It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They "encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

 

Happy Leap Year Day! Hope you've had a great week of reading. We have four weeks until Spring Break, but winter seems to be hanging on! It's been a busy week, but here's what I've been reading:

 

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate   I had the opportunity to read a digital-ARC of this debut novel by Riley Redgate in exchange for this review. I enjoyed reading this YA novel about the rumors and scandal swirling around a Kansas high school over a romantic relationship involving a teacher and a student. The story is told from the perspectives of seven students who seem to lead completely different lives at this school, and yet are connected to each other through the unfolding events. I was engaged throughout the novel, grew to care about each of the characters, and eagerly turned pages until I reached the end.

For my complete review, please visit my blog post: http://www.janatheteacher.blogspot.com/2016/02/book-review-seven-ways-we-lie-by-riley.html

Pink Is For Blobfish: Discovering the World's Perfectly Pink Animals by Jess Keating and David DeGrand (Illustrator)   What an awesome nonfiction picture book this is! Jess Keating has written a wonderfully entertaining and informative book about some of the world's weirdest pink animals. From the title blob fish, to naked mole rats, hippos, and many other animals, you get great photographs along with interesting facts and details. I have to get this book for my classroom! I know it'll be very popular. In fact, I probably should get several copies!

Surf's Up by Kwame Alexander, Daniel Miyares (Illustrations)    Wowie Kazowie! I want to go to the beach with Bro and Dude! These two fun-loving frogs make me long for the days of summer reading! Bro loves to read and he's completely wrapped up in the book that he's reading, Moby Dick! Dude thinks books are boring and just wants to get to the beach. As they go along and Bro starts to share some of the exciting adventures from his book, Dude changes his mind. The illustrations are awesome! Colorful paintings of helmet-wearing frogs sharing a book on the back of a motor scooter on the way to the beach will make book lovers out of anyone!

Henry Wants More by Linda Ashman, Brooke Boynton Hughes (Illustrator)   This book will bring smiles to anyone who knows how exhausting a toddler can be. The entire family takes turns playing with Henry: they sing songs, play games, and run around the house. While each family member in turn gets tired, Henry still wants more! The rhyming text, along with the cozy illustrations of this family's loving home, would be a perfect read aloud for very young children. I'm sure it'll become a favorite on many bookshelves!

Tiara Saurus Rex by Brianna Caplan Sayres, Mike Boldt (Illustrations)    This is a cute picture book with a nice message about friendship and perseverance. All of the young lady dinosaurs are competing in the Miss Dinosaur pageant. Everyone participating in this contest is warned that Tina always has to win, although no one really explains why this is the case. After each part of the pageant, young ladies are so intimidated that they are heading for the exits. A strange twist at the end will have readers reevaluating their initial judgment of Tina. Clever digital illustrations by Mike Boldt support the story very well. This would be a fun book to have in my classroom library.

My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald, Freya Blackwood (Illustrator)    This is a very lovely, comforting picture book to read. This book would be great for anyone who has ever moved to a new place and felt strange and lonely. Cartwheel has moved to a new country in order to be safe from the war that makes her native country dangerous. Everything feels different in the city where she now lives. Making the transition even more difficult is a language barrier: "Nobody spoke like I did. When I went out, it was like standing under a waterfall of strange sounds. The waterfall was cold. It made me feel alone. I felt like I wasn't me anymore." The author uses the metaphor of a blanket to describe Cartwheel's way of coping with all of the changes in her circumstances: "When I was at home, I wrapped myself in a blanket of my own words and sounds. I called it my old blanket." As the story develops, Cartwheel makes a friend in the park who teaches her new words. Cartwheel is able to take these words and weave a new blanket. Blackwood's illustrations, a combination of watercolor and oil paintings, have a friendly, comfortable quality to them that really support the text well. This book is definitely one I would like to have in my classroom library.

