Eight-year-old River has been dancing at Powwows for a few years, but this year is different. This year, River is unable to compete in the jingle dancEight-year-old River has been dancing at Powwows for a few years, but this year is different. This year, River is unable to compete in the jingle dance because of a serious illness, that has left her weak and with short hair. And even though she's is already tired by the time that get to the Powwow, River wants to dance Grand Entry. Unable to feel the drum beat, River is helped back to her chair. Finally, it's time for the jingle dancers, and as River's friends and cousins dance around the arena, watched by the judges, she knows that they are dancing "for the Creator, the ancestor, their families and everyone's health...." including hers. Finally feeling the drum beat, River knows that she will be well enough to dance at next year's Powwow. Even though this story is focused on River, it introduces young readers to what happens during a Powwow. One of the things celebrated at a Powwow is a strong sense of community and that is what River experiences and realizes how much a part of that she is as she watches everyone dancing. The digital illustrations are colorful and have lovely details to explore and talk about. Back matter includes detailed Information About Powwows, and an Author's Note as well a Sources....more
I never thought about school as a community when I was a student. Consequently, I never really felt that I was part of a community bigger than myself.I never thought about school as a community when I was a student. Consequently, I never really felt that I was part of a community bigger than myself. However, as a teacher, I realized just what a large, important community school really is. And I think it is important for kids to understand that and that they, too, are a vital part of it. And that is just what this book tells young readers. Using the simplest of sentences, it begins with a kid. Each following page places the kid in different school situations - the school building, the class, the hall and describes what happens in each place. But school isn't just those things, it's also a diverse growing community where kids can find support, can learn, play, work, succeed and even make mistakes at times. This is an ideal book for children just getting ready to go to school, but also a good reminder for current students that they in a thriving community with many supportive adult helpers. The illustrations, done in watercolor, acrylic paint, and digital collage, are colorful and reinforce the message of the text. I am really looking forward to sharing this book with my young readers who will all be starting school next fall. ...more
Hurricanes are scary weather events for lots of kids and it seems we are experiencing more and more extreme storms nowadays. Here is the story of one Hurricanes are scary weather events for lots of kids and it seems we are experiencing more and more extreme storms nowadays. Here is the story of one such storm and its aftereffects.
Before our young unnamed narrator tells his hurricane story, this new book by John Rocco begins with the front endpapers giving brief information about how hurricanes are categorized according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and including an illustration of just how hurricanes begin and end.
From there, our narrator tells us that his favorite place in the world is the old splintery neighborhood dock that no one uses except him. There, at the river, he can fish, swim, crab, or just watch what is going on around him. One day, as he walks home, he sees his neighbors and his dad boarding up and taping the windows of their homes in preparation for an impending hurricane.
Later that night, the hurricane roars in bringing destruction everywhere and causing the river to overflow and wash away anything that can float.
By the next day, the hurricane is gone but what a path of destruction it leaves in its wake. Our young narrator, fishing pole and tackle box in hand, almost doesn't recognize his street anymore. But the real shock come when he sees what the hurricane has done to his beloved dock.
The boy asks his dad and his neighbors for help repairing the dock, but they are all busy fixing the damage done to their homes. Instead of fixing the dock, the boy stays and helps his neighbors instead. After, returning home, he decides to try to fix the dock on his own. Day after day, he works on it, though it's a big job for a young boy. But just as he is about to give up, the whole neighborhood shows up to help him. In the end, the dock is better that ever - it is sturdier, safer, and best of all - it has become everyone's dock and it is still his favorite place in the world.
I suspect this story may be somewhat autobiographical, it just has the feeling of something actually experienced. Maybe this is because Rocco has really captured the young narrator's emotional range so well, at times, he looks so vulnerable, other times scared, stunned, and disappointed, but also hopeful and happy.
What I really liked was how Rocco showed the change in the neighborhood before and after the storm. The fact that the dock belonged to the town but the narrator was the only one using it indicates that maybe people were not friendly with each other before the storm. Also, the narrator is always shown alone. But after the boy has helped them out and they have reciprocated by helping fix the dock shows a new, stronger feeling of community.
