It's Monday - Books I Loved

          Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.  

           Thanks to Candlewick Press for these first three books, recently published.


         I enjoyed Steve Light's Black Bird, Yellow Sun, and now here is another "flight of fancy" where two children run off to find their dad who's forgotten his lunch box. He works at a construction site, thus the reader meets the "Builders & Breakers", those two introduced at the beginning along with other parts as the story progresses into detailed and varied scenes from a construction site. Those two kids are there, searching, searching, and until the end, no luck. However, on the search, there are many things to see and some astound, especially in two vertical double-page spreads. The second one is when "Diggers dig down, down, down." showing how that excavation works with the help of workers and cranes, even showing hidden dinosaur bones. Many details invite slow poring over the pages.  There is an interesting letter from the author at the back explaining the need for both a builder and a breaker to achieve balance in construction. Endpapers are filled with examples of architectural drawings.

        For the youngest ones, but not a board book, and from Australia, out this past month from Candlewick in the US. Can you tell an animal by only seeing its behind? This is the game, a clever one with clear word clues paired with that so interesting tail! It even begins with the endpaper before the title page, a beautiful peacock's tail. John Carty's art is new to me, but his fifteen watercolored animals are realistic and gorgeous. The copyright page shares that the art is adapted from nineteenth-century artwork. I'm sure that it will be a popular guessing time for young readers and they may learn some new names in case they don't know them all.

an extraordinary gift for kids

         An idea from Jules Verne's Around The World In Eighty Days, there Phineas Foff makes his marvelous bet: that he can travel the circumference of the world in no more than eighty days. Perhaps you've read the book or perhaps you've seen the movie of years ago, but this time, kids can visit each double-page spread and take the challenge there. Most pages include hundreds of modes of travel, like hot air balloons, bicycles, and sailing ships. A few pages visit iconic places in the world, like the Eiffel Tower. On the pages, readers are asked to spot a certain thing or things. For example, on a page with buildings that show outside staircases, you're asked to choose the one building with staircases all the way to the roof. Aleksandra Artymowska fills each page with colorful intricate designs. There is one added challenge at the very back where answers are found. It's a terrific book that will bring lots of fun when taking on the challenges. 

---------------------------

Poetry Friday - Looking Out Into The World

         Poetry Friday is at Jama's Alphabet Soup today. Thanks for your inspirational post, Jama! We will not stop fighting to do what is right for our country, for the world.

         My grandfather used to quote this to me, telling me that we all are part of the world and we need to work for others, not only ourselves. 

'No Man is an Island'

No man is an island entire of itself; every man (and woman)
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 
own were; any man's (and womans') death diminishes me, 
because I am involved in (human)kind. 
And therefore never send to know for whom 
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne 

       
        It is November, election month, is a great time to share this new rhyming picture book by Dave Eggers. When I read it, I remembered the John Donne words above, and celebrate that this book shares that same message for younger children, really for us all.

         If you study social justice in the classroom, if you want to share and inspire your own children, or grandchildren, to be good citizens, this will be a terrific book to read together. I hope it will inspire you readers, too. Lists can be made to see where in the community one can help. From small deeds to large ones, all of us need to find some way to help our neighbors, our neighborhoods, our towns and cities. 
        In rhyme with delightful cut-paper illustrations by Shawn Harris, Eggers shares a simple and straightforward message : 

From a beginning looking out. . .

"A citizen's not what you are--

a citizen is what you do.

A citizen cannot forget

the world is more than you."

To going out and joining in, wherever one sees a need.

          Enjoy the book when you can, go out into your special world and find actions that will make it better.

Non-Fiction - Being Citizens

art by Sarah S. Brannen

Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  From her post and others, you will discover and want to celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books! 










          It is a bit late to be sharing these two books, but I wanted to be sure that people knew of them for this week before the election and for the future.

       This book is twenty years old, donated to my used bookstore. It doesn't surpass all the RBG books out for older students, but if you want a book that thoroughly offers the background history and the way courts, especially the Supreme Court, works in an accessible way for young children, it is a good one. Told in verse with fun examples like the case considered that all mice must eat a different cheese every day, against freedom of choice! There is an extra historical note at the back for parents and teachers with more detailed information. 