 

 

The Dream of the Thylacine by Margaret Wild   The author of this beautiful picture book does a remarkable job of mixing spare, poetic text with the illustrator's sweeping paintings of a lone Thylacine hunting in the Australian wilderness. The poetry is a lament for the extinction of the lost species, also known as the Tasmanian Tiger. Among Brooks' remarkable illustrations are photographic stills taken from a 1937 BBC film of the last confirmed surviving Thylacine, which died in the Hobart Zoo in the late 1930s. I think this would be a wonderful book to have in my classroom library, perhaps as a companion to Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate.

Granddaddy's Gift by Margaree King Mitchell    With the backdrop of the Civil Rights era and the struggle African-Americans had to get the right to vote, this story teaches a young girl the power of education. I shared this with my fifth grade students and they enjoyed it. They especially appreciated the determination and perseverance that the characters in this story showed as they pursued their right to vote despite the violence and difficulties they faced.

A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman (Picture Book Biography) by David A. Adler, Samuel Byrd (Illustrator)    I shared this book with my fifth grade students. This was one of several books that we've read about Harriet Tubman. The students have enjoyed having these books read on consecutive days so that we could compare and contrast how different authors and illustrators have approached the life of this brave woman who escaped slavery herself and then went back time and again to help hundreds of slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. Many of the students said they liked this one best because of the straightforward way that the author presents facts and details about Harriet Tubman's life. The Picture Book biography series is very popular in my classroom.

Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman by Alan Schroeder, Jerry Pinkney (Illustrations)   
I shared this book with my fifth graders and they enjoyed very much. It was a fictional account of some of the painful events in Harriet Tubman's childhood that led to her decision to run away to freedom. Readers get to know the degrading experiences of slavery: being sent out of the house to be a field slave for accidently spilling some cider, being whipped for freeing trapped muskrats, constantly being threatened to be sold down South. The text is very engaging and well-written. The illustrations by Jerry Pinkney are beautifully painted and really pull the reader in to the emotions of the story.

Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold    I shared this with my fifth grade students and most of them enjoyed it. The story was different from some of the other texts we've read about slavery, Harriet Tubman, and the Underground Railroad. The kids appreciated the creativity of the story of the train in the clouds. When Cassie's little brother gets on the train and gets away from her, she goes on a journey in which she experiences what the passengers on the Underground Railroad experienced. Along the way, she receives letters from her little brother that encourage her. The illustrations are gorgeous and do a lot to engage young readers.

Book Review: Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

 

 

I had the opportunity to read a digital-ARC of this debut novel by Riley Redgate in exchange for this review. I enjoyed reading this YA novel about the rumors and scandal swirling around a Kansas high school over a romantic relationship involving a teacher and a student. The story is told from the perspectives of seven students who seem to lead completely different lives at this school, and yet are connected to each other through the unfolding events. I was engaged throughout the novel, grew to care about each of the characters, and eagerly turned pages until I reached the end.

 

Redgate does a good job of showing us the life of this middle-America high school through the eyes of seven disparate characters, each with their own set of assets and challenges. Each chapter in the book is in the voice of a different character, and the voices are unique to the person narrating: Olivia Scott is an attractive, promiscuous junior. Kat Scott has the lead in the school play and is Olivia's twin sister. Matt Jackson is a bit of a loner who enjoys smoking weed in the school parking lot. Juniper Kipling is a smart, beautiful girl who seems to have it all. Valentine Simmons is an intelligent, but socially awkward boy. Claire Lombardi is close friends with Olivia and Juniper, but has low self-esteem and is constantly comparing herself the them and others. Lucas McCallum is a popular member of the school's swim team and Claire's ex-boyfriend. The development of the story and the interplay between these characters reminds me somewhat of the movie The Breakfast Club , as these teenagers grapple with being true to themselves and others.

 

 

 

 

The story opens with the staff and students all being called to the auditorium for a special assembly. The principal announces that the administration has received an anonymous tip that "a teacher at Paloma High is having romantic relations with a member of the student body." Immediately people begin to speculate about who the two might be and rumors and jokes run rampant.

