Non-Fiction Picture Books Share Memories

  

        Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy -- hashtag #nfpb2020! Thanks to her hosting and sharing.  

       From others, too, who add their posts, you can discover and celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books! 

Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following fabulous book!

          I've lived on a lake but in a neighborhood. And my family used to have a cabin in the woods but by a stream instead of a lake. That cabin was built by a park ranger and his family one summer. They had it for fourteen years, then my family bought it from them, and now we have sold it to a new family. Three owners make its history of changes and abandonment, then fun and good times back again. 

           My life stories make Thomas Harding's history of The House by the Lake so very poignant. His own great-grandfather, described as "a kind doctor and his cheery wife" are the ones who built the house, wanting a place away from "the busy city". That city was Berlin, Germany, and as is said, the rest is history. In his forward, Thomas Harding discovers through his search that the history of this same house was on the "frontlines of history".

            First published in the U.S. last month, Harding has researched and told this story again, this time in brief, poetic and poignant words. He traces the story from the impact of the Nazis in World War II to the way the house later ended up near the Berlin Wall when no one sailed across the lake. Finally, the wall came down and with it, freedom for the house that was then reconstructed so a family could again stay there and sail across the lake and build sandcastles by the shore. Britta Teckentrup’s beautiful, collaged illustrations appear muted, not quite gone but over-taken by shadows of years passing. 

         There is an afterword that tells more of each of the five owners, including the restoration of the house by Thomas Harding and the community. It has been renamed the Alexander Haus and reopened as a center for education and reconciliation.

        An interesting article in The Guardian can be found here, showing one picture of Harding in the actual house and sharing a bit more about its history. Harding wrote a memoir of the same title in 2015 about this house.

        It's a special book, may begin someone's interest in researching their own homes or apartments.

It's Monday - Loving Halloween books, History, and More!

 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!

     Share with the hashtag #IMWAYR 

  

      Still wishing all of you educators good days with your students! I admire you very much! I ended up talking with a teacher (a stranger) at the grocery last week who told me everything she was doing from morning till night for her students, her teaching. She was so tired, but still, more concerned about her students. 

        Here are two books I loved this week from my regular reading. 

         Sometimes one expects middle-grade books to be fairly simple, but this debut book by Ernesto Cisneros is anything but simple. I am so glad to see his respect for middle-schoolers, that they do ponder important parts of their lives, they do make good decisions, and they are quite capable of doing great things! Efrén Nava's Amá is his Superwoman - or Soperwoman, named after the delicious Mexican sopes his mother often prepares. The story centers around Efrén but entrenches deeply with his family of mother, father, and two younger siblings. He lives in Highland, California in a one-room apartment with mattresses on the floor, a tiny kitchen, and a whole lot of love. His parents are both undocumented, and the tension arrives at the beginning when they all go on lockdown as a helicopter whirrs overhead. The story intensifies when his mother is deported and Efrén must take over most of the sibling caretaking while his father works two jobs. Little money along with few hours of sleep makes school a challenge for the usual super-student Efrén, along with keeping everything a big secret. Other school challenges with friends and a trip across the border to save his mother made me admire this young boy, but also angry that it should not be like this for children. Despite these huge events, Cisneros keeps Efrén the sweetest boy ever with his family and trying hard to do right by his friends. I love that there are numerous Spanish phrases throughout and a glossary at the back that helped when I couldn't figure out a word. This book is definitely a "soper" story!

Thanks to Barry Wittenstein for this copy in exchange for an honest review. It's published tomorrow!

        Read this book to inspire your children or your students to become interested in history, tracing their homes, or in this case, the proprietors of a local "corner store". Read this book with them and have them research their own personal history of a local store, or of their home. Of course, it would be great if they lived in a place that has been around for a long time, but choosing a favorite building visited in a nearby town or city will work, too.

