Monday Reading - More Wonderful Books

  Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and 

  

Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they and others have been reading! Your TBR lists will grow! Happy Reading!

     Share with the hashtag #IMWAYR 

Wishing you all a good week ahead! 

          Yes, I managed to finish it, but it took a week because I kept re-reading different parts; I wanted to remember every single thing. Then I went back to browse through Dear Martin, wanting to remember more of Justice and Quan together. I can't tell all the story. You don't want to miss this, the thoughts of both, but this time particularly the inside/outside cries for help from Quan, cries for someone to "see" him and to "love" him. This is one that can break your heart from both sadness and relief from breath-holding. How can it be that a youngster is held in a juvenile correction facility for two years without a trial? It's a tragedy that must be addressed! Nic Stone writes in her afterword that much of Quan's story is true. Nic Stone interviewed many juveniles in prisons and used their experiences to help her write. Other characters are there, too, with their own poignant stories. It's a story I hope lands in classes and school libraries everywhere.

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

         Sweet Gustavo, yes, he's shy, lived unseen in his world, even for a ghost! Flavia Z. Drago shares this sweet story for young readers about someone who is terrified to make friends, never "dared to speak to any of the other monsters". Her words tell it plainly but her illustrations show his fear with creativity. Gustavo remains close but he's disguised as a balloon, sneaks into a painting, or in a clothesline sheet, and is not seen! His true love is named Alma, an invisible girl who wears glasses. A Mexican feel is noticeable in the art like the colorful papel picado banners and skulls tucked in everywhere. In some good self-pushing, Gustavo decides he must be brave, so decides to invite everyone to a violin concert, his favorite thing. What happened after that made Gustavo glow and will make readers "glow" too, with lots of smiles.  (When they are there, I always check out the endpapers to see what has been done. This time, the opening shows Gustavo in a strip of pictures like one from a photobooth. You can imagine what the back shows - a happy GROUP with Gustavo!

Thanks to NetGalley for this book!

        Based on his own son and experiences through that young son's life, Michael Waters tells a family story of Jeremiah and his persistent questioning about the shootings, particularly of young black boys but also including that of five police officers. Jeremiah is waiting for his hair to grow so he can have locks and there's a chuckle when he gains permission plus later comparing it to the patience people must have when working for equal rights. As he grows, more tragic shootings happen and the phrase, "That doesn't make sense" repeats. Beautiful black boys like Jeremiah fight for better, shown in "also beautiful" illustrations by Keisha Morris. There are two pages of activities for extending the learning at the back. 

           I feel fortunate that I can often get brand new books from my library. Here are two I read this week.

           Michele Knott shared this book recently and I am so happy she did. Thanks, Michele! I can't wait to share with my young granddaughter, wishing I could share with a class. It's a most-fun story as Stephanie Graegin tells about these two friends who live together. Fern has been writing a story for Otto but he thinks it is not exciting enough and suggests they go out into the forest to see if they can have an exciting adventure to put in the story. The forest fills up with all kinds of creatures through Graegin's wonderfully innovative illustrations. If one pays attention, many familiar characters are there. There is first a huge crowd, ready to watch a race between a turtle and a hare, a young girl who offers them porridge, and another girl wearing a red cape. Shortly after, they encounter a wolf and scoot right along, but make sure that little girl gets to her grandmother's house safely. There is more and more, including a witch! Time to go home where Fern revises her story, including all those adventures and a bit more about other things that Fern and Otto love to do...together. 

         If you could write a letter to someone who lives on another planet, what would you write? What areas might you include? That is the premise of Sophie Blackall's new book which I love so much and had to return to the library that I will purchase. She's chosen a young child named Quinn to write, to tell all about Earth, its place in the universe, the parts of it that make it Earth, living and non-living things. In fabulous illustrations that examine those parts, full of fish and birds, ways people read and hear, including all living things and how they speak. Each page is a wonder of an answer, like the double-page spread of children in a classroom full of children being students – some working together, others alone, one showing an assignment to a teacher, another sitting and another working on the floor. Another double-page shows a boat on the sea, steaming along at the top while the sea fills up the pages, just like it fills one up when really looking at the ocean. I love the "big" things and those that are "small". Sophie has managed to create a love story for the Earth, answering the age-old questions of "who", "what", "when", and "where".

            You can view a video of Sophie speaking about this book here! Her words are close to the letter she has added at the back of the book, about the book and the journey taken to create it. It is quite a special book!

Next: Still hoping to start One Time by Sharon Creech and I have Christine Soontornvat's All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team, ready to begin!