The illustrations, done with pencil, watercolor and digital color, are colorful and detailed. One of the things Rocco does so well is depicting movement even in a still image. Take for example, the image of the storm I've included - you really get the sense of heavy slanted rain forced by the strong winds, and the water from the river flowing up the street. All of the illustrations are just brilliant.
So, what do you think Rocco included on the back endpapers? Why, the parts of a dock, of course.
This book is recommended for readers age 5+ This book and the images included here were a PDF gratefully received from Ana Sierra at Wunderkind PR ...more
I loved this book and now I can't wait to make Daal (I've already bought the ingredients).I loved this book and now I can't wait to make Daal (I've already bought the ingredients)....more
Omu (AH-moo, Igbo for queen, or sometimes grandma, see Author's Note for more information) has made a thick red stew for her evening meal. Omu's stew Omu (AH-moo, Igbo for queen, or sometimes grandma, see Author's Note for more information) has made a thick red stew for her evening meal. Omu's stew is so good that the smell wafts over the neighborhood. Just as she sits down to read a book before supper, there is a knock on her door, a little boy asking what smells so delicious. Omu gives him a bowl full of stew and he goes on his way. All through the afternoon, neighborhood people knock on Omu's door asking what smells so good, and each is given a bowl of her thick red stew. But by evening, there's nothing left for Omu to eat. There is another knock on the door, and everyone she had shared her stew with has returned, each one bringing a dish to share with Omu and each other, and so they ate, danced, and celebrated, as a way of saying Thank You, Omu.
This has become one of my very favorite books and one I love to share with kids. There is so much to talk about in this simple story of kindness, generosity, and thankfulness. The neighborhood is wonderfully diverse, and shared food is the means of gathering them together. Mora's collage illustrations are done with a variety mediums, including clippings from old books, and her color palette is soft earthy tones of blues, yellows, greens, and browns resulting in images that are a warm as this charming story of Omu....more
Eleven year old Ana María lives in a two bedroom apartment in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan with her parents, older sister Gracie, 13, and youEleven year old Ana María lives in a two bedroom apartment in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan with her parents, older sister Gracie, 13, and younger sisters Rosie, 6, and Connie, 3. Ana's parents are from the Dominican Republic, and although their children have never been there, they are proud of their heritage. Her father, a graduate of Columbia Law School, is a public assistance lawyer, so the Reyes family needs to watch their money carefully.
Ana is very smart and talented and it is assumed by her family that she will be accepted into and attend Bronx High School of Science, one of NYC's elite public schools. But on the day her sixth grade counselor gives her an application packet to apply for a full scholarship to the Eleanor School, the prestigious private school that Ana's best friend attends, Ana's parents announce that they are expecting another baby. And unlike the rest of her family, Ana is not happy about it.
Ana is also an accomplished pianist and when she shows up for her next lesson with her teacher, Doña Dulce, she finds three people from the Piano Teachers' Association already there. They have invited Doña Dulce to bring two students to their Winter Showcase to be held at Lincoln Center. Ana hopes to be one of the two, thinking it would definitely help with her Eleanor School application.
Into this mix, comes Tia Nona on the arm of fiancé Juan Miguel, announcing her upcoming wedding in the Dominican Republic and she wants the whole Reyes family to be there, and Ana, with whom she has a close relationship, to play the piano. And Tia Nona is willing to pay everyone's airfare to make sure they are there when she gets married.
The Reyes sisters are thrilled to meet their relatives in the DR and it proves to be a real eye-opening trip for Ana. Tia Nona, who is a doctor, is quite well off, living in a large home with servants, including a young girl Ana's age, and whose family lives in poverty. But when she sees her aunt mistreating the girl, Ana begins to look at the world a little differently.
Ana María slowly learns that her choices and her actions all have consequences - some good, others not so good. How all of this plays out over the course of approximately 6 to 7 months will keep young readers turning pages.
This is a lively book with a lot going on. And while I really enjoyed reading it, I didn't much like Ana María at first. She was a little selfish and self-centered, but as I read, I noticed how she was changing and becoming more aware of the world around her, realizing that some people's circumstances were much worse than hers - she was surrounded by a loving, supportive family and although they couldn't afford much, they did what they could and it was usually done with love. Not everyone has that, Ana discovers.
