It's Monday! Books for All Readers

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 - having fun and staying safe! 

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

           The magical story Hayley Chewins has created twists and turns while slowly bringing light to a terrifying challenge that Mayhap Ballastian must unravel. Something was always strange when her parents brought her and her sisters to Straygarden Place, a house surrounded by tall silver grass and floating trees. The father and mother are scientists and intrigued enough to want to study the flora and fauna. They do find that when they sign papers to live there, they are told they will need to give up something. As it happens, that is all we know of the parents because the tale begins after they mysteriously disappear, only leaving a note that says "Wait for us. Sleep darkly." The house itself takes care of Winnow, Mayhap, and Pavonine, the three sisters, but when Winnow, the oldest at 14, does go outside (breaking the rules), everything is left to Mayhap, twelve, to save her sister. She persists and discovers secrets that are heartbreaking. There is at last relief and good surprises at the end. Figuring out that love and kindness help solve frightening problems creates an underlying theme. Those who love mystery and unimaginable magic where anything can be taken will love this story. 

           

            From the creators of the wonderful Crown: An Ode To The Fresh Cut is a celebration, but not just any kind, this is one of all those "good" things a boy believes he is, that he can be. Derrick Barnes lets him tell it all himself in first person. This black boy is energetic, creative, "a coooooool breeze". When he falls, he gets up and sometimes he's afraid because he's misunderstood and called what he is not. Be sure you discover all the things that he is because those many things are very special. Gordon C. James's paintings fill the pages with action and the boy with family and friends and so many smiles. The endpapers are filled, too, with those smiling faces. It is a wonderful book to be shared with children in your lives whether teacher, parent or grandparent!

           It's difficult to imagine any art project more fun this fall than to get this book, read and enjoy it, then create your own rainbow wish! Eighteen artists have shared their own and I noticed quite a few wishing for activities with friends! With the virus restrictions and the hope to stay safe and well, it means very little or no time with a group. Brian Biggs writes "My rainbow is playing ball with everyone." He shows a group of very happy children, and a ball! Laura Vaccaro Seeger writes "We will hold hands as we walk and talk and listen and be . . .  together." She created a collage of whirling colors and many hands. I didn't choose favorites but only samples. Each one will make you smile.

Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following books!

Poetry Friday - An End & A Beginning

     Poetry Friday is hosted by Jone Rush MacCulloch here at her new, beautiful website!  Thanks, Jone for hosting and for offering a prompt last week to write for National Math Storytelling Day or #NationalBRAVEDay, both September 25th.

      So much is going on, the news seems to flip-flop from chaos to loss to prime-time "he-said, she-said". It is challenging to keep up. I am reminded of My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss, though I know he did not mean it in the way it's now happening!

     The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has thrown us all into mourning and a call for resignations along with new Converse or Nike shoes! Have you seen these? Unfortunately, they are only a creation of someone so far. The companies have not yet responded.

           I am writing postcards and calling, donating, will be helping to get out the vote! And I have written for Jone's prompt in a way. I hope "counting syllables" works for the math. I've been writing etherees, the explanation of these found here! And I've written a double one for today, about our Pandemic life, being brave enough to let nature win some days.

Coming Undone

 

days

blossomed

blinking hot

shorts and tees worn

garden obsession

but it really wasn’t –

summer happening, I mean

no baseball games, no summer camp,

undone with no sand between my toes

undone without theater in the park

 

be brave and welcome what’s dependable

curtained days entice sweaters off hooks

trees begin wild goodbye parties

all lean toward one another

compliment new wardrobes

hail other summers’

beloved days

celebrate

autumn

here

        Linda Baie ©

Non-Fiction Picture Books Tell About Families

 

        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! 

           June Smalls' poetic text accompanies brief explanations of an elephant matriarch's life. Then, enlivened illustrations by Yumi Shimokawara bring multiple expressions of emotion to these amazing creatures. The book shines on the caring and knowledge of these special elephant leaders. I wish there had been added information in the backmatter, at least links to other sources. 

            Readers see the lovely line of elephants on their way, perhaps over fifty miles to find a much-needed water source from a long-ago memory. There is a twilight-colored page showing elephants mourning one of their own, sharing that sometimes they stay for a few days and often return to the site years later "to touch the bones of their lost family member." 

