Monday Reading - Books To Love

              Thanks to Ricki and Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts for hosting this meme. Your TBR lists will grow longer, but you will find books to love and to share. 

           It was great reading last week amidst the busy days of the bookstore and celebrating one of the granddaughter's birthdays, and spending time writing, too. Here are some of the books I enjoyed.

         I was excited to receive this ARC from Candlewick Press by Anne Nesbet because I adored another book by her, Cloud and Wallfish. Happy Book Birthday to Anne on April 10th for this book, another one set long ago, this time pre-World War II. It's time to celebrate! Again I love Nesbit's style, including so many details in this story of eleven-year-old Gusta’s life whose life is about change just like the world around her. We readers learn her thoughts, see characters that surround Gusta in depth, and learn much of that Maine community, family and neighbors, the countryside itself with poetic descriptions. Her father, a foreign-born labor organizer, has had to flee the country, and Gusta has been sent to live in an orphanage run by her grandmother. Nearsighted, snaggletoothed Gusta arrives in Springdale, Maine, lugging her one precious possession: a beloved old French horn, a memento of her father. 

          Though Gusta is thought to be quiet and shy, as the story moves, we see too that she has brought along her father's words of advice which strengthen her resolve to do the right thing. He calls her "my little thingling" and in a talk about preparing for a coming storm, Gusta says to "Borrow umbrellas! Button up our coats! Run inside and close the door!" Her father replies with a more serious idea: to discover "who we are in the light of trouble." and after more conversation, "But can you be sure you will stay yourself, Gusta, when the wind is howling?" The plot continues to be revealed and shows Gusta's strong resolve, backed by her father's words, friends and family who always support her. 

         Nesbet weaves fascinating parts into this "orphan band" story. In her new family Gusta remembers her mother’s fanciful stories, and secretly hopes to find the coin-like “Wish” that her sea-captain grandfather supposedly left hidden somewhere. There are challenges within the household, more at school as she faces the new words appearing in town about registering aliens, especially those with a German background. It seems that no matter what she does, she remains an outsider at her new school within her classroom and in her interactions with a high school music teacher. Sound complicated? That's Gusta's life, more challenges than one might wish for an eleven-year-old. But you will love the story, touching history that connects to today's conflicts, too. She is a young girl who takes a deep breath and steps up no matter how frightened.

        Beautiful words happen in this new cumulative tale: "wrapped with string/long and strong", covered with straw,/rough and tough", a surprise fold-out and fabulous collage and print-made illustrations. It's a book for celebrating spring every single year! Denise Fleming even offers to teach about some of her print-making techniques on her website, DeniseFleming.com. 

          Amazing nearly wordless picture book by David Wiesner just in time for baseball season. It’s a team and one special boy running, leaping, stretching, falling, missing, FLYING! All those actions fill the pages, and then you return to read again and watch the players’ expressions - frowning, wowing, smiling, shouting - eager to make the catch, or to have that one boy succeed. It’s terrific.

         A new book, text by Tomie dePaola and illustrated by Doug Salati, his first picture book! There is this small kingdom who has just lost their beloved king and declared a young prince the heir. It seems that this kingdom, and its king, is protected by a special Imperial Robe. This young prince’s half-brother burns with jealousy, steals the robe, cuts it into pieces and flings it to the winds. What happens to those pieces and how the villagers help is a lesson in community spirit. Salati’s illustrations in muted colors create a feel of this story of long ago well, both with high action and small scenes of people working together. The addition of a lion and a few other forest animals watching from afar, plus a couple of palace dogs add to the community feel.

Still Reading: The Librarian of Auschwitz. It was hard to stop reading today to write this post. I'm past the middle and just want to read, read, read.

Starting - from NetGalley, that new book Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead

                 an arc from Candlewick - The Tale of Angelina Brown by David Almond