Monday - Exciting Day!

 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 with  #IMWAYR

        

     It's a challenge to know what to write in this post because by the time morning is here, the ALA award announcements will have begun. Those calls may be being made right now as I write late Sunday. 
      You can find all the winners HERE!

      So many strands weave together into a perfect and magical story. It has mystery, sorrow, and a great lot of wonderful characters. I'm hoping we might see Luna and all the others again. 

      Congratulations to Kelly Barnhill! This is the 2017 Newbery Winner!
 

       It's not easy to describe this book first published in Denmark. The illustrations are gorgeous and warm, mixed media filled pages of the sweetest story of four children saying goodbye to their grandmother. The night before she dies, the children's visitor is Death, who teaches them that hand in hand with grief stands joy, and with sorrow stands delight. All comprise parts of our lives. If you need to talk to anyone about saying goodbye to a loved one, this may be a book that will help. It does help to "cry, heart, but never break.'                         

         Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States:

       “Cry, Heart, But Never Break” is the 2017 Batchelder Award winner.

        Bob Shea shows us lots of happy things in this book, a dancing cake, lots of hugs and a sunspot for naptime kitties. And there are things to do when certain characters don't seem too happy. That's when the fun begins, the asking for action to bring back happy! The best thing here that my five-year-old granddaughter loved was the face that evidently was the story's voice. Expressions changed and she looked for them every time we turned the page. The book will make a great read aloud for the youngest readers.

        The introduction explains how concrete poems work, and these by Bob Raczka are marvelous and clever. The illustrations "are" the poems, sometimes the titles, or sometimes there are no titles. for instance, in the poem "takeoff", the "t" is on the lefthand page, "taking off". Many poems show delightful letter movement that entices. It's great! This is one of this year's Cybil's finalists in the poetry category.

            A Bonus discovery. I have a FB friend who's been posting pictures  of pages from marvelous older picture books, sweet and beautiful. Some pleased me so much that I found them on a used bookstore site and ordered a few. This one, published in 1990 won the British Book Award (illustrated Children's Book of the Year). I thought it would be fun to share considering our own awards given today, and hope the books celebrated today will last this long and more! 
            The story re-tells the old Cornish tale of Mowzer, the cat, and Tom, the old fisherman, who brave the fury of the Great Storm Cat to try and save their village. The story by Antonia Barber is both sweet and exciting plus the illustrations by Nicola Bayley are magical in the showing of numerous emotions. It's lovely to read an old tale from a place far away. This village sat in a small harbour, so small that the entrance was called "the mousehole" and the villagers liked it so much, they named the village the same. It's pronounced "Mowsel". If you can find it, enjoy!

Still reading: my grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry by Fredrik Backman.

Next: a book from my #MustReadIn2017 list.