Monday Reading - Find A Special Book!

        

    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!

           It's the National Book Award winner this year, and oh, so great a story! From the cover: "If Kareen could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for unnecessary roughness." Yes, for each chapter, Shifa Saltagi Safadi has offered a football definition, bringing the poetry of Kareen's life to football in a verse novel of both sad and happy changes. Even being born in the US isn't enough. Kareen is born to a Syrian family, cruelly called "Cereals" by those who ignore or tease them just because of who he is. He loves football but ends up in a moral dilemma because one enemy, Austin, lures him into doing work for him with a promise to help him get on the team. His father promises that Kareen will help a new refugee get settled into school. His only friend has moved away! More and more pile-ons bring no touchdowns, only penalties. Kareem's actions gain nothing but what football calls "sacks". Safadi shows the hidden emotional tolls of what it is like for kids "between". I loved her honest portrayal and wish it wasn't so true for them. Readers will give Kareem hope all through the story and keep wondering if he will bring a win at the end of this "game" called middle-school life.

       This is a wonderful, full-of-heart, story by Stephanie Ellen Sy, with enticing, colorful illustrations by Daniel Tingcungco. After a stormy night, young Maya looks out her window and sees a roof! The Philippines experience many storms, typhoons, and more. Their homes are easily torn apart, and most put their names and addresses on the roofs so they can be returned! Through this journey, Maya and her father take the rolled-up roof and go on a search for the owners. Along the way, Sy shows the obstacles, and readers see all the people who help them on the way, like a farmer with his carabao (a draft animal) helps clear a blocked path, and fishers take them across a raging river because the road has been swept away. The examples show the gathering of a Bayanihan, which means "being in a community."  A note at the back shares this spirit "when ordinary Filipinos turn into a bayani, someone who does something courageous for their community." This is Maya and her father's story, but I imagine there are many like this in real life, perhaps recently in the wake of the recent hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina! With the note at the back, Tingcungco creates the line of people in this Bayanihan and names them with their English and Filipino names, like "Farmer (Magsasaka) and Shoemaker (Sapatero).  I enjoyed it very much! 

      Bit by bit, Kyle Lukoff shares the journey that young Jack needs to learn when saying "Sorry" to a classmate for pushing down her castle. Simple words in the notes and Julie Kwon's beautifully emotional illustrations bring the classroom to readers as day by day, Jack tries, with his teacher gently guiding him to arrive at the three things that must be written in his apology to succeed! The text is written entirely in notes, simple and powerful words! Watching Jack's expressions while reading his notes tells all that's needed to know! It may be written for young readers, but everyone needs to know these steps for apologies! 

       I did not know this inspiring story of Junko Tabei by debut author Anita Yasuda, and now I'm glad I do and happy to share the book. It's filled with her life, from the early love of climbing to her triumphant accomplishment of being the first woman to conquer Everest. Before, women were denied permits. It wasn't easy; she and her team (the first all-women's team) nearly died from an avalanche on the way up. Thanks to Sherpas, who rescued her! And, she carried on! Anita Yasuda tells Junko's story from beginning to end, with the choices to keep going "Up, Up, Ever Up! in both mountain-climbing and starting other nature-related work. Showing her adventurous spirit in her desire for climbing for women are the fabulous illustrations of Junko who is ever on the move by Yuki Shimizu. She also illustrated The Cat Man of Aleppo by Irene Latham, which won a Caldecott Honor. 

         There is a timeline at the back, along with a glossary, source notes, and a bibliography filled with both books about her and about Everest and its climbers. A final note: Junko was also the first woman to conquer all seven summits! (Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya). It's a terrific biography that will undoubtedly be loved here in the Colorado Rockies! 

         Eighteen poems celebrate these eighteen dogs, written by David Elliott, accompanied by eighteen marvelous illustrations by eighteen different illustrators. Each page is interesting because Elliott adds some extra notes to his poems, and delightful the varied way the illustrators create "their" dogs. Do you know the tallest dog, one bred for hunting rats, or one who never wants to stop working? Those answers and more are in the book! The ending includes "Mutt": "A little this./A little that./A little everything but cat." And bios of the artists with memories of their own special dogs. Endpapers stretch across both pages with "Anatomy of a Dog". It's a gem for pulling out memories as readers laugh along with the humor and enjoy all the facts! 

         I've loved other books by Lesa Cline-Ransome, like Finding Langston, her debut novel, and Before She Was Harriet, another picture book. This time, she's taken the days in the week and placed this young slave doing something both admirable and frightening, helping his people learn to read! It was a forbidden act and punishable by either whippings or sometimes death! In gorgeous warm-feeling illustrations, James E. Ransome illuminates Cline-Ransome's tale of brave people who are working hard to learn, even late at night after a long day at their other work. As you see from the title, they call him Teach (a secret name.) He learned because he grew up as a companion to his master's son, learning what that boy learned. Now, he works at his master's general store, writing receipts, keeping notes, and delivering packages. When he's caught looking at his master's newspaper, he realizes he must care more about what he's seen doing. The rest of the times are his own. Mondays, he's teaching kids at night in a stable, each with a slate he keeps hidden, letter sounds in quiet whispers. Tuesdays find him delivering to his master's cook who has a secret note, asks what it says. He tells her of the words, North, Yankees, soldiers (whispers of a war coming). As he tells her, he also teaches her some of the letters! That's how his days continue, learning and helping people learn. He is Teach! 

       There's an Author's Note and a list of additional books on Resistance at the back. 

Now reading: A YA sci-fi titled Predestined by Rachel Byrne, trying to find time to read has been a challenge this past busy week, but soon, I'll finish! It's quite intriguing so far, about a prestigious private school with scary secrets! And, I just started Pete Hautman's Answers to Dog!