Monday Reading Winners

          Visit Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.  
           I'm devoting a post to a new poetry book for a blog tour HERE!

           I did finish A Train In Winter by Caroline Moorehead, a deeply researched history of 230 French women eventually sent to Auschwitz, of their close friendship, the terrible time there, the heartwarming acts that helped them. You can read more of my review on Goodreads.

       A white sharecropper's son, Little Charlie Bobo, finds himself caught on a mission to pay a debt to the plantation owner on whose land his family farms. He's already known as a smart and sensitive boy through earlier scenes, so the tension mounts as Charlie becomes more and more entangled in the overseer, Cap'n Jack's scheme to catch a family of escaped slaves. The story deepens as Charlie, who tells the story, reveals more and more how much he hates what is happening, but feels trapped. Christopher Paul Curtis tells still another story of slaves escaped and free and their passion to keep their children free. The story, told during a two-month period in 1858, is based on a true story about the time of the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 and involves those across the border in Canada who come to any black person's aid when fleeing. It's told in the southern dialect of the time and uses some offensive words like 'darkie', though authentic. Though a book full of tense scenes, Curtis knows how also to give some relief. There are some endearing and humorous times, too. Charlie is a character that will be remembered, and students can benefit from good conversations about the story.

         Beautiful message, comforting and brief. All of us are stronger together! You have to read it to experience the strength of the illustrations and the few words. My youngest granddaughter and I spent a lot of time looking at all the people Carin Berger showed. 

         Leonard took a deep breath. . . "I'll say this quietly;/I needn't roar to be heard./I can be a friend/to a bee or a bird." Thus he gives his retort to all the other lions who insist he's gone too far by being a friend to a duck, instead of "chomping it". I love the boldness of the words and the illustrations by Ed Vere. It's very similar to The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson (1936). Maybe we need to keep learning this lesson?

What's Next: I have an ARC of My Year In The Middle by Lila Quintero Weaver from Candlewick, a book about racial injustice. I'm still reading The Woman In The Window by A.J. Finn for adults.