 

As the gossip spreads and the life of a high school continues through a timeline of two weeks, we learn about the relationships and challenges that weave all of these characters together. While I like the way Redgate reveals the plot elements in a way that has the reader discovering and guessing all along the way, I'm not sure that I believe that a high school administrator (Dr. Turner) would handle allegations of an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student in this way. While my teaching experience is limited to elementary school, I've worked for a large school district for over seventeen years. I feel pretty certain that when these sorts of allegations are made, a school is going to do everything it can to investigate completely and quietly before making big announcements to an entire school community. Because these types of investigations are tied to the potential for criminal and civil litigation, most of the revelations would be kept under wraps.

 

I liked the way that Redgate is able to show us the circumstances in these characters' lives that mirror the real problems that so many young people experience. I believe that every reader will be able to recognize themselves in this book and see their story played out in a positive way. Even though some of the problems these characters have seem very difficult, they all wind up coming to a hopeful conclusion. I think that is important, because so many times young people can't see very far beyond their present circumstances.

 

While this book wouldn't be appropriate for my fifth grade classroom, I do think that it would be a good addition to a high school library. The themes are definitely for mature readers, but I do think the author handles these issues appropriately. Parents and teachers might want to provide guidance for issues such as appropriate teacher/student relationships, sexual promiscuity, depression, substance abuse, and sexual identity. This well-written and well-developed novel could definitely become a very popular book.

 

Hardcover, 352 pages

Expected publication: March 8th 2016 by Amulet Books

 

 







It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They "encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

 

This has been kind of a weird week. We had Monday as a scheduled day off from school for President's Day. Tuesday was a Snow Day. So you would think with only a 3-day week, I would have had more time to read. On Tuesday, I read several picture books that I needed to return to the library. But, then we were so busy catching up at school, I never got a chance to finish the novel I started. And I must confess, that the weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend. So, how could I not get outside and frolic (in short sleeves) before the next snowstorm snaps us back to our winter reality?!

 

 

 

So, at any rate, here's what I have been reading this past week:

 

 

 

Peddles by Elizabeth Rose Stanton   This is a really cute picture book about a little pig who has big dreams. Peddles does all of the other stuff pigs do, but he thinks differently. He dreams about all sorts of things. But one night when he sees a party going on in the barn with music and people dancing, he decides he also wants to dance. He works so hard at it and one day he finds a pair of red boots behind the barn. Maybe this will help him realize his dream. The illustrations are adorable! The little pig has such a cute look on his face on every page and there will certainly be some giggles over the potty humor! This has much of what made Henny such a popular book!

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins    This picture book is so much fun. This grumpy bear just wants to eat his eggs in peace. And then they hatch. Now he has a family of goslings following him everywhere and no amount of yelling and grumpiness will make them go away! I love the way he solves his problem in the end! The text and the illustrations work perfectly together, both making a hilarious story! The bear kind of reminds me of Lou Grant on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Anyway, this book is awesome and I really want to have a copy of this book for my classroom library!

Counting Lions: Portraits from the Wild by Katie Cotton, Stephen Walton (Illustrations)   This beautifully illustrated book calls attention to threatened and endangered species around the world, by showcasing them in a counting them. As you count and learn more about each animal, you realize that the numbers of each of these animals is decreasing at an alarming rate. Stunning charcoal drawings on each page look just like photographs. The book grabs your heart and gives fascinating information about each species. The back notes also include more information and resources for further study. I would love to have a copy of this in my classroom library.

