Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and
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Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow!
Remember the ALA Youth Media Awards are happening this morning! Do you have favorite books you hope will receive a shiny medal?
For Poetry Friday, I shared the review of and a poem from this anthology!
Yes, it took me a long time, reading other books along the way, then turning back to this beautiful book set in various places and times, woven together by a story from ancient times, a story of Aethon, who wants to become a bird in order to fly to a paradise in the sky. As the different characters come into the story, we readers find that in their unique ways, each one yearns for another life, wondering how it would be "if only". If you wish to know of each one, read the summary on Goodreads. Anthony Doerr writes that it is a paean to books, yet it also feels like a story of humans, a zest for what they believe is better, and perhaps (or hopefully) discover that better is really what they already have. From one page: "Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, waiting to be rediscovered." Usually when reading, one falls in love with a singular character, yet as I consider the five disparate characters who play into this new story, I realize that each one touched me. I would read a part from one, enjoying or fretting about each specific plight, but at the same time, wondering what was next for another. The secondary characters played essential roles, too, adding in the ways they helped bolster the lives of the main ones, each one's actions adding kindness to those lives. It is a very special book!
Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following two books!
Jo Knowles, so loved for her numerous chapter books like See You At Harry's, an all-time favorite of mine, and Where the Heart Is, now has a picture book, out tomorrow! Little Worm is on his way outside when he discovers he has an earworm and wonders who put it there! As he sings "Shimmy, shimmy, no-sachay..." he meets various animals, first Owl. He asks if Owl put the earworm in but Owl replies, "No." And he sings his own song. Moving on, with Owl, Little Worm meets Chipmunk, Bunny, and Fox, all of whom have unique earworms to which they sing and dance, all together! Galia Bernstein's illustrations wonderfully show the animals prancing along with glee and song, so happily that Little Worm forgets he's looking for who gave him that earworm! He does find out but I'll leave that for readers to smile when they discover the answer at the end. It's a cute story that will make a great one for bedtime for the little ones.
Young Audrey finds a lion with a special-looking cake, imagines, and asks if it's his birthday. "Sometimes," said Lion. "But not today." Lion had a cake and Audrey asks what he is celebrating. He tells her Tuesdays and coconuts. She was okay with that so they ate cake. Moving through the pages, readers will see that celebrations can be for lots of things, not only birthdays. Edwina Wyatts tells this sweet story and Tamsin Ainslie illustrates with lots and lots of colorful details. Audrey and the lion have a happy time with all kinds of fun while celebrating.