Collectively, the acts make a difference! In this book, a young girl is inspired to make change. The text says, "Imagine the world you want to live in. If it’s not the world you see, will you create it?

         Ruth Spiro's story explores the idea of the Jewish philosophy Tikkun olam or "repair the world". With Victoria Tentler-Krylov's amazing and breathtaking illustrations, readers watch the girl walking to school, then seeing her small spark growing as she realizes she wants to make a change in her world. Connecting to others, they begin. 

       Every time I share another book by Allen Say, I advise to never, never miss a book by him! This time an old man starts out on a walk, looking for a paper airplane, but whenever he sees another person to ask if they've seen one, he realizes something is changing, himself! He becomes younger as his walk continues. It feels like a special story of memory, but Allen Say gives us more in his poignant paintings, page after page, one at a time, the man tells us what he's seeing, from his past! It's an amazing book! 

Thanks to Walker Books/Candlewick Press
for my copy!

       A little rhyme at the beginning as Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hair go out into their world together, to see what they could see, and they did see a few things, including a big surprise at the end. Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram again bring a book for little ones to add to their collection for young readers. It's another sweet read for those who've loved "Guess How Much I Love you, and others by this author and illustrator. 

Thanks to Candlewick Press 
for my copy!

         Readers will love this new lullaby book by Jyoti Rajan Gopal that shows a family singing to a baby about to go to sleep. Gorgeous illustrations by Nabi H. Ali show not only family members surrounding the baby but deities from Hindu beliefs arrive as guardians. From the front flap: "There is Ganasha, remover of obstacles, to joyful Krishna, prince of music, and powerful Durga, goddess of strength and protection." It's a special book showing the happiest family time. 

       I would love to read this to a group, to see if they would soon understand what was happening! Robert Macfarlane and Johnny Flynn use brief words of poetry to start the story, taking a man and a boy into a forest for a walk. They explore, notice birds singing, come across a group of musicians, one with an accordion, are caught in a rainstorm, and more! Emily Sutton's illustrations fill the pages, colors abound in this gorgeous place. All of a sudden, it'll be delightful for readers to notice, the boy is changing, growing up! That's all you need to know, except find this book and enjoy every page!

         Henning Mankell's book are compelling, keep one reading, if you can stand the horrifying details of heinous murders, and the idea that there is no way to connect to the murderer. Kurt Wallender's life goes awry this time with a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, leaving readers to worry if he might collapse. Then who would lead? I'm sorry that I haven't discovered Mankell's books until now! 

Now Reading: The Boy Lost in the Maze, Joseph Coelho

It's Monday - New to Share!

   

    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!       

    The ALA Awards are this morning! Are you pleased or disappointed with those who received shiny medals? 

 

        I want to tell everything about The Squad, yet there are pieces of Christina Soontornvat's new story about her life, from the last book's cheerleading sadness in middle school to the next part of her life, more cheerleading drama, a cafeteria food fight, and high emotions in her family that must be personally experienced. Joanna Cacao's art takes readers into the story as the "squad" worries and supports, sighs about some others in the school and loves some new ones, too. I imagine every middle school student will love this one, embracing it as their lives being lived now. There is a tender letter at the back from Christina, especially nice for her readers, plus pictures of her growing up. Both Christina and Joanna share lovely acknowledgments, too. It is wonderful to read what followed after the earlier book, The Tryout!

      Rollicking rhymes tell this story of Sue, the Blue Kangaroo, who just moved to the zoo! She heard about a party but somehow no one can go until Sue finds her shoe. In addition to that problem, others also need help. Author Bradley Kind's name fits the story wonderfully, for as the story moves along, readers will find Sue to be helpful and kind! Even though she keeps asking and asking about that shoe, she doesn't stop helping others. The fun, fun rhyme will make a terrific read-aloud making the listeners giggle as they also love Shirin Hashemi's delightful brightly-colored illustrations. 

       "Did you see an orange shoe?/Say, "I found it!"/ when you do.

         There are also pages at the back with some activities and Bradley has created a stand-alone activity book to go with this story! Thanks to him for sharing an e-copy with me!

          It's a brief book about 12-year-old Samira who, with her mother, has been working for the resistance in Nazi-occupied France. The night before, her mother was captured and now Samira must hurry to save her because it's known that they shoot everyone at dawn. Through fields and woods, Samira rushes along with a little dog she's rescued for a neighbor. Rumors are that this is the day for the American invasion, and that surely will help, at least Samira hopes so. This keeps one reading fast, to see what happens during this new and desperate march to get to the destination in time!

