It's Monday! Preparing for Earth Day! And More!

         

        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! 

         You know I've been taking a long time reading The Many Assassinations of Samar, The Seller of Dreams. It hasn't called me to hurry up, so this week, because of having to return it soon, I started and finished Heroes by Alan Gratz.

         I know a lot about Pearl Harbor. My father was a WWII pilot and was shot down later in the war in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Thus, as I grew up I learned so much from all my family, and have read quite a bit of this time of history, too. But I don't remember the ground-shaking details of that attack by the Japanese that Gratz tells in this new history, the horrible scenes, and the aftermath, too. In this, two upper-middle-school-age boys, Frank and Stanley, whose dads are pilots, have cemented their friendship because Frank loves to write and Stanley loves to draw. They have exciting plans to do comic books with their own "superhero"! Caught in what they thought would be an awesome tour of the Utah battleship from Frank's sister's boyfriend, Brooks, the Japanese attack began. It's a terrifying account that, if you like historical fiction, is a must-read. The story is compounded by the fact that Stanley is half-Japanese, not a good thing at all. And, throughout the story, nothing is easy for Frank because in his previous school and neighborhood, he was bullied continuously, learning to hide with as little confrontation as possible, imagining every tiny thing in varying circumstances that could go wrong. Their friendship is not always easy, but it is one to look at and admire. It's another special book of history for middle school, with a sweet surprise at the end and added information from Gratz, including a glossary.

         I'm writing and posting a poem every day for April, Poetry Month. I hope you will visit when you can! Today, I'm connecting my poetry post here, too, with a wonderful new book by Charles Ghigna. 

         Next Monday is Earth Day, and I'll share a few more books then, too. Meanwhile, here are some recent ones I've loved, some of my own, some from the library, and others from Candlewick Press!

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

         I've loved other books by Liz Garton Scanlon, especially one from years ago titled All The World! There, like this new one just out, Liz shows us the beauty of our natural world. Oh, my, Liz gives us readers a loving message with the help of the gorgeous illustrations by Dominique Ramsey. This time, she tells how everything is connected, the smallest start to the biggest growth, trees and seeds, water and clouds. All are a part of the earth. I love the story, including humor, like when she writes, "and Cloud cannot contain herself." And the unique way the story lets the 'growing' characters in the story are sometimes allowed to share their own opinion of things that grow. "But wind... / (Whoa! says Tree.)/Wind grows stronger." Fire is there, too, some sadness and something helpful. The ending, along with all the rest, is powerful. What a lovely book to have for starting Earth Day celebrations. 

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

           No surprise! Emily Sutton's illustrations fill this new book by Nicola Davies with GREEN! Pages of abundant landscapes help Davies explain how photosynthesis works, from the tiniest chloroplasts in leaves that process sunshine into sugar and oxygen to those tiny tubes in the veins that bring water from the roots. The opposite, and needed, process, is respiration, giving living things needed oxygen. One wonderful page shows the path from animals' eating habits to their dependence on plants "for the food they make and the oxygen they breathe out". A history of the earth, including a tiny timeline, explains this need while starting at the very beginning when there was no oxygen and the journey to the creation of what we now call 'fossil fuels', both useful and detrimental. There are ways to change and scientists know them. It's a useful journey of our Earth wonderfully explained for use in classrooms or at home and the need, the dire need, for GREEN!

Thanks to Candlewick Press for this copy!

       The creators of Step Gently Out and other books, too, Helen Frost and Rick Lieder, write and photograph, The Mighty Pollinators. These early words start us off:  "Here come the pollinators,/small and mighty,/holding the world together." Rick's exquisite photographs accompany Helen's poems from bees to bats, and wasps to butterflies. If you sneeze when outside in the spring, Helen writes" "You may not see me,/but you know I'm here/when I brush past your skin./Strong and fierce/or soft and gentle, I'm pollen's good friend–/I'm the wind."        

        Even humans play a part! The back includes information about pollen, including "what it is" and "how we humans can help." What a lovely and just-right book for now!

        

        I still have this book, published in 1998. I hope you can find a copy if you would like a wonderful book of poems and stories telling both the special things about our earth and the destructive things that are hurting it. Ready for Earth Day, hoping everyone can find it. It came out many years ago, still a treasure to share about our earth! Here's a partial list of those whose writings are included: Steinbeck, Leopold, Muir, Schweitzer, Ovid, Tolstoy, Cather, Attenborough, Kipling, Hardy, Douglas Adams, Edward O. Wilson, Chekov, Lorenz, Julian Huxley and Paton are included (among others). 

        Studying the awesome things that we find on earth, like stones, can be both illuminating and bring big smiles to everyone who doesn't know all about them. Leslie Barnard Booth tells this story from its journey in parts of the earth, like being pulled apart by tree roots, rolled along a river, pushed by other stones, or ice. It can join others to become a larger stone, or be crushed into the smallest particle of sand. The beauty of its journey is not only in Booth's words but shown in Marc Martin's full-page paintings, bringing the stone's visual character to life, too. There is a detailed explanation of the geology of rocks along with a glossary at the back. Awesome book, a great intro to the earth's geology, perhaps outside one's door, or in a nearby park!

       For Earth Day, for Poetry Month, grab this and other books by David Elliott. There are many where he writes about things found on our earth, telling facts within his poetry and introducing new creatures one might now want to know more about. This time, creatures at both poles, some unique to only the Arctic or Antarctic, some found on both. The poems are succinct and clever, with Ellen Rooney's gorgeous illustrations illuminating the information. Here is a very brief one, no other words needed, right? "NARWHAL - A singular creature/with a singular feature." If you aren't familiar with David Elliott's work, find some of his books!

Still reading: 

The Many Assassinations of Samar, The Seller of Dreams, by Daniel Nayeri, illustrations by Daniel Miyares.