The Reader- Amy Hest

"The reader has a small brown dog and a suitcase that is brown

and a long red sled with a long loopy rope for pulling through deep snow.

His boots are high and very heavy, but he is strong

and his train tracks are impeccably straight.

They are beautiful." 

Two good friends venture out into the snow together.
They climb to the top of a giant hill.
Where they cavort. And make snow angels.
And  picnic on warm drinks and crunchy toast.

Finally, it is time, and the little boy opens his suitcase and draws out a book.
Two Good Friends.

“And the only sound in the world is the sound of the reader 
reading to the very last page...the very last word.”

This is one of those gentle, quiet, and oh-so-perfect picture books.
Perfect for reading to children on a snowy day.
Perfect for putting in a friendship basket.
Perfect for a basket of books about reading.

Perfect for using as a mentor text
for small moments
or beautifully chosen words.

And Lauren Castillo's illustrations?
Those are perfect too. 

A NEW ME

 I'm trying to figure out a new me.

The new me

doesn't have to worry about

those breathless I have a late meeting at work

but it's also parent teacher conferences at school

and then there's basketball practice 

and darn it I forgot to get something out of the freezer

how many nights can I justify

feeding my kids fish sticks

or frozen lasagna

kind of days.

The new me

Doesn't drag home 

a bulging teacher bag 

knowing that the first thing on the agenda 

is 25 algebra problems

with a non-algebraic son 

and supervising/assisting/ok sometimes actually building

the diorama of a museum exhibit of a

famous African American poet

who my seventeen-year-old

could care less about

but the project is due in two days

and it's 80% of the English grade for this semester. 

The new me

doesn't have to keep track of practice schedules

driving in circles between home and gyms and fields 

like one of those little cars on a track

at the amusement park
doesn't have to sell
candy bars, coffee cakes,
or raffle tickets

and doesn't spend hours in gyms 

dodging bouncing balls

and engaging in small talk 

while wishing I could just go sit in a corner

with the book that is calling my name.

The new me

doesn't serve on parent boards 

instead of dating

doesn't plan family vacations 

around basketball tournaments

has time to take a Spanish class

or work out at a rec center

or foster dogs 

for the rescue league. 

I'm trying to figure out this new me.

But it's hard

because

I m not quite ready
to let go
of the life
that old me
has loved.

BIG MEAN MIKE- MICHELLE KNUDSON

"Big Mean Mike was the biggest toughest dog in the whole neighborhood. He had a big mean bark. And big sharp teeth. He wore a big black collar with gleaming silver spikes and his claws were big and mean and very, very pointy."

"Best of all he had a big mean car that he liked to drive around the big mean streets. It made a big mean sound whenever he revved the engine."

One day, Big Mean Mike goes to buy new combat boots. When he opens the trunk of his car, intending to store his purchase, he discovers a tiny fuzzy bunny sitting there. He angrily places the bunny on the curb, revs his engine, and leaves the tiny fuzzy bunny sitting in a cloud of exhaust fumes.

The next day, he reaches into the glove compartment for his gym pass, and finds two tiny fuzzy bunnies. The day after that, there are three fuzzy bunnies sitting on the hood.

That weekend, Mike heads to the monster truck show. When he gets there, he discovers four fuzzy bunnies under the seat of his car.  Now Big Mean Mike faces a huge dilemma. He can't leave them in the car, because there are too many tough characters hanging around. At the same time, he doesn't want to ruin his tough guy image by being seen in public with a bunch of tiny fuzzy bunnies. How will Mike respond?

This is one of those pick it up in the bookstore, laugh out loud, and know right away that kids from 8 to 80 are going to enjoy it. Big Fun! At the same time, I can see a million different reading/writing/life lessons. It would be perfect in a mini- lesson on how an author uses actions to reveal character. It would be terrific for a lesson on how characters change. Or if I was teaching theme, I could use it with other books like THE RECESS QUEEN, EACH KINDNESS, and Patricia Polacco's BULLY to talk about life lessons.