        Remember Charlie Mackesy's marvelous book, now a movie, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse? I knew when I saw Tales from Muggleswick Wood, in marvelous verse by Vicky Cowie illustrated by Mackesy, that I would love it, and I do! Granny has come for a visit and with urgent pleas, tells five tales she remembers from the beautiful English countryside. You'll find a map in the end covers! There are troublesome moles with an ending that will make you laugh out loud, fairies and brownies with rules one must follow, or else!  from the text: "So off went the frog with the gargoyle pair,/the dragonfly, gnome, and the girl with blonde hair".

Now reading! Chroncicles of a Lizard Nobody - Patrick Ness and Tim Miller

Monday Reading - Something for Everyone!

  

    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!

    Our country remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today! "The time is always right to do what is right."

Thanks to Publishers Weekly
for my advanced e-copy!
This will be published next month. 

      Books that move back and forth in time are intriguing, and that is how Pam Jenoff chooses to tell this new story inspired by the true story of Lévitan, a posh department store in Paris! The story centers on a woman named Louise, who served with the Red Cross as a young girl in World War II and is now married with a couple of kids, and her early sweetheart, who came out of combat, a rather silent and changed man. She has found a half necklace that she was sure she saw the other half in a terrible time when serving Allied soldiers behind the German lines. That time meant the loss of her friend, Franny, whom they declared that she had been hit by a car. Louise knew it couldn't be true, but she was forced to leave by her boss, Ian, with whom she had some attraction, both to save herself and others. Now, it's the fifties, and this necklace, amazingly, has appeared again! 

     Louise races to Paris, to find out as much as she can, beginning with asking Ian for help and pushing to discover more about that department store. Well, that store has a dark past, was a Nazi prison where the prisoners unloaded all the goods from Jewish homes that had been confiscated and then arranged them like a store for Nazis to come to shop and acquire. 

     In between these stories, Louise also tells of her time in the war, working for the Red Cross and the missing piece, a young woman named Helaine with the saddest past until it all changes when she finally breaks out, falls in love in a cellist, and leaves her home, unblessed, perhaps never to see them again.

      You can imagine the layers of emotion in these lives, mixed in with strange events and love in numerous guises that no matter what the reader believes is true, it is not, or first it's not, then it is! The book is worth a look for being a many-plotted thing! 

Thanks to Candlewick Press
for my copy!

       There's so much to love when an author uses the ABCs to tell a story, and this time  Sam Winston has the dictionary to help him. You know that a dictionary has many, many words, but never, ever is there a story. And she wants one! This time, she decides to bring some words to life, for a story! But when they get mixed up and begin some not-so-expected colliding, things do not happen as wished. Oliver Jeffers' illustrations show all the emotion, like an enthusiastic alligator who's after a donut, and it doesn't work out very well at all. Antics like this will make one laugh, especially when Dictionary's friend Alphabet comes in to save the day with a clever song! You may have heard that one, and it's magic happening when all the words learn to behave! What a clever and fun book, especially to read aloud! 

Thanks to Candlewick Press 
for my copy!

       I've never heard of Viola Smith and now love that Dean Robbins has told about her life. She lived until 107 and was still drumming! She started out with the drums because her other "five" sisters had taken all the other instruments for their new band, the Smith Sisters Orchestra! She tried all the parts, and per the text: "She lost the beat, made a terrible racket, and had more fun than she'd ever had before." Things improved and one huge influence that Viola had later was to write an article that pushed for the music industry to begin accepting women in their groups. This was at the beginning of World War II, when many male players were leaving for war. It helped elevate women as accomplished players! There are more amazing parts to Viola's life, shown in such flashy illustrations by Susanna Chapman that one nearly believes the drumming can be heard! I'm so glad to read a biography of someone very talented whose life one must admire! There's an author's note with more information, a list of musical terms, and a source list at the back. End papers show various kinds of drumsticks! It's terrific! 