        Barry Wittenstein has created his own fictional history in Oscar's American Dream of a city corner location that changes with the times, a parallel journey of the highlights of the twentieth century. Oskar Nowicki, soon to become "Oscar" came to Ellis Island with only a cardboard suitcase and "a skinny roll of money", ready to make his dream a reality. In 1899, he opened his barbershop, celebrating the new century coming with his Grand Opening. He gave some free haircuts and lemon drops to all the children. Later, he found work that paid better, and that corner store became full of women, suffragettes, too, moving on toward the 1920s, two sisters getting rich selling flapper fashions. "The good times were here to stay–" 

         You older readers may guess what's coming, the Great Depression. Those sisters lost everything and their store became a soup kitchen for all in need. Years continue to pass as Barry tells this building's story with numerous details added in illustrations from Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell: flappers trying on the latest, the dark times of the Depression, the variety of people sitting together for their free meals, a World War II recruitment office, and on.

                                                    The soup kitchen illustration!

                 

            

                                       

                     This corner store has become a memory during the century for hundreds of people. I imagine a great cloud floating above that store with people, friends, and family, talking together: "Do you remember when you found green banana cakes from Moises at the corner bodega, or when you bought your first television there? Remember when it burned, then Annie & Danny reconstructed it and opened the first coffee shop? Remember Candy's? 

           Sometimes these places create a bond among us. Sometimes for kids, they are places they could first go alone, for young marrieds, a first big purchase; for company, a welcome meeting place. Curiosity about the history in a favorite building makes life interesting and someday, when you meet old friends, you'll be able to say, "Remember when. . ."

          Wishing you all your own connections, and memories, of a building. And I hope you can read this book with kids to inspire them that the places they visit have histories they will enjoy knowing. 

     

            I am sad that Halloween will look different this year but continue to depend on my granddaughters' excitement about home decorating, reading scary books, and their own costumes although they will only be going out in their block which is having its own celebration. 

            However, the most fun in October is reading Halloween books. Here are a few new ones and one old favorite we get out every year.

Poetry Friday - Out My Window

     Poetry Friday is hosted by Bridget Magee here at Wee Words for Wee Ones! She's offering smiles for us today along with a prompt and a poem about her favorite color, orange. And it's not political! Thanks for hosting, Bridget!  

These next weeks are going to be challenging, I imagine, for each of us. Best wishes in doing what you can to be kind to yourself and others. And VOTE!

I'm keeping my eyes on the important parts of life, out in nature this time of year is a blessing. Autumn is a falling inspiration! I found this in one of my notebooks and really do not know if I wrote it or I copied it from one of you! Nevertheless, I love its truth!

Out My Window  

 

windy days 

co-star with leaves –

dancing

swirls

around-the-corner

music –

melancholy

whirls

magical movies –

flirting

twirls

 

Linda Baie ©

Monday Reading - All New and Wonderful

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!

     Share with the hashtag #IMWAYR 

  

            My post that shares Irene Latham's new poetry book, This Poem Is A Nest, is shared today on a blog tour. The book came out on September 29th. You can find my post here with a list of others who are on the tour.

      Still wishing all of you educators good days with your students! I admire you very much!

          Thanks to Edelweiss, I had the pleasure of reading Jerry Craft's new book, the "next" story after New Kid, about Drew, best friend Jordan, white rich friend Liam, and all the other kids with them in their eighth-grade year at the elite school they call RAD (Riverdale Academy Day school). They aren't "new kids" anymore yet still find they don't know each other very well, and each struggle with the age-old question of who they are and accepting self, something most new teens (later too) agonize over. Through various scenes at school and outside of school, examining how they are treating each other, how the old history of neighborhood friends is hard on Drew. He has a new flattop haircut (see the cover) that gets touched without permission by a few girls who really do like him, but. . .  Jordan hasn't grown very much and still doesn't have that "boy-stink" he thinks everyone else has, plus he loves drawing and still has to decide whether to transfer to an art school in high school. Liam in his huge home, with pool and maid and driver, doesn't see his father very much and his mother is portrayed as a little out of touch. As you see from the cover of Drew juggling several artifacts. All middle-schoolers, juggle their lives as they grow up. That also includes family, included in the boys' lives as an important part of their support. Craft heightens the tension a few times that made me as a reader turn the pages fast, like one frightening scene where Jordan's dad is driving him somewhere and he's pulled over by the police. Diversity is something the mostly-white school is shown to be of concern, creating some serious moments and some decisions that feel uncomfortable especially for those of color. They are all learning, but it is messy.

