PB 10 for 10 - Favorites This Year-Sofar!

 

                   
Hurrah!
         It's the twelfth year of PictureBook10for10 (#PB10for10) where many share ten picture books that are Must-Haves! Cathy Mere of Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community and Mandy Robek of Enjoy and Embrace Learning host this wonderful tradition.  Thank you Mandy and Cathy for continuing this special tradition! Go HERE for the post at Cathy's blog!

          And, best wishes to all for starting this school year. However you are beginning, I hope you enjoy being with your students and stay safe and well. I guess, like last year, the challenges remain.

Here are my previous posts for 
  2011     2012     2013     2014     2015    2016     2017     2018   2019    2020! 

It's hard to believe how many years have passed since Cathy and Mandy started this special tradition!

Here are my favorite books so far from this year of 2021! There are many kinds of stories, as you will see! Here are ones that I hope you can use in your classrooms, your lives. I've given a hint of my reviews and a link to each one on Goodreads.

Review HERE

            In every family, it seems that children can be embarrassed for something or other by their parents. When one is an immigrant, their ways can be part of bigger things that are "different". 

Review HERE

        With few words, but powerful ones in a third-person perspective ("The path wished it was shorter."), Muon Thi Van shares a refugee's journey, escape on a boat to a new home. 

Review HERE

        It's the delight I imagined, five children live in a 'ramble-shamble' house and do the necessary chores and other things they love like reading together just because that's what their life is like.

Review HERE

           It's a heartfelt story written by Brooke Smith who explains at the end she saw that certain words from nature, like 'minnows' and 'mint' and 'monarch' had been struck from The Oxford Junior Dictionary as being less relevant for children today. Thus, this Grandma Mimi and her granddaughter go on a journey to find and become "keepers" of the list. 

Review HERE

         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.

Review HERE

           I've been excited to read this book because I loved "The Old Truck" which was so full of love from Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey. In this story, again time passes and you have to watch carefully because while it seems simple in the illustrations and is told with very few words, the message of love for family and home is powerful.

Review HERE

           Linda Sue Park offers such a nice and easy voice in this story of a teacher who poses a scenario to students. Assuring them that people and pets are safe, what one thing would you grab if escaping from a fire?

Review Here

        One never needs words when beautiful comic-style cells are written, then illustrated by JonArno Lawson and Qin Leng can create a story as lovely, distressing, and sad in part, too. A little girl and her grandparent certainly need some help with their General Store. 

Review Here

           I'm amazed that with the simplest of torn paper, Grant Snyder has managed to tell Travis Jonker's special story of a small iceberg that breaks away from its parents and travels its own journey seeing beautiful things. 

Review Here

         This is a new favorite by Brian Floca, a beautiful reminder of all those we owe our gratitude to in these past Pandemic months. They certainly have "kept the cities going". Brian has not left anyone out!

Themes encompass kindness, gratitude, imagination, and thought-filled lives. 

HAPPY READING!