Monday Reading - New Books to Enjoy

     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 everyone for sharing so many great books that I put on my list, read and enjoy! I hope you are continuing to be well and manage these challenging days.

 

             I also read and enjoyed Saadia Faruqi's book written with Laura Shovan this year, A Place at The Table. Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this latest one. Saadia is from Karachi, Pakistan originally and while she writes here about two young girls, she also says in her author's note that this is a love letter to Karachi, too. This backdrop of the story gives a loving glimpse of this ancient city, now modern in some ways, still carrying its history, too. 

            It's a middle-grade novel first starting with disgusted eleven-year-old Mimi, not happy at all about spending her summer with grandparents she barely knows. She begins by starting a new journal writing to her father about the time there, the father who left her and her mother when she was five. The cook's daughter, the same age, is hoping for entry into a private school, not wishing at all to remain her father's assistant for the rest of her life. Her family is very poor, however, and she keeps this goal a secret, wondering if she will ever get the chance for better.

            At first, the girls are wary of each other. How in this world can a rich American girl ever have anything in common with a poor Pakistani? But they do find each other in ways you might not imagine, but will love the intertwining story, mixed in with both families' troubles and the change that happens when secrets are revealed. Learning how friendships work and how families can love no matter the circumstance means a great story for kids to read and connect with personally. I enjoyed it very much!

         Time to thank Josh Funk for his latest two books! 

          One more time Josh Funk has brought in his storyteller to give us readers a version of Little Red Riding Hood. Even the title says it's not, but everyone in the story tries hard to follow the original story. However, the wolf is sick (just like Grandma) so Captain Hook takes the wolf's place and tries hard to be scary and to follow the storyline. Even as Little Blue (yes, something happened to the red cape) tries to follow along, other things disrupt like that pirate says he did NOT agree to any people-eatin'! Like the previous ones, this is full of giggles and surprises from the story and from Edwardian Taylor's sneaky illustrations. I saw a few other recognizable story characters in the background like that bored rabbit waiting, waiting for the turtle plodding uphill. 

           I love reading this myself and to my grandchildren, am very glad I won it from Laura Mossa at Beagles and Books! Thanks again, Laura!

         Patience and Fortitude, ready for their nightly prowl, find that the beloved children's library they visit often, is gone! Off to find it, they first visit Times Square with lights blazing for Harry Potter, Frog and Toad, and Annie. Those are plays, no books. And in Funk's usual special poetic quatrains and Stevie Lewis's nighttime NYC illustrations, readers are taken on their own prowls searching. Central Park, the Highline Canal, and some of the local branch libraries are only a few places that are fun to see and visit, however, the lost books are not there! If you don't know the latest NYC library news, you'll learn about it now. The newly renovated library is now across the street and Patience and Fortitude at last found their beloved books. There is an added note at the back that explains all the sites visited for those who do not know New York City very well. The opening endcover by Lewis show the dismayed lions with only a few books, but the back ones are filled with Fortitude and Patience relaxing with their found books! Throughout the story, you will recognize some special favorites on various shelves. A new adventure that will be fun to add to other books about libraries.

                  Perfect to read aloud, wonderful for discussion and prediction, thanks to Candlewick Press for these next two books!

Poetry Friday - Looking Up

Robyn Hood Black, of haiku fame, hosts our Poetry Friday today at Life on The Deckle Edge! with so many special ideas for holiday gifts and a special poem from Hop To It, the new poetry anthology by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, by Margaret Simon. In it, you will find so many Poetry Friday friends! Thanks, dear friend, for hosting!

Though our worries do not seem to be over, I had quite a wonderful LAST Saturday, did you?

           A new "old" book was donated to the used bookstore where I volunteer. It is FILLED to the brim with poems, essays, long passages from plays, speeches, aphorisms. Aptly named, this Treasury of the Familiar, 1942 has reminded me of poems I remember reading years ago or poems read to me as a child. I searched for something apt for today's chaos but chose instead a moon poem I didn't remember at all by Walter de la Mare titled "Silver". It was a wonderful sight to see that blue moon last month and now this morning, a "silver" sliver of it has returned. Dependable moon, how I love you!

        The book's owner trimmed these and tucked them inside the pages of the book.

Here is the full page with the poem, and a taste of other things, too! Enjoy!

Monday Reading - Books for Your List, Again!

     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 everyone for sharing so many great books that I put on my list, read and enjoy!

It has been quite a week in our history, hasn't it? No matter how you feel, I hope everyone can find ways to work together for a better world, especially including help to lessen the challenges of the pandemic! Some of these following books include inspirational stories of people who have stepped forward to fill needs they see. We can do that, too!

From My Library!

           Badger loves certain things, especially rocks. He is single-minded and likes his life of "doing important rock work". He lives in a brownstone freely given to him by his Aunt Lula, because he didn't make much money and had no place to live. He spends much of his time in his "rock room". At least, that is what his days used to be until Skunk showed up. He had been offered a room and a home by Aunt Lula, unbeknownst to Badger. Well, Badger had received a few letters from her yet they went unread (important rock work). Skunk moves in and upends up a lot of "things" like noticing that a room full of boxes means they need to be flattened and the room made comfy, then it can become his bedroom with a moon straying into the window. He saved some of the boxes for the chickens. Chickens? Yes, chickens play a large part in this story, too, much to Badger's dismay. The story becomes a big adventure with Badger making decisions he will regret and decisions that please.  The introspection by him and by Skunk, also are important to consider. If you're in a pickle of a relationship, best to really look at your days and how you discover they could be! I love the way Amy Timberlake incorporates animal "ways": "But being a badger, he tip-clawed to the kitchen for a wary peek." You will grow to love these two characters and learn quite a lot about geology and chickens and maybe yourself! And, Jon Klassen adds his special muted and sentimental illustrations.  

