Monday Reading - All Good!

              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.  Your TBR lists will grow! Happy Reading!

         I have a second post today! I'm excited to share a cover reveal for Laura Purdie Salas' first fiction picture book!

          Thanks to Walker Books US, a Division of Candlewick Press for these first three advanced copies!

         Just out in the US, this is the second in a series, this time instead of raising a piglet,

Jasmine Green has the exciting opportunity to hatch a duckling. For early readers, a story with sadness but a rescue; a flash fire, but a good ending makes an exciting adventure. Jasmine lives on a farm. Her mother's a vet and her father is a farmer, so she knows a lot about animals. When she and a friend rescue a nest of abandoned duck eggs, Jasmine works hard to "fix" the problem. First, she borrows an incubator and the fun with great anticipation starts then. Lovely black and white drawings by Ellie Snowdon accompany chapter beginnings and a few other scenes. It's a good story that moves quickly, brings up lots of topics for discussion, like the children's freedom on this farm. I enjoyed it.

   This is the first in this new series by Helen Peters. I do love being introduced to Jasmine

Green who lives on a farm and shows such love for all the animals. The main topic in this story is how sweet and smart Truffle the Pig came to be with Jasmine, but there is so much more. There is grief over her lost pet chicken Blossom, and sympathy with their dog, Bramble, who has recently lost his companion, Bracken. Jasmine's persistence to rescue her friend Tom's guinea pigs (whom she is watching) whose hutch was blown over in a fierce snowstorm brings in some frightening scenes, but happily, all ends well, and on Christmas morning. It's a lovable start to this new series that introduces the ups and downs of farm life and in family, too.

                    This debut novel, the first of what Joseph Elliott has titled the Shadow Skye Trilogy is terrific!  The story from mythical Scotland centers on interesting young Agatha, a girl some in her clan term "retarch". It follows her struggles being accepted and her strength of character showing great courage as she follows what she knows is the right thing to do. Her words show this in the ending crisis: "But I have to do it. For Jaime who is my friend and for my clan to be rescued." Agatha's clear sense of how to act sometimes gets her into trouble and there are times she is reprimanded for it, but you will cheer for her and also her friend, Jaime, a young boy who questions his abilities so often, I wanted to reach out to tell him he too is strong and brave. He, too, can do hard things.  
                These two introduced above certainly drive Elliott's story, but it is complex in that others add to the relationships in the group called the "Clan". These two young people set off in an adventure unimaginable from the Isle of Skye across the Scotian mainland to Noveg. They are caught, then helped by a group of Nomadic bull riders as well as other animals when Agatha needs them. Yes, she has an extraordinary gift, but you'll need to read this book to discover this hidden part of "The Good Hawk". Fantasy, human needs, and feelings underpin the emotions of fright and courage, compassion and hope.    
          The new words Elliott uses in this book are from the Scottish Gaelic and he has added his own created language that is spoken by an enemy group called the "deamhain". I am reminded of other books that introduce new words, words that add to the thrill of a place and time one has never experienced. My only wish is for a map to add to the knowledge of this created world.


Here are a few picture books I also enjoyed this week, connected by place:

             This is an older Caldecott Honor book that was donated at the used bookstore where I work. It is new to me and a sweet poetic lullaby. The illustrations are fabulous collages. The mom travels in and out of her home shushing different animals so her baby can sleep. Finally, it seems she has managed to quiet them all, but the end finds baby "awake"! It will be a wonderful read aloud and it is nice to show diversity of people and home. Can you imagine telling a monkey outside your home to quiet down? 

            This is a favorite book of mine, based on Eliza Wheeler grandmother Marvel's story, whose family lost their home in the Depression and had to move into a tarpaper shack deep in the woods of northern Wisconsin. The father died of cancer just before they moved, leaving just the mother and eight children from three months to fourteen years. Wheeler's gorgeous watercolors show that they worked so hard to survive, finding treasures in the cellar of empty jars and a water pump with clear and cold water. They played hard, too, creating games like "general store", in the out of doors, pretending to go shopping for a grand display of hats, mud sweets, and jeweled stones. It is a memory of a time that might be hard to imagine. There is one double-page spread where the mother is gazing out the window on a winter's night while "all" the children share the bed. I wonder if she is sad, or simply lonely and glad that they are safe in the "Home in the Woods"? 
          Wheeler adds a lovely author's note that shares that four of those eight children are still living, adding that it's time to gather stories if we can. Those living in those times are passing.

         I love when picture books take me into new kinds of stories, just like Kao Lalia Yang has in this debut picture book. A young girl moves into a new home where the seasons bring both birth and death along with nature's wonders, like a worm she names Annette and ginkgo leaves that "turn yellow like apricots". In spring again, she offers a gift to the neighbor that encompasses all her world, inviting him in, too. Illustrations by Seo Kim (her first picture book) bring the family's thoughtful ways and nature's seasons to readers so beautifully.

         I finished the adult book Hill Women: Finding Family and A Way Forward In The Appalachian Mountains. My Goodreads review is here.

Now Reading:  Torpedoed by Deborah Heiligman. And I hope to start one from my #MustRead list, too!