First Reading of the New Year

           Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who post their favorites. 

            Happy New Year! Whatever you did, wherever you are, I hope you had the happiest of holidays. It feels as if I haven't read as much as I thought I would this week, but I am reading several long books and beginning to read (& re-read) some of the Cybils Poetry Finalists. You can find all the finalist lists here!

         A broad range of feelings seem to be what Katherine Applegate excels in when writing her stories and Endling: The Last is no different. You'll feel joy and sorrow, anxiety and relief poured into this book. This time she has crafted a whole new world for us filled with fascinating new creatures, complex human interactions, and more than one hero. Shadows of Tolkien tales are here with the Endling making a decision that pushes her life into one she never imagined, a tragedy that sparks a needed quest, and a band of unlikely characters to love as they battle other beings one learns to hate. There are environmental considerations along with an underlying thread of the corruptive search for power. The next in the series, Endling #2: The First, arrives in May, can't wait!

        Finding friends who love the same thing you do can be challenging and when it's something strange, like collecting words, it's harder. This time, Ebenezer sticks to his love and it becomes even more fun when new classmate shows up who writes stories and often needs a "best" word for them. Perfect match, something everything wishes for, right? 

         This was a lovely find at my bookstore, first published last year in Canada, translated from German. The illustrations are simple and wonderfully detailed, showing this sad rhino, "beautiful as a mountain". Other animals greet him happily, but he is sad. His horn is crooked (the story shares it was an accident) and he wishes to be free like a snowflake. (Here is a 'grass is greener' tale.) What the other animals do to help is supportive and sweet. For example: "We need you." chirps a tiny little bird, "to land on, to rest on." I loved the story. It will make a great conversation to discuss how to help a friend who's feeling a bit sad. 

        Collected historical facts helped Carole Lexa Schaefer create fictional stories about each of these 'crafts', the skills and materials used, and the people that did "make by hand". Each story begins with a small poem including the actions used in the item, like "Poke, push, pull,/Deft hand Embroider silk threads/into samples that show personality." One could use the book to begin a study of homemade products, perhaps help children learn to create something of their choosing or to research and learn about other crafts. Becca Stadtlander's illustrations add to the historical feel with full page and small pictures of various images for the object and the action to make it.

        I shared this on social media because after I read it I was struck by the connection to the politics going on now, the idea of building a wall to protect this knight from the scary and alarming things "like that ogre" on the other side. With flooding that lifts the knight and friend up and over, he discovers that what he thought was not true at all. Simple text and illustrations by Jon Agee are all that's needed to teach the lesson. 



         All those rules in school, including "We don't eat our classmates" are tough for a new kid, a little T-Rex names Penelope. One of the reviews says, "But it's hard to make friends with humans when they're so darned delicious." Lively illustrations show her path of learning about friends with (first) outraged little kids, then (second) happy classmates who don't mind a TRex who can make things even a little more fun. Penelope steps into the others' shoes when she's bitten by the classroom fish and does figure out the hard lesson that "no one" should be eating classmates, even if they're doused with barbeque sauce. 


Still Reading: Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari & starting to read some books for the Cybils Judging. I'll post reviews after the awards are announced on Valentine's Day.