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash by G. Neri, A.G. Ford (Illustrations)    I really enjoyed reading this book. I've always been a big fan of Johnny and June Cash. So this book captured my interest right away. The text, written in verse, takes us from Johnny Cash's young childhood (when he was called J.R.) through his start in music, his time in the Army, and his later years. The book takes a look at the rough times his family experienced through the Depression, the Great Flood of 1937, and his older brother's death. The book touches on Johnny Cash's battle with addiction in the notes at the end of the book, but it doesn't dwell on that aspect of his life. The paintings by A. G. Ford are absolutely gorgeous and are a fitting tribute to this legendary country singer. I'm not sure how many of my students are familiar with Johnny Cash or whether they're interested. I'm anxious to see what they think of this book.

Harry & Hopper by Margaret Wild, Freya Blackwood    Oh my gosh! This is a beautiful, heartwarming book! But, have your tissues ready!!! This is an important book, because it deals with the death of a beloved pet. Most children (and grown-ups) experience this heartbreak at one time or another and it's never easy. Harry's experience coming to terms with the loss of his dear friend could be a great way to have this difficult conversation with a child. Freya Blackwood's illustrations, rendered in watercolor and charcoal, are gorgeous and really capture the range of emotions that this book portrays. I'm not sure if I would be strong enough emotionally to read this book aloud to a class, but it's definitely one that I think should be in my classroom library.

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jennifer Fisher Bryant, Melissa Sweet (Illustrator)   This is a wonderful picture book biography of William Carlos Williams, that takes us from his childhood years to his life as a doctor and a poet. It's very inspirational to read how he worked so hard at his studies through high school, college, and medical school. He was such a busy doctor, but he still made time to write poetry. He would work all day helping his patients, and then sit in his attic office into the night arranging notes into poems. That certainly gives me pause and makes me realize that there's no reason in the world why I shouldn't be spending more time writing when I'm certainly no more busy than he was! Melissa Sweet's mixed media illustrations are beautiful and thought-provoking. Her work does a lot to support the text and contributes much to the uplifting tone of the whole book. I would love to get my own copy to have in my classroom library permanently; and maybe another copy to have on my bookshelves at home!

Freedom School, Yes! by Amy Littlesugar, Floyd Cooper (Illustrations)   I shared this book with my 5th grade students, and they enjoyed it. The illustrations, along with the text, are powerful in their ability to convey the mood and strong emotional weight of this story. The setting is a small town in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. Jolie's family has agreed to host Annie, a 19-year-old girl from the North who has come to teach in the Freedom School. Even before classes begin, someone has thrown a rock and a hateful note through the front window of Jolie's house. Then someone burns the church where the Freedom School classes are to be taught. Undeterred, the Freedom School is held outside under a hickory tree while a new church can be built. One of the things my students appreciated most was the determination of Jolie and her family to make sure the Freedom School would happen no matter what the haters in their community said or did.

A Day's Work by Eve Bunting, Ronald Himler (Illustrations)    This is a touching picture book that tells the story of Francisco and his abuelo (grandfather) who are looking for a day's work. Francisco's grandfather just arrived in America and he doesn't speak English. Because it is Saturday, Francisco is able to come along with his grandfather and speak English for him. Francisco is able to get a job with a gardener by telling him that his grandfather is an expert gardener. The problem is, his grandfather is a carpenter, not a gardener. Francisco's dishonesty gets them into a bit of trouble as the pair wind up making a big mistake and angering the fellow that hired them. Eve Bunting really does an excellent job of capturing the feelings and anguish of this situation as Francisco learns an important lesson. Ronald Himler's illustrations are awesome and really help support the text. I'm glad to have this book in my classroom library.

Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)   I shared this book with my fifth grade students and they really enjoyed it. This picture book biography takes us from Edward Kennedy Ellington's childhood, when he would've rather played baseball than take piano lessons, to his introduction to ragtime music. We follow the start of his career in the clubs of Harlem, most notably the Cotton Club. As more and more people were able to listen to his music on the radio, he became famous across the nation and around the world. The book takes us to the pinnacle of his success, playing at New York's Carnegie Hall. Brian Pinkney's illustrations are awesome. The colorful paintings really capture the energy and excitement of the jazz age. I found that I just wanted to crawl inside the picture in which his orchestra is playing and people are dancing in the Cotton Club! I did need to take time to explain a lot of the language of the day: phrases like "fine-as-pie good looks and flashy threads," "Take the floor, Daddy-O!" and "While they were cuttin' the rug, Duke slid his honey-colored fingertips across the ivory eighty-eights." But most of the kids were able to enjoy the figurative, colorful language and imagine what fun it would've been to be a part of that scene!

Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish, Fritz Siebel (Illustrations)   This is a fun favorite that's always fun to revisit. I shared it with my fifth grade students as a fun way to talk about idioms. Amelia Bedelia has just begun a new job as a maid in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. They leave for the day and Amelia has a list of jobs to accomplish before they get home. Among the items on the list: change the towels, dust the furniture, draw the curtains, and dress the chicken. Because Amelia takes these directions literally, she cuts designs into the bathroom towels, spreads dusting powder all over the fancy furniture, gets out a sketch pad to draw a picture of the curtains, and puts a suit of clothes onto the chicken. Of course, when the Rogers return they're very upset. Thank goodness she's made them a delicious lemon meringue pie, so they don't get too upset. Even though it's a silly book, it is effective for teaching about idioms and we did have some good laughs over Amelia's antics!

The Sign of the Seahorse by Graeme Base    This was a fun book to read on a snow day. The search to find the culprit behind the mysterious poisoning of the Seahorses, starts at the famous Seahorse Café and takes readers from the doomed coral gardens of Reeftown to a sunken wreck and an underwater junkyard, across the Deep all the way to the edge of the Great Continental Shelf. The rhyming text and the beautiful illustrations really help immerse you in this awesome underwater world.

 

Nonfiction Picture Book - 10 for 10

Wow! Has it been six months already?! So much has happened since then. I started this blog in order to participate in the August Picture Book 10 for 10. If you go back and look at that first post, I think you'll agree that I've become much better at this! I still have a long way to go, and I need to become much better at posting more frequently.

At any rate, the 10 Nonfiction Picture Books I have chosen are all books that have transported me to another place and time. I know that the main purpose of informational text is to teach us about a particular subject. However, the best ones do that AND possess the magic to whisk us away and help us escape for a little while. So here they are:



1. Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick, Sophie Blackall (Illustrations)

Oh my gosh! This book just blew me away. I've grown up loving Winnie the Pooh, like so many other children. This true story of the soldier veterinarian who found the bear on the way to fight in World War I is fascinating. Lindsay Mattick frames this story in a bedtime story she is telling to her son. Winnie's story is so well told and Sophie Blackall's illustrations are so characteristically appealing. No wonder Blackall won the Caldecott this year for it. The end of the book kind of grabbed me emotionally at the end. This is one of the few nonfiction children's books that made me cry a bit!



2. Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews, Bryan Collier (Illustrations)

This is such an inspiring story of a young man growing up in New Orleans. Music was so important in his family and as a child he would make his own musical instruments so he could play with his brother (a trumpet player). When he found an old, discarded trombone he marched out in a Mardi Gras parade with it. The trombone was twice his size, so he earned the nickname "Trombone Shorty". Collier's illustrations, which are a mix of paintings and collage, are beautiful and really capture how special these times were to the author. This book won a Caldecott Honor this year.



3. Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, Ekua Holmes (Illustrations)

This book was beautiful and awesome. I've wanted to read it for a while. And when I heard that it had won a Caldecott Honor this year, I was thrilled that it was also available at my library. Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes tell such an important story through stunning illustrations and verse. While telling the painful stories of racism and injustice, it also tells of a woman who never gave up or gave in to the voices telling her "no" throughout her life. I really want to share this story with my students, and I definitely want to get my own copy of the book to place in my classroom library permanently. While I've read quite a bit of literature about the Civil Rights Era, I learned A LOT from this book.



4. Desmond and the Very Mean Word by Desmond Tutu, A.G. Ford (Illustrator) 

This is a terrific picture book about a young man who gets picked on by some other boys. With the help of Father Trevor, he learns about the power of forgiveness. The illustrations are awesome and a powerful part of the story. I love that the author never actually says what the mean word was. I think that I could have great discussions with my students about this book and what the author's message is.



5. The Cart That Carried Martin by Eve Bunting, Don Tate (Illustrator)

This beautifully done nonfiction picture book tells the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral by focusing on the borrowed cart that was used to carry King's casket from the Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College. Funeral organizers borrowed the unwanted cart from an antique store - "Friends painted it green. 'It's the color of grass when it rains,' a woman said."

Mules were hitched to the cart - "'Ordinary mules for an ordinary funeral,' the people told one another. 'That was what he wanted.'

The illustrations, which were done in pencil and gouache, do a wonderful job of capturing the emotion and magnitude of this occasion. Most are two-page spreads depicting the crowds outside the church, inside the church, and along the route to Morehouse College and then the cemetery.

My favorite lines are: "The cart was not heavy.
The coffin was not heavy.
The man inside it was not heavy.
His great spirit had been the heaviest part of him.
It could not be kept in a coffin."



6. Edward Hopper Paints His World by Robert Burleigh, Wendell Minor (Illustrations)

What an awesome picture book biography this is! The reader learns so much about this artist and his work. The paintings illustrating the painter, his paintings and his life are absolutely amazing. You can tell that the author and the illustrator are very passionate about the type of art Edward Hopper forwarded and have studied hard about how to portray it to younger readers. The cover art, depicting the Night Hawk painting, attracted my husband's interest as he was bringing the book home from the library for me. He sat down and read the book before I had a chance and enjoyed it very much. I think I'm going to need to get my own copy of this book!


7. Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova by Laurel Snyder, Julie Morstad (illustrator)

This book is absolutely lovely! I was enchanted by every bit of it. The story of Anna Pavlova is very inspiring for anyone who has ever longed to play a role in something beautiful. I could almost hear music playing as I read through the text. The language is so moving. I'm really looking forward to sharing with my students the author's use of metaphor to describe Anna's movements: "Anna is a bird in flight, a whim of wind and water. Quiet feathers in a big loud world. Anna is the swan." The illustrations are stunning and do an awesome job of bringing us into Anna's world in czarist Russia. I'm very excited to have this book in my classroom library!



8. Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle, Rafael López (Illustrations)

This is a really special book that allows all children to dream to be whatever they want to be. The beautiful, colorful illustrations along w/Engle's poetry tells about a young girl who very passionately longed to make music drumming. All along the way grown-ups tried to discourage her because she was a girl. Through persistence and tenacity, her father finally agreed to send her to a music teacher. She learned and worked and practiced until she was ready to play her drums for others. The paintings of music and celebrations in this Caribbean country really take you someplace special.



9. Growing Up Pedro: How the Martinez Brothers Made It from the Dominican Republic All the Way to the Major Leagues by Matt Tavares

This is a beautifully illustrated nonfiction book that tells the story of a famous pitcher from the Dominican Republic. Sports fans will definitely appreciate the story of how a youngster worked hard to become one of the best pitchers ever. But everyone can appreciate the story of how close Pedro was to his brother, Ramon. The story also highlights the way the Martinez brothers used their fame and fortune to make life better for their friends and family back in the Dominican Republic. I was excited to add this book to my classroom library.





10. Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell, Christian Robinson (Illustrator)

I've always enjoyed reading and learning about the music and entertainment of the early twentieth century - imagining the flappers of the Roaring Twenties dancing the Charleston in Paris. So I was eager to read this book about the life of Josephine Baker. I loved it!

Right after the title page, is a page with this quote:

"I shall dance all my life....
I would like to die, breathless,
spent, at the end of a dance."
- Josephine Baker, 1927

The next page ends with, "America wasn't ready for Josephine, the colored superstar. PARIS WAS."

