Non-Fiction Picture Books Teach With Poetry

Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  Thanks to her hosting and sharing and those who add their posts, you can discover and celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books!  I always learn from these books, am happy that they are more and more available today for children, for everyone!

            I'm happy to highlight Laura Purdie Salas' new rhyming poetry book, thanks to Laura, NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the ARC. It comes out officially in early September, will be a great start for students to begin learning about animal preparation for winter. Yes, they will begin in September. Autumn arrives on September 23rd in North America.

         Laura's clear and brief poems show her expertise in relaying pertinent and interesting information for young readers. She's divided winter preparation behavior into three parts, and then includes differences within those categories. With a shout-out to all the wonderful things one can do in autumn, a shout to do them because it's time for a change! "The banquet of autumn will soon fade away", it's time to turn the page (and season) to discover those animals that migrate to warmer places. The hummingbird doubles its size to have strength for the long journey, the monarch flies south to mate and ensure future families. I imagine children will love these familiar beginnings, then be eager to learn more. 

        Others do migrate, like the blue whale, swimming many miles to warmer water. We think miles, but another kind of migration only means to 'dig deeper', as worms do. They "Vacuum dead leaves like a super-slow sweeper/Forget going south. Just wiggle down deeper!"  Each spread offers a second bit of prose information about each animal.

         Animals, of course, don't always move; some do other kinds of preparation, eating more and more in order to take naps, short ones in a den with a stash of seeds and nuts like chipmunks or long ones, like bears. These hibernating animals are known more than others, but Laura's choices continue to suprise as she did with the worm above, this time with the Northern Wood Frog who amazes as a "frog icy pop". 

        Much information is given in the poems, the small bits of information adds to them, and  Claudine Gévry's illustrations illuminate in her soft pastels. She places the animals in settings that show the habitat and the action, like a tiny mouse stocking up its pantry, gathering seeds on what looks like a warm autumn day, then tunneling to its cozy den, Laura writes, "Hope that your tunnel doesn't collapse." 

         It's challenging not to tell about every bit of this book that is perfect for autumn learning. It's entertaining with Laura's clever wordplay shown in each poem. Here's one more sample in the final section, animals that stay and change with the colder weather, this time about moose: "Grow a new coat that's cozy and warm./Stay toasty no matter how brutal the storm."

          There is expanded information in the Backmatter. It would aid a plan for further research into these animals' lives or jumpstart wider research about animal behavior prepping for winter. Laura offers a glossary, explains three survival strategies, and a short piece telling more of these amazing survivors. It's terrific!

         

It's Monday - All About Love

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

        This week, I seem to have chosen books whose underlying theme is love, even with inanimate objects!


        And there is more to love this week. The winner of my giveaway posted last Monday here is--drum roll, of course--  Casi Wildeman. I've contacted her so I can give her address to the publisher. Thanks to everyone who entered.


And Cathy Mere & Mandy Robek remind here that it's nearly time for #PB10for10! Are you getting ready?

            When I read a book and love it, I want to tell it all. I want to be sure to write enough so that everyone reads it. But I cannot. This is one to experience, to savor the warmth of the family of Mason Buttle, his grandma and Uncle Drum who, though with few words, show how much they cherish their 'best boy'. And, Mason's story is all his, as I imagine Leslie Connor wanted it to be. Come meet him and those in his life this particular time in his life, his seventh-grade year. You will fall in love.

       

         Crafted by Paris Rosenthal and her father Jason as a companion to Dear Girl, a "dear" book she wrote with her late mother Amy Krouse Rosenthal. It's a book to boost you if you're a boy, a book that gives a hug to all things boys can be. I like the lines later in the book that "whenever you need an encouraging boost, remember you can turn to any page in this book." It's a hug for boys, might just be what is needed sometimes! Holly Hatam also illustrated this book, filled with her signature line drawings and collages. 

           This is what a loving Papi does, comes home after a tough day of work, and takes his daughter for a ride past all her favorite places. They rumble, they nod, they wave and smile. There is Abuelita's church and Joy's Market. There are the murals that tell their history. It's sad that Don Rudy's raspado shop is closed. No flavored shaved ice today. There is more told from Isabel Quintero as she writes a sweet author's note of her town of Corona, poignant and important to read. Zeke Pena's illustrations come alive on the pages. It's almost possible to hear that motorcycle zoom. Quintero and Pena also wrote the beautiful Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide.

