Monday Books Shared

          Visit Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else's wonderful posts of books they share. My TBR list grows every Monday!

         It's a challenge to review a book of poetry when every poem is a delight. This recently published, and delightful, book offers a creative and new way to teach about those pesky things called "punctuation marks". Lee Bennett Hopkins has given me that challenge in his new collection that includes a poem about every.single.mark. Poems are written by Lee and others you will recognize: Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Charles Ghigna, Allan Wolf, Julie Larios, Alice Schertle, J. Patrick Lewis, Michele Krueger, Jane Yolen, Prince Redcloud, Joan Bransfield Graham, and Betsy Franco. Think of this opening by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, "A Punctuation Tale" that starts the excitement of best learning how these (sometimes mysteries) help communicate exactly what one wants to share when writing: 

"Soon once again

you said away

to the island of End of Day,

where sky is a scribble

of lights and darks–

with

                   "good night"

cuddled/in quotation marks."  Wait till you read ALL of this poem.

         Serge Bloch's whimsical illustrations add to the learning with cartoon-like interpretations of each poem. In J. Patrick Lewis' poem "Stubby The Hyphen", Bloch shows several animals' bodies connected with, yes a hyphen.

         Lee Bennett Hopkins ends this delightful poetry with one final poem, "Lines Written for You To Think About". In it, he gives several challenges that include different punctuation marks. 

         For every classroom, for help with punctuation lessons, for celebrating "after" the lessons and showing how poems can include information, this is the book!

                  

           With alternating chapters, the two main characters tell the story, adding layers from both genders around assault and consent, a conversation that would be good to happen for all adolescents. 
           The setting is the Fullbrook Academy, an elite prep school full of traditions that are not always safe. Jules Devereux is eager to have her senior year done so she can leave Fullbrook and its old-boy social codes behind. She is a stand-out, fights norms when she can, with a bit of help from a counselor, yet past years' behavior and ex-boyfriends and ex-best friends do not help. Jamie Baxter feels out of place. For instance, he's really never had to dress for dinner, but he's landed here with a hockey scholarship that will help him escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches. Two other classmates add to this mix of hurt - struggling and smart teens trying so hard to do the right thing, which is "not" the tradition. 
            Pressures to play by the rules, and NOT tell anything that may hurt the school remain rigid. The book shows these teens' thoughts and pain, and the yearning to have someone stand with them to fight back. I imagine every teen will recognize some things about their high school lives in this book, and wish they had the friendships that emerge. Or, I hope they recognize their friends they know they can count on. It's harsh but I enjoyed how Brendan Kiely (co-author with Jason Reynolds of All American Boys) wrote this serious story.

          In a wordless picture book, the reader must take much time to look, to choose what’s important, perhaps personally, perhaps considering what others might think. Kerascoët,   husband and wife illustrators, focus only on the children in this story of kindness, the actions of one “speaking louder than words” and the reaction of another who also must be considered. All kinds of children in bright colors, wearing backpacks and going to school, all kinds of children on the playground at recess, and one lone girl walking home who’s confronted by a bully. What happens next can be a discussion in itself. This may be wordless, but in “reading aloud” I imagine many will have words to share in a lively discussion. Sweet, sweet book for this school year beginning and for those who would wish to have it for a child at home.

         My younger granddaughter’s class studied insects all the school year and she learned so much. Most important, however, is that she fell in love with them. I’ve given her insect books that she pores over, but this book Twig that we read last week is going to be a favorite for sure. Aura Parker has written a darling whimsical story about Heidi, not noticed at all by any of the other interesting creatures at school. She is too camouflaged! When the teacher and others hear Heidi call “I’m not a hat stand,/can’t you see?” they ‘mend’ their ways and scurry around to weave a scarf for Heidi, so she can be seen! There are numerous details to make one smile. It’s a must for reading and looking closely! 

         Troy Howell writes about dear Wednesday, the whale, in a fishbowl, the only home she knew. But sometimes if she leaped high, she saw something intriguing, something blue. “Her heart leaped but she didn’t know why.” Along came a young Piper who actually wanted to talk. And the rest of the story shows a beautiful kind deed and an ending you don’t want to miss. Watercolor swirls the art by Richard Jones, with most of the focus on that fishbowl, a little bit on Piper and a marvelous fold-out page that is the start of a grand finale. It is a brief story and one you shouldn’t miss.

Still Reading: Hunger Journeys by Maggie deVries

Just started: The Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh

          Both of these books hold such tension and yes, I'm enjoying both!