Monday Reading - It's All About Learning

         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! Happy Reading! 

       

 

          Thanks to Candlewick Press for these next two books!

             Frederick Joseph speaks directly to us readers of how it is being a Black kid by sharing race-related stories from his own life growing up, explaining the hurt and why he handled those things then but might change his behavior now. The chapters include his voice but also brief interviews of the chapter's topic with one or more artists or activists like Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give or April Reign, creator of #OscarsSoWhite. It will be a book to share with everyone, adults, students if you're a teacher, or your children, aiding conversations about microaggressions, tragic results of a situation ending so wrong, a way to "be".  All along the way Joseph also gives ideas for things to Google and learn about, including songs and various people's names and important events. Backmatter includes an encyclopedia of racism with added details of relevant historical events and terminology. Also, there are lists of people to know, books to read, and a "Black Friend Playlist". 

          I marked one passage that feels like the way Joseph uses his book as a thread of knowledge for everyone to know and understand what being a friend means: "To have someone judge you by getting to know you is a powerful and life-changing thing when you've never been treated that way."

           This is Helen Yoon's first picture book and it will fill you with chuckles as you watch this "wolf under cover" try so hard to have a good "sheepie" meal. His imagination is unlimited in the dishes he looks forward to. There is a crowd of sheep in the dining hall and this sneaky wolf manages to enter. He tries all sorts of tactics with a "master plan" like being helpful (washing dishes for the group) and being a team player (shuffleboard). Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly work out for the goal, but better than the sneaky wolf ever could imagine. Yoon's cartoon illustrations are so detailed and fun, you must take time to look at them all. The expressions and those "bubble dreams" are terrific. A different kind of wolf and sheep story that just might make readers think twice about what or who is considered a meal, an enemy.

         Finally! I feel as if I'm the last person to read this wondrous, Newbery winner! Lily and her family have moved in with her sick grandmother, her Halmoni. They used to live with her; she used to tell Lily and sister Sam fairy stories, beloved ones to Lily. As they see the illness is bad, Lily knows she doesn't know all the stories and wants to know more, especially because a magical tiger out of them has arrived, but only Lily can see it. She seeks more information and wants to make an agreement with that tiger to help Halmoni get better. Mixed in with who Lily really thinks she is but others think differently, it also becomes a growing-up story. With Sam's and new friend Ricky's help, she tries so, so hard to make the challenges work, especially when it becomes a time to say goodbye. Tae Keller's way of showing the complex layers of "all" the characters made the story poignant for the "story" of every single one. Perhaps that is the loving takeaway from this special book. Each of us has a story to share if only we can find the courage to tell it, to "trap the tiger".