Poetry Friday - Swap from Far Away

            Margaret Simon at Reflections on The Teche hosts today's Poetry Friday! She's showing us about theft, and memories, too! Be sure to visit!

           Remember last week when I shared my poem swap for Iphigene Daradar? That next day I did hear from her, that she's in Australia, and will get my swap package when she returns. Then, the very next day, I received a package from.......... Iphigene! You know as well as writing poetry, she is also a marvelous artist, so not only did I receive a special poem, there was a small painting inside, too and a collaged envelope for the poem! Iphigene must know Colorado (maybe Denver, too) well, because she wrote about rain, a childhood memory, but one I hold dear whenever we actually do receive enough to "play"!

Thanks, Iphigene, for the super swap you sent!

Non-Fiction Picture Books Inspire

Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  Thanks to her hosting and sharing and those who add their posts, you can discover and celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books!  I always learn from these books, am happy that they are more and more available today for children, for everyone!

          Perhaps you who are reading this have already seen and read Kwame Alexander's poem, The Undefeated, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. I had not but finally was able to get the book. The poem, first performed for ESPN's 'The Undefeated", includes references to words first said by the people celebrated. Using brief and powerful words for the unforgettable, those who survived, and didn't, the unflappable and those who shone, Kadir Nelson's beautiful art expands those brief words into what feels like a long, long look. Both did not forget the unspeakable, too. Black.Lives.Matter!
                   Here is one special group of words, accompanied by Nelson's image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
                            This is for the unlimited,
                              unstoppable ones,
                              The dreamers
                               and doers
                               who swim
                               across The Big Sea
                               of our imagination
                               and show us
                               the majestic shores
                               of the promised land:

        How wonderful it would be to use this book in classrooms, each student learning about one or more, perhaps writing a poem or prose piece for a performance celebration? If you have it for a class, or for your grandchildren, it is one to read aloud, to savor the pictures and if you don't recognize them, to discover them as new people to know.
         The book ends with a glossary of the figures acknowledged in the book and an afterword by Alexander, who writes that he wrote the poem in 2008, the year his second daughter, Samayah, was born. "Three months later, Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States." This poem is his tribute to both.

         Throughout the pages, cranes are flying, perhaps showing the "rising" written about by Maya Angelou that Alexander references in his Afterword: "I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose." 

Monday Reading - Books For All Ages

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

        I have a second post today, a giveaway of a new book about how money works, for young readers!

             I haven't ended a book with tears for a long time, and this time I did. When you read of twelve-year-old Hanako's family, coming from the internment camps, parents giving up their American citizenship to move back to the area around Hiroshima, you realize that war is not always over because the aftermath is also devastating. Hanako is American and now lost with her world broken, finding everything different and so hard to fit in. She's been rejected by her home country, the family's lost their restaurant, and now there is nowhere to turn but to her father's parents, tenant farmers in the countryside. The country, including Jiichan and Baachan, grandparents who shower Hanako and Akira, her young brother, with unconditional love, are starving. Yet they still make room in their small home, welcoming their son and family. They will do everything for family!

          Hanako is growing up and in that process, she questions so many things, including how to help orphans begging on the streets when her brother cries out constantly that he is hungry. In this turmoil, Grandfather Jiichan explains: "This is 'kintsukuroi'. Thing break, you must fix with gold. It is only way to live your life." This is fixing broken objects with gold lacquer, making them stronger and more beautiful than ever. Discovering that 'gold' for fixing is an underlying theme for each family member. 
         I loved another part when Hanako decided "Maybe sometimes you just had to go out into the world and trust what would happen." She has decided that gold can come in many forms, as I found in many parts of this story. Cynthia Kadohata shares the history that will enlighten those who do not know what happened to these Japanese people who were part of our country in this loving novel of hardship, love, and always hope. Julia Kuo has added a few illustrations to the story. It's a 'best book' this year for me.


        This, this book--sometimes hard to read because of the heart-rending scenes, but so hard to stop, too, because there is an underlying tension that pulled me to discover what in this world is really going on, and who is possible to trust. The girls at Raxter, a private camp, have been attacked by some kind of virus. One never knows when, or who, it will hit again. Quarantined, now with a set of rules for it, the three main characters, including the ins and outs of all relationships, stick together. The power of their love and the horrible experiences they must figure out how to survive creates an 'out-of-this-world' story that's a bit close to home when reading news of a new ebola outbreak.