Burgos has peopled Ana María's world with characters who are realistically and vividly drawn, bringing out their different personalities (no easy task when you are writing about four sisters, each with their own, very individual personality) and their Dominican culture to life. I've lived in NYC my whole life, I love its diversity, and I thought Burgos captured the Reyes' Washington Heights neighbors to a T.
Ana María Reyes Does Not Live in a Castle is an engaging novel that tackles a variety of themes, such as the importance of education, family, living in a bi-cultural world, community, alcoholism, and abuse. But there is a lot of love and neighborliness to balance it all out and prevent the story from overwhelming the reader.
There is a very detailed, very useful Teacher's Guide provided by the publisher, Lee & Low, that can be downloaded HERE This book is recommended for readers age 9+ This book was borrowed from a friend...more
When a young boy wearing a red hoodie takes his dog for a walk in the early evening through his neighborhood, he just might make you think of an olderWhen a young boy wearing a red hoodie takes his dog for a walk in the early evening through his neighborhood, he just might make you think of an older Peter for The Snowy Day. Certainly, the streets that he walks through are reminiscent of some of the neighborhoods around Prospect Park, Brooklyn, with private homes, apartment buildings and and a couple mom and pop stores. And when he looks at the different lighted windows he passes by, the young boy observes people, a cat, and even a raccoon behind trash cans, doing all their ordinary activities, but now seen through his eyes in a different light. Every window reveals its own story in all their truths and the illustrations, done in ink, watercolor, letterpress, and digital collage, capture those moments at dusk when the world sits in a twilight balance between day and night perfectly. It's all topped off by the warm light of the boy’s own home and his mother’s welcoming wave. This is a book kids will return to over and over again as they relate their own neighborhoods to the one....more
It’s 1942 and while Britain and the rest of the world are engaged in WWII, in Bombay (today’s Mumbai), the Quit India movement, whose goal is to rid IIt’s 1942 and while Britain and the rest of the world are engaged in WWII, in Bombay (today’s Mumbai), the Quit India movement, whose goal is to rid India of British rule and gain independence, is begun with a speech by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8th. The very next day, August 9, 1942, Gandhi is arrested but it doesn’t stop many from still having faith in the Quit India movement.
Gandhi, a practitioner of Ahimsa, or civil disobedience, had already asked that one member of every family become a freedom fighter for Indian independence. Anjali Joshi, 10, a member of the high born Brahmin caste, knew that some of the kids in her class had family members who were freedom fighters, but after Gandhi's speech, she is more than surprised to learn that her mother has also joined the fight. And one of the things her mother is focused on is attempting to make the lives of those considered to be untouchable better (Gandhi referred to the untouchable caste as Harijan, meaning children of God, but Anjali learns they consider that an insult and would rather be referred to as Dalit, meaning oppressed).
At first, Anjali isn’t really too happy, especially when her mother makes her burn all of her beautiful foreign-made ghagra-cholis and replaces them with plainer khadi, a handwoven homespun cotton they spin themselves. She is particularly unhappy after her mother shows kindness towards the young Dalit boy, Mohan, who cleans their outhouse, causing him to run away, and then decides that Anjali and she will clean the outhouse themselves.
Slowly and reluctantly, however, Anjali begins to support her mother’s attempts at being an activist. They begin attending freedom movement meetings together, and after visiting the basti where the Dalits live and get to know the people better, Anjali decides that it is unfair that the young Dalits are not able to go to school, too. They begin teaching the children in the basti, even finding help from a surprising a very surprising source. Soon, Anjali and her mother are working to make it possible for the kids to actually attend the school that Anjali goes to, getting uniforms and tiffins all ready for them.
But the weekend before their first day of school, rioting breaks out between the Hindus and Muslims and schools are closed. Later, Anjali’s best friend, Irfaan, a Muslim boy who is more like a brother to her than a friend, accuses her of writing anti-Muslim words on his father’s store, ending their friendship, and worst of all, Anjali’s mother is arrested on charges of helping to instigate the riots. While in prison and still practicing Ahimsa, or non-violence, her mother goes on a hunger strike, and although Anjali is afraid for her, she decides to carry on their work, even as she realizes she herself must unlearn the prejudices and superstitions that were so much a part of her life.
Ahimsa is a debut novel for Supriya Kelkar, based on the experiences of her great-grandmother, who had joined Gandhi’s freedom movement so her husband could continue working, much the same way Anjali’s mother did.
I found Ahimsa to be a very interesting novel about social injustice in 1940s India that covers quite a lot of historical and political ground, some of which may not be familiar to young American readers. But, Kelkar has taken great pains to make this important period in Indian history accessible, although at times she waxes a little on the didactic side when it comes to describing the political situation.
But one of the things I did like is that Kelkar has included a lot of interesting, personal details in her narrative descriptions, including what daily life was like, the kinds of clothing people wore, food they ate, games kids played, holidays celebrated as well as accounts of the living conditions of someone in the Brahmin class, of the basti where the Dalits live, and even a bit about how the members of the British Raj (rulers) lived. These are the kinds of details that often work to bring a story to life, and Ahimsa is not different.
The other thing I liked is the Kelkar has written flawed characters who learn from their mistakes. Anjali's mother is an enthusiastic freedom fighter, so enthusiastic that she can't see better alternatives to her actions, and sometimes not listening to the very people she is trying to help. For instance, burning the family's clothing in protest, following Gandhi's example, rather than giving them to the poor who really could have used them. Even Anjali is flawed, at first not really understanding what her country is going through, but slowly she becoming more enlightened, though at times no less feisty and headstrong, which can and does get her into trouble. Even Gandhi and some of his ideas are presented as somewhat flawed, as Anjali discovers the more involved she becomes in the Freedom Movement.
Ahimsa is a very readable novel and a nice introduction to the Freedom Movement in India. It is also a novel about trying to make a difference, about social injustice, and about resistance, and although these themes are put into the context of Indian history, they will certainly resonate with today's young readers.
Be sure to read the Author's Note for a detailed overview of this period in Indian history and the leaders involved in it. Kelkar has also included a list of books for Further Reading and a very helpful glossary.
Although it's for slightly older readers, pair Ahimsa with Padma Venkatraman's Climbing the Stairs for another view of India's fight for independence.
This book is recommended for readers age 10+ This book was purchased for my personal library...more
Bronze and Sunflower is set in communist China during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The goal of the cultural Revolution was to eliminaBronze and Sunflower is set in communist China during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The goal of the cultural Revolution was to eliminate traditional Chinese life and thought, to replace it with communist ideology and get rid of any opponents. Artists and other intellectual were sent to remote Cadre Schools, where they did heavy manual labor during the day, and attended political re-education meetings at night.
Sunflower, 7, and her father have been living in the country, in a Cadre School for a while. Her father is an artist, a sculptor, well-known for his beautiful sunflowers cast in bronze. Sunflower is the only child at the school and very lonely. Since she doesn’t go to school, she often watches the children across the river playing and laughing. When her father dies unexpectedly, women from the Cadre School take Sunflower across the river, to the small village of Damadai, to see if anyone there would take her in.
Only Bronze’s family, the poorest in the village, are willing to accept Sunflower and make her their own. Bronze, a few years older than Sunflower and just as lonely, hasn’t spoken since he was 5 and witnessed what was to him a traumatic event.
Bronze and Sunflower are soon inseparable, seeming to understand each other without the need to speak. Over time, the now-siblings and their loving, but poor family, endure and survive many hardships such as famine, locusts, bitter cold winters, and a fire that destroys their home. The children share not just friendship, but many adventures and good times, as well, like punting little boats on the river, riding to school together on Bronze’s water buffalo, even though only Sunflower is a student, Bronze letting Sunflower sit on his shoulders so that she is high enough see the circus over everyone else's head, even working together as a family making reed shoes to sell in the January market to pay for Sunflowers schooling or grandmother Nainai's medical needs.