        Julia Donaldson wrote this older book, published in the UK, then Scholastic here in the US. It's a fantastic adventure, a song to be sung plus this edition came with a CD, sung by Imelda Staunton, a British performer. It also has a little flap in the back that, when lifted, reveals a wee coloring page of a stick man adventure and the CD. Julia Donaldson creates funny and sad scenes of Stick Man's numerous adventures. When he's out for a jog,  he is first plucked away for play by a dog, then grabbed by a girl for a "Pooh stick," and used by a swan for her nest. There are more adventures, ending in a grate, where the woodpile will be lit, on CHRISTMAS MORNING! It certainly surprised me, for it's also a Christmas book with a delightful surprise ending! Axel Scheffler's colorful illustrations wonderfully show the antics poor Stickman must endure and after reading more than once, Children will be singing this little ditty! What a fun delight! 

               (If you don't know what a "Pooh stick" is– It's that playing on a bridge over a stream. The sticks are first dropped on one side, and then everyone runs to the other side to see who is first!)

         Last fall's Friday Night Lights are over, and some may still remember one game, one coach, and their teammates! The memories of a special team can be just a few months ago, or years! This is one of Grisham's older books, as players from all over the US return to small-town Messina, players for the mighty Spartans. They've come to say goodbye to the coach who brought them to undefeated seasons, those glory days when they were heroes. All-American player Neely Crenshaw has returned for the first time to help bury Coach Eddie Rake, though he still is unsure whether he loves him or hates him. For those with their own Friday night memories, and the last of pro football happening now, it's a nice time to read one story of the feelings of these players when they were heroes, and despite the coach's methods, they loved him. 

Now Reading! The Squad - Christine Soontornvat & Joanna Cacao

Monday Reading - Beginning A New Year

          

    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! I've been reading various things lately, trying to catch up with magazine articles. Now I have two books going, one from the Heavy Medal Mock Newbery list (It's almost time for the awards!) and one that will be published later in the month, an ARC from Publisher's Weekly. They are A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall by Jasmine Warga (imagination plus!) and Pam Jenoff's Last Twilight in Paris (intriguing so far, connecting in history from the Nazis in Paris to a future time). The holidays were wonderful with family and friends making merry! I hope all of you had a great time, however you celebrated!

       Happy New Year wishes to everyone!

Thanks to Candlewick Press
for my copy!

               This is such a sweet story that I read it very fast, but this time of year is busy so I'm just now sharing about it. Middle school boy Evan keeps to himself much of the time, has a few friends, but mainly on the bus ride home. He feels he doesn't fit much of anywhere, even at home with a mother who hardly speaks to him and a father immersed in carving wood creations, which make a lot of money. There are no money worries, but in this boy's life, loneliness worries until a border collie who seems to know the boy needs "something" starts following Evan and even joins him when he's running. Yet, like many stories, it gets complicated. Evan gains some better friends, and then the dog, after being gone for a while, arrives, clearly on a mission involving an abusive dog breeder. Added to that problem, a new "girl" friend enters Evan's life. She's witty but is on crutches, something to do with one of her legs. It's somewhat awkward on the bus when she joins right in! Not only do Dog (Yes, he really does "Answer to Dog") and Evan help each other, he helps the family, too. Hautman alternates the story-telling, letting both Evan and Dog tell their side of the story, an adventure in love and loss and, yes, also, hope and growing up. It's wonderful to be able to journey along! 

                  

         When you grew up, or perhaps when one of your parents grew up, was there a 'family' table that people treasured, making many memories there, at mealtimes, at big gatherings, or the regular ones? It seems to be what many remember! This book, written by  Wiley Blevins, raised in West Virginia, and Winsome Bingham, who immigrated as a child from Jamaica to the U.S. South, shows the joys and sorrows that happen around one table. For a long time at the table, a coal-mining family sits and eats, dyes Easter eggs, sews, and laughs, living their lives. Though they aren't rich with money, they are rich with love. Then, coal mines begin to close, and still, the bills arrive. The family must leave their home–and the table. 

         Later, a second family, driving home, spot a table (see that cover!). The father is a carpenter, brakes fast, and jumps out to examine it, sees that it's a unique piece of wood, well made. The memories begin again, as you can imagine, and one child wonders if sometimes, in the past, another child sat at the table. The table remembers! And Jason Griffin's illustrations show this history with loving expression. There are very personal letters from the authors and Griffin at the end. 

        What a wonderful thing it could be to have students write of personal memories at their tables! My brother uses our grandmother's beautiful round oak table, and he and I, along with our cousins, all have memories of sitting there for holidays or summer visits, doing projects! 

