Monday Reading - Terrific New Books

  On Mondays, it's a pleasure to link up with a group that reviews books they want everyone to know about. If you visit, you'll be sure to find a book or more that you know you'll want to read! 

          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.   Tweet #IMWAYR

      I read a few older ones this week, but most of these are books published in 2016. What a wonderful group of books published so far this year!  

verse novel

Booked - Kwame Alexander

          I taught middle school students for a long while--last year, one more class. That time I had the joy of putting Crossover into students’ hands. Now, I don’t have a student to share this new story by Kwame Alexander with and I am sad. BUT, I will share it online as many places as I can, and I will find someone to pass it to who can make sure a young adolescent will get to read it. I love the voice of this boy, Mark, a twelve year old lover of soccer, and oh so smart, but he doesn’t like showing that to his teachers. His challenges are big: parents are splitting up, two bullies are upset about his choice of girlfriend, and he hates having to read a particular book by his father, a dictionary. There’s also trouble with being kept from soccer, devastating punishment which comes from his parents and because of an illness. Words and literature play a big part in Mark’s life, yet he ignores it, until a turning point when the love of his life, a young girl named April, asks him to join the library book club. The librarian, The Mac, a former rapper, plays to Mark’s best side, and as they trade wordy jokes throughout the book, Mark finally comes to some idea about the kind of person he wants to be. How Kwame Alexander manages to include all this, and more, in Mark’s story but in beautiful poetry is extraordinary, but he does. He left me at the end wanting more and more.

picture books

Mr. Squirrel and the Moon - Sebastian Meschenmoser

              A boy and his father have a cart of wheels of cheese and one, alas, rolls off, down a hill.  This interesting story begins in the opening endpapers. The boy runs afer the cheese, but cannot catch it before it flies off into a ravine, and becomes stuck in a tree. The tree happens to belong to a squirrel, and the real problem begins, because the squirrel fears being put in prison because he’s stolen the moon. There are several stark prison cell scenes too, with a prisoner. And there’s also a hedgehog and a billy goat, lots of funny action and gorgeous, muted drawings, except for that yellow moon and a beautiful red squirrel. I saw others who know this illustrator and praised him for his work. Now, I’ll look for him!

Listen To Our World - Bill Martin Jr. & Michael Samson, illus. by Melissa Sweet

            Here’s a book that introduces habitats of 11 animals, through the name of where they live, like marshland and grassland and their sounds. “Listen, listen” the story asks the reader. The illustrations, including the endpapers, the opening of which says “listen”, also say LISTEN. And the illustrations please like Melissa Sweet’s always do, with vertical pages included showing some habitats. There is additional information about each animal in the backmatter. It’s basic information, for younger children.

Nanuk The Ice Bear - Jeannette Winter

           Each page a postcard in the blues, pinks and purple hues plus the stark white of snow and ice of the Arctic, where polar bears live.  Jeannette Winter’s story takes a bear through her year alone, finding a mate, then hibernating and having two cubs. Finally she and the cubs come up out of the cave, and she begins to teach them how to survive. It comes full circle because in the end, the female is alone, to start again. This time, however, there is little ice, and the story ends with a stark picture depicting the effects of global warming. It’s a lovely book to “see”, and shows the basics of a polar bear’s cycle, but giving a sad message in a book that seems as if it’s for young children seems in appropriate to me. I was surprised.

The Knowing Book - Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Matthew Cordell

           Moving through the day, looking up, finding joy in whatever you do is the message in this new book by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. She asks that you pay attention, and KNOW, through beautiful words, and Matthew Cordell shows what "can be" through his illustrations, using a rabbit as the adventurer. I imagine that each part could be used as a mentor text for noticing and then writing. For example, one page says, "Know this: there is magic around you, but it hides. You might find it nestled in a wand or a spell, but more likely in a penny or a prayer." And the rabbit sits on a hill, gazing at the wonders of the sky lit by the sun. The endpapers start with a sky of clouds, and ends with one of stars. It's a magical book.

Twenty Yawns - Jane Smiley and Lauren Castillo

           There’s nothing nicer than a good bedtime book, and this is another new one.  Lucy and her family spend a long, wonderful day at the beach, longer than before. At the end, Mom says “early bedtime”, and Lucy is tucked into bed while Mom begins a story. Soon everyone is yawning, even Mom, who falls asleep. But Lucy realizes she is wide awake and must find her bear. With Bear and all the other animals brought back to bed, the yawns appear again, and finally, they’re all asleep. I’ve just given a bare summary, but with the words and Lauren Castillo’s full pages of colorful, lively illustrations, this will make a marvelous “goodnight” book. It will also be fun to count the yawns and find all twenty.

poetry

When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons - Julie Fogliano

            If you'd like to move through the year with poetry joy in every season, then read this book. Read the poems that begin with spring - "each tweet poking/a tiny hole/through the edge of winter", then move into summer when you can - "taste the sunshine/and the buzzing/and the breeze". This is also the time, I imagine you guessed, "when green becomes tomatoes/ there will be sky/and sun/ and possibly a cloud or two", the title poem. In fall, "because they know/they cannot stay/they fade and fall/then blow away", finally winter brings "the best kind of day/when it is snowing/and the house/sounds like slippers." Lovely line follows lovely line, elaborated by gorgeous illustrations of children loving each season. 

graphic novel - autobiography

Dare to Disappoint, Growing Up in Turkey - Özge Samanci

           Özge Samanci tells her story of growing up in Turkey with the politics from a country's political overthrow, the challenge of a young girl who must choose the right thing in order to become independent. At least that is the pressure placed on Özge from a young age by her father. Should she be an engineer (all believe it's the best choice) or an actor (beliefs center around this only as a hobby)? Through scraps of personal effects used as collage, cartoon bubbles, and chapters with themes, Özge tells her story of the ups and downs in school and at home. She tries hard to please everyone, but herself. It's clear that every college bound student would benefit from Özge's story, and the important learning about life that she shares here. 

Still Reading - At Day's Close: Night In Times' Past by A. Roger Ekirch, a researched history of the night before the industrial revolution.

           And - The Raven King, fourth in the Raven series by Maggie Stiervater. I had the pleasure of seeing Maggie again here in Denver last Saturday. She is a terrific presenter.