This biography, with stunning illustrations, takes us from Josephine's difficult childhood in St. Louis, through her hard work and determination to perform on vaudeville stages, to her arrival on Broadway. All throughout this story, you're faced with the sad reality of racial inequality and segregation. She couldn't enter through the front doors of the theaters in which she performed.

When she finally traveled across the Atlantic to France, she encountered a completely different world. The story takes readers through her rise to success abroad and her return to America. She wanted to make a difference in the lives of black people here.

This is an awesome biography. It definitely makes me want to learn even more about Josephine Baker's life. The author has included a good list of resources for readers who want to continue reading about her life.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey as a way to share what you have read and/or reviewed in the past week. It's also a terrific way to find out what other people are reading.

Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers have given this meme a children's literature focus: picture books, middle grade novels, etc. They "encourage everyone who participates to support the blogging community by visiting the other bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

 

While we had another round of Parent Teacher Conferences this week, thankfully we have President's Day off. And as we are sitting inside with wind chill warnings outside, I've had plenty of time to curl up with great books this week. Hope you've had a good reading week as well. Here's what I've been reading:

 

 

 

The Maypop Kidnapping by C.M. Surrisi  I had the opportunity to read a digital-ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is a fun, middle-grade mystery to read. I enjoyed it, and I believe my fifth grade students would enjoy it, because it's got more suspense to it than mysteries for earlier readers (Cam Jansen, Nate the Great, Encyclopedia Brown), but it's not over-the-top with scary violence.

The mystery begins when Quinnie's teacher, Blythe Stillford, fails to show up for her traditional first-day-of-school breakfast date at Gusty's. Concerned, Quinnie walks from the restaurant to Ms. Stillford's house. No one appears to be home when Quinnie peeks in the windows and nobody answers the door. She can see her teacher's cell phone resting on the dining room table. She enters the house through the unlocked kitchen door. Food is left out on the counter, her teacher's house is undisturbed, and her car is still in the garage. Quinnie becomes convinced that her teacher has been kidnapped.

For my complete review, please visit my blog: http://www.janatheteacher.blogspot.com/2016/02/book-review-maypop-kidnapping-by-cm.html

Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick, Sophie Blackall (Illustrations)    Oh my gosh! This book just blew me away. I've grown up loving Winnie the Pooh, like so many other children. This true story of the soldier veterinarian who found the bear on the way to fight in World War I is fascinating. Lindsay Mattick frames this story in a bedtime story she is telling to her son. Winnie's story is so well told and Sophie Blackall's illustrations are so characteristically appealing. No wonder Blackall won the Caldecott this year for it. The end of the book kind of grabbed me emotionally at the end. This is one of the few nonfiction children's books that made me cry a bit!

Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews, Bryan Collier (Illustrations)   A 2016 Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Award Winner

This is such an inspiring story of a young man growing up in New Orleans. Music was so important in his family and as a child he would make his own musical instruments so he could play with his brother (a trumpet player). When he found an old, discarded trombone he marched out in a Mardi Gras parade with it. The trombone was twice his size, so he earned the nickname "Trombone Shorty". Collier's illustrations, which are a mix of paintings and collage, are beautiful and really capture how special these times were to the author.

On the Wing by David Elliott, Becca Stadtlander (Illustrations)   David Elliott's poetry combined with Becca Stadtlander's stunning paintings makes this a beautiful book to have in your classroom library. This book celebrates the lovable features of fifteen different birds. I think this is a terrific mentor text for celebrating simple things (birds) with lovely verse.

Day Dreamers: A Journey of Imagination by Emily Winfield Martin   This is a lovely picture book that celebrates all of the places you can go when you daydream. The beautiful illustrations depict flying on the back of a dragon, riding on the back of ancient sea creature on a carousel in the waves, and moving through a flowery meadow on the back of a jack-a-lope. The rhyming text is very soothing and would be awesome to share with young children.

