It's Monday - Much to Share!

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

Thanks to Candlewick for the following book about friendship's ups and downs!

           There's quite a lot of magic infused into this delightful friendship book, but it starts with lonely Penny Rose, just moved to town, who isn't quite sure how to make friends. She has a notebook that she fills with "conversation starters" who rarely seem to fit when most needed. Her best friends have become tiny robots, created in an old shed in her new home. When they begin performing more actions than expected, it's rather fun, but would be much more fun with a real best friend. Down the street is Lark, considered too weird by most because she spends a lot of time looking up, at the birds! Finally, these two get together and Lark proves to be a friend of the robots, too. All is good, until it isn't! Penny Rose has been invited to some Secret Science Club and betrays Lark in a couple of ways. In the biggest challenge between them, on Halloween night, both realize what a real friendship can be. Including fantasy feels like it might connect to those who wish for more connections and don't quite know how that looks. Carolyn Crimi shows some of the actions and words that help with Corinna Luyken adding some illustrations that add to this sweet friendship story.

Thanks to Charlesbridge for the following copies!

          Stories of courage in the face of racial protest are ones finally being told, finally will lead to a true history of our country's dark moments, and many that resulted in moments of triumph. This book by Gloria Respress-Churchill is a fictional story of Chester Pierce based on his life's experience. At eight, he ran to save his brother who had fallen down a well and saved him! In high school, he played several musical instruments, was on the football team and became the school's first black senior-class president. With encouragement, he knew it would be a challenge, but he applied to Harvard and was admitted. And, he made the football team! That was when the biggest challenge came. The team was slatted to play at UVA, a place that still didn't allow black players, a place that still didn't allow black students. His coach said Chester deserved to play, that the team would go "WITH" Chester. He was nervous, uncertain, but his mother's words gave him strength: "If your dad were still alive, he would want you to stare down all adversity with courage." The team had devised a secret play that meant all would adhere to: "FOLLOW CHESTER!" Laura Freeman's illustrations of Chester's life facing uncertainty, then more challenges focused rightly on Chester himself, from young boy to triumphant football player and leader, in brightly colored scenes, his life where it seems that not only in this important game, many followed Chester! 
       Extended backmatter includes an author's note, facts about the Mason-Dixon Line and about this historic game, plus a bibliography. There is a wonderful picture of the Harvard team also at the back.

        With a few exact words by Mammalogist Darren Lunde, and simple and enticing illustrations by Kelsey Oseid,  (from Whose Poop Is That?), this book will bring children to a place eager to discover, and identify, their own footprints. The questions come with a partial head, then the print, turn the page for the answer and sometimes a bit more information. For example, a picture with two white, long ears, "Whose footprint is that?" bring a print that looks similar to feet minus that little toe, and a back-blob at the back. My description does not fit, but the followingpage answer is terrific: a snowshoe hare's! Each part adds a little bit more, like this hare has big feet that keeps it from sinking into deep snow. It's a great book of a bit of knowledge that will begin a nature hunt for young readers.



        It's always about perspective, isn't it? Mary Ann Fraser (No Yeti Yet) shows two sides in this big fish story, about Milton & Odie. She uses simple poetic wording just right for younger readers,, one grumpy and expecting the worst, the other knowing that possibilities are without end. The illustrations center on these two, not necessarily friends, but companions in their quest to land a fish! Illustrations include laugh-out-loud scenes like showing excitement when each line seems to have a big catch, but ends in Odie losing his pole-to Milton. The story see-saws back and forth until the surprise, and a good one, happens. The glass half full triumphs as Fraser's book offers a fun way to discuss attitude, positivity, and quite a bit of heart! 

Now reading:  I finished Jack Kerouac Is Dead to Me by Gae Polisner, but have been out of town and have not had time to write a review for it, a book that's both heartbreaking and offers hope for teens who have a huge struggle in their home lives. I have started Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper.