Monday, December 7, 2020

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12.07.2020

This weekly post comes from Jen at Teach Mentor Texts
 and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers.  
It's a great source to find new books to use with your students.


Last Week's Adventures


Don't miss these nonfiction picture books that celebrate people in the arts!


Picture Books

Prairie Days
Prairie Days
written by Patricia MacLachlan
illustrated by Micha Archer
I love Micha Archer's work and I think this book has some of her best.  Her multilayered pieces look beautiful in the outdoor illustrations that fill this book.
This seems like a love letter to MacLachlan's younger days, growing up on a farm, in a small town, and living on a large area of land.  Both wildlife and the joys of living in a small town are celebrated in this book.
I looked up where MacLachlan was born and it said Wyoming.  While you can sense her joy when writing about what it was like to grow up this way, I also wonder where you draw the line... what is the proper way... to acknowledge the original land dwellers, which Native American tribe first lived on the land when talking about a time in the past.  Is it ok to leave it out, or should it be woven into the story somehow?  Honestly asking and wondering.

Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure
Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure
written by Linda Sue Park
illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
What kind of thinker are you when things go wrong unexpectedly?  Do you panic and look at the negatives?  Or are you someone that works at the problem, a little at a time?
Robots Gurple and Preen have crash landed and their cargo (crayons) have spilled everywhere.  While Gurple keeps breaking crayons and random objects, animals, and eventually people, come out, it's Preen who is able to see how everything can work together to leave again.
Featuring Ohi's broken crayon art, this book has a good message that will get kids thinking about how they problem solve.

I Will Dance
I Will Dance
written by Nancy Bo Flood
illustrated by Julianna Swaney
I really like this one because of the inclusion of a character with a disability.  It strays away from ableism because it's not about the able bodied kids helping the disabled character.  Our main character is in a wheelchair as a result of a congenital disability.  She has low lung capacity and only moves her arm and hands.  She is in a motorized wheelchair, but that has not stopped her from her desire to dance and her passion for it.  She just hasn't figured out a way to do so in a public capacity.  One of her moms finds an inclusive studio that is looking for all abilities to try out for their dance program.  Once arriving, the girl sees people of all physical abilities, including others in a wheelchair, using a walker, or a prosthetic.  Among them are able bodied dancers.  Working together and encouraged to participate and stretch to their own ability, all of the humans there find ways to dance and dance together.

Me & Mama
Me & Mama
by Cozbi A. Cabrera
A beautiful love letter to the bond between mothers and young daughters.  I loved some of the comparisons the author used, like this one, "The clouds outside are wearing shadows.  The wind is painting the outside window with beads of water."  Just beautiful!

Stand Up! Speak Up!: A Story Inspired by the Climate Change Revolution
Stand Up! Speak Up! A story inspired by the Climate Change Revolution
by Andrew Joyner
In some ways I think this book hit the mark it was aiming for, and in other ways I think it missed it.
Joyner (author of The Pink Hat) gives us a black/gray/white illustrated story with touches of green to reflect the color associated with climate change and a story with two word phrases that encourage an "up"stander action.  
I like the color theme.  I like the idea.  But while I get the two word phrase with "up"  being the second word, the idea of climate change is probably new with a lot of young readers.  I don't think a book needs to be too wordy, but a little more information would have taught more than this book did.

Wild Symphony
Wild Symphony
written by Dan Brown
illustrated by Susan Batori
When I first heard Dan Brown was writing a children's book, I might have grimaced a bit.  I feel like that doesn't always equal out - even though you're an excellent writer of adult fiction, doesn't mean there will be the same success as a children's book author.  Especially when you're adding music and writing in rhyme!  But surprisingly, it worked!  Each page has music composed that reflects the animal on the page.  The rhymes are well written and flow.  Each animal story has a moral that goes along with it.  And there is a puzzle to solve on each page.  In order to access the music, readers need to have a device that has a QR scanner, or can go to a website, or pull up an app.  I think the music really does add a fun piece to the experience, but you do not have to listen to the music to understand the book.  I wish there had been a little more direction or hint to the puzzles at the start of the book.  The answers to the puzzles are in the app, but that was even hard to find.  Once I saw the answers, I better understood what I was supposed to be doing with the puzzles.
As you can tell, there really is a lot to enjoy with this book.  I think this works better as an individual child/grown-up read aloud than one you do with a whole class, but it does work.  Make sure you have time to really enjoy it!

The Blue Table
The Blue Table
by Chris Raschka
While not a Thanksgiving book, it does fit in perfectly with food and gathering together.
The blue table is the focus of this book.  At first it's a place for a family to come together, and while we never see faces, we see plates and glasses and items that are often found at a table.  Then the table expands as a leaf is added to the table and more people come to gather and be thankful around the blue table.  Told in simple words and phrases, I like the idea of the table being the focus and to think about everything that does happen around a table!

I Believe I Can
I Believe I Can
written by Grace Byers
illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
A book that reminds young readers that they can achieve their dreams and goals with hard work and perseverance.  

Sugar in Milk
Sugar in Milk
written by Thrity Umrigar
illustrated by Khoa Le
Both an immigration and refugee story, both focusing on perspective.  A young girl is an immigrant in a new country.  She at first feels alone and disconnected, but then her aunt tells her a story about Persian refugees who flea to India.  At first, they are not allowed to enter the new country but after a smile, a story told without words, and a hug, the refugees are allowed to stay.  The little girl understands that in order to make friends, a smile may help.

Middle Grade

A Place at the Table
A Place at the Table
by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
I really enjoyed reading this dual-authored story that features two marginalized voices - one Pakistan American character and one Jewish character.  I thought both voices brought a different understanding to the table.  One is a brown character who often faces judgement based on the color of her skin.  The other, while being white, faces her own discrimination as a non-Christian religion character.  Too often when we read about a Jewish character it's about WWII.  I think it will be important for readers to gain a new perspective.  Exploring ideas of friendship, family, and cultural identity and belonging, this would be a great story to use for a middle school book club.

See You at Harry's
See You at Harry's
written by Jo Knowles
This was my November #mustreadin2020 book.  I have no idea how long I've owned it, just that when I bought it everyone had been raving about it for awhile.  Since it's been in my stack for so long, I knew I wanted to finally get to it.
I do think our opinions of books are influenced about what is going on in our lives when we read them.  This book is a book about grief and how it impacts one family.  Maybe reading it during COVID19 was not a solid choice.  Maybe reading it during the pandemic when we had just celebrated a holiday where I could not get together with loved ones was not the right time.  I ended up skimming through most of it just because it was such a heavy topic and that is not what I was ready to handle at this time.  
Definitely an upper middle grade read.  Jo Knowles continues to be an author I enjoy reading.

The In-Between
The In-Between
by Rebecca Ansari
I believe this is Ansari's sophomore novel, and I think I enjoyed it even more than her first.  Ansari's stories, which are longer in length, but will definitely pull in readers who want mystery and suspense.  This one took me a bit to fall into, but once I did, it was hard to put down.
There is a lot going on in siblings Cooper and Jess' lives - an absent-remarried-new family father, a mom who is working too hard, friendship issues, and Jess' diabetes.  When Cooper and Jess start piecing together a mystery surrounding the house across the alley, involving a very mysterious and silent girl,  they learn that the effects of the mystery may involve their own lives.  When a new friend, Gus, gets involved, it's not until the end when they see how much their lives are intertwined.
Really fun ending.  Once I got there, I could not put it down and wanted an immediate reread.  Look for this in January 2021.
Thank you to edelweiss for the advanced e-galley.

Currently Reading

Girl Giant and the Monkey King
Girl Giant and the Monkey King
by Van Hoang
This is a Vietnamese mythological story, told in the vein of the new Rick Riordan imprint stories.  Just getting into it, but fun so far!


Hope you're finding more time to read than me.  Mine is pieced together in weird bursts of time!  'Tis the season!

9 comments:

  1. I didn't realized the author of The Wild Symphony was the same Dan Brown who has written adult books. It's been on my list to check out. I've been considering reading The Girl Giant and the Monkey. It sounds intriguing. Hope you are doing well!

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  2. I had the same reaction to news of a Dan Brown book when I was asked to review it. And the same feeling after I'd reviewed it! It felt authentic in a way many "celebrity"and adult author books don't. I think it will be a fun book to share with kids.

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  3. Wow - you read a lot in one week. I loved See You at Harry's. It is a tough read - maybe for 2021? I Will Dance is in my stack. I appreciate how you are asking questions about the texts you are reading - I think this is important for us to do on our own and with our students. The Blue Table is one I added today - sounds interesting. Thank you for sharing.

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  4. I also read A Place at the Table this week. I followed it up with Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte and now I am very hungry!

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  5. I liked Prairie Days for its nostagic tone, but loved A Place At The Table, brought new ideas for how people think of "other" until they really know them. As for See You At Harry's, I read it when it came out & loved it, but I see what you mean about 'the right time'. It is a somber story. All the others are new to me, Michele, so thanks for them, too. Have a great week ahead!

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  6. These books sound excellent! With regards to your point on Prairie Days, I do think that the general silencing/ignoring of the US's treatment of Native Americans has likely allowed the treatment to continue, so that must be taken into account in some way. I wish it would be as easy as just an acknowledgement on an early page of the story, but of course such an admission would likely change the tone of the whole book. (Such an admission would change the tone of MacLachlan's and others' entire lives, which is likely why they do not admit it.) Sigh. I appreciate you bringing that up!

    On another note, The Blue Table sounds like an excellent book! Also, I'm hoping to get a copy of A Place at the Table soon—I feel like the last person on Earth to read it! ;) See You at Harry's sounds like a book I should add to my list, but perhaps for another time when I feel like reading horribly painful books (which I feel like doing surprisingly often, so...). Thanks for the wonderful post!

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  7. Holy moley, what a list! Adding several to my tbr list (and several are already on it!). And happy to see a Nancy Bo Flood book--whee!

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  8. I think we need to have many voices, so that they aren't all heard in one book. Books like Prairie Days have value because they are authentic, but if we also read books about First People's stories than kids are prepared for books like Caddie Woodlawn that clash these stories together.

    I like the looks of Blue Table a lot -- there are many books here to add to my TBR

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  9. I really appreciate your comments about Prairie Days. Reading about I Will Dance reminded me of my father who used a wheelchair. He would tilt back onto two wheels and move to the rhythmn of the music. Somewhere I have a photograph of me in my wedding gown sitting on his lap while he is dancing.
    Thanks for the introduction to so many wonderful sounding books. I've added many to my list.
    See You at Harry's is indeed a heavy book. I wept buckets while reading it.

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