DEAR BLUE SKY- MARY SULLIVAN

DEAR BLUE SKY, by Mary Sullivan

Cassie's world is falling apart.

Her beloved older brother and running partner, Sef, 

has enlisted in the Army, and is headed to Iraq.

Her mother is drinking.  A lot. 

Her mother and father are fighting about Iraq.

Her older sister, Van, is dating a boy no one else likes.

Her little brother, Jack, who has Down's syndrome, has stopped talking.

Her best friend, Sonia, has stopped talking to Cassie.

Cassie's world is falling apart.

In her seventh grade social studies class, Cassie is assigned to connect with someone from another country. She decides to connect with someone from Iraq. On the internet, she meets Blue Sky, a thirteen-year-old girl from Baghdad. Blue Sky's life has been torn apart by the war- her home has been destroyed, she can no longer attend school, and a neighbor is blown apart right in front of her eyes. Blue Sky and her family want the Americans to go home, so that Iraqi people can begin to rebuild their lives. Through Blue Sky, Cassie discovers that war is much more complicated than it seems.

I loved this book. Mary Sullivan does a terrific job capturing how war impacted so many different people- Cassie, her siblings, and her mom and dad. Then she uses blog entries and email to capture Blue Sky's reality. This one is sure to bring up lots of conversations about the realities of war.  

WARNING: Have kleenex ready before you pick up this book!

MY NAME IS SANGOEL- Karen Lynn Wiliams and Khadra Mohammed

"Sangoel's father was killed in the war in Sudan. His family had to run from the fighting in the middle of the night. Sangoel was a refuge. He did not have a home. He did not have a country…"

Eight-year-old Sangoel, his little sister Lili, and his mother travel in a "skyboat" to the United States. Everything is strange. The stairs in the airport move and Mama is afraid to step on them. The family does not know how to cross streets. They have to learn how to cook on the stove, eat with forks, and use the telephone. Sangoel sleeps on the floor next to his bed every night.

Hardest of all, though, is the loneliness. No one- not his teachers, not his soccer coach, nor his peers- even knows how to pronounce his name correctly. Sangoel tells his mother, "In America I have lost my name." His mother wonders whether he should take an American name. Sangoel, however, remembers the words of the Wise One in the refuge camps, "You carry a Dinka name. It is the name of your father and his ancestors before him." On his own, he figures out a way to teach people how to pronounce his name.

This year at my school, we have an extraordinary large number of immigrant children. We have always had many children from Mexico. This year,we have Falastin, who came from Somalia only a few days before school started, and speaks very, very, very little English. Manar is from Iraq. Glory, N'dago, Hawa, Amadou, and Patrick are from other countries in Africa. My kids need to read MY NAME IS SANGOEL. It will help them understand how it feels to be so new and alone. I think it will grow their hearts. And that, in my mind, is one of the main reasons for reading.

POETRY FRIDAY (OK, almost Saturday!)

Lucky gal that I am, I won Ann Whitford Paul's ALL BY HERSELF in a Miss Rumphius Effect book give away (thanks so much!) about six weeks ago. It's been sitting on the top of the pile, and today I finally got to give it a good read. 

ALL BY HERSELF consists of fourteen biographical poems about women. Some are women you know well- Amelia Earhart, Rachel Carson, Sacajawea, Wilma Rudolph, Pocahontas, author Wanda Gag, and politician Golda Meirs. Others, however, are much less familiar- Harriet Hanson, who worked in the fabric mills of Lowell, Massachusetts; Maria Mitchell, a professor of astronomy at Vassar College; and Violet Sheehy, Ida Lewis,  Kate Shelley, and Frances Ward, who all helped lead families, neighbors, and friends, out of dangerous situations. Each poem is presented on the left side of a two page spread, while the righthand side is devoted to a beautiful oil color painting by illustrator Michael Steirnagle.

I could see using this book in several different ways. First, I'd love to use the poems as mentor texts for kids during a multi-genre biography unit. Some of the poems rhyme, and those would probably be hard for kids to emulate, but lots of the poems would be really approachable for kids. Second, I'd love to use these poems as examples of character traits like curiosity, leadership, perseverance, and courage.  I'm always looking for real life heroes for kids to follow.

This is not a new book (it's actually about ten years old), but it is definitely worth checking out.

POETRY FRIDAY is at READ WRITE BELIEVE by Sara Lewis Holmes. Go check out her amazing original poem! 

CYCLE OF RICE, CYCLE OF LIFE: A STORY OF SUSTAINABLE FARMING- JAN REYNOLDS

Review copy provided by LEE AND LOW BOOKS

On her website, Jan Reynolds describes herself as "a writer and photographer who just can’t get far enough away from it all." She says her favorite thing is "to escape to an extreme environment, and hang with the locals to learn about their culture and their point of view. And if she gets a chance to ski and climb, she’s really happy." Reynolds' adventures have taken her, among other places, across the Sahara on a camel, to the top of Mount Everest, and cross country skiing in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa.

Like many of us (ok, many of us old folks), Jan cut her reading teeth on Dick, Jane, and Sally. As a children's author, however, she wants to write books that present children with rich content about a variety of cultures. She wants her readers to understand that although we come from very different places, we are more alike than different, e.g. though people may eat and drink different things, we all eat and drink. "The sooner we can capture a young mind and show them the breadth of culture in the world," says Reynolds, "the more acceptance they will have and better they will work with other  people." In her VANISHING CULTURE series, Reynolds has used the genre of photo essays to take her young readers to places like Mongolia, the Sahara, and Nepal. 

In addition to being a world traveler and adventurer, Reynolds is also an environmentalist. About ten years ago, she decided she wanted to write a book about sustainability in a way that children would understand. Another children's author, Molly Bang, suggested that rice farming might be an example that children would understand.  Jan Reynolds discusses the issue of sustainability in an interview here.

Reynolds did some research and found that one of the best examples of sustainability had occurred on the small Indonesian island of Bali, where farmers have been growing rice for more than ONE THOUSAND years. Reynolds spent approximately three months on the island, and her photo essay captures the intricacy of this system which begins with a deep gratitude to Dewi Demu, the goddess of water. The Balinese have built a complex irrigation system, which provides freshwater to every single part of the island. Balinese farmers use ducks for fertilization and natural pest control.  Children will especially enjoy footage of the ducks on these three videos about rice farming in Bali. In the back of the book, they will find additional resources, including a map , a glossary, and a list of interesting websites. The author's website has many helpful links, including the duck videos, and also study guides for use with different books. I learned today, via email, that Reynolds is currently at work on a book about how the Masai are changing the herding patterns of their goats and cows to preserve their land.

There is much to love about this book. CYCLE OF RICE, CYCLE OF LIFE approaches sustainability in a way that is easy for children as young as first or second grade to understand. Second, I love the theme of reverence for the Earth and of being grateful for water. Finally, and maybe most importantly, I love the theme of cooperation and caring for one another.  The Balinese farmers get together at the beginning of the growing season, and decide exactly how they will let the water out into the fields. The farmers who live higher on the mountain are responsible for allowing the water to run down stream to their neighbors. If they don't use the water responsibly, it impacts the farmers below them. Somehow that seems an apt metaphor for what goes on in America every day…

CYCLE OF RICE Blog Tour

April 22- Paper Tigers

April 23- A Wrung Sponge

April 27- Carol's Corner

April 30- Lori Calabrese Writes

May 5- Write for a Reader

May 8- Into the Wardrobe

May 14- Bees Knees Reads