            Craft has Jordan create cartoon "intermissions" once in a while, talking about race and class, emotions from his and friend perspectives. The chapter title pages themselves are wonderful predictions of what's coming, all different, but some cleverly parody other popular graphic works for readers like Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants - The Adventures of Captain Undertones - now in fool color - Chapter 11.  As you read my review, I hope you realize how much I enjoyed this advanced copy, will be sure to purchase for my granddaughter, sixth grade! It's terrific!

             

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

           There is a lake here in Colorado where a small town was flooded in order to create the lake. This is a story for October, for Halloween sharing! As the blurb states, all that can be seen of the flooded village of Spetzia is the clock tower, but sometimes with the right light, one can see the streets and buildings of the old village. Some whisper that this lake is haunted, but along the shore, Jacob and his father live together and make their living as fishermen. Ellen meets Jacob at the market and over time she spends time helping with the fish, cooking for them, going to market. They fall in love but Jacob is older and says they must wait a while before marriage. What comes later as he is lured underwater by a beautiful specter is a tale to be read by candlelight and one that might make you shiver! Illustrations by P.J. Lynch are gorgeous, sometimes shadowy, often full of emotion, bring the story to life. It's quite an intriguing story.

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

             Wow! Twenty-five years later, Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram (Guess How Much I Love You) have reunited to create a new and special book for the youngest readers. Little Nutbrown Hare wants to play because Big Nutbrown Hare is busy, and he does. He finds another in a puddle, realizes it is the same 'me'. Then sees a second 'me' in his shadow, and the same recognition happens. But then, a white rabbit appears and after a first meeting, they play and play. The possible "what's next?" will give time for wondering and some predictions with smiles for the happy ending. Finding a friend is a great thing! The softly-colored illustrations are lovely and certainly recognizable from the early, loved book.

Poetry Friday - Where Poetry Invites Us to Travel

     Poetry Friday is hosted by Tabatha Yeatts here at The Opposite of Indifference!  This Friday, Tabatha has a surprise for everyone. Be sure to read her post, then check out everyone else's Friday poetry sharing. Thanks, Tabatha for hosting and for always giving us beautiful words to ponder!

      Remember that I work at an all-volunteer-run used bookstore, ever a pleasure! Often a book comes along that I enjoy, and here is one. I don't bring them all home. Yikes! My shelves are full already. But I took a picture of the cover and a poem I thought you would enjoy, with illustration! I am so grateful for all those workers in our world this pandemic year who are helping us live our lives as best we can, who often are taking risks, and who are often in need, too. 

               THE UMBRELLA REPAIR MAN

In the rainy season

                                 the streets and alleys are very damp.

During the weather of genial sunbeams

No one remembers          This thin, raw-boned engineer.

In charge of the bent parabolas of umbrella tops,

The most primitive type of thin-shelled construction,

Using the cohesive force of particle for particle,

He perfects the form of tension.

His fuming pipe bowl            burns time

Which, borne by natural currents,

                                                           coils away and vanishes,

His bygone, rose-colored youth (like the tattered slogan)

Is already hanging in ruins from the ramshackle wall.

The umbrella repair man

Harbor's no rancor or bitterness,

With the toil of his two hands      he earns his recompense.

Only the cats and dogs        these unassuming animals,

These alone are his true friends.

                                Chen Min Hwa