        Lives may vary, but no matter those differences, there is much that is similar within all of us, the love in families, sharing the time together, often around a table! 

 

         I love every book written by Atinuke, and now she and Angela Brooksbank collaborate again as they did on B Is For Baby and other "Baby" books. Here, Atinuke

takes us on a day's journey with a family, father, mother, four children, one a baby, on their way to the city, "L is for Lagos"! They come from a rural area, see "Lazy Lions", and a "Lonely Leopard", are "Lucky" to catch a bus after walking a while. Oh, my, the people and the jungle, then comes the city, which is "Large" and "Loud" as they "Listen". The story, with not many words, is told cleverly, weaving the appropriate "L" words in to tell about this exciting day, as Angela Brooksbank's lushly colored illustrations fill the pages with people and nature and city crowds surrounded by "large" buildings. One double-page spread is one where I Looked and Looked, a market with people selling and preparing and eating. And, the story, the "Last" (my "L" word) message is no matter where, "L is for Love"! 

        On a personal note, I also love the book because L is also for "Linda", my name! 

       It's a re-read, yet I'd forgotten most of it! This is the book that is said to have lifted Agatha Christie into the realm of "best" mystery writer, at least during her time. It also was criticized for breaking the rules of mysteries. You'll see. It's a curious story that will shock!

       Happy Reading! 

Monday Reading - All Kinds of Holiday Gift Ideas!

         

    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!

     However you celebrate, I wish everyone a Happy Holiday with family and friends. This is going to be a busy week, but at the end, my son and family will be here. It will be great to see them, and then celebrate Christmas together, along with my daughter and family who live here. Have a great week everyone!

          It's a debut young adult speculative fiction novel, which is terrific! Rachel Byrne happens to be a parent of a former student of mine, and I am grateful that she gave me a copy! Because she is a mom, I imagine she knows some of what it's like for kids to feel somewhat outside the group, never fitting in. Not that her own children experienced this. I don't know that. But as a mom, she does understand kids growing up with all kinds of feelings about self, which she shows so beautifully in this book! 

          In Predestined, the story that is told to us by Catalina, called Lina, sixteen, about her days filled with conflict, some with her parents or at school, though it's clear she loves her parents and her younger sister, Emma Claire. Although the outcome means a lot of trouble, being grounded at home or suspended at school, often the acts Lina does are for good reasons. She's alone in a sea of upset!

         And that is how Rachel Byrne lets us readers begin to know this new young woman, and the final conflict she loses is a surprising and intriguing invitation to spend her summer at an exclusive academy nestled in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Haverford Pines. Lina was counting on a summer job at the local rec center, doing a lot at the climbing wall, but she finally gives in, and off she goes to a summer she doesn't want, yet one that gives her more than we readers will ever imagine! Just wait until you see!

         This school has a history of educating many famous people, both the good and the bad, and its prime purpose is to help those just starting to find their own, special, purpose and train in all ways to perfect it! Lina bonds surprisingly with her roommate, Brittany, an aspiring model, and as the days' extraordinary, often not so fair, challenges increase, Lina finds other friends who help, encourage, and as teens say, "have her back"! Along with Gabi, Charles, Hayden, and Eric, mysterious information about the school's history is discovered. The activities seems to find Lina especially singled out in harmful ways by others who have hopes she will leave or be kicked out. She fights back, but some of those who are in charge appear to support those who've become her enemies. The mysteries and challenging rules continue; Lina and her friends keep questioning and helping each other!

           The action becomes one for breath-holding as I watch Lina and the other strong characters add to both hope for some and disgust for others. As I did, I'm sure other readers will continue to ask, "What in the world is going on?" 

         I enjoyed the story very much, and cannot help but wonder, maybe hope, that we'll see these kids a little older and wiser, but ready to tackle still another challenge. The story may not be quite over yet!

         Thanks for an amazing book, Rachel!

      Note: I shared for Poetry Friday last week, too! It's not a book of poetry, yet the story is so poetic, I wanted to make each of you aware of it if you haven't seen it yet. James Norbury offers a story of sacrifice and friendship. It's an adventure with young dog Amaya who is searching for her parents and is nearly destroyed by a wolf pack until its leader saves her. They go on a journey to find her family, and along the way, the words they, really James Norbury, show us life lessons of friendship, taking a path that may only seem to be the way, and not giving up caring for the feelings of each other, whether it's worry or grief. That moon is their touchstone, and Norbury's illustrations are stunning as the wolf and Amaya travel together. I say it's a love song for humans in such disarray this year. 