Bronze and Sunflower is a beautifully written story about the many sacrifices that were made by Bronze's family when they decided to take in Sunflower, how they lived poor, but with great dignity and love, and how they continued to do that even when forced to make the greatest sacrifice of all.
Chinese life during the cultural revolution is not a usual subject for a children’s book, but Cao has managed to present a picture of rural life that neither sugarcoats nor romanticizes it. In fact, he has produced such a heartwarming story that it has a feeling of timelessness about it despite the time it is actually set in, mainly because Mao’s China takes a backseat to the traditional values of family that the book really demonstrates.
Cao grew up during the 1960s and 1970s and experienced China at that time first hand, which gives his novel a real feeling of authenticity. His descriptions, though beautifully rendered, are often heartbreaking at the same time.
Bronze and Sunflower is a large book, 400 pages long. It is a story of day to day survival, so there is not really a big central conflict. I have to wonder if it will appeal to young readers as much as it appeals to adults. My 12 year old self would have loved getting immersed in the lives of Bronze and Sunflower, but I didn’t grow up with as many distractions as kids have today (video games, screens, instant gratification, etc. I’m not putting these things down, just pointing out how life have become faster). Though I highly recommend it for its thematic portrayals community, family, loyalty, and poverty.
One a personal note: my Kiddo has been home visiting this and when I asked her if her husband’s parents, who both grew up in the midst of the cultural revolution, ever talk about it, she said no, never. They refuse to say anything, but her husband’s grandparents did tell her how hard life was in those days. I’m guessing, they would have really appreciated Bronze and Sunflower.
Bronze and Sunflower won the 2016 Hans Christian Anderson award and was translated from Mandarin by Helen Wang, who won the 2017 Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation for it.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+ This book was an EARC received from NetGalley
I was inspired to read this novel when I read about it on Mr. Ripley’s Enchanted Books last June. So I ordered a copy from The Book Depository and begI was inspired to read this novel when I read about it on Mr. Ripley’s Enchanted Books last June. So I ordered a copy from The Book Depository and began reading the day it arrived and finished it in one sitting. Needless to say, it is a really good novel.
It’s February 1941, and even though it isn't usual, older sister Sukie Bradshaw has decided to take siblings Olive, 12, and Cliff, 8, to see a movie after tea. But no sooner do they get through the newsreel but the air raid siren goes off. To make matters worse, Sukie has disappeared. Leaving her brother at the Underground shelter, Olive goes in search of Sukie, and just as she reaches her sister, another bomb falls way too close to them. When Olive wakes up in hospital, she learns that Sukie is still missing, and that she and younger brother Cliff are going to be evacuated to Budmouth Point, on the Devon coast, for safety.
Olive has already lost her dad to the war when his plane was shot down, and can’t bear that her sister may be gone too. But how can she figure out where Sukie is and who the man she met just before that bomb fell is if she’s in Devon? Still, as soon as she is able, Olive and Cliff are sent to live with Queenie, the sister of their London neighbor, and Sukie's supposed pen-pal.
Things don’t work out at Queenie’s, who is always busy doing all kinds of work in the cellar, and using Olive to make deliveries for her around the village. It gets especially hairy after Olive is forced to share her room with Esther Jenkins, an evacuee with whom Olive already has a contentious relationship. Olive and Cliff soon find themselves living with Ephraim, the lighthouse keeper. Life is better at the lighthouse, where Ephraim insists on doing everything, where the food is better and Cliff even has a dog to pal around with.
It doesn’t take long for Olive to realize that there’s an awful lot of activity on the lighthouse radio, much more that seems right. Meanwhile, Olive is also trying to work out the coded message she found in the coat Sukie was wearing the night she disappeared. The longer Olive is lives in Budmouth Point, the more she realizes that Sukie’s disappearance just might have something to do with the clandestine activity she's noticed among some of the village residents…but what could it possibly be?
Letters from the Lighthouse is an exciting adventure and Olive is very appealing, lively narrator. There was something about her story that reminded me so much of the books I read about kids in WWII that were written during the war. The thing I noticed in those books was the ability to carry on despite the uncertainly of the future. One always hopes for the best, and that is the feeling that Carroll captured writing about Olive's search for Sukie - she is so convinced her sister is okay somewhere in the world and she needed to figure out where.