         Thanks to Albert Whitman & Company for this copy! Karen Rostoker-Gruber adapts a Yiddish folktale, It Could Be Worse with a lesson learned by a farmer after asking advice from a wise woman in town. Oh my, his household is SO crowded. With eight children, what is he to do? This wise woman shares to invite all his ducks into his home, then other animals, including the horses! Oh my, again, he is never sure of that advice but follows it. Can you guess what happens? It may be wise words we all might take notice of in our lives: "be sure you are grateful for what you already have!" Karen Rostoker-Gruber's illustrations mimic old-time pictures, busy and colorful. What fun it would be to read this aloud to a group of young readers! 

           Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following three special picture books!

         Aw, a boy's older sister tells him all about winter, how to look for signs it is on its way like days getting shorter, leaves dropping, then cold! Although those things do happen, he finds many things to love like sledding, cozying with family on the sofa, and making snow angels. When they ice skate, it is so much fun. Winter does not become the sad season the sister describes. In a story of brief words where watercolor illustrations show those seasonal changes along with the brother's delight. despite his sister's gloomy forecast. It will be lots of fun reading aloud with a group talking about points of view of course!

         Until I read this beautiful story by Susan Goldman Rubin of Mary Seacole, a nurse who served on the front lines of the Crimean War, among many other ways she served, I had never heard of her. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1805, learned about nursing from her mother who prepared herbs to help sick people. She decided she wanted to help others with natural remedies, kindness, and good food. She first practiced on her dolls as a young girl! 

Poetry Friday - Trees Write

                Susan at Soul Blossom Living hosts us today. Thanks, Susan!

          As this tiny blossom above shows, there's always hope for goodness, right? I've been writing for myself and with Bridget's Magee's online poetry group and it's been wonderful to have someone who is "expecting" something from me and to "expect" a poem from someone else! Before it started, I had been messing around with etherees. Here is the definition I work from: "Similar to the Cinquain and the Rictameter, the Etheree is a ten-line form ascending in syllable count for ten unrhymed lines. It's attributed to an American poet, Etheree Taylor Armstrong of Arkansas. An Etheree should focus on one idea or subject."

           I wrote a double one and shared it at the end of September here!

       Now it is this week of November's beginning and I owe a new poem to another person, but first, I owe this one for this time in our country's life, for hope and well-being wishes to all of us.

  One

  leaf drops;

  a maple

  skids underneath

  a yellow aspen.

  Sweetgum’s orange joins in.

  Odd that a green leaf appears,

  lands the middle – spring memory

  refuses to be one left alone.  

  They create a wreath of us, together.  

       Linda Baie ©

It's Monday - More New Books to Enjoy!

    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 

Wishing you all a good week ahead! And, VOTE if you haven't yet! It's going to be a wild week!

        Thanks to Candlewick Press for all the books I'm sharing today.

            From the author of A Wish In The Dark, Christina Soontornvat who has family in Thailand happened to be visiting there when the Wild Boars went missing. She never stopped following their journey and knew she had to write this book!

           From the beginning exciting trip to a cave promised by Coach Ek to the incredible end, Christina Soontornvat takes us on this journey with emotion and clear explanations of the challenges, including a broad swath of volunteers wanting to help in any way possible. Many stepped in, figured out what was needed and acted, helped, went without sleep or payment. The heroes number in the thousands and the boys were saved! I learned a lot from this emotional telling, the science of the water in the Thai mountains, what and how sumps work, the super pumps that farmers there really use to water their fields, thus using them to help in a different way in the rescue. Also included were the cave divers and their expertise, a group I knew nothing about. They were the final rescuers, taking on a risk even they had not taken before. The kindnesses do not stop! It was also wonderful to hear about the boys and their coach, the strength of brotherhood they brought to achieve survival before they were first found and after. The reading was high drama consistently and the ending "after" is to be appreciated. I guess we all lived through this rescue via television or the internet, but to read the minute details of those days makes an adventurous story to absorb and appreciate the time and research from Christina Soontornvat. 

        This is the final book of Victoria Bond's trilogy about Zora Neale Hurston's family and hometown of Eatonville, which is the first incorporated black township in America. I've enjoyed each one, the books unfolding as Victoria Bond used facts from Hurston's life to weave a dramatic story for middle-grade readers. This finale shows Zora's family and Eatonville itself immersed in a frightening upheaval that includes a lynch mob pursuing a fugitive, a grave robber, and Zora's own family sorrows that show reasons she finally left to pursue her own dreams. Her best friend Carrie again tells the tale filled with lives of so long ago with numerous interesting characters, old-time medicine and politics, some explanations of voodoo and zombie-ism at that time, and the challenges for black people even in a place created to be safe. A quote I loved that fits this tale, but our lives, too: "The world is covered in dull and sharp points alike." It begins Chapter Six and when you read the book, be sure to read the whole paragraph it started! There is a brief biography explaining some of the truths woven into the story. Terrific final book!

        Smriti Prasadam-Halls' poetic rhyme offers courage and hope as a young girls and her fox companion travels through storms and dark yet find some friends who give them hope along the way. Finally, the day and a hope-filled future arrive: "Rain before rainbows, clouds before sun,/night before daybreak–a new day's begun. David Litchfield's illustrations feel poetic, too, filling the pages with the emotions expressed as the girl travels from dark to light. It's a beautiful book that will encourage discussion of the metaphor and its meaning personally.