It's Monday - New and Terrific

      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! 

          

        New and marvelous world-building with a trio PLUS of wonderful characters makes a fantasy worth reading. This is an adventure I could not stop reading. It begins in a Dickensian world with a young boy sliding through dark alleys, in and out, back and forth until he sees an opportunity for theft, his way of surviving. It begins with a dropped box, silvery glowing with jewels. He'll eat well tonight! Yet inside that box, that opens only when asked nicely, is something not so nice, actually repugnant. Thus, the tale begins, including frights and witches, specters and royals, goodness and evil. Just the book to read aloud perhaps to a class ready for an adventure. Last note: I struggled to keep track of all the characters who were introduced. This probably fits an older mid-grade reader best.

           Thanks to Candlewick Press for this advanced copy, first published by Walker Books in the UK.

 I first heard the words, "We are still here" when I read an article from Teaching Tolerance, the magazine published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Through all the decades, Native Americans seem to be taught about only from the past, as if they existed then, but not now. I had never heard it before and began to research, and also with students, the history everyone should be taught. If you haven't started with younger children, this new book by Traci Sorell, with those beautifully colored illustrations by Frané Lessac, serves as an introduction to Indigenous People's History. Traci shows students who have prepared presentations about topics such as  'Relocation', 'Indian Child Welfare & Education', 'Language Revival', and 'Tribal Activism'. There are thirteen, shown in a double-page spread in a large room (all-purpose room?) with visitors. Imagine a science fair. It's a warm approach to show middle-grade children doing great work and sharing. There is added information, a timeline, a glossary, sources, and an author's note. 

        I guess I say this often enough to know that I'm lucky to have and read so many marvelous and gorgeous picture books. This is one that is a challenge to describe, the sweetness of the story of young Dovey Johnson Roundtree and her grandmother Rachel Bryant Graham on one 'before-dawn' morning. Dovey was afraid of the dark but with Grandma's care, this became a favorite memory and one she would always remember, going out before dawn to pick blackberries. Before long, other women joined in and soon the ping of blackberries hitting the tin buckets were heard. Before that, Dovey had the joy of "the first berry of the day, frosted with dew". They worked and picked, but soon enough Grandma whispered, "Look, Dovey Mae...Over Yonder." There were the pinks, then reds, then golds. "Here she comes", Grandma whispers again. The lovely illustrations in the dark, then the group picking, finally the sky lightening by Raissa Figueroa bring the mood of Dovey's adventure right to the reader. According to the author, Katie McCabe, this is the story Dovey told her, the one she cherished, representing the most influential person in her life, her Grandma Rachel. It may not seem so, but it is a non-fiction book with much more added at the back from an author's note with extensive information about both Dovey and Rachel, a timeline, and a bibliography. Don't miss this one! Even the endpapers are filled with forest magic.

          Oh my, this is an awesome book, one that surprised and delighted me with brief poetry text, traveling along through all kinds of dream-building, ones I never imagined when I opened it! Lisa Wheeler writes the poetry while Loren Long fills his double-spread pages with action by all kinds of people, in hard hats, at blackboards, working on plumbing, at drafting tables, on top of solar windmills! There are some wonderful surprises toward the end that readers will love. Everyone needs all kinds of  "Someone {who} Builds The Dream! I imagine students might research various areas, or add to what's already here in the book of those many we all are grateful for who build our dreams!

         

                  Thanks to Candlewick Press for the next two books!

         A young girl's mother has to go to the hospital. The story doesn't tell why. This girl tells the story about going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the summer vacation. It seems that she feels safe and does a few chores, drew a picture for her mom, tried to read but just couldn't concentrate. Clearly, things don't feel very good. Grandpa takes her out to help him in the garden and that's when the story shows the girl is intrigued. She begins caring for the sweet peas and Grandpa says if she can get them blooming she could enter them in the fair. With a low-key telling and soothing water-color illustrations, Hazel Mitchell lets readers know that things that might make someone anxious can be helped by nature, by keeping busy. The illustrations of the fair toward the end are lovely. It's a nice story that will connect with kids who may have someone in their lives they're worried about. 

          Trying to share feelings, really listening to what someone else thinks about choices means a lot. It means even more if you're trying to respect someone's ideas, but want to save them from, well, perhaps a rock from the sky? What an intriguing discussion this will require when reading with a group or a friend. These two, plus one more disagree, but quietly until it seems imperative that one of them sees a need to act and do it surreptitiously. I will be intrigued to see what others write about this new book by Jon Klassen. 

What's Next?  I'm reading When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie? by Erin Soderberg Downing. It's quite a trip so far!