Monday Reading - Picture Books!

           Every Monday, it's a pleasure to link up with a group that reviews books they want to share with others. Come discover new books!

          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.   

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The Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award goes this year to All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. I posted the announcement of the finalists last week here.

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          I'm taking a week off to visit my brother, so am trying to catch up a bit because when I return, I'll be behind again. I know many of you are starting back to school and will have less time to read, too. I hope you have a wonderful beginning to your school year!

          Don't forget the PB10by10 sharing is this Wednesday, August 10th - hosted by Cathy Mere and Mandy Robek. You can find all about it here! 

Adult Book

         The vulnerability of Lucy touches my heart. Her thoughts and her hesitant memory is poignant, and her movement away from her childhood, making a life despite what’s she’s experienced is admirable. This story made me wish to sit by Lucy as she spoke, and touch her, even hug her, as she spoke.  And it also made me wonder about the stories of those I see on the street, at the store, in the doctor’s office.  It is said that everyone has a story, and I’m glad that Elizabeth Strout told Lucy’s.

Picture Books - If you want to see more, check on my Goodreads recent posts. I'm sharing only a few favorites. 

          It’s a simple story, two places for a young girl: her own home in the city, and Line 135 that takes her to visit her grandmother. The “line” story shows the scenes along the way in beautifully-detailed pen and ink, and offers a few comments about life as the young girl hears it from her parents and grandmother, and the different look at it from her point of view.  It was very fun to look and consider those POVs.

         This book is one week old today! How the story goes, and repeats, until it doesn’t, is a delightful story in four acts. It stars a little stray dog named Lucy, a young girl named Eleanor who sneaks a treat tied to a string to that little dog each day, and her father, a worker who stocks shelves, but is also a juggler with stagefright. Putting this puzzle of a story together in beautiful pointillist black and white sketches is Randy Cecil. While tension is high in the action, it all comes out just right. You’ll need to read slowly, watching the action unfold bit by bit. It’s magical how each part makes the connection to another part, until it’s finally all a very good story! Thanks to Chronicle Books for the ARC.

          The details in the illustrations of the story of Mr. Postmouse’s Rounds, where he goes and what he delivers, are wonderful. My granddaughter Imi and I read it twice, finding more to smile about each time. There is a large parcel for the rabbit family, suspiciously shaped like a large carrot. Then, “Phew, he thinks. “Nothing for Mr. Snake today.” Mr. Snake shows up at the bottom of several pages. He’s a long, long snake. And Mr. Squirrel has nuts delivered, by a pulley! There are numerous surprises in this book, including the final one going to Mr. Postmouse’s own home.

         A new school has been constructed, it’s Frederick Douglas Elementary School, who isn’t sure just what a school is, or does. It talks a bit with the janitor, experiences a very interesting first day, and finally, finally, thinks it’s a pretty great thing to be a school. It’s fun to hear from a different POV as educators everywhere are beginning to prep for the new school year. The illustrations show many kinds of kids and people. The endpapers show the playground, and part of the story show a little girl with freckles, who finally decides she likes the school, and it likes her!

        This feels like it should be non-fiction, and it is based on the true story of Reverend John Berry Meachum who lived from 1789 to 1854. He purchased his own freedom, began more than once from being penniless, and bought his wife’s freedom, too. There is an author’s note and an additional sources page. Reverend Meachum conducted a ‘secret school” in his church in St. Louis, Missouri until Missouri passed a law that it was unlawful to educate blacks. He worked around it by refurbishing an old steamboat. The middle of the river was considered federal property. The story is told by a boy named James who attends the Reverend’s school, first in the basement, then on the boat. I’d love everyone to consider the persistence to be educated shown by this story when first they had to sneak down to the basement of the church, candles being their only light, his “tallow candle school”. Then there was such disappointment when the school had to close, but soon Reverend Meachum made a miracle happen, the school begins again, on the river! The children had to sneak to the wharf at dawn, eluding police and others who would stop them. And they did, day after day, to learn! Ron Hubbard’s pen and ink sketches, sometimes colored, fill the story with stealth, action, sorrow, and love as the story unfolds.  

         Nineteen different children are, yes, different. This story shows them getting ready for their first day in varied ways. Their dress, breakfast, feelings and the ways to get to school all are shown by the individual or the small group, but delightfully celebrating that each differs, and the wonder of it, too. It’s a terrific first day of school book.

         Filled to the brim with sayings that just might go right over young children’s heads, this is an adventure in the rules of table setting, and oh so much more. It’s gets quite boring doing the place setting the very same way every night. So the plates and cutlery, the cup and napkin take off with the little girl Izzy and do things in creative ways. Recipes for disaster happen in the ideas, like putting the knife, fork and spoon in the cup of milk, and that knife says, when crowded, “cut it out”. Izzy sitting “under” the table doesn’t work either, and bumping the table spills the milk while the fork shouts: “No use crying over spilt milk”.  Later in the story, the dish really does run away with the spoon! Funny and cartoonish, a silly look at an everyday chore.

Still Reading, almost done, A MustReadIn2016, and a recommendation from Joanne Toft at WordsFromSLJ: Navigating Early by Claire Vanderpool, realistic, magical, and just fun to read!

Next: Starting a few Arcs thanks to Chronicle Books.