Monday Reading - All Good!

a few of the found books

              Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to discover books you'll love!                                      

                      tweet #IMWAYR

           I tried hard to finish Zusak's I Am The Messenger, but just ran out of time. It's hard to believe I waited so long. I am loving it very much. I am going slowly with Nance's Hillbilly Elegy, and it is interesting!

          I went to the Denver Public Library's big summer sale last Wednesday and wrote about one poetry book discovery here! I came home with two bags full, my limit! There were so many lovely books, but had to stop!

Here's the few I read this week:

        This is a beautiful but also strange story of an island where one small yellow warbler is a people-watcher. Just as humans watched and named birds, it watched and named humans, like a “swift red-capped pitcher” (a baseball player). One day a fog appeared, became thicker until no one could see anything. Others noticed, but only the warbler talked about it. Others soon forgot that it had been different in earlier days. The warbler asked around and watched for humans. It could see no one, until one day a young girl appeared. What they do to lift the fog seems to be a comment on collaboration, getting people to realize something is wrong and acknowledge it. Kenard Pak’s illustrations are magical and wispy, finally opening up into sunlight happiness. This is a story for older children that may bring interesting discussions of its meaning. 

        How can I describe this marvelous book by Tara Lazar but to say it rates a 10, is number 1 of the funny and clever books read this year. The interplay of numbers and illustrations by Ross MacDonald hit a "hole in one", and so did Number Eight! See, you'll have to read it to see what I mean. That's my best number play. 

         Summer-filled illustrations by Jaime Kim of people, mostly kids, having all the fun we imagine, from ice cream, flip-flops and going to the lake to my favorite lines by Tom Brenner describing “when daylight pushes back bedtimes” and “When every day is like a Saturday”, here IS summer. There are also Independence Day parades and s’mores waiting. It’s a perfect end-of-school taste of things to celebrate on their way.

           It all begins with a wishing star, and Mom begins to wish for “world Pea, achoo”. The family thinks (and that magic star) hears “world pizza” and the whole world begins getting pizza, pizza dropped on heads, flying through the sky and seaweed pizza, chocolate cherry pizza, pizza with hummus and sushi. People who’ve previously been grumpy or fighting decide it’s much more fun to get together, and eat pizza! Illustrations show the whimsy of this, but also the wonderful idea that getting together over food just might get what Mom really wanted. It’s great.