As Olive's story unfolds, Carroll also provides the reader with a window though which to see and understand just what it means to be a child and live in a country at war and under siege, realistically depicting the fears and the privations, as well as the importance of family. the value of friends and neighbors, and need to learn trust and tolerance. Heading each chapter with expressions, warnings, and advice that were common during the war also helps give the novel a sense of authenticity.
As much as I enjoyed Letters from the Lighthouse, I did have a few plot points that bothered me - like how did Olive end up with the coat Sukie was wearing when the bomb fell in London, and how what happened to Sukie actually happened. They were explainable, but not to my satisfaction. BUT, these were not game changers for me, and if you like historical fiction about WWII, they shouldn't be for you either.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+ This book was purchased for my personal library
For 11 year-old Jupiter and her teenage brother Orion, life on the road busking is what they know and love, traveling from place to place in their vanFor 11 year-old Jupiter and her teenage brother Orion, life on the road busking is what they know and love, traveling from place to place in their van with their parents, singing, finding whatever they need, and/or trading work for food and shelter. Now, though, dad has struck out on his own, and Jupiter, Orion, and their mom have been staying with Madame Marie’s Rainbow Farm doing chores for far too long, as far as Jupiter is concerned. She is definitely ready to get back to what she loves doing, busking and traveling.
But now, mom has brought home a cousin Jupiter didn’t even know she had - Edom, 7, is a young Ethiopian girl adopted by her Aunt Amy. Aunt Amy has come from Africa after being diagnosed with cancer to receive chemotherapy in Los Angeles. So, rather than getting on the road seeking adventure, Jupiter, Edom and mom will be living in a house in Portland, and Orion will remain at Madame Marie’s. And Jupiter suspects that Topher, an old family friend, is behind everything. Topher has always helped, bailing the family out whenever they needed it, but maybe it’s really because of his feelings for mom.
Needless to say, Jupiter isn’t happy about having Edom around, sharing her with her mother, or the fact that there will be no traveling for a while. However, she is pleased to learn, after getting settled in the Portland house, she and Edom discover they both have something they want to do - for Jupiter, it’s getting out of Portland and busking again; for Edom, it’s getting to Los Angeles to see her adopted mother. And so the girls come up with a plan, and both set about acquiring money any way they can to buy needed bus tickets.
And yet, without their realizing it, they are beginning to feel like part of a family and part of the neighborhood, which consists of a diverse group of kind, caring people who depend on each other in so many ways. But when Jupiter gets mad at Edom, she runs aways with all their savings, and Jupiter knows exactly where she has gone. Will she find Edom in time, or has she taught Edom how to avoid being discovered on the road so well, that even Jupiter won’t be able to find her?
Planet Jupiter is a very sweet story about learning to accept change, and about the importance of family, friends, and community. Jupiter has always prided herself on being like a planet and traveling her own orbit, but when Edom joins the family, all that changes for her.
Jupiter is also still dealing with the fact that her father left and her mother may have a new love interest, who seems to be the recipient of the anger she should be directing at her father. Yet, perhaps because her mother has accepted her father’s leaving as though it is perfectly understandable, given who he is, Jupiter never really seems to comes to term with her father, but does learn to accept Topher.
I thought it was interesting that Edom was from Africa, and yet, nothing was made of the fact that she is black. There is not crisis or conflict about it, and the people that the family comes into contact with just accept who they all are, and that’s it.
The story is told in the first person from Jupiter’s point of view. She’s experienced at living a nomadic life and really knows how to get along with people when she wants to, but because all of it is unfamiliar to Edom, it is a opportunity to go into detail about the life of a traveling performer for the benefit of young readers without sounding didactic. Interestingly enough, not much performing is done in the novel, but one of the things I really liked is that each chapter begins with the words to a song that is a foreshadowing of what is to come.
