NFPB Wed. - Documented or Undocumented - A welcome?

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!  
         It seems fitting to pair these two books, one a promise, and the other, a story of one immigrant's life that represents others in the U.S. today, and in the past as well. 

          Some books need to be read. One should not depend on the review. I’ve waited a long time to read this because of many holds at the library.  Eggers' voice is so strong, I imagine him reading this aloud to us all. He cries to us: "Pay attention". He says to know the history if we don't already know it, then he points to a little-talked-about feature, "her right foot". It's lifted; she's on the go! Just as immigrants are, coming into a country for safety and opportunity. Harris’ ink-and–construction-paper collages show the history Eggers shares, but what I enjoyed most was his showing arrivals and their descendants, who are all united in their very diversity of age, sex, dress, and skin color. 

        I've visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, wish we had paid more notice to that "right foot"!

         Duncan Tonatiuh pays tribute again, like Pancho Rabbit and The Coyote, in a great story to immigrants, this story of those workers, documented and undocumented who perform the jobs in the U.S. that others may not want--construction, gardening, restaurant work, cleaning. This time, the story centers on a fictional character, Juan, who works at a restaurant. He has stolen across the border as a young teen, led by a coyote, is caught, but tries again and makes it. He must make money, finds work in a restaurant. 

Monday - Books Loved

          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 read many wonderful books, yet it has been a while that one book brought me to tears. Perhaps it's because the children, two boys, then another boy and a girl are all middle-school age kids, the same ages that I taught. All the years I taught, I grew to know how capable they were, how much they could do. More than once, I felt they were not given the chance to do great things. In this story of 14-year-old Ahmed who's stuck in a city that doesn't want him and Max, a 13-year-old American boy who's also stuck because of his parents' move to Brussels, Katherine Walsh shows them using their smarts, defying odds to solve terrifying challenges.
            Adding to the story is the book's ending conversation with Walsh, telling how a story of the house in which she ended up residing in her own move to Brussels began the kernel of this story. Bringing the hiding of a Jewish boy into Max's own story of finding the courage to do what he knew was right blended the perils of the Holocaust into our own twenty-first-century perils, those refugees from Syria and other countries who just want a chance to live safely with their loved ones. Adding in a couple of Max's classmates who also understand loss and help with Ahmed's desperate needs shows that when given choices, young people are capable of extraordinary deeds.
        Written in alternate chapters, Max and Ahmed tell the story, day by tense day. Ahmed, hiding in Max's basement, shows his kind nature despite his tragic history of first losing his grandfather, mother and sisters in a bombing of their building, then his father as they journeyed by boat to the shores of Europe. Walsh's writing touched me many times. Here is Ahmed thinking of his losses: "Perhaps death was just another border, a line his body couldn't cross but that his heart kept slipping over." Max, moving from friends in the U.S., now stuck in a school where he doesn't even know the language, receiving bullying words he also can't understand, discovers Ahmed, and the decision-making of 'what to do' begins. When he learns that Ahmed has not been to school in three years, he understands that "He has always taken school for granted. Now he realized that even being able to hate it was a luxury." It is a story that will offer this question to every reader, "what would you do?"

           I love Sergio Ruzzier’s illustrations and this time he teams with Katie Kesterman who’s written a series of poem/stories of a robin and her babies. It’s pleasing to see, and quite wonderful to read the rhymes that show nest to flight. Dad’s included with his defensive words: “Back away, ‘Cause Mom and I are here to stay!” and Mom’s right there building her home: “It’s guaranteed a perfect fit/So all she has to do is sit.” Ruzzier fills the pages with daytime action and expressions, sure to be helpful and fun when kids study the robin’s habits and timeline of home to nest to babies. It’s terrific!

Poetry Friday - Swap With Bird Song

favorite pic - Captiva Island

           Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering has become an ornithophile, hosts this Poetry Friday in this special week of palindromes. She's invited us to join her in celebrating birds with a bird-related poem, has shared two new ones and an entire wonderful padlet of other bird-related poems she's written, too. It feels as if the whole natural world, including birds, is in the midst of busy right now, readying for autumn. Thanks, Christie! 

           
         I received another poetry swap last week and love the serendipity of its message. Rebecca Herzog at Sloth Reads sent me a lovely hand-sewn piece with poem inserted, perfect for this community, most especially for this gathering of ornithophiles!  Thank you, Rebecca!

