It's Monday! A Long Beautiful List

    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! 

          

         I hope most of you have finished your school year, one that will certainly be remembered, and are starting summer with much-needed rest! 

           Twelve-year-old Amari Peters has lately had more trouble, as if the disappearance of her beloved brother, Quinton, isn't enough. On the last day of the elite school where she has a scholarship, she's had it with the bullying of the wealthy and spoiled, shoves one of them and now her acceptance for the next year is at risk. Her mother works so hard. Amari lives in the "hood" and is very loved, the one thing that keeps her going. She's happy to receive a mysterious message and a briefcase from Quinton, taking her to an interview, a 'test' for the summer camp where Quinton went, a break from all the drama. But she didn't know what that camp really was until she stepped into the Vanderbilt Hotel. The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs seemed different from the "fancy leadership camp" her mother thought Quinton, and now Amari, was attending. No, it was not that at all. Just wait until you see what Amari's summer adventure turns out to be! B.B. Alston has written a wonderfully inventive and adventurous world with memorable characters. Will there be more?

       Micha Archer (Daniel Finds A Poem, Daniel's Good Day, Girl Running) gives us readers another marvelous book, filled really with awesome paintings from, I'm guessing, her own "wonder walk". This time a girl and a boy choose to do a "wonder walk" and find ways to celebrate our earth with glee! Throughout the journey, beauty reigns in metaphorical questions about what they see, where they are? "Is fog the river's blanket?" or "Is dirt the world's skin?" and "Are forests the mountains fur?" are some of their wonders! It is a beautiful book, inspiring all to "GET OUT INTO THE WORLD!"

         Another journey out, this time a memory "Up North". from John Owens, his "first" picture book! The beautiful pictures take us to the boundary waters in Minnesota, a trip my son took with his Scout troop long ago, great memories captured then and now in Owen's beautiful paintings. Wouldn't you like to go?

          I imagine that every classroom has a box filled with crayons, most broken, some used, so then they could read this awesome book by Linda Sue Park and Debbie Ridpath Ohi about dear Gurple and Preen, crash landing with an emergency need to repair the ship. They certainly are creative, finding help in, WHAT?, a box of crayons. Fun and an invitation to create! Linda's text carries the action along as humorous as an "accident" can be while Debbie's "crayon-filled" art makes everything a delight as the problem slowly is solved! 

              I've used a number of picture books for inspiration with students, asking them to research and write about their names, the "ups" and the "downs", along with the "whys". Here is another, about the author Thao Lam's struggles with people pronouncing, then spelling her name, thus "T as in Tom, H like Henry, A for Amy, Or it would be so much easier if my name were Olivia . . ." Thao takes us with her to school where we learn more than one way people pronounce it. She decides she must change to "Jennifer", but something happens that helps her realize she rather likes "Thao". You'll need to read the book to discover that. The endcovers are filled with small pics of many children, their different names below the pics, all different, all unique, and "Their" names. Sometimes, Thao Lam uses her own image in the illustrations that are full of a diversity of children.

            On a personal note, my last name is Baie, pronounced "Bye". My children learned to spell it before they could read because they heard me say, "Baie, B as in boy, A, I, E". 

             Here is one gorgeous book about the seasons, written in both Anishinaabemovin and English, a grandmother tells her grandchild how we know the seasons. "How do I know fall is here? When brown cattails swell and bend;" There are more poetic words by Brittany Luby, of Anishinaabe descent, that show the lovely world of nature, if we only pay attention to changes. Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley is an Ojibwe woodland artist. Translators, father and son Alvin Ted Corbiere and Alan Corbiere collaborate to produce materials in Anishinaabemovin for learners of all ages. 

          Renee Felice Smith and Chris Gabriel have written another book to share with, well, everyone. It only takes one person to say "I think I will try this 'impossible thing' to light a light inside others who have consistently thought, "No, that's impossible." When read, readers will see that working together makes a difference, a LOT of difference. Sydney Hanson's illustrations show the animals and the outdoors, including that impossible thing, in all its wonder, beautifully colored. 

         You may go 'ew!' but Sue Heavenrich lays it all out how important to so many creatures in the wild depend on flies! There are water striders, trout, crab spiders and more, people (usually by mistake). David Clark's cartoon-like illustrations add to the underlying humor; there's a page of a (non-human) Guide to Fine Dining with a real-life label just like on our food, "Nutrition Facts" and another of a large diagram of the "edible parts of a fly". Added resources are books, websites, and a full bibliography. If you wish to study an important part of a food chain, along with others, this will be a terrific book!

        A young girl and her mother move to Sunset Park (NYC) from the Dominican Republic. There is family there yet both are terribly homesick missing a grandmother, wild parrots, mangoes, and dancing. The language, some trouble with doing homework at school, seeing that no one knows how good she is at soccer feels very sad and very hard. Things do improve with a kind neighbor who shares about cat-sitting, an apartment of their own, and snow! I love the delectable colors Bianca Diaz manages to fill the pages with, even in nighttime snow! The endpapers with many waving from apartment windows show different, happy scenes.  José Pelez and Lynn McGee have written a story with all the feels that will help younger readers understand what immigrant classmates may be feeling. 

What's Next: I'm about halfway through Irene Latham's D-39: A Robodog's Journey. It is so-o-o good!