      And, I can never resist a book about the moon!

     As part of being a U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón wrote this poem that will travel into space on NASA's Europa Clipper, heading to Jupiter. The poem will be engraved on the ship. Her words show what it might be like to go outside our world, to explore and ponder. Peter Sis has illustrated with extraordinary imaginative art, showing and imagining human connections with other animals, the sky, water. It's Limón's debut picture book, which will make a marvelous gift for those you know who love poetry and the pictures from the words that have been created by a wonderful artist! 

         Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following books, except at the older ones at the end!

      For the littlest child, a lover of trucks, what could be more fun than to learn about twenty of them. All in rhyme and in bright, bright colors, kids will see a variety of trucks who help. And what do they help? They're part of the story of finally getting the wonderful town Christmas tree displayed! All the expected players are there, including a snowman, a holiday band, kids playing in the snow, and Santa! There's a funny ending, too, to solve a problem! 

These two ahead are great ideas for gifts! 

          Remember the stories about Dasher by Matt Tavares? Here is a gorgeous boxed set, just perfect for a child on your gift list! 

           Ruffles loves those kittens and so many more things, like scratching and eating, digging and sleeping, BUT! In this story, David Melling shows us in fun illustrations of Ruffles' life with kittens that there are problems, this time with "snow"! What he does outside and inside makes a lovely animal story to read with a group or with one child "inside"! It was first published by Nosy Crow Ltd. in the UK! 

          Aaron Becker creates with new ideas for looking on every page. This time, in a brief poem with soft color-washed illustrations, he brings us to look more closely at what IS 'Winter Light'. There are crystals and sunlight through trees, candles and glowing embers in a fireplace! Sit with a young one and enjoy, perhaps finding other kinds seen, too!

     A shout-out to two favorite, older holiday books, one for Hanukkah and one for Chrismas! I just wanted to share. If they are unfamiliar, find them and enjoy!

Now Reading: Nearly finished with Pete Hautman's Answers to Dog. It's really great!

Monday Reading Recap - Love these Books!

          

    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!

     For those of you celebrating, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We have some snow coming to Denver, but a lot in the mountains, moving in from that big California storm! If you're traveling, hope all goes well for you! 

              Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin's collaboration for this new book about the time in Bletchley Park gives a new personal perspective of this quite secret place formed to combat Hitler's march to capture Europe! I write "personal" because they have introduced imagined characters, a brother, Jakob, and sister, Lizzie, and new friends who happen to already live in that area or who work there. There's also a host of essential characters in charge whom we have known from history, like Alan Turing and Dilly Knox. Jakob, a whiz at math, is already working in secret to break the codes. Lizzie, 14, is on her way to escape to America, ordered there by a wealthy grandmother. She manages a swift escape in order to stay, much to the outrage of her grandmother. 

            This family has an American mother, Willa, working at the American embassy, who's last known to be in Poland, but many believe she's been killed. Others suspect she has betrayed the British and become the enemy. Lizzie keeps faithfully denying, ever pursuing the truth. In alternating chapters, the events of Jakob's and Lizzie's lives are told as month by month, the Germans get closer, and stories of some unravel, both sad and wonderful to discover. Occasionally, there are photos included of the Enigma machines, newspaper headlines, war pictures. It's a book of a time kept secret, some finally allowed to share decades later, and some who never told. Let Sepetys and Sheinkin take you time-traveling eighty-five years to Great Britain preparing for war. You'll be fascinated by their story! 

        For everyone who has adored the intriguing humor of the books by Edward Gorey, here is a picture book highlighting this man who entertained readers and playgoers throughout his life. Matthew Burgess shares, at the book's beginning (of Gorey's early years), when toddler Gorey saw a train and created his first art, "a sausage train," which his mother kept. Readers learn of Gorey teaching himself to read at three and a half, eventually reading Dracula before he was six! Later in life, he designed the sets for the Broadway play Dracula! He led a singular life, eventually retiring to an old home on Cape Cod. It's a fascinating book about him, brought to us in dynamic, intriguing illustrations by Marc Majewski! 

