It's August - So #PB10for10 - Hurrah!

      It's PictureBook10for10 (#PB10for10) where many share ten picture books that are Must Haves! Cathy Mere of Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community and Mandy Robek of Enjoy and Embrace Learning host this wonderful tradition. You can find everyone's posts HERE!

This is a most fun day of the summer. Although I no longer teach, I'm now working at a used bookstore and among other duties, am in charge of our children's section. I also review books for various memes and on Goodreads. I want to keep up with the latest, yet also remember those books still of value for children, in and out of the classroom. My TBR list grows. Thanks, Cathy and Mandy, this is a tradition I look forward to every year!

Here are my previous posts for   2011     2012     2013     2014     2015    2016     2017

I've decided to choose one book from each of my previous lists, plus three more that I've loved this year, so far! (There are more than three, and more on the way!)

2011 - books I couldn't teach without

The Important Book – by Margaret Wise Brown, ill. by Leonard Weisgard – It’s pure poetry, or is it?  It’s also a book that can help students summarize, get to the core of ‘what’s important’.  I use this for both ideas.

2012 - a variety of books - old classics for younger children, newer ones for middle grade 

Frédérick written and illustrated by Leo Leonni – I cannot omit a book that’s about poetry and this is one of the best.  It tells the story of the little mouse Frederick who doesn’t seem to be doing any work to help his community survive a harsh winter, but he does, oh yes, he does that beautifully.

2013 - showing diversity 

Tia Isa Wants A Car – written by Meg Medina and illustrated by Claudio Munoz

               Meg Medina tells this story of people who don’t have a lot of money, but save for something important, like a car, and still send money back to family in their former country, to be respected for their sacrifice and discipline as they save.  A little sister tells the story about her older sister, Tia Isa, who wants a car so they all can go to the beach.  There are some sweet actions by the little sister in the book, doing what she can do to help. Some Spanish is included, but the country of origin is not told. The illustrations are watercolor, simple and realistic.

2014 - a variety and uses for various ages  

For use in writing workshop: Sometimes it's good to choose a topic, to show students that writing about a common topic can show the diversity of our opinions, and we learn so much about each other.  Bookspeak, Poems About Books is a great mentor text for celebrating point of view. Laura Purdie Salas shares her lovely poems in both different structures and different kinds of ways to look at writing. A favorite is her poem about the sadness of being the book's "middle" instead of being "first" or "last". 

NFPB Wednesday - Art Found & Created

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!  

           When I read this book, I was amazed and admiring, wondering about the perseverance and inspiration that could keep someone going so many years building a dream? And I remembered a similar story, though not so well known, here in Colorado, where a man has spent sixty years building a castle in the mountains. Here is the link to Bishop Castle!

           Nek Chand's own journey began when he and his family and community had to leave their beloved village when "the Punjab split into two countries: Pakistan and India." In the story, Barb Rosenstock explains that Nek Chaud's village was in the Muslim country of Pakistan and his Hindu family no longer was welcome. They fled for forty-two days across the new border into India. Yet, the problem was to where! Villages had been leveled in order to build the city of Chandigarb, a "sharp-edged city of colorless concrete." He did not know where he belonged. But one day as he worked as a government road inspector, he discovered acres of jungle, a wilderness. Thus began his "illegal" living, building his own hut, hidden behind old oil drums. Because of his longing for his old village life, he began roaming the countryside, gathering old pieces of that life: "chipped sinks, cracked water pots, and broken glass bangles in red, blue, and green." He carried them all back and began his creations like "curving paths, carved niched walls, and strung pebble-covered wire to make transparent screens." He planted with discarded plants from the dump. He made skeletons from twisted bikes and rusty pipes. And he kept the secret for fifteen years. Claire A. Nivola's illustrations paint the beauty of the countryside and art that Nek Chand loved and honored.
          What happened after being discovered? People heard about this fabulous place and protested the government's plan to bulldoze it down. The People saved this secret kingdom! The story ends with a fabulous gatefold page spread of real photos of Nek Chand's work, an author's note, a bibliography and the information about the Nek Chand Foundation at the end. Here is the link to the Foundation. Mr. Chand died in 2015, but until that "he spent each day in the Rock Garden, meeting with visitors, creating new plans, and supervising the continued construction of his kingdom." What a wonderful story. 

Monday Books to Share

          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.  

          If you love the #PB 10for10, it's this coming Friday, August 10th! It's the ninth year for it and you can find all the information about it here! Just imagine all the wonderful books that have been shared all these years!         

