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Wishing you all a good week ahead!
Thanks to NetGalley for this special book from Sharon Creech. We know that Sharon Creech knows about special teachers. You only have to read Love That Dog and Hate That Cat to understand. This time young Gina Filomena tells the story of her year with a new teacher, Miss Lightstone, who approaches things very differently from the terrible, pointy teacher the year previous. Gina has a great imagination which feels good instead of bad after meeting a new neighbor, Antonio, mysterious with a beautiful smile, who just happens to be in her class! There happens a world full of mystery and magic that connects to writing in this story when the class, and perhaps Miss Lighthouse, too, begins to answer the questions, "Who am I?" and "Who do I want to be?"
Other characters, classmates, neighbors, a very fun Auntie and Uncle Pasta (you must read to discover why the name) plus Gina's grandmother, Nonna Filomena who lives far away are made memorable, too. It makes a place one wants to be! I could not stop reading and my own wide smile appeared at the surprising end. Teachers, you will want this for a read-aloud!
I've never known someone who struggles with stuttering, but now, with Jordan Scott's beautiful story and with his letter at the back, I begin to understand a little more. In that letter, he writes "What would happen if you concentrated on the feeling of speaking? As an "older" person, as he wrote, I do notice I am losing words as I speak, then they pop up sometimes hours later.
Jordan Scott's book, illustrated with such feeling by Sydney Smith, lets a boy tell about his own experiences through a day, a tough day even for him where his "tongue is tangled", a C is a crow "that sticks in the back of my throat". When asked to speak and share about a favorite place, he shares that all his classmates hear "is how I don't talk like them." His dad picks him up on this "bad speech day" and they go to the river. What happens that helps is to watch the river with all its sounds. It isn't smooth, it bubbles and churns. The boy "talks like a river". The inside double-page fold out is gorgeous, a boy alone, swimming in that river. The book needs to be shared by everyone, a book that may help those who stutter and those who hopefully will begin to understand. Thanks to Jordan Scott for sharing his story.
A clever tale by Roger McGough begins with Bobby saying there's a new moon tonight and Betty wondering what happened to the old one. Bobby says it's in his honey cupboard; he stole it to give to Betty! Yikes! Thus the tale moves along as a love story with Bobby telling all the ways Betty could use that moon and Betty questioning back. What a grand read-aloud with beautifully-imagined illustrations by Penny Dann.