       My students had the good fortune to sit in on a session with our state supreme court, examining a case, then making our own decision later, and returning to hear the court's final decision. If you have older students and are able to do this, it is a marvelous experience.

          This book is a beautiful one for election prep. Each double-page spread answers one question like "How do we know who to choose in an election?" where it explains the two-party system, how the Republicans and Democrats got their mascots, and the importance of asking lots of questions before choosing. 

         There is diversity included in the illustrations and extra boxes of information along the way. Colorful art that seems to have red, white and blue dominating the pictures. They are cartoon-like exaggerations sometimes, quite entertaining as they accompany the explanations. It flows well, tells just enough to inform about each topic.

A favorite part of a page!

       The back matter includes a timeline and sources for additional reading.

Happy Halloween!

Monday Reading - Lovely Books

          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 have held onto this second book, The Remember Balloons for a while. My husband passed away from Parkinson's with its own kind of dementia, and it wasn't a book I was really wanting to read, though I know it is good to have a picture book to help open the topic for children, to help them understand. Then, Candlewick sent me this first book, Dad's Camera, and I didn't know that it, too, was about Alzheimer's Disease. Both are good reminders that dementia can take different forms and be explained sweetly to children who may need to understand a family member.

           Each person with a disease that attacks the memory is different, as is this father in this moving picture book, an emotional look at a family touched by Alzheimer’s. Dad keeps taking photos with an old camera he has found. The snapshots are meant to celebrate his memories and his life, so his family has something to remember him by. However, they don't understand why he is taking photos of strange things, like his keys, his coffee cup, the objects scattered on his desk. He starts doing a lot of things that are hard to understand, like putting items that belong in the fridge in the cupboard and ones that belong in the cupboard in the fridge. At the end, they do realize that he loved them very much. First published in Australia.

        Jessie Oliveros does a terrific job of telling about Alzheimer's Disease in an easy-to-understand way for young readers. She uses the analogy of balloons as memories and at first the boy telling the story shares he has way more "balloons" than his little brother. His favorite is the one filled with his last birthday party. His mom and dad have more than he does, but his grandpa has more than all of them together, with marvelous stories. As the story moves along, Grandpa sometimes tells about one balloon twice, and then he begins to forget those stories. They simply float away. The boy is shattered, but his parents help him realize that now Grandpa's balloons belong to him that he can share. Dana Wulfekotte illustrates the story with a limited palette except for those beautiful memory balloons.  

       It's a week after the full moon, a delightful time to read this beautiful story, a folktale, of a mother making huge mooncakes, making sure her daughter knows that she is not to take any bites of it. That daughter's name is Little Star. However, in the night, Little Star wakes to look up and see how tasty that cake looks. Perhaps she can have just a nibble? With black sky background, Little Star dressed in pajamas covered with stars, and that beautiful, glowing, delicious-looking Mooncake filling up the pages, bit by bite the reader sees the moon's monthly journey across the sky. I adore the little details, like the crumbs on Little Star's face after her first bite. And the endpapers include the cooking scene with a boxed mix titled Leo and a small splash of spilled milk turns into spiral one sees in outer space. It's a magical book.

Poetry Friday - Those Goodbyes

Kay McGriff at A Journey Through The Pages hosts this final Poetry Friday in October with a view of her own sunrise inspiration. Thanks, Kay!

I'm visiting Irene Latham at Live Your Poem today with an "Octopoem" for Agnes, her favorite octopus, celebrating #Octopusmonth.

My days filled with leaves this week, alongside the challenging news, daily things like checking for a roof leak (no answer to the ceiling crack yet-yikes), and fun, too, with the grandgirls and at the bookstore. 
        I raked them. I filled paper bags from Ace Hardware and delivered them to our "Leaf Drop" program for future mulch. I gathered some beautiful ones to lay on the dining table and show Ingrid and Imogene how to identify them. And, sharing below, I took a walk. Actually, I took more than one, but. . .  I am fortunate to live where there are many trees, a forest city! So, a poem, too.

I Went Out For A Walk

Some trees spread their prints.

Leafy remains lie like tablecloths,
picnic ready.

Crispy crimson clings for show,

ignoring translucent evidence

of goodbyes.

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved