Monday Reading - Praise for Being Outside

  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! 

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. 

It's interesting how things work out. Each of these books have an outdoorsy vibe, in varying ways of course, yet nature plays a part in each.

       I reviewed Kat Apel's Bully on the Bus, a verse novel for younger readers, so good for kids, teachers and parents! last Friday for Poetry Friday. You can read the review here!

Thanks, Candlewick Press,
for this copy.

           This published last month, a long awaited sequel to Ghetto Cowboy, which I'm sorry to say I have not read. There were references to that story in this book, yet it felt as if it would not be confusing. Those who have read the earlier one will love learning more about Cole's new choice, to stay in Philly with his father and the horse he saved earlier, Boo. His mother lives in Detroit. This feels like a good story for middle-grade readers.Its numerous layers include learning to get along with his dad, Harper, after years of being apart. He must get a job if he's really going to live there and the one his dad gives him is one where Dad owes a debt. Cole ends up working as a stable hand in a wealthy military school, one where those cadets treat him as a servant and unworthy of any kindness. 

         However, one of them happens to be a girl, yes, a black girl, Ruthie, who is as good with horses as Cole. Only, she plays polo! The story is surrounded by polo in various ways, and I also learned that not only at the wealthy academy, but there are city horses and woods in Philadelphia with riding paths, the ones Cole and horse Boo know so well. Conflicts mount as Cole's cousin, an 'underneath' nice guy mixes things up as he tries to keep in touch and give Cole money because he's 'dealer. Deep conversations among them all, an interesting sub-story about the ghetto cowboys, a sadness of the needs in the neighborhood and the principal of Cole's high school who keeps improving it makes, as written earlier, a complex story of Cole and the choices he is led to. And, of course, there are lots of polo descriptions, too!

        As this was an ARC, I didn't see Jesse Joshua Watson's final illustrations, but the black and white ones were great, enough to give a glimpse of these kids.

 

        Kids will love the whimsey in the sixteen steps Laura Purdie Salas describes in her new wonderful book. That little girl on the cover will show you the way. She's stopped at the farmer's market to pick up some apples with her dad, and there's a sheep for sale! Have you ever brought a sheep home with your child? Probably not, but it seems they do have a barn and there happens to be a pig and a chicken in there, too, as they wait through the winter until. . . It's shearing time! In brief text with brightly colored illustrations by Angela Matteson, readers learn all the steps from wool to using a natural dye, this time marigolds, to knitting, YES!, some beautiful mittens, as Laura writes, "Hold the golden sun in your hands." (I bought this for my young granddaughter, now ten, who has been knitting for a few years and loves the book.) It's lots of fun, will be an inspiration, too, to dig deeper into the 'how-to' of each step, from sheep to knitting!

Thanks to Candlewick Press
for this copy!

           Yes, the book is amazing and so, as the title shouts, so is Africa! Along with all the other books, I've been reading this new one by Atinuke and illustrated by Mouni Feddag. According to the book flap, Atinuke is Nigerian-born, started her career as an oral storyteller of tales from the African continent. Mouni Feddag has illustrated for varied clients like Anthropologie. This is her first book for children. Along with other books I'm reading, I've been reading and admiring this one a few pages at a time. It includes all fifty-five countries, Atinuke's way of story-telling, and Feddag's bright colors of unique places and each country's extraordinary people and things. Atinuke writes in the intro that she wised to create a place where she can share the exciting things she knows about Africa. She shares about the geography, animals, people's general way of living (from cities to huts), varying religions, and main parts of history. Feddag seems to choose a little from that text to show it in her work. You'll find a helpful intro, table-of-contents, beautiful maps, and index, and a list of additional sources. It's terrific. If teachers wish to have a unit about Africa, this will make an "amazing" beginning.

Thanks to Candlewick Press
for this copy!

         For those children who don't know about barns, this is a beautiful one, nostalgic, shows all the animals that could live there, but not all. My grandfather had such a barn, but sheep and mules were there, too. This time, in her first picture book, Leah H. Rogers lets the barn tells its tale, repeating the line to start each page, "I am a barn." It begins with the old-time barn-raising, moving on to the animals of the barn, and a little of what they do, going out to munch what they wish and returning in the evening for rest and safety. (There is a coyote watching, though we are aware, nothing happens.) One thing I loved is seeing a momma cat leaving her kittens nesting while she leaves to search for her "unsuspecting dinner". Illustrations by Barry Root are so realistic, it feels as if you can almost smell the musty hay, the animals that live there. Details fill up the story too, like the page with the kittens. They lie on a hay bale, near a stack of colorful blankets. A wooden ladder is shown, another post holds a straw hat, and a coil of rope. Nearby is a saddle. Farm talk may be very new to some children. This can be a book to read, enjoy, and learn from. Or, if readers know about barns, it's time for sharing memories. Terrific book!

Thanks to Candlewick Press
for this copy!

          Momma Bear and her cub make their way home, to sleep! As the jacket flap reads, "Geese are calling, a chilly wind is blowing, and the sky is turning gray." They make their way through the woods as Dianne White lets Momma speaks about the need to go to sleep and Baby asks again and again "Why?" In brief rhyming couplets, the story unfolds. Baby sees Mouse scurrying by, Chipmunk gathering nuts, Skunk and Hare romping through the leaves and wonders why he has to go to bed. Here's one example of Mama's replies: In just a while, deep underground,/Skunk will slumber, safe and sound." Ramona Kaulitzki's illustrations show the animals of the wintry landscape in soft grays with a touch of color nestling in their nests, tunnels, or tree hollows. Finally, Mama Bear and cub, too, reach their place for the winter hideaway. It's a lovely tale of introduction to what many animals do in winter. Wouldn't it be nice if children wrote their own couplet for what they do? 

        I didn't plan to share holiday books until next week, but had to get this to the library! I imagine you know Jonah and Jeannette Winter's beautiful books and this is another, telling the story of that tiny Northern saw-whet owl stuck in her hole as her home was cut down, destined to be the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. She hunts at night, and this time, after that, cozied up asleep, strange sounds happen and the tree falls down. The owl has no idea what's going on, stays in the hole, is transported to NYC. The rest, meeting Jason Ramos, a worker, weak and afraid, she allows him to pick her up. She's taken to a wildlife rehab center for about a week, then released into the wild. The Winters tell the story piece by piece, a tale to celebrate in awe of the happy ending. There is an author's note that gives all the facts!

           Here's one page. (Click to enlarge!) Can you see her?

Still Reading: Last Night at the Telegraph Club - Malinda Lo. Hooray, it won the National Book Award for young adults!