It's Monday - Get Ready for Earth Day!

    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! 

        Earth Day is Thursday!  

 

       It is lovely to meet Merci Suárez again, this time in seventh grade, the family, the friends, and listening to Merci's worries figuring out, well, life. I taught this age for many years and while I didn't know "all" their thoughts, I knew some. Merci's voice (from Meg Medina) shows early adolescent worries with sympathy and I imagine will connect beautifully with same-age readers. I love the ups and downs with this family who live in three connected houses they call Las Casitas, Merci's home with her parents, that of her Tia Inés with twin boys, and her grandparent's home, with her Abuela and Lolo, her grandfather who she discovered has Alzenheimers in the last book. Layers of love and the puzzlement of how that all works from Merci fill the book with surprises and a most important part to me, that no one is perfect, often people make mistakes. They just have to decide what they'll do next. There is much for readers to love about Meg Medina's story, and about Merci.       

            Thanks to Candlewick Press for Merci Suarez Can't Dance plus the following books, just ready to celebrate and to help take care of our dear Earth!

         Remember Go to Sleep, Little Farm?  This time, Mary Lyn Ray tells the life of a lovely house full of memories until the last family leaves. It remembers the children and the wonderful noises they make, babies born and growing up, birthday parties, fun on a swing. It's lonely. E.B. Goodale, who illustrated Windows, creates the beauty of this house's story in soft painting and small scrapbook sketches, happiest of times along with quiet and lonesome times. Filled with nostalgia, the book will make you wonder what other memories might be in your own home if it's older or the ones you might be making for it right now if you're the latest family, or the first one.

           First published by Big Picture Press in the UK, Bonnier Press, last year, here in the US in 2021. 

           If you want extensive information, this book by Camilla De La Bedoyere, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup is the springboard. It, of course, defines just what a reptile is but so much more. There are pages showing and explaining the breadth of this amazing 'family' from the ancient dinosaurs like Pteranodons to the "crocodilians", the "lizards", and the "snakes". It includes where they live, specific species like the Komodo Dragon, what and how they eat. One page toward the end discusses those in danger of extinction. The page about parenting skills is fascinating in the details known. Finally, Teckentrup's illustration of a leatherback turtle's journey is beautifully shown in one vertical double-page. It will terrific to begin learning about reptiles from this book.

 First published in the Czech Republic in 2013, now translated by Andrew Lass, and published this year in the US! It's all about the bees, as it says on the cover, "A Honey Primer". I'm a sucker for a bear book and this is terrific by a writer and illustrator new to me, Aneta Frantiska Holasová. Bruno inherited beehives from a grandfather and between him and his grandmother, the story tells every.single.part of how beekeeping works. From what bees are, varied kinds and their jobs, to bee parasites and predators, how to gather the honey (with 'supers') and take care of the hives (all the parts), extra things beneficial to humans, and every season's chores, that area is explained. What also makes this non-fiction book extraordinary is that Holasová uses bears to show the 'how-tos' in lovely sepia tones in and out of their home, a delightful telling of this bear family's work with bees. There is an index and a recipe for gingerbread cookies at the end.

          For anyone who loves Peppa Pig adventures or if you'd love a new Earth Day book that shows off activities that help the Earth, this new one is for you. We see the family preparing for a fun trip to their Botanical Gardens by sorting recycling, talking about compost bins particularly. Outside, Daddy Pig shows off his new "electric car" (named Roger) that later shows off its ability to drive itself. There are also windmills and some pages about bees at those gardens. This will help all young readers learn about Earth Day and things to do to help our Earth!

         In a new non-fiction book, Elizabeth Rusch and Will Hillenbrand tell of Zee's birth, alongside the birth of a Douglas fir tree. Her parents run a Christmas tree farm. We know a lot about human growth but not so much about these beautiful fir trees, so as the story "grows" along with Zee, they share information about this (at first) tiny fir. When Zee is old enough, she takes care of it, too, helping it when it's too dry or too windy cold. It's fun to see the comparisons and to see what Zee herself is learning, in and out of school. For instance, as Zee learns her ABCs, the fir is growing mostly underground, roots spreading "down and outward to absorb water and nutrients." Hillenbrand's art shows the action in beautiful soft colors, including tree care and children of diverse backgrounds throughout the story. It's a clever way to offer information connected to a child's life.

             Oh my, how can you resist that face of dear Zonia? Juana Martinez Neal brings yet another "own voices" story to inspire and to educate. Zonia travels through her rain forest greeting all her friends as a blue morpho butterfly accompanies her. Friends include a two-toed sloth, river dolphins, and a giant anteater, each one a part of this vast place important to the world. Zonia is part of the Ashaninka People, the largest Indigenous group living in the Peruvian Amazon. They continue to fight for the right to protect their land, the rainforest but are often disenfranchised and fail in their mission. This information and more are explained at the end of this beautifully illustrated book. Each of us should learn more because what is happening will affect us all. The rainforest produces more than 20% of the oxygen for our Earth. Zonia wants to make a difference as should we all!

What's Next: I have a number of early readers to read and will also start Margarita Engle's new verse novel, Your Heart, My Sky.