Monday Reading - Books For All Ages

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 have a second post today, a giveaway of a new book about how money works, for young readers!

             I haven't ended a book with tears for a long time, and this time I did. When you read of twelve-year-old Hanako's family, coming from the internment camps, parents giving up their American citizenship to move back to the area around Hiroshima, you realize that war is not always over because the aftermath is also devastating. Hanako is American and now lost with her world broken, finding everything different and so hard to fit in. She's been rejected by her home country, the family's lost their restaurant, and now there is nowhere to turn but to her father's parents, tenant farmers in the countryside. The country, including Jiichan and Baachan, grandparents who shower Hanako and Akira, her young brother, with unconditional love, are starving. Yet they still make room in their small home, welcoming their son and family. They will do everything for family!

          Hanako is growing up and in that process, she questions so many things, including how to help orphans begging on the streets when her brother cries out constantly that he is hungry. In this turmoil, Grandfather Jiichan explains: "This is 'kintsukuroi'. Thing break, you must fix with gold. It is only way to live your life." This is fixing broken objects with gold lacquer, making them stronger and more beautiful than ever. Discovering that 'gold' for fixing is an underlying theme for each family member. 
         I loved another part when Hanako decided "Maybe sometimes you just had to go out into the world and trust what would happen." She has decided that gold can come in many forms, as I found in many parts of this story. Cynthia Kadohata shares the history that will enlighten those who do not know what happened to these Japanese people who were part of our country in this loving novel of hardship, love, and always hope. Julia Kuo has added a few illustrations to the story. It's a 'best book' this year for me.


        This, this book--sometimes hard to read because of the heart-rending scenes, but so hard to stop, too, because there is an underlying tension that pulled me to discover what in this world is really going on, and who is possible to trust. The girls at Raxter, a private camp, have been attacked by some kind of virus. One never knows when, or who, it will hit again. Quarantined, now with a set of rules for it, the three main characters, including the ins and outs of all relationships, stick together. The power of their love and the horrible experiences they must figure out how to survive creates an 'out-of-this-world' story that's a bit close to home when reading news of a new ebola outbreak.

            Mrs. Badger makes her way up the path to Sugarloaf Peak every Sunday. Marianne Dubuc shows the setting from Mrs. Badger's 'home in a hill' where we see special things on a shelf like a pinecone, a pottery shard to a map of the surroundings and the path she takes. Along the way, she sees friends like white-throated sparrow Frederic and collects mushrooms (she knows the best ones to eat) for another friend, Alexander, a fox. This one time she realizes she's being watched and finally, Lulu a little cat appears. She is afraid of climbing so high, says she is too small, but with encouragement, she goes along with Mrs. Badger. Thus begins a friendship on every Sunday until Mrs. Badger just can't make it any longer. Lulu continues and passes on that courage to another. The intergenerational friendship shown in this simple story is poignant, made more so by the simple drawings that focus on these special moments. I loved this story.

         Every child, perhaps every adult, imagine that stuffed animals and other favorite animal collections come alive at night. This time a young girl and her grandmother create paper mice, "with a snip and a clip, and a snip and a clip". Della and Ralph are slipped between pages of a book and the people go off to bed. The adventures of each and even better, when they meet and become friends is delightful. With poetic words by Megan Wagner Lloyd in her debut picture book and full-page 'night-time' mixed-media illustrations by Phoebe Wahl, you will want to put this in a read-aloud pile for younger readers.

           THANKS TO CANDLEWICK PRESS FOR THE FOLLOWING TWO BOOKS!

             Out last month in the U.S., but from Canada, a special interactive book to help sad Florence Firefly who's lost and cannot find her way home. Page by page, lovely nighttime scenes by Britta Teckentrup show the varied scenes of night but punctuated by bright lights.  Florence chooses a few scenes that 'might' be home, only to learn they are not. Tension builds! Children answer questions about places, clap and make wishes to help Florence as the story is read. It will be much fun to read to a small group of pre-schoolers!

          Just here in the U.S. this month, from England, and another for younger readers to love and laugh over. Anteater is confused, begins to ask what anteater's eat. Sloth is too busy, Toucan has no idea, and Crocodile will share, but Anteater doesn't think fish are quite the thing. It's funny, page by page, as everyone knows the right answer. One can just feel the lumbering anteater walking along, trying to discover the answer. Readers are in for a silly surprise. It's wonderful!

         

Now reading: The Truth As Told By Mason Buttle