#SOL16 - 28/31 - Monday's Great Books

SOLC #28/31 - 

      I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community for Day Twenty-Eight of Thirty-One of the Slice of Life Challenge in March.  Thank you Stacey, Tara, Anna, Betsy, Dana, Kathleen, Beth, and Deb.  
           On Mondays, I connect with a group that reviews books they want to share. Here's a fabulous way to discover books you may not know. 

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

Pax - Sara Pennypacker with some illustrations by Jon Klassen

            Peter must say goodbye according to his father. He must return his fox Pax to the woods, the one he trusts more than any other living thing, the one he’s cared for since Pax was found, the lone pup alive in a den.  Some shadowy rumblings of war in the world outside begin this story of self-discovery, the learning of what is right to do.  Peter’s father takes him to leave Pax, then to his grandfather’s, while the father leaves for war. Peter shows hints of past troubles, hints throughout the book of the guilt he carries from one incident before his mother drives off, evidently killed in a car crash. And Peter knows what he must do; he leaves on a trek of hundreds of miles through forest that same night as his grandfather sleeps.

           And that is where the story begins, when in alternate chapters we realize that not only are we going to observe Peter’s learning on the way, we’re going to observe Pax’s as well. It’s a long journey to research, imagine and write how a fox might behave and think as he encounters the wild for the first time. Sara Pennypacker shows that she did that study well. Here is a bit of the first night alone for Pax: “The long night before, they (noises) had alarmed Pax. The blackness had quivered with the rustle of night prowlers, and even the sounds of the trees themselves--leaves unfurling, sap coursing up new wood, the tiny cracklings of expanding bark--had startled him over and over as he waited for Peter to return.” Pax’s words grab my sympathy as I fear for him as much as for Peter, whose brave and long trek holds dangers too. Soon into the story, Peter is injured. He collapses with the pain, falls asleep. It’s so soon into the tale that I wondered what he would do. That’s when another character appears, a woman living far inside the woods.

              This was beginning to feel like a fairy tale (remember Hansel & Gretel?), but no, it was not. Peter’s further experiences opened new paths to make his way both physically and emotionally. That time became my favorite, filled with different perspectives about feelings and how they both help and hurt our lives. At the same time, Pax was moving into his true domain, a wood with other foxes. One scene touched me very much. One fox with which Pax feels great kinship was wounded. Pax lies with him in the final moments: “He purred with Gray under his silver mother’s rough tongue, tasted her warm milk, felt the weight of her chin resting over his newborn skull. And then peace.”

               The basic plot feels out of the ordinary, but the meaning feels like life, the day to day love we give each other, the fierce love we feel for those close. It is both a human and a creature tale, to learn from and to enjoy all the way through.

Girl In The Blue Coat - Monica Hesse

             Thanks to Net Galley for a copy of this book.

          As I read this book, I often thought of my own city, wondering how it would be to see an occupying soldier on every corner, frantically trying to get back home before curfew? It is both tense and interesting to immerse oneself into a historical fiction novel, especially one during the years of World War II, imagining those lives lived so precariously. This middle grade to young adult novel is set in occupied Holland, mostly in Amsterdam. The main character is eighteen year Hanneke, not in college (some could continue their schooling) as she had imagined, and not with her true love, Bas, who enlisted early and has already died. She works for a Mr. Kreut as a receptionist in a funeral home, but soon finds that in addition to that work, even more money can be made by helping him make “special” deliveries of black market goods to various people in her part of Amsterdam. 

        Hanneke has learned her job well, plays it very safe, knows just how to flirt with the German soldiers who stop her to ask about the packages. She never gets caught. But one day, one older woman customer is ready with real tea and pastries, and asks, no, begs, Hanneke to find a Jewish girl that has been hiding in her home. Then a darker story begins, although only covering a week’s period of time, the reader is pushed into the reality of war that Hanneke has been ignoring. There is a secret meeting with Bas’ brother, Ollie and friends. She resists helping their wider network, sure that it is too dangerous, the tasks of rescuing and keeping safe so many Jews, especially children. Yet, there is a part of her that cannot resist doing what she must to find this missing girl, that “girl in a blue coat”, so she immerses herself into the group.