                               

                

          The life of a matriarch dominates the text, but other behaviors are shown, too. Interest in this animal will heighten, having the book as a springboard to further research or one in a series that underscores themes. It is a lovely book.

It's Monday - New Books to Share!

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 and having fun and staying safe! 

              It's a companion book to the beautiful story A Wolf Called Wander. This time, Rosanne Parry takes us on a journey with a pod of orcas, centering on the story of Vega, learning to be a wayfinder (for salmon). Someday in the future, she will become the family's matriarch. One can read this book and project oneself into this frightening adventure when, searching for the so-needed salmon, Vega ventures into the wider ocean with her young and smaller brother, Deneb. They are separated from the pod, run into a larger stranger whom Deneb rescues, and who travels with them for a while. They also connect with a larger pod of orcas who do not endanger them, but speak a different language and soon leave them behind. 
            Both are starving and the only knowledge Vega finally follows is that their way back is with the rising sun. Each supports the other with encouraging words. Parry is creating the language so that we humans can understand, but whales do communicate and do help each other and help other humans. Filled with ocean tales of survival, threats to the ecosystem, and knowledge of many other creatures, this is a tale that one doesn't want to stop reading. Lindsay Moore's black and white illustrations fill out the story with breaks of beautiful action. There is a map that shows the setting of this adventure and extra notes about orcas.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

          For ages 12 and up. Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls. 

            This collection features 49 powerful poems, four of which are tribute poems inspired by the works of Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Phillis Wheatley. It aims to move every listener to reflect, respond—and act. 

           Oh my, Lindsay Currie has written a book that will make you cringe, worry, perhaps even start counting, "One...two...three..." to relieve the stress of a very scary moment or more! She's also able to make you smile at the learning that happens to Claire, who tells her story of the seventh-grade year she never imagined. With a brother a couple of years older (and a jerk), a mom busy with an online baking business, and a dad who writes books about scary Chicago history, she doesn't believe her life could get any worse. Also, her all-time best friend Casley seems to have a new best friend, Emily. However, yes, it does get worse. Her father has recently quit his job to start a tour bus service, a "ghost" tour bus service. And this particular Friday night, Claire has to be the helper because the usual one cannot be there. 

            After that tour, which holds its own weird happenings, finally they arrive home, Casley goes to bed. In the wall behind her head, she awakens with the sounds of "Scritch scratch, Scritch scratch, Scritch scratch." They get louder, she says it must be a mouse, but no, "Mice can't rattle doorknobs." Keeping it all a secret because she does not want to be teased at school, nor want her father getting more interested in some ghost in her room makes Claire's life simply awful, until her brother and Casley figure out she really needs help. And Claire learns that asking for help is a good thing. There's a lot of scary stuff in the story, but even more, there are many good places where everyone can learn about telling the truth about what you need and trusting others, too. I enjoyed it very much, believe it would make a super read-aloud for a young middle-school class or just for parents to read with their children together. 

             I won't give them away, but there are some intriguing surprises within this story, too. I think it will spark further interest in the past.

Poetry Friday - Free for Play

     Poetry Friday is hosted by Matt Forrest Esenwine here at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme! Thanks, Matt for hosting and for celebrating those beautiful poems and poets in Lee's new Night Wishes!  

      I am thinking of all of you with the terrible fires and now flooding in our country, plus educators working so hard to do well for your students. It's a challenging time and I am hoping for better in less than two months!

     
          I moved into my 'now' home in 2012 and while I love the inside, the real reason that cinched my decision is this 100 years plus cottonwood in my side yard and all the trees surrounding me in the green space plus the library that is a block away. Those of you on social media with me probably recognize the tree because I really believe I might take more pictures of it than most anything, except for the grandchildren! Well, every few years, I need to have the arborists out, to check the tree's health and to trim some of the branches, those dead or dying and those hanging a little too low over the house. Yes, I have a motive for telling you this. The people who do this are wonderful and Tuesday, my yard and the outer garden one was covered with tree debris. They cleaned it up beautifully. But I am used to picking up sticks from this and other trees anyway and there were a few left. I started thinking about all the times my children and my grandchildren have played with sticks. I even remember a few times so long ago creating a structure with large sticks, then filling it up with snow for a snowball fight. They, thus my tree, is a treasure for more than one reason.