    When I looked, this evidently was created from a Webcomic, and its spooky tale from Blackwater, Maine, full of high school teen troubles, kept me wondering, "Oh no! What horrors could be next?" Two boys keep it all going, along with a goth girl, a ghost fisherman, and creepy changes page by page shown so wonderfully. I wasn't sure if they were real or a sad reflection of teenage emotions crying out for a lot of help. It's an all-inclusive tale that feels very real, pulls at one's heart for these young ones who need a lot of understanding and help. 

          With the dryest of humor and the most intriguing and inventive illustrations, Alex London and Paul O. Zelensky have created a book for quiet viewing while smiling a lot and then laughing out loud! Most of us readers know what a still life is, however, discovering also what it is not, what it does not do, lies in the hilarity of their new book. Remember, when a candle is placed into a still life, "The candle does not flicker, glow, or drip." There is more, and I would love to read this aloud! Be sure to find this book!

Currently Reading:  I did finish Anne Nesbet's The Long Way Around and it is very good, but no time to write a review! I'm not sure what's next. 

Monday Reading - New and Old!

         

    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!

Thanks to Candlewick Press
for my copy!

         A return to Norendy, where the Puppets of Spelhorst lived, and a new setting at the Hotel Bazaar where young Marta lives with her mother who works as a maid there. Each morning when her mother goes to work, Marta is left to her own days, counting up and down the stairs, watching a cat chasing a mouse (on a clock) and wondering about a painting with one wing in the ocean. However, all is not at all lost when a mysterious countess arrives, with a parrot. With magical stories and the loveliest of light, the tales move, from one to seven, helping Marta begin to have hope that her longlost father could, at last, be returning. Line art by Júlia Sardà enhances the imagination as each story is told; readers will want so much to hurry, to find out "What's Next!" I can imagine reading this, part by part, every day to a young class. It will become a favorite read aloud!

           I so enjoyed this book by Jilanne Hoffmann, the beauty of its presentation, the scientific information given in the picture book story, and more extensively explained in the back matter. The flap summarizes that the dust of the Sahel–a ribbon of land between the Sahara and the savanna– lifts with the harmattan wind each winter season. The dust from both mixes and travels thousands of miles westward, across the African continent and the Atlantic Ocean, to reunite with its unforgotten home deep in the Amazon basin. This is all new to me, and the story illustrated so beautifully by Eugenia Mello carried me along just like the dust is carried, landing at home! Told by the dust itself, readers will be mesmerized by the journey and, fortunately, will get to know more from the back matter, including NASA's observations, continental history, and an Author's Note. There, Hoffman relates that at publication, new research changes some of the earlier findings. It's terrific!

        It's a simple but arresting counting book by Tanya Tagaq, a Canadian Inuk, imagining a grand parade of polar bears, shown in both English and Inuktitut. The first is joined by another, and as they gather, they're sniffing, hunting, playing, dancing, and more. It will be much fun to read aloud, both enjoying the text and the art by Lee Pootoogook, a carver and printmaker. The ending offers a wonderful laugh.

      Buffy Silverman's books are a must when studying nature, along with using them as inspiration for writing. After a trip outdoors, readers can write prose or poetry and perhaps this book, or others from Buffy, can inspire some nature sketching, too!  This time, she offers poems to accompany some observed thrilling evening sounds while connecting the songs to musical instruments! For example, the second verse of one poem ends with "Oo-week, oo-week! Wood duck calls,/She flaps away/as darkness calls." The call is connected to an oboe. 

        The photos, credit given to numerous people, are marvelous to see, and may offer their own inspiration after reading and viewing! 

      There are two sections in the back matter filled with great information: "Meet the Musicians" and "Meet the Instruments".  Don't miss this book when studying the out-of-doors or just enjoying a taste of Buffy's "Starlight Symphony"!

        This is a re-read, but I wanted to share again to offer a new look at how all of us can help Stillwater and Koo "Save The World." My review on Goodreads is here! 

         Mo Yan is the first citizen of China to win the Novel Prize in Literature, which he won in 2012 for Red Sorghum. This picture book comes from his novella of the same name, a poignant story of the time this seven-year-old boy rises early to go with his grandfather, Yeye, to gather grass for drying and animal feed. It's quite a journey, showing such courage and resilience, eventually in a massive windstorm, the "GALE".  As you see from the cover, Zhu Chengliang's illustrations bring the story to life so that readers feel they are also right there with this pair. An excerpt from the novella at the end adds a bit more of their life story. It's a special book! 

Now reading: Sepetys' and Sheinken's The Bletchley Riddle!