        With a plot this intriguing, I followed along, wondering about certain parts, was often surprised at some outcomes. I was afraid for the characters Hanneke worked with, for Hanneke, was saddened by her parents’ constant worry for her, and even more so, the rift between them. She was no longer their child, and they had to stop their hold on her.       

         Children grow up fast in a war-torn country and Hanneke is no exception. She travels places I don’t think I’d ever go, keeping persistent in the goal, to find this girl!  Her search leads her into the resistance, learning of the courage of others, and becomes more immersed into the mysteries and tragedies of disappearing people.  There are sad surprises, but not unrealistic ones. People do what is needed, some more kindly than others. The story shows a mixed up group of people who manage their lives in different ways. It’s hard to judge their motivations, but if reading this with a group of students, I would imagine conversations that considered different actions in the book. I liked that no one was perfect, no one was solely heroic, just trying to survive in terrible circumstances.

          The author’s note and acknowledgements show detailed research, and praise those brave young people who continued to do illegal acts that would get them shot if they were caught. It’s a good addition to children’s literature about World War II.

Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad In The Sky - Faith Ringold

          This book was published nearly twenty years ago. If I have read it, I’ve forgotten. I found it displayed at the library, and because I love Faith Ringold, I wanted to read it. There are a couple of pages telling more about Harriet Tubman, and a list of further reading.  In that back matter, Ringold writes that in the last days of Harriet’s life, she told of strange dreams where she was flying to freedom with the aid of a circle of ladies dressed in white. If you would like a beginning and beautifully told story to introduce our history of slavery, and all that slaves did to escape, this would be a great one. With Ringold’s pages filled with swirls of color, showing the flying (flight) to freedom and telling of those who helped, how they did it, there is hope. Underlying that are the warnings given of what would happen if the runaways were caught. Each page calls for questions from those who don’t know about slavery, like What does that mean? How did they survive? Who were those who helped? I enjoyed it very much.

Orion and The Dark - Emma Yarlett

          This story would not be the same without Emma Yarlett’s clever illustrations. She calls them doodles. I could look and look at all the “things” shown about Orion and his worries about the dark. And there’s a surprise cut-out illustration in the middle. A young boy named Orion is very scared of the dark, in all kinds of ways, the sounds, the shadows, those things he cannot even see! But when the “Dark” visits him, things change, and so much for the better.

Ideas Are All Around - Philip C. Stead

        I used this book as my own mentor text last Saturday. Using a recognizable typewriter font, Philip Stead says “I have to write a story today. That is my job. I write stories. But today I don’t have any ideas.” So in beautiful illustrations, he and his dog Wednesday take us along on a walk, to show us what they see, who they visit. It’s an awesome, walk-along-with-words-and-sketches book. I imagine it will be useful in every writer’s workshop or writing slices time. I’m inspired and you will be too. I think I need to own this book!

Any Questions? - Marie-Louise Gay

         Marie-Louise Gay has written a book for children, about the many questions she is asked when she visits schools and shares her books. Her casual doodling/sketching style, filled with color and so many details made me read the book three times so I could be sure to see all included. I still bet I missed something. The answers to the questions are carefully organized in the back, but while one reads the book, Marie-Louise Gay begins with portraits of her workspace, then a self-portrait of her working at her desk, trying to find some ideas for stories. A group of children shout out questions, and she begins. Perhaps a blank sheet of white paper could become, a snowstorm! Or a faded yellow page could be the habitat of dinosaurs. (This, the children imagine.) And on it goes, until she does begin a story, and a few children go along and help. It’s creative sketching and wordplay, a wonderful book to explore for writing, and for imagining. It will be well loved in classrooms, perhaps K-3.

Now Reading: The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, an adult book translated from the French. So far, very good. It's another book with a bookstore connection!

Next: A #MustReadIn2016 book-Stella By Starlight by Sharon Draper