Monday Reading Winners

          Visit Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.  
           I'm devoting a post to a new poetry book for a blog tour HERE!

           I did finish A Train In Winter by Caroline Moorehead, a deeply researched history of 230 French women eventually sent to Auschwitz, of their close friendship, the terrible time there, the heartwarming acts that helped them. You can read more of my review on Goodreads.

       A white sharecropper's son, Little Charlie Bobo, finds himself caught on a mission to pay a debt to the plantation owner on whose land his family farms. He's already known as a smart and sensitive boy through earlier scenes, so the tension mounts as Charlie becomes more and more entangled in the overseer, Cap'n Jack's scheme to catch a family of escaped slaves. The story deepens as Charlie, who tells the story, reveals more and more how much he hates what is happening, but feels trapped. Christopher Paul Curtis tells still another story of slaves escaped and free and their passion to keep their children free. The story, told during a two-month period in 1858, is based on a true story about the time of the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 and involves those across the border in Canada who come to any black person's aid when fleeing. It's told in the southern dialect of the time and uses some offensive words like 'darkie', though authentic. Though a book full of tense scenes, Curtis knows how also to give some relief. There are some endearing and humorous times, too. Charlie is a character that will be remembered, and students can benefit from good conversations about the story.

         Beautiful message, comforting and brief. All of us are stronger together! You have to read it to experience the strength of the illustrations and the few words. My youngest granddaughter and I spent a lot of time looking at all the people Carin Berger showed. 

Monday Reading - New Poetry - Blog Tour

          Visit Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what everyone is reading and sharing. 

     “If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It's a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it's even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it's a lot more fun.” 
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Margaret Simon, blogging at Reflections on The Teche, a poet friend I hope to meet someday, has recently published a poetry book that sings of her home in the Bayou Teche. It echoes the mantra of Richard Louv above, celebrating nature and inspiring everyone to get out there to see, feel, hear, taste and smell nature!

          I have a few friends who are prepping for a school start in a few weeks. Yes, it's nearly August and some schools begin earlier than can be imagined! This time, I am almost the final part of a blog tour for a marvelous new book that's just right for summer-into-autumn experiences, poetry beginnings, and being inspired by nature wherever one happens to live. Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the South Louisiana Landscape offers adults and children, teachers and students a mentor text to wander through, learn of this new environment, then to sketch and craft personal poems from the ideas included.

         What's inside: 
Gorgeous illuminating photographs by Henry Cancienne

Margaret's introductions of different things in the Bayou like Spanish moss, eagles, great blue herons, and alligators, followed by her poems beautifully illustrated by Anna Cantrell. 

Double-page spreads with brief support, lined and blank ones for writing one's own poem and on the right side, room to sketch.

        

Poetry Friday - Homecoming

            Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core hosts this final Poetry Friday in July. The cicadas have arrived here in Denver already. Can autumn already be on its way? Catherine is prepping for autumn by sharing the new poetry book, Great Friends, by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, poems for reading during morning announcements in school. And she's giving away three copies! Thanks, Catherine!

        The last time I posted on Friday was when I was anticipating our family trip to Costa Rica. We have gone; we have returned. The trip was wonderful. I shared many pictures on Instagram and Facebook, but won't do a travel slideshow here, promise. I did seem to lean to water and sunset pics along with family, no surprise when the ocean is near. Here is one response after return.

the view from our house

beautiful art on one building, color reigns

This Place Came Home With Me

I brought the gritty sand that clings -

rough to the hand while sweeping 

out the luggage -

and one olive shell tumbling ’cross the floor.

In the evening quiet,

I hear the ocean’s roar,

and the pool’s splash,

smile at being paid in sand dollars.

The squirrels in my trees

turn into monkeys, 

staring, stretching for higher branches.

Inside my eyelids, colors pass,

bright, bold art - 

sky and people created.

I packed the hugs, too,

top pocket of my bag,

brimful when arriving home.

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

      I would have brought the lovely people we met, but they wanted to stay! They will star in another poem, I think.

Non-Fiction Stories of Courage

art by Sarah S. Brannen

         Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  From her and others, you will discover and want to celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books!  
          People young and old find courage when needed. Here are two books that show stories of courage.

          Hands Around The Library tells an inspiring true story of demonstrators standing up for the love of a library. 

