Monday Reading - Good to Step Inside People's Lives

              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!
          Share with the hashtag #IMWAYR

 
           I hope all of you are doing well and doing the best you can during this time.  




    Out in May, thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

          First published in England. You probably know David Almond is British, thus this story, set during World War I, is about John, a British boy, whose father is fighting in the trenches in France, and his mother works the long, twelve-hour shifts with hundreds of other women in a munitions factory in their town. 

       John's teacher Mr. McTavish (not a friendly soul at all) is taking the class for a tour to the munitions factory, continues to lecture the children that they're all at war, too, fighting the enemy children. On the way, they encounter John's friend Dorothy's Uncle Gordon, evidently deemed a traitor, against the war. He has pictures of children in Germany, says they are good children, not an enemy. You can begin to guess the dilemma. Some, like a boy named Alec, is enthusiastic about the war and the killing, but John questions. He is just a child. How can he be at war? He picks up a picture of a German boy named Jan and later has a dream-like encounter with that boy where they scatter seeds of peace. It's a story made sad by all the elements of war and childhood mixed poignantly by Almond and illustrated in somber black and white illustrations by David Litchfield. Almond's stories are deeply thoughtful. I believe this will resonate with middle schoolers and up.  

        You may have already heard some of this story of Mohammed Alaa Aljaleel. Now, Irene Latham and Karim Shamsi-Basho have told it with beautifully vibrant illustrations by Yuko Shimizu in a new picture book. It is a celebration of this story of kindness and filling a need that eventually touched people everywhere. A special note by Alaa himself begins the story, written in Arabic as well as English. 

        War in Syria caused many people to leave the city of Aleppo, but not Alaa. He stayed but misses his family and friends, stays to serve as an ambulance driver to help the wounded get medical help. He begins to notice the cats, strays now, but once pets that had been left behind. He begins to feed them as well as he can. More cats come and somehow his story is told and aid comes from the locals, then from all over the world. They find one building that serves as a shelter, then another. Alaa does not stop giving and loving, and the story tells of more that he does, like building a playground for the children still there and helping to dig a well for clean water. When I read this to my granddaughters, they asked about the destruction shown which lead to talk about what it must be like to live in a war-torn city, finding safe places when possible, etc. The book shows the good that can happen when someone, like Alaa, just begins, then another offers help, then another. 

       It's also lovely to read the backstory of how this picture book came to be from the authors and illustrators. Each of the notes offers added links and ways to discover more about this topic and ways to help. An interest, persistence, research, and inspiration created a special book.

Alaa's early noticing of the hungry and lonely cats in his war-torn Aleppo.

Happiness is a playground, right?

        I purchased Charles and Chip Ghigna's illustrated poetry book when it came out in late March, read and enjoyed it, but haven't found time to share until now. Jama Rattigan wrote a beautiful review here for Illusions: Poetry & Art for the Young at Heart, as have others. I finally picked it up again this week, and while I enjoyed every poem by Charles and the artistic response by his son Chip earlier, now, in light of the recent protests and cries for justice in the #blacklivesmatter movement, I came away in awe of new ideas to ponder in this collaboration between Charles' words and Chip's silhouette art. In the title poem, the final verse is "Life is a garden./A path in the wood./An apple tree tease/From shouldn't to should." accompanied by the art of a man tied by string to birds, carried away to the unknown. 

        With times of unrest and sorrow, inspiration, and feelings of accomplishment, it's good to remember the children are watching. In a poem titled "Indigo", Chip shows a person bending over, a book in hand, reading to a child while Charles ends this poem with "Through sunshine/and thunder,/they sit and they wonder/of new worlds yet to come true."

       Finally, I have one favorite page with art and poem to share: "you hold light/within your hand." 

           This book Illusions is published by Resource Publications, states it's appropriate for ages 10 and up. I would love to have had it to share and use as inspiration with my middle school students. It's a book that makes one think, imagine, smile, and be inspired.

What's Next, Still Reading: I'm in the middle of two books that I already had: Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi.