It's Monday! Picture Books Enhance Our Lives

   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! 

          

    

I finished Torrey Maldonado's Tight, my first #MustReadin2022, a re-read, remember? It was great this time, too. I admire his clever ability to show real kids at the same time as bringing intensity into their lives as if it's what should be! Understanding it's all about choices is something everyone needs to learn.

           Uniquely beautiful, the following picture books offer subtle messages for living our lives, taking care of selves in more than one way! Enjoy

           

     I've waited a long time for this book. There were many holds! It was worth every hour of waiting. 

     Jacqueline Woodson offers inspiration to all, though this book clearly is meant for children as it tells a story of a young girl and her brother, first sad because it's raining. They cannot go outside! Their grandmother's advice is to close eyes and believe in a thing, knowing that you are not alone. Somewhere someone else is bored, not knowing what to do. And so they try! Raphael López reflects this small, and later larger, drama in gorgeous full-page color. Emotions are real! That was the summer they learned to fly! When one can imagine something beautiful and travel there, one can make life better, survive. There is one lovely illustration where the two kids are in bed reading The Day You Begin, also a collaboration between Woodson and López. More kind and valuable words come from Grandmother who tells how she herself learned to fly from the people who came before, "brought here on huge ships, their wrists and ankles cuffed in iron." They "closed their eyes and flew away home." It's a wise and endearing book. In her author's note, Jacqueline Woodson shares her own inspiration, the time she read The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton. 

        It feels like an ode to smoke, this intriguing book by Henry Herz. He tells all the ways it adds to our lives, like "the dark dance from every campfire", helping with bees, and flavoring various foods. His 'smoky' and lyrical way of telling is enhanced even more by Mercè López who tells that she captured patterns of swirling smoke on art paper as the beginning journey of the illustrations. Finding smoke in centuries past that signaled, took part in religious ceremonies, and helped with medicinal cures are other additions to what seems like a brief tale but includes the science and the art, too. Also, they did not forget its harmful aspects. Herz adds information at the back with an extensive source list.

 

         Learning how to identify and pick sweetgrass from her grandmother feels like a most special time. Throughout this story by husband and wife Suzanne Greenlaw, Maliseet, and Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy, readers will learn the why of the picking along with the history and uses of it in long years past to the present. Musqon, the young girl you see on the cover has gone along with her grandmother, whom she calls Uhkomi, to the salt marsh, where the river meets the ocean. That is where the special sweetgrass grows. Beautiful illustrations of this story by Nancy Baker help Musqon, and us readers, learn how to identify the sweetgrass, its uses, and its important tribal history. She gathers sweetgrass as her ancestors have done for centuries, leaving the first blade she sees to grow for future generations.There is added information by Greenlaw and Frey at the back that also includes a glossary of the Passamaquoddy - Maliseet words used in the story. 

         A debut in an early-reader chapter book series by Matthew Cordell, how could I not love this, a book with characters named Cornbread & Poppy? Cornbread plans ahead and has all the stores ready for winter. Poppy has recently done all her favorite things, like biking and playing on the swings, but she has not made any effort to gather berries and cheese and grains. She's in a pickle! Though it's really scary, she decides she must go up the nearby mountain to see what she can find. And though it really is scary, and they know one mouse has traveled there and never returned, good friend Cornbread says he will go with Poppy. What happens next is a little bit scary but with a surprise, too. As you might imagine, it all turns out perfect, just right for an early-reader story! Cordell's friendship story and his illustrations are a delight, too. Now I can't wait for the next adventure!

Happy Reading in February!

Next?  Still reading  Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, also have Too Bright To See by Kyle Lukoff, may try to start African Town by Irene Latham and Charles Waters.