Monday Reading - WOW 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!

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Wishing you all a good week ahead! 

           Thanks to NetGalley for this special book from Sharon Creech. We know that Sharon Creech knows about special teachers. You only have to read Love That Dog and Hate That Cat to understand. This time young Gina Filomena tells the story of her year with a new teacher, Miss Lightstone, who approaches things very differently from the terrible, pointy teacher the year previous. Gina has a great imagination which feels good instead of bad after meeting a new neighbor, Antonio, mysterious with a beautiful smile, who just happens to be in her class! There happens a world full of mystery and magic that connects to writing in this story when the class, and perhaps Miss Lighthouse, too, begins to answer the questions, "Who am I?" and "Who do I want to be?"  

          Other characters, classmates, neighbors, a very fun Auntie and Uncle Pasta (you must read to discover why the name) plus Gina's grandmother, Nonna Filomena who lives far away are made memorable, too. It makes a place one wants to be! I could not stop reading and my own wide smile appeared at the surprising end. Teachers, you will want this for a read-aloud!

           I've never known someone who struggles with stuttering, but now, with Jordan Scott's beautiful story and with his letter at the back, I begin to understand a little more. In that letter, he writes "What would happen if you concentrated on the feeling of speaking? As an "older" person, as he wrote, I do notice I am losing words as I speak, then they pop up sometimes hours later. 

          Jordan Scott's book, illustrated with such feeling by Sydney Smith, lets a boy tell about his own experiences through a day, a tough day even for him where his "tongue is tangled", a C is a crow "that sticks in the back of my throat". When asked to speak and share about a favorite place, he shares that all his classmates hear "is how I don't talk like them." His dad picks him up on this "bad speech day" and they go to the river. What happens that helps is to watch the river with all its sounds. It isn't smooth, it bubbles and churns. The boy "talks like a river". The inside double-page fold out is gorgeous, a boy alone, swimming in that river. The book needs to be shared by everyone, a book that may help those who stutter and those who hopefully will begin to understand. Thanks to Jordan Scott for sharing his story. 

        A clever tale by Roger McGough begins with Bobby saying there's a new moon tonight and Betty wondering what happened to the old one. Bobby says it's in his honey cupboard; he stole it to give to Betty! Yikes! Thus the tale moves along as a love story with Bobby telling all the ways Betty could use that moon and Betty questioning back. What a grand read-aloud with beautifully-imagined illustrations by Penny Dann.  

         It isn't exactly full of poems by marvelous poets, Jane Yolen and David L. Harrison, but it's a marvelous "poetic" accumulative story about a tiger who finds a new friend, a drum. When tapped by the tiger's tail, it makes a friendly sound, "Rum pum pum" and tiger decides to take it along "down the road". Along the way, others follow along down that road, too, until the end when there is a conflict and a nice surprise which readers will love. The lush illustrations by Anjan Sarkar will draw readers into the story, with a couple of notes from the authors at the back about this story from India and about the concern for tigers all over the world. Be sure to find this fun bedtime book!

         Abi Cushman's story shows that being "Soaked!" makes Bear a grumpy one even as his friends mind it less and a hula-hooping moose celebrates in the downpour. Changes in ways to look at things mean changes in feelings, too, but then the rain stops and Bear is actually disappointed, a big surprise! Cushman shows a beautifully wide range of emotions as the other animals navigate around bear and his grumpiness. The double-page spread of only bear and his rain-soaked ice cream cone makes you smile and commiserate a little bit. Read and enjoy this with some children who might like to talk about feelings and changing attitudes.

          At school, it's announced that the next Monday is Grandparent's Day and Zura is worried. Her Nana Akua, her grandmother, has marks on her face and sometimes Zura has seen people make fun of how different she looks. In West Africa, in the Ashanti tribe and when Nana was young, they still followed the tradition of giving a special mark to a child to celebrate the birth with Adinkra symbols. Tricia Elam Walker tells the story of Zura's worry and Nana Akua's beautiful way of presenting this tradition to the students, bringing makeup so they, too, can at least have a temporary mark just for them. Finding ways to learn about those who seem too different is the lesson we all need to learn instead of making assumptions and this story shows that so well, with April Harrison's gorgeous and colorful illustrations. The endpapers are filled with some of the symbols and their meaning. Added is a glossary and other information in the back matter. Walker also writes a brief introduction about how she came to this story. It's a lovely book of love and encouraging understanding.

           Here is one part of the endpapers showing some of the symbols.

               Jeju Island on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula is home to a group of women called haenyeo, women divers who use no oxygen, do use weights, wet suits, etc. and dive from 12 to 30 meters to gather varied shellfish. The back matter calls them "indigenous marine biologists" and the tradition dates back years according to the back matter. Tina Cho's story shows the loving relationship between Dayeon and her grandmother, a haenyeo. Dayeon wants to learn and her grandmother is gentle in teaching her, but she is afraid. She says, "What if she can't breathe? or "What if a shark comes?" and "What if I can't escape?" Step by step readers see her grow stronger until there really is a fright, but she also learns it will be okay; she can learn to relax and improve at reaching those treasures of the sea. And as the story unfolds, Jess X Snow's illustrations show the gentle relationship and the fabulous ocean in all the beauty Dayeon and her grandmother see, too. Those ocean scenes, full color on double-page spreads, show the love, the longing, and the dedication to this diving tradition and the relationship to the ocean. They are fabulous. 

             In the back matter, too, the varied "stages" of diving are explained, and the amazing fact that most of the actual divers are over 70 years old.

What's Next: I finished All Thirteen by Christina Soontornvat, but too late to write about it. I enjoyed every bit. I have a few other arcs to read and some fun ones from my library! There are so many good ones I know I will enjoy!