                       Thanks to Candlewick Press for the arc of this book!
        Many might think that sixth graders don't have challenges. After all, they're only in elementary school. In this historical middle-grade novel, set in Alabama with racial conflicts in the race for governor (Wallace's last term), young Lu Olivera has learned she loves to run and is good at it! In the prep for field day given by her pe teacher, Mrs. Underwood, Lu nearly wins and is only beat by Belinda, a black classmate. Thus the ending weeks of her sixth-grade year begin, and Lu isn't quite sure where she stands.
         A scene is set by Lila Weaver within classrooms, too. Lu sits in the middle, not exactly white because her parents are from Argentina, so while white kids sit on one side of the room and black kids on the other, Lu is smack in the middle. This year friendships change as some girls say they're leaving for the new private school, and Lu's earlier friends, Phyllis and Abigail, are pulling away to the tune of not-nice Missy. It is a mixed-up and new world for Lu, but with the running and support from her older sister who works for the man running against Wallace and her friend, Sam, whose family also supports that candidate, somehow it works. And it works finally when Lu realizes that true friends are "always" friends, no matter what color they are. Toward the end, Lu realizes she has two friends with "brains and gumption", advice given for friendships by her sister. She says to herself: "Sometimes shy people are pretty gutsy, deep down. Sometimes they're not, but then they put their minds to it and figure out how to grow gumption. Maybe that's starting to happen to me." 
          Lu tells her story, honest in sharing her worries and hurts, her mixed feelings when thinking about girl and boy stuff, and trying hard to do the right thing, but feeling shy often when she knows she should speak up. Red Grove, Alabama is a fictional town, but the story is inspired by the author's real experiences growing up in Alabama. It's a basic story and at times, I wanted more details, then realized that those basics are enough for a middle-grade story, will inspire further reading and research into this historical time period along with interesting conversations.

               Many families are pictured with happiness in this rhyming picture book with double-page spreads by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman. Cute rhymes and happy pictures show children, and families, in the story of what seems to be the first school day. The lines on the first double-page: “Pencils sharpened in their case./Bells are ringing, let’s make haste./School’s beginning, dreams to chase./All are welcome here.”  Each verse following includes more of the day, during several lessons, at recess and lunch.  I love the celebrating here: “Time for lunch--what a spread!/A dozen different kinds of bread.” There is a wonderful double, double-page at the end, appears to be an evening open house/pot luck.

Poetry Friday - Re-visiting A Favorite

            Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading hosts this first Poetry Friday in August. She's sharing a "blitz" poem you must read aloud! It feels rather like a poetic rap, meant to be heard! Thanks, Mary Lee! 
           I know many are beginning their prep for the school year. Summer lingers but cicadas are singing. . . 

        
      I love being outside, am a city dweller so mostly have to appreciate the green space around me, the many parks nearby. When I truly am in the wild, I yearn to stay. This wish goes unfulfilled, the staying, but I'm re-visiting Robert Newton Peck's Bee Tree and Other Stuff, thought I'd share. I started gathering Peck's books a long time ago, was sad when I learned he had passed at the end of May.

 

"Peck ends his introduction with these words: Looking back, I reckon I took a hearty harvest from the earth, as a farmer. As a poet, I share with you this bounty."

Non-Fiction Wednesday - Passing Go!

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!  

    

         Yes, my favorite piece was the trolley, and I still have it! Perhaps you loved the hat, or the ship, maybe the shoe? Whatever your favorite is, you probably also have lots of memories playing this most famous game, Monopoly. Yet you might not know the true story of its beginnings that Tanya Lee Stone has discovered and now told in this new book out last month, Pass Go and Collect $200 - The Real Story of How Monopoly was Invented. 

          In her author's note, Tanya's editor asks her if she might be interested in telling the story of how Charles Darrow, an unemployed salesman in the Great Depression, became a millionaire by inventing Monopoly. Although Tanya's favorites stories are about women, she was interested, so took the challenge. In her deep research, she found that it was a woman's story after all. The genesis of this famous game began with a woman's interest in rent and the way that landlords became richer and their renters gained little. Her name is Elizabeth Magie, Lizzie, who wasn't afraid to do things in different ways, thus her idea to create a game so that people could learn about the landlord-tenant relationship. It was called the Landlord's Game. Lizzie was smart enough and learned through another job she had how to obtain a patent, and she did. She also renewed it after revising the game and trying to sell it to Parker Brothers who said "no". 

          In the next months and years, the story of Monopoly becomes complicated. People created their own copies, sometimes with local street names. One professor used it to teach students how the landlord-tenant relationship worked. Changes by a teacher in Atlantic City lasted. She and her friends renamed most of the properties after local streets and neighborhoods. Someone added color, etc. At this time, Charles Darrow, that unemployed salesman came into the picture. He learned the game by happenstance having dinner with friends one evening. And he began producing his own boards and typing the rules, selling each one. He was desperate for money!

           The story continues in its complexity, again including Parker Brothers and Charles Darrow, but Lizzie still held the patent! You'll have to read the rest of the story to find what happened to her, to Darrow, and to this game that the author writes has been played by over one billion people in 111 countries. Tanya Lee Stone has written a clear and fascinating history of competition and power, just the way Monopoly is played. Steven Salerno's illustrations are bright and bold, showing the main players in this dramatic story as well as lots of Monopoly parts. There is a trivia page, a game titled Monopoly Math, an author's note, and a source list. It's a terrific telling of this fascinating story.

Happy Reading!