Monday Reads!

          It's Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Jen at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS, and shared with Ricki and Kellee at UNLEASHING READERS.   

         And, also visit Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS for more reviews. Thanks to all these blogs we are able to discover many, many new books!  Thanks Ricki, Kellee, Jen and Sheila!

 Tweet! at #IMWAYR

Eat Like A Bear – written by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins

            With the part rhyming text and the gorgeous full-page illustrations, this is a book to enjoy with young children over and over again.  All about what bears eat, how they find food, and eventually ready their bodies for winter will be a book to entertain as well as inform. I think it might also start the wondering about other animals’ eating habits, too.  Terrific and beautiful book.

Carnivores - written by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Dan Santat

            It’s been written about a lot, and it’s well worth the look at three carnivores—a lion, a shark and a wolf—feeling a little low because they are made fun of because of what they eat.  After all, they eat meat!  And that means all those other animals who are meat are just a little scared and make unkind comments.  All sorts of solutions are created to solve this self-esteem problem, but the end solution, helped along by another carnivore, a wise old owl, is good advice for everyone, self acceptance.  I imagine this will start big conversations among younger students.  The illustrations are bold and entertaining, sometimes tongue-in-cheek funny!

The Man with the Violin - written by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Dusan Petricic

             Based on a true story, this tells of a man who plays his violin in the underground of a DCsubway stop, and a little boy who notices things, and especially notices the beautiful music.  It turns out that the musician is a famous violinist, playing his very expensive instrument but dressed like a street musician, doing an experiment to see what happens.  As it turns out, little happens, nearly all hurry by, with little thought for the music, except that little boy wants so much to stop and listen.  You’ll have to read all the story to discover what happens.

The Snow Goose - written and illustrated by Pirkko Vainio, translated by J. Alison James, first published in Switzerland

               Lovely version of the snow goose tale where a little girl first forms a snow goose in the

snow, only to find the snow melted the next day, but soon a live snow goose is found by her grandfather, but it is sick.  The story moves on to show this snow goose dying, but leaving an egg, which soon hatches.  The rest of the story of the relationship between the girl and the goose is sweet, and the ending is satisfying but sad.  I imagine many young children will enjoy the story and talking about the possible endings will be fun to do.

Now Open The Box – written and illustrated by Dorothy Kunhardt

             I won this book, just like A Junket Is Nice, one of the New York Review Children’s Collection books, published in 1932. It is also new to me, and Kunhardt’s writing is similar to Wanda Gag’s Millions of Cats with its constant repetition.  When one sees the book, it is so different from what we are used to today.  It uses few colors, red, yellow and black, and the drawings are quite simple, yet so effective.  It’s about a

circus owner, and his teeny, weeny dog, Little Peewee, who is the enticement to the crowd to get them to come to the circus in the “big red tent”.  There is repetition, surprises, and while on might believe it’s a little bit slow, I just read it to my four year old granddaughter and she loved it, looked and looked at the pictures, asked for some pages to be read again.  If you can find it, it’s worth a look.

NEXT:  I'm struggling getting started with a new fiction book.  I'm reading the same professional books with teachers at school, a poetry anthology and a book about writing, all slow reads, and can't finish them quickly.  I have started an e-book arc from Edelweiss that I like for middle readers that won't be published till next year.  I like it, but it so far isn't pushing me to finish quickly.  I'm torn between recent books I still haven't read and new books acquired at NCTE-not griping, what a great problem to have!