Monday Reading - Books Full of Joy

          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.  

         From Random Choosing by Rafflecopter, here are the winners of  Last Monday's Giveaway, thanks to Candlewick Press, of two prize packs of a paperback of Zora & Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon and the next adventure, Zora & Me - The Cursed Ground by T.R. Simon:
               Drum Roll Please-- Congratulations Lorraine Magee and Susan Hutchens! I'll be contacting you via email for your mailing information.
          

           Thanks to Candlewick Press for the ARC of these next two books. You will fall in love with Merci's beginning year in sixth grade; she's an honest storyteller. You will want to be part of her family, figuring out how to do life as it arrives, sometimes things that frighten, sometimes events that make you wish it was you. As Meg Medina uses the metaphor of gears, I will too. The low gears made me smile, the middle ones made me hurry to the next page, and the high gear made me cry. I loved this close family, seemed very real to me, and I loved the often added Spanish words slipped into the story. It seemed natural and just right, was easy for me to figure out the meaning within the context and I do know French, also helpful. Don't miss getting to know Merci Suarez, her family and her friends.

        Sunday was Grandparents' Day, and this is a book that would be wonderful to have on that day, but really any other autumn day. A young boy wakes with the wind rattling his windows, says he can't wait to go outside. Telling the story, he runs to tell his Grandpa all the things they could do and Grandpa thinks it's the perfect day to fly the kite. But first, they have to find it! In the search, other memories come up, like the picnic in a secret cave. Oh, what fun to remember while they looked. In between the search, there are double-page spreads of the goings-on outside. Usher's delightful windy autumn pages seem to whoosh off the page as he shows it covered with leaves blowing while one man struggles to sweep the leaves. Finally, the kite adventure happens, and what a magical one it turns into. Reading and seeing this magical time with Granddad makes a big smile, especially because I'm a grandmother and love my own adventures with my grandchildren.

             "Another room, by ourselves. How many rooms have we walked into since that day--even if they weren't real rooms and we didn't know that's what we were doing?"  Early in the story, an invitation for the six students, and it felt to me like one for me, the reader. It feels good to write their names, feels as if Jacqueline Woodson would want me to remember Haley, who tells the story, then Holly, Esteban, Ashton, Amari, and Tiago. And it makes me wonder what might happen if another six were placed in a room, no rules, just to talk. Haley somehow thinks it would be fine to record everyone, so has her uncle get her one, and the group agrees that capturing the words will be good. We soon learn about this wonderful teacher when Haley records early on: "Ms. Laverne," and reminds the group: "said every day we should ask ourselves, 'If the worst thing in the world happened, would I help protect someone else?'" There is much more about becoming a harbor for others, especially when one reads about one immigrant child saying about America: "It feels like this place wants to break my heart." Especially when these children are talking about what is the right thing to do. It's hard to imagine not reading this book aloud to a class, pairing it with The Day You Begin, shared below. Discovering what a Harmonic Convergence is is only one of the magical moments.

          The illustrations create colorful splashes in each double page about the color itself, along with whimsical poems and informative paragraphs about each, too. The book can entertain by Julie's creative poetry play. For instance, "Blue": "Oh, what did I do?/Blue-hoo, Blue-hoo!" Julie shares that sometimes blue is connected to sadness, but per some polls, is the most popular color. And the page for brown offers a scary look at trees of brown, but oh, those trees's limbs seem to be faces and scary creatures. Julie has managed a perfect blend of art and science, focusing on the "what" and "how" of colors along with "how" we, and animals, see. There is a brief author's note at the end with added information. 

           In Navajo families, the first person to make a new baby laugh hosts the child's First Laugh Ceremony. I learned this when my students and I worked with the Navajo one wonderful trip during my teaching years. 

           This time I had the joy of meeting Nancy Bo Flood and Jonathan Nelson here in Denver at a local Indie bookstore. Sadly, Nancy told me that Rose Ann Tahe passed away before the book was even published. Her family gave permission to continue with publication. 

          As everyone in the family tries for this baby's laugh, we learn about other aspects of Navajo life and names for family members, like nima for mom and cheii for grandfather. It's a sweet story that also adds information at the back about other cultural ceremonies that welcome new babies. Jonathan adds some cultural clues in his illustrations, giving it the right feel for this native story.
 

      I've never had the pleasure of going to the New York Public Library, though I've been to New York City and seen other beautiful places. Josh Funk's story is an imagined adventure but also an invitation to visit and fall in love with a library that's special enough to have stone lions welcoming all, and maybe, just maybe, they steal off on their own adventures into this library, when no one is looking, of course.
      If you are not familiar with these interesting lions, they have sat outside the Fifth Avenue entrance since 1911, named by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1930's for the qualities people needed during the Great Depression. They are Patience and Fortitude, comely and stalwart, but late into one night, Fortitude realizes that Patience is not at her post, and she must be there to welcome visitors by sunrise. In engaging storytelling rhyme, the reader follows Fortitude as he leaves his post to hunt for his companion. We travel through the library, learning what Fortitude learns, that "The ceiling above was twelve elephants tall/And dozens of buffaloes wide./Patience told stories of rooms like this hall,/But it was a new world inside." He's never been there before and excitement builds as he goes upstairs and is surprised by a statue (the Frolicsome Girl) who sends him on, and knows Patience sometimes is in the Rose Reading Room. Well, no, not there, but a surprise discovery shows Fortitude more than this companion he's searching for. 
        I adore the way these special places and things are introduced so naturally, including some beloved authors. Stevie Lewis uses bright colors in definitely realistic, yet magical illustrations. She even sneaks in a few favorite picture books! They are further explained in an endnote. I won't reveal the end, but special names are mentioned too when Fortitude ends his search in the Children's Reading Room.

         There are other books that speak of starting school, but few that even hint at the worries that might come as well. The cover itself shows some of that, not a happy smile of many who've been shown on social media, but one that is worried at what can happen when one does open the door. Those often hidden feelings are here in beautiful realistic pictures of the children at school, doing school things, but also those alone, worried, wondering how to join in. That measuring stick/door on the cover appears in several illustrations, so clever. How many times do we all wonder if we "measure up"? Lopez mentions that 'hidden' metaphor in the link I mention below.

         You can find Rafael Lopez' post about this book here! It's marvelous to see and read.

Now Reading: Amina's Voice by Hena Khan (one of my #MustReadIn2018 picks) and continuing Kyo Maclear's Birds Art Life.