I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes, Bryan Collier (Illustrator)   Coretta Scott King Award for Illustrator (2013), NAIBA Book of the Year for Picture Book (2012)

I shared this book with my fifth grade students and got mixed reviews from them. Many of them didn't care for the style of poetry or the collage illustrations as they tended to bra bit confusing. They said they preferred a more straightforward text and paintings to illustrate. Some of the students appreciated Collier's mix of paintings & collage, especially the fast-moving train pictures. I enjoyed sharing this with them because I thought it led to some great discussions.

Henry Aaron's Dream by Matt Tavares  I shared this book with my fifth graders and it was a great pick for a read aloud. The stunning paintings do a masterful job of telling the story of Henry Aaron's life as he struggled to become a major league baseball player. As a youngster, Henry's father didn't encourage him to play baseball because there were no teams that would allow black players. Even after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, he still faced discrimination, insults and physical assaults from those who couldn't accept him. As I shared the illustrations and the story, my students were disturbed by the images of Whites Only signs on the baseball field fence and the racial bigotry that was widespread at that time in our history. As the story unfolds, though, many were impressed by Aaron's perseverance through these times. Many of them felt inspired by it. So did I. What an awesome book!

Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson by Sharon Robinson, Kadir Nelson (Illustrations)    This book is awesome! I shared it with my fifth grade students. The book, written by Jackie Robinson's daughter, shares some poignant and heartstring tugging memories of events that occurred after Robinson retired from baseball. The family had moved to a large, luxurious home in Connecticut. The property included a lake in which the children and their friends played during the spring and summer. When winter time rolled around, it was time for ice-skating. We loved that this story shares personal things about Jackie Robinson and his family that we had never heard before. It was so nice to get to know more about Jackie Robinson off the field. The illustrations, by Kadir Nelson, are absolutely gorgeous!

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan  This is definitely a different kind of book than what I'm used to reading. The spare text and odd (and sometimes disturbing) illustrations make feel curious to find out what's going on. I do think it might be interesting to share this at the beginning of the school year.

Groundhog's Dilemma by Kristen Remenar, Matt Faulkner (Illustrator)  I got my hands on this library book a week too late, but I enjoyed it very much anyway. Each year, when the Groundhog comes out to look for his shadow, half of the animals are pleased with his predictions and half of them are grumpy about it. Some animals, like Bear and Rabbit, want six more weeks of winter. Others, like the Squirrel family, want spring to come early. Pretty soon, everyone pours gifts, food, and friendship on Groundhog in order to influence his decision. What's going to happen when they realize he has no control over the seasons, he just "calls them as he sees them." The illustrations are adorable and really help to support the story. I want to make sure I get a copy of this one before the next Groundhog's Day!

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson, James E. Ransome (Illustrator)

I shared this book with my fifth grade students today. The book tells the story of a young slave girl who's been separated from her mother. She's sent to a new plantation. At first she works as a field hand. But as it was such exhausting work for such a young girl, she got the chance to learn how to sew. Once she became a seamstress in the master's house, she learned how to make patchwork quilts. As she quilted, she couldn't help noticing that the shapes and patterns in the quilt matched those she saw in the world around her. Before long, she was saving scraps of fabric to create her own quilt map. This became a terrific resource to help her and others escape from slavery. The paintings do an awesome job illustrating this story beautifully.

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson   This is a fantastic biography of Carl Sagan. Reading about his childhood fascination with space and stars and how he pursued his imagination throughout the course of his life is very inspirational. He spent lots of time reading and studying until he became a renowned astronomer.

A Weed Is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver by Aliki   This picture book biography tells about George Washington Carver in a pretty straightforward, informative way. We learn about his childhood, and how difficult things were for the son of a former slave. He was always trying to learn new things, and was especially interested in gardening. We learn about his schooling and his ideas about crop rotation. He had to work especially hard to convince farmers to grow peanuts. The illustrations are beautiful and really do a wonderful job supporting the text.