          In January 2011, during the unrest on a Friday when thousands were demonstrating for better lives, this moment captured the hearts of people all over the world. When there was a threat of vandalism, thousands of Egypt's students, library workers, and demonstrators surrounded the great Library of Alexandria and joined hands, forming a human chain to protect the building. They chanted "We love you, Egypt!" as they stood together for the freedom the library represented. Some of these in the group were NOT friends, yet that love for this building that housed BOOKS was something they all agreed to cherish, and protect. 

       There are real photos of the human chain at the back, along with added information and sources. Susan L. Roth's stunning collages bring this story to vivid life. The book will be a wonderful addition to classrooms and/or school libraries. 

          The Promise shares both a heartbreaking story when one sees how people, this time children, were treated in the concentration camps, but it’s also a heartwarming true story of how one promise to stay together was made by two sisters and carried out in the face of terrible danger. Before their parents were taken away, they gave the eldest, Toby, three gold coins hidden in a shoe paste tin.  And, they asked them to promise to stay together always. In Auschwitz, those who fell ill and could not stand for roll call were often taken away, never seen again. This time, when Rachel became sick and was taken, Toby did what she knew she had to do, she used those coins to bribe a guard in order to enter the sick barracks and find Rachel. It also includes a small part about others who were with these two. The story is based on a true story, written by Pnina Bat Zvi, Rachel’s daughter and Margie Wolfe, Toby’s daughter. There is powerful truth in the illustrations by Isabelle Cardinal, who uses human faces in her digital collages. It’s a book for older kids, one that can be part of any study of the Holocaust. There is further information in the backmatter.

Monday - Sharing Favorites

          Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.  
           My family's trip to Costa Rica was marvelous, but also a week filled and little time for reading. Here is what I completed, mostly before I left. 

            Thanks to Candlewick Press for this ARC! I do know that the definition of ‘turnkey’ is ‘a keeper of the keys’ and this time, Allison Rushby has written an exciting story of those whose job is to ensure that all souls buried in the cemetery stay at rest. Flossie Birdwhistle is the Turnkey at London’s Highgate Cemetery. She, who died at twelve, is quite young to be one, but each Turnkey also has an advisor and Flossie’s is Hazel, the fox. Plus, she has a number of friends who are Turnkeys at other cemeteries, and are helpful and kind. This adventure means she needs all the help she can find!

            Flossie’s work is made especially difficult by World War II. The time of the London Blitz is one filled with danger, and often Flossie is found at the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral watching and worrying. When Flossie encounters the ghost of a German soldier carrying a mysterious object that seems to exist in both the living and spirit worlds, she becomes suspicious — what is the officer up to? Before long, Flossie uncovers a sinister plot that could destroy not only her cemetery but also her beloved country. She asks for help from ghostly friends. 

           The story includes all the usual ups and downs, showing especially Flossie’s thoughtful ways as well as her sorrow to have first lost her father, whose ghost, too, is involved in the story. Flossie also finds the courage to act in spite of the limitations of those in the spirit world. Pairing a ghostly world with its possibilities and restrictions and this time in history when many fought hard to save their countries creates lots of interest for further learning. Each page made me want to discover more! 

         There are some details of the death and destruction by the bombing, so the story is possibly best for ten years and up. 

          

         Reading this caught me trying hard to understand how it can be for the powerful social hierarchy in Pakistan to be so cruel. Amal, a Pakistani girl loves learning and going to school, is smart and dreaming of a future different from those in her village. Her thoughtless remarks to the local wealthy landowner are taken as disrespectful (though I can hear readers everywhere shouting “No!”). Sadly, she lands in the contemporary practice of indentured servitude because she’s embarrassed this man in front of others and her father also owes him money, like so many others in the village. This is not unlike the “company store” that’s written about in mining towns here in the U.S. as far as the power held because of debt.

            Amal’s time as a servant itself shows her complex emotions as she learns and sympathizes with the stories of those other servants and even of the mistress whom she serves. Saeed does not stay with only a few stories, but through description shows a culture with rules that are not to be broken, in relationships, about gender, and the responsibilities of the eldest in a family. The power of education underlies the story as Amal uses what she has already learned to make change. Her small and large acts of resistance are to be celebrated as her story and that of others emerges. This will be an important book to share and discuss with middle school kids.