Planet Jupiter is funny, sad, and poignant about an appealing family living a life very different from most of its readers, the themes are familiar and will definitely appeal to young reader.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+ This book was provided to me by the publisher, Greenwillow Press...more
Poor duck! The lazy farmer just stays in bed all day long reading the newspaper (tabloids?)and eating boxes of candy. And to make matters worse, each Poor duck! The lazy farmer just stays in bed all day long reading the newspaper (tabloids?)and eating boxes of candy. And to make matters worse, each time Duck does a chore, Farmer yells out "How's the work going?" All the hoeing, gardening, taking care of the other animals, ironing, washing dishes, cooking are really wearing Duck down. The other farm animals really like Duck, and so one day they come up with a plan for helping him out. And what a plan it is!
I love Farmer Duck. I remember reading it to my Kiddo when she was young and we had lots of discussions about it. Helen Oxenbury's watercolor illustrations really communicate Duck's feelings and his weariness as he takes care of the farm despite the fact that all he ever utters is Quack. The slovenliness of the farmer and the empathy the other animals feel are also well represented mainly by facial expressions. There is a true revolutionary spirit in this wonderful tale that seems to reflect today's world more than was intended, I'm sure. I was so happy to see this classic reissued for today's young readers. I know they will Quack along with duck every time it's read....more
A large tree stands on land that has been bought by a couple, who plan to build their new home there. But first they must cut down the tree in order tA large tree stands on land that has been bought by a couple, who plan to build their new home there. But first they must cut down the tree in order to do that. As they begin to saw the tree down, they have a big surprise - the tree is already a home to rabbits, owls, birds, and squirrels. Horrified that they almost displaced all these residents, the couple go home and redo their house plans. Kids are in for a big surprise when they discover the solution this nature-loving couple comes up with that will give everyone a home, thanks to the tree. This is a really nice environmental/conservation fable, perfect for Earth Day programs on April 22, 2017, and it will be fun to see what the kid's think the couple's solution to their problem will be before reading the end of the book. Layton's illustrations are done in earth tones using a pen and ink wash. Though the illustrations have a somewhat humorous quality to them, they still capture all the excitement, surprise, fear, disappointment, and finally hope and happiness of all God's creatures here. There's a lesson to be learned here and it's a good one. Layton says that writing this book began with a feeling, and you can check out pictures of his writing process HERE...more
When an abandoned bus with a hand painted sign that simply says Heaven on it is discovered in front of Stella's house, the whole neighborhood is abuzzWhen an abandoned bus with a hand painted sign that simply says Heaven on it is discovered in front of Stella's house, the whole neighborhood is abuzz with curiosity, including Stella. Loaded with trash and in desperate need of a good wash, Stella sees nothing but possibility. Soon, the bus is transformed to a little bit of heaven as everyone pitches in and fixes it up. And what a wonderful community center for these very diverse neighbors to gather in and spend time getting to know each other. Even the birds settle in, building nests in the old engine. It's all good until...the tow truck shows up and off goes Heaven to the junkyard. Will the concerted efforts of Stella's friends and neighbors be enough to save their community bus from a crushing fate?
I loved this book. Not only does it shows how one person can make a difference, but also how a united community with a shared interest can also effect change. The ink and watercolor illustrations add just the right amount of whimsy and young readers will find much to explore in them. Pair this with The Night Gardener by Terry and Eric Fan, another fable in which a young boy helps transform and unite his diverse neighborhood....more
The Uncorker of ocean bottles lives alone by the ocean, looking for bottles to open, so he can deliver the notes and letters inside them. Sadly, the UThe Uncorker of ocean bottles lives alone by the ocean, looking for bottles to open, so he can deliver the notes and letters inside them. Sadly, the Uncorker had no name himself, so he never received a note or letter, but wished he would. When he finds a seashore party invitation with no address, and tries to deliver it, no one can help him find out who it is for. The Uncorker, who never failed to deliver before, decides to go to the party an apologize to the writer of the note. But what a surprise he finds when he arrives at the party. This is a touching story that teaches us about the importance of friendship and connection, that no man is an island, and that everyone has value in this world. The illustrations, done in woodblock prints, oils and pastels, have a ethereal feeling to them, which perfectly suits this beautifully done picture book....more
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