         The following video is from a trip my granddaughter Ingrid and I made to a nearby lake. I do not have the variety of birdsong from my own front porch, but early morning brings the robins' cheer cheer, the crows' caw, and the chickadee's dee, dee, dee!

A NF Book for Children - Learning About Poverty

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!  

       It’s not easy to explain poverty to young children and to further explain that it can mean homelessness, but it is a complex issue, so also means those with little income, needing to choose to use their limited funds to buy food, or go to a doctor, or pay the utility bills. Dr. Jillian Roberts writes in her author’s note that she read this quote, discovered who said it and contacted him. The quote by Jaime Casap, “Don’t ask kids what they want to be when they grow up; ask them what problem they want to solve,” started their collaboration to inspire children to help solve a most important problem in our world--homelessness. She says the result is this book. 

       Following a group of three children who ask questions, each page offers the question and gives brief but clear answers. One helpful addition found on each page is one specific added explanation, like this page which gives more information about mental illness. The brief illustrations by Jane Heinrichs of the children looking for answers and sometimes showing concern to those answers offer a personal connection for children reading this. Here is one example of the way the double spreads of the pages look. And the resource page showing all three that were the questioners in this book.

left side

right side

Monday Books Shared

          Visit Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else's wonderful posts of books they share. My TBR list grows every Monday!

         It's a challenge to review a book of poetry when every poem is a delight. This recently published, and delightful, book offers a creative and new way to teach about those pesky things called "punctuation marks". Lee Bennett Hopkins has given me that challenge in his new collection that includes a poem about every.single.mark. Poems are written by Lee and others you will recognize: Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Charles Ghigna, Allan Wolf, Julie Larios, Alice Schertle, J. Patrick Lewis, Michele Krueger, Jane Yolen, Prince Redcloud, Joan Bransfield Graham, and Betsy Franco. Think of this opening by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, "A Punctuation Tale" that starts the excitement of best learning how these (sometimes mysteries) help communicate exactly what one wants to share when writing: 

"Soon once again

you said away

to the island of End of Day,

where sky is a scribble

of lights and darks–

with

                   "good night"

cuddled/in quotation marks."  Wait till you read ALL of this poem.

         Serge Bloch's whimsical illustrations add to the learning with cartoon-like interpretations of each poem. In J. Patrick Lewis' poem "Stubby The Hyphen", Bloch shows several animals' bodies connected with, yes a hyphen.

         Lee Bennett Hopkins ends this delightful poetry with one final poem, "Lines Written for You To Think About". In it, he gives several challenges that include different punctuation marks. 

         For every classroom, for help with punctuation lessons, for celebrating "after" the lessons and showing how poems can include information, this is the book!

                  

           With alternating chapters, the two main characters tell the story, adding layers from both genders around assault and consent, a conversation that would be good to happen for all adolescents. 
           The setting is the Fullbrook Academy, an elite prep school full of traditions that are not always safe. Jules Devereux is eager to have her senior year done so she can leave Fullbrook and its old-boy social codes behind. She is a stand-out, fights norms when she can, with a bit of help from a counselor, yet past years' behavior and ex-boyfriends and ex-best friends do not help. Jamie Baxter feels out of place. For instance, he's really never had to dress for dinner, but he's landed here with a hockey scholarship that will help him escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches. Two other classmates add to this mix of hurt - struggling and smart teens trying so hard to do the right thing, which is "not" the tradition. 
            Pressures to play by the rules, and NOT tell anything that may hurt the school remain rigid. The book shows these teens' thoughts and pain, and the yearning to have someone stand with them to fight back. I imagine every teen will recognize some things about their high school lives in this book, and wish they had the friendships that emerge. Or, I hope they recognize their friends they know they can count on. It's harsh but I enjoyed how Brendan Kiely (co-author with Jason Reynolds of All American Boys) wrote this serious story.

          In a wordless picture book, the reader must take much time to look, to choose what’s important, perhaps personally, perhaps considering what others might think. Kerascoët,   husband and wife illustrators, focus only on the children in this story of kindness, the actions of one “speaking louder than words” and the reaction of another who also must be considered. All kinds of children in bright colors, wearing backpacks and going to school, all kinds of children on the playground at recess, and one lone girl walking home who’s confronted by a bully. What happens next can be a discussion in itself. This may be wordless, but in “reading aloud” I imagine many will have words to share in a lively discussion. Sweet, sweet book for this school year beginning and for those who would wish to have it for a child at home.