Monday Reading - Fun Picture Books

           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. 

             I'm reading Dry by Neal Shusterman and it is long! But I've enjoyed it so far! And still reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. Other than that, here are a few picture books I liked this week--one brand new, some old and worth knowing. I'm also still reading for the Cybil's poetry judging so my reading life is varied and full!
              I'm also celebrating. I have one more post and that will be my 1800th! It feels as if the time has gone quickly, but then when I look back at March, 2011, that also seems a long time ago. For a few years, I also kept a blog with my class, but have now deleted it, saving a few posts only. I imagine I've written more than 2000 altogether. If you've just started, keep going. It becomes a diary of at least part of one's life. Some of you started before I did and I congratulate you for keeping on, despite your busy lives. Most of you are still in education and are marvelous mentors for students.

         Enjoy these gems!

        What if you were a child, a young boy, and loved elephants more than anything? You loved to draw them and talk about them. You loved their "hosepipe trunks and their flap-flap ears, their tree-stump feet and their swish-swish tails." But, but, you've never ever seen a real elephant. This is a story about that boy, Frank, and his adventure with Miss Fancy,  one elephant who spent some years in Avondale Park in Birmingham, Alabama. He is that boy who lived only two blocks from the park and helped collect pennies with other schoolchildren so the city could raise the money to buy Miss Fancy from a circus. 

            Wrapping her poignant story with some truth, this brand new wonderful book from Irene Latham shows the sad history of segregation years ago and the ingenuity of a young boy who only wanted to touch Miss Fancy. Finally, Frank got to see her when she came by train, but when the crowd arrived, with Miss Fancy, he walked with her all the way until he couldn't anymore. The sign said "No Colored Allowed". What if you were that boy, heartbroken? There is a reward for being that boy, and I hope you can read Irene's story in order to discover it. John Holyfield encompasses the words with his gorgeous realistic illustrations, filling the pages with color and emotion and detail of this community, its people and a special elephant. Irene adds an informative author's note about the story, the history and adds a real photo of Miss Fancy! The book will be a great start for children beginning to know the history of segregation. 

           Forty years old, a Caldecott honor. I've missed it all these years, and for those who love the music, those who wish every child yearning to play could, this is the book. Perhaps, according to the description, it could be the story of any young musician growing up in the twenties. With fabulous black and white, art deco illustrations, zigging and zagging like jazz itself, another Isadora book to love.





          "No matter how steep or tough the climb, a friend is worth it every time!" That's the mantra for this book, a cheerful 'let me help' book with a surprise you'll love at the end. Brian Lies tells the simple cumulative story and illustrates with joy, even in a snowstorm. How can one resist a duck with a stocking cap and a chipmunk named Izzy with a striped scarf? 

          Giving love in all the ways one can, unable to stop time, but celebrating the moments, "forever or a day". Gorgeous illustrations, both sweeping vistas, interesting groups of people in varied scenes, and small, wonderful moments.

       Another older book, by the author of May I Bring A Friend?, long ago Caldecott winner. Simply told, a perfect book for everyone to read, from the youngest making friends to the oldest politicians in D.C. It's all about perspective and compromise, right? Very fun book.

        I love David Almond's books and snatched this up when I saw it at my library. Levi Pinfold's work in the illustrations is both eery and joyful, ghosts of music swirl through the background as the story is told. A father wakes his daughter to walk out into the valley in the Northumberland wilds, to watch the animals, breathe in the grasses and flowers, tear off the boarded up windows of the stone homes, enter and play her music. Those pages of small pictures of all that would be gone create a poignant goodbye. The father and daughter are both celebrating the music played all throughout the years and those that danced to it, for it would soon be buried beneath a lake. The Kielder Dam was ready to be finished; the valley would be flooded. It's a gorgeous book and the author's note tells us that it is true, told to Almond by Mike Tickell, now a singer and songwriter and his daughter, Kathryn (then a young girl) who has grown up to be "one of the world's great folk musicians and composers.

more pictures

Happy Reading!