Monday Reading - Giveaway Results!

It's Monday, and time to visit Unleashing Readers with Ricki and Kelle, and Teach Mentor Texts, with Jen. Thanks to them we have this awesome group that shares the latest books read, and their opinions about them. 

         




           AND, this Monday, I have the results of my giveaway of The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson. 

It's my own bowl of names
of the commenters!

               And the winner drawn is Andrea Payan, of Mrs. Payan Reads. Andrea, you can find my e-mail in my personal profile. Send me your home address and I'll mail your book! Congratulations!

I'm taking a week off next week, starting Saturday, going to the beach with family, but I've read a lot this past week. What a pleasure it was. I hope you find some good books here you'd like to put on your TBR list!

verse novel

The Crossover – Kwame Alexander

               The story’s woven into a basketball world, former European star player is dad, twin sons with the talent of their dad, and the values too, along with the mom, worried about her husband whose father died young from hypertension.  Tension comes in brief moments, a look, a grunt, a movement of a hand. The poetry sings with rhythm, fast then slow, inner rhyming and story-telling. The feelings behind each poem almost tell more than the poem itself. It’s a story beautifully shared, of adolescent feelings that arrive as fast as a pass, and change as quickly as the “game”. Each time I read another novel in verse, I love them more. You won’t forget this one easily.

middle grade chapter book

Absolutely Almost – Lisa Graff

               There is no “absolutely almost” liking this book. I absolutely loved it. I’ve commented to other reviewers that their reviews made me think that all teachers should read this book, and then read it aloud to their students. And now I know I’m right. It is a book important for teachers and parents as well to read, to learn about kids and how they hide, how they want things to be different, yet often don’t know how to communicate that. The main character, this boy, Albie, like his mother says, is “caring and thoughtful and good”, although for a long while I’m not sure his mother really knew this in her heart. It was a tough story to read, especially for the adults’ foibles. Parts made me want to shout into the story and say, “wait, why aren’t you doing something”, or “why are you doing this?” It’s been a while when I wanted to shout at a book character!  But Lisa Graff tells it true, the adults, even the sweet “not-a-babysitter” Calista are not perfect.  But Albie “almost” is! Read the book!

Picture Books

Bird, Butterfly, Eel – written and illustrated by James Prosek

                  This round-robin story about the different kinds of migrations of these three animals will make a good introduction to how migration works. The reader is taken through a year, showing the life, the journey, and the return. Back matter adds useful information, and Prosek’s beautiful paintings add detail to his brief words. The winter picture is especially lovely, for a cat enters the story on occasion and this picture of the indoor time shows the cat missing out-of-doors adventures watching the bird, the butterfly, and eel, as we all do in winter.

Emily’s Blue Period – written by Cathleen Daly and illustrated by Lisa Brown

            This is a short chapter book that tells the story of a young girl working through her own blue period because her parents are divorcing. The chapters show that Emily loves art and discovers Picasso’s “blue period”, then discovering she needs to work through her own blue feelings, ignoring her beloved art.  Her little brother rebels at the trip to choose Dad’s new furniture for their “new” home, Emily finds a way to mesh both homes into her art, and the story ends with hope. The book will be helpful to read and discuss how families live in different ways, and somehow it works out although there are also sad times.  Another book showing the challenges of divorce for children is welcome. Illustrations are cartoon-like showing the family life at different times.

Grandfather Gandhi – written by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Evan Turk

            Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson with Bethany Hegedus shares the time spent with his grandfather, wondering if he (Arun) could ever live up to his actions. It focuses on the time when Arun became so angry while playing soccer, and wanted to hit the other player with a rock. He ran instead to Grandfather, Gandhi who shows him that he can use his anger to illuminate instead of creating darkness. The weaving of his time in the village with his grandfather is interesting, and the ending will be something to discuss with young students. The illustrations, drawings and collages, fill the pages, as Gandhi filled the lives of those around him.

Ling and Ting: Not Exactly The Same – written and illustrated by Grace Lin

            This is a realistic fiction book about two little girls, twins, showing some of their reasctions to people always telling them they look “exactly” alike. In various cute tales, the readers are shown how Ling and Ting actually are different. These are for early readers who I’m sure will giggle over the experiences told about Ling and Ting.

Hansel and Gretel – written by The Brothers Grimm, retold and illustrated by Rachel Isadora

           Cut-paper illustrations of the lush African jungle bring the tale of Hansel and Gretel to a new and gorgeous telling. Although the tale is the same, the pages are filled with creatures of the jungle, and the scariest witch (and her house) I’ve seen in a while. It would be great to use this in a study of different approaches authors and illustrators us in their special telling of these old stories.

Great books about the importance of friendship!

Squid and Octopus, friends for always – written and illustrated by Tao Nyeu

                With whimsical pictures “under the ocean”using only blues, greens and oranges, I am captivated by the detail in the four stories of the adventures of squid and octopus, two friends. And I love the loving friendship shown in these silly stories, am reminded of dear Frog and Toad stories. Along with the dialog and obvious affection between the two friends, other sea creatures add their own words on each scene. For example, when a boot floats down from above, Octopus immediately loves his “new hat”, but as he moves along, is corrected by other creatures that think it’s a “flower pot” and then “soup bowl”.  This, and the others, are fun, predictable stories that will make kids shout out what’s next and then giggle, a lot. I loved every bit.

Forever Friends - written and illustrated by Carin Berger

           Carin Berger’s collages in this book will fill anyone with pleasure.  It’s an almost wordless picture book showing the joy of friendship between a bluebird and a bunny throughout a year, and the sadness when the bluebird has to leave for a while, to migrate south. Each page is a wonder, but I’d love to see the original of the double page spread for summer play, joyful and full of fireflies!  I imagine sharing this with young students and seeing if they can find their own story to tell through pictures. 

The Lion and The Bird – written and illustrated by Marianne Dubuc

              It’s a beautiful, softly painted and almost wordless story of a bird left behind by his flock, and a lion who cares and befriends it. The lion certainly lives in quite an isolated place, and after they winter together, the bird again must join his flock, and say goodbye. Yet, the book is filled with kind gestures of the caring for each other, and the bird offers the final grand gesture. You’ll need to see and read it to understand how beautiful this story is.

NEXT: The Boy On The Wooden Box was supposed to be next last week, and it will be next now. Absolutely Almost took its place, and I'm reading a new book out soon from NetGalley, plus 2 PD books. My days are filled with reading, but summer is going away so quickly! Happy Reading To Everyone!

Don't forget: Michelle Nero at Literacy Learning Zone(@litlearningzone), Laura Komos at Ruminate and Invigorate (@LauraKomos) and Cathy Mere at  Reflect and Refine: Building A Learning Community(@CathyMere) are hosting #CyberPd again this summer, where we're reading Donalyn Miller's Reading In The Wild to reflect upon it, discuss it, perhaps even disagree about it.  This week we'll be linking up with Laura about chapters 3 & 4.