Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who post their favorites. After a special graduation celebration with my grandson and all the family, I'm ready to share more great books!
It feels as if all of Lynda Mullaly Hunt's books not only offer wonderful stories to read but in addition, lessons for us adults as well as children to live by. "Shouting at the Rain" is a new book about a girl, Delsie, who lives on Cape Cod only with her Grammy, grew up also with Papa Joseph until he died. Her mother left her with them when she was a baby and left a big hole in Delsie's heart. The struggle this summer begins with long-time friend Brandy arriving for the summer but changed. She's more interested in having a mani-pedi than traveling the beach looking for rocks and shelves to use for building something as the pair did in past summers. Delsie's summer continues with less fun and more struggles as Brandy makes a new, not-so-nice-to-Delsie friend. And then there's that new boy Ronan, some say is "trouble". Mullaly Hunt lays the groundwork for the struggle, mixing in the neighbors Esme and Henry with their child, Ruby, along with grumpy Olive with a mysterious connection to the huge tree in her yard. The community's best places to eat, the garage sales and ocean creatures add to Delsie's world with memorable scenes showing that things do not always appear the same when hidden layers are revealed. The story's layers bit by bit show the realistic advice from the title and other maxims for living, many from Grammy. Delsie learns "It's not what you look at that counts, but what you see" and in a sweet author's note, Lynda Mullaly Hunt expands on that idea, too. It's another 'don't-miss' book. And, there is a fun surprise in the notes at the end.
The story is based on a real wolf. Parry adds much information about him, wolves, the other animals in the land he calls his home.
Goodreads says that "On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be, and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families."
There are emotional highs and lows in this story of sixteen-year-old Bri whose dream is to be a great rapper, like her father who was gunned down when she was young. She wants to get out of her hood neighborhood, wants to help her brother and mom, all struggling to make enough for food and clothes and rent, the electricity bill, the heat bill. They want to be "on the come up". As a person NOT knowing much about rap, that part was a learning experience, but as a lover of poetry, I began to love what Bri and the others whose words were given wrote and shared while grieving for her troubles and hoping for her dreams being met. It's long and I raced through it, wanting this new teen to make it! One concern was that the ending seemed to come together rather fast. But sometimes that is how life works, quick down, then quick up!