It's Monday - Beautiful Books Again!

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'll need to skip next Monday, am leaving this Wednesday to travel to my grandson's high school graduation. It is an exciting time for our family! I'll read on the plane, but suspect that's about it! Here are the books I've read this past week!
         

          Anytime there is a book with a quest, I'm in. (I re-read The Hobbit once in a while!) Yes, I finished this one and now how long might be the wait for the next adventure for brave, growing-up and now adventurous Byx and her companions, humans Khara and Renzo, catlike felivet Gambler, and the small and mighty Tobble? They have continued their journey to find the traveling island of Tarok, hoping to find more dairnes, saving Byx from being the last one of her species. The plot expands into political strife and danger in the land with the reigning dictator, the Murdano, gearing up to fight the other vicious Kazar Sg’drit, enslaving species to build his army. Connections to today's political challenges including war, prejudices of 'other', and human trafficking may go unnoticed by children, but not by adult readers. Khara is rising as a leader in the coming war and her companions, including Byx, will face the battle with her. Now we must wait for number three! Katherine Applegate's imagined world in this series is extraordinary! 

        Oh, wow, this is a gorgeous book, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline and a story full of nostalgia by Michelle Houts. Some years ago, a young boy spends the summer with his grandmother at her cottage by the sea. He finds what he learns is a piece of sea glass, smoothed by its tumbling in the ocean from, perhaps, years ago. Grandmother tells that each piece is connected by a story, one we may never know, but it has one. She gives him his grandfather's magnifying glass to look at his found treasures more closely. Turning the page, Houts imagines the story in the boy's dream, illustrated in muted black and white by Ibatoulline, a beautiful time travel transition to a ship’s christening and a schooner tossed in a tempest’s fury. Sadly, the boy drops the magnifying glass which breaks and he tosses the pieces into the sea. The story moves on to present day and a young girl also discovering sea glass, a particularly special piece that "might" be part of that same glass. Houts shares the story which feels real, but no matter real or not, looking for sea glass and imagining its story will make the adventure (if you can ever have one) a wonderful thing. 
          There is a brief author's note that speaks of the time in the past when many dumped all their trash in the ocean and the change today to be more environmentally conscious. Thanks to Candlewick Press for the copy.

         First time published in the U.S., this is sure to be a favorite for young dinosaur lovers! Jason Cockcroft tells and illustrates this new book with a twist. What if you received an enormous package in the mail one day and in it was an egg that soon hatched a dinosaur? It is a sweet one, but huge (of course), and this young boy needs to learn how to manage some "huge" challenges. He must fix breakfast for his new pet (It is not picky, will eat anything.); how to teach it to share, especially at the playground; and, worse of all but funny, too, how to clean up the enormous piles of poop. Cockcroft's illustrations show a lively, but positive outlook for this new adventure in bright and colorful pages. (The other pet, the dog, adds humor, too.) He ends the story with a sleepy, lovable pet and a happy little boy. Thanks to Candlewick Press for the copy!

   
             I adore Philip and Erin Stead's books and I love moon stories.  Young girl Harriet (Call me Hank.) longs to play her cello alone in her room. A noisy owl disrupts her playing and she throws her teacup out the window, accidentally knocking the moon out of the sky. What happens next, shown in dreamy illustrations by Erin Stead, feels like a dream, too. Harriet buys the moon a hat from the bear hatmaker (it's chilly) and takes him on a boat rented from a walrus fisherman across a lake (a long-time wish). She makes amends with the owl and enlists him to gather other owls to help return the moon to where he belongs. The final challenge, to play for an audience, the moon. This Music for Mister Moon glows in its beautiful story.




       Kelly Starling Lyon's book takes me back to my own childhood, the exciting time traveling to be with "all" the family, just as this family is, a warm and loving story told by "Lil Alan". They're on their way before daybreak. (Remember that sleepy time in the backseat?) They're going to great-grandma Granny's where grandparents, uncles and aunts, and lots of cousins will be. It is a reunion of hugs and laughs and good food. The older folks point out places of memory, like when Daddy points to a spot in the church where he and Uncle performed a duet on trombone and trumpet. Daniel Minter illustrates the real-time itself in colorful overlays of watercolor with the memories hanging out in the background, a beautiful way to show the stories that are told in family reunions. The final even-more special day is when everyone shares something in celebration. Alan has been so worried that he doesn't have anything. His sister is going to sing Granny's favorite song. A cousin is reading Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son". Others will share the trials of ancestors' slave-time. What Alan finally chooses is a beautiful thing. It is a book to bring to your own family gatherings.

        Sub-titled as "A Book of Remembering", Joseph Coelho writes a story of both happiness and grief, of loving companionship between a young girl and her grandpa. Told with the happiness of colorful pages (flowers are everywhere, outside and in), a young girl shares about her grandpa, all the special moments. It is a beautiful sentimental story, sad but in a good way because she's bringing the stories with her and because he gave them to her. She says "If all the world were memories/the past would be rooms I could visit, and in each room would be my grandpa."

Now reading: Just out, Shouting At The Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt! I'm over halfway through already. It is good!