Definitely one of those perfect, gotta-own-this-one picture books.

THE THE HOUSE THAT GEORGE BUILT- SUZANNE SLADE

 I'm always fascinated by how books can help people see the world in different ways. That definitely happened to me this week.  On Saturday, I blogged about Charles R. Smith's new book, BRICK BY BRICK. Monday, I found THE HOUSE THAT GEORGE BUILT, by Suzanne Slade. Slade adapted the old folk tale, "The House that Jack Built," into a fun, multi-genre picture book that recaps the building of the White House. The left half of each two-page spread is factual, a paragraph or two, and the right half includes the rhyme. In one of the early pages, for example, we learn that there was a contest to draw the plan for the President's House. The winner, James Hoban, received $500. On the right side, there's a portion of the cumulative rhyme.

This is the design,
that would stand for all time
That was drawn for the lot,
that grand scenic spot,
for the President's House that George built.

Throughout the book, the spotlight is on Washington. He's a hands-on, problem solving hero. When builders discover that there is not going to be enough stone, Washington decides that the White House will be two stories, rather than three. Money is tight so Washington suggests that they use wood instead of marble for the floors. And then, after all of his hard work, George Washington never even got to live in the White House! (Oh, and in case you are wondering, for seventy years, it was the largest house in the U(nited states. The cost was $272,000 or 4.9 million today). 

Having just read BRICK BY BRICK, I kept looking for a discussion of the slaves who did the actual building of the house. I was surprised when they were mentioned in only a very cursory way.  I am thinking that it would be really interesting to pair the two books to help kids explore author's perspective. I'm planning on trying it in a fourth grade classroom next week.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL- TOGETHER WE STAND

Inauguration Day seems a perfect day to share AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: TOGETHER WE STAND, the newest retelling of Katherine Lee Bates' song, "America the Beautiful." Each line of the famous song has its on its own two-page spread, illustrated by a well-known children's author: Bryan Collier, Raúl Colón, Diane Goode, Mary Grandpré, John Hendrix, Yuyi Morales, Jon J Muth, LeUyen Pahm, Sonia Lynn Sadler, and Chris Soenpiet. I'd love to have any or all of them hanging in my living room. You can see a few here, if you'd like.

Additionally, down one side of each two-page spread is a presidential quote.

"I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another."  Thomas Jefferson 

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."   Franklin D. Roosevelt 

"Change will not cofe if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." Barack Obama

Each of these quotes is topped by a national landmarks or symbol: things like the Statue of Liberty, the American Flag, White House, the American Rose, and the Capitol Building. Readers can find more information on these landmarks and symbols in the Author's Notes.

The New York Times reviewed the book here. 

IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY- Joyce Carol Thomas

When Joyce Carol Thomas was about ten, her family boarded a train and immigrated from Oklahoma to California. IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY, is Thomas' memoir, a love song to California, that follows the family's journey to their new home. 

IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is a quiet book, brimming with beautiful word portraits. It's not a book that I'm sure kids will love on their own; I think it's one they will fall in love with when they hear it read aloud. I see myself using it again and again in mini-lessons on how authors use details, or on how carefully they choose their words,  or on surprising images.

Listen:

The waiting train huffs

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

And I worry, worry, worry,

Hissing wheels

hiss, hiss, hiss

and I'm afraid we'll

miss, miss, miss

the train! 

************

And so we ride into early afternoons

past quick and slow-stepping lizards

basking hood-eyed 

on dazzling rocks.

We ride into late afternoon

past a snake whose body is a pen

writing calligraphy

on the paper-dry earth.

****************

Beyond the bay

mountains topped with ice cream snow

rise

reaching toward the cloud-powdered sky

in the Land of Milk and Honey 

Thomas' beautiful language is paired with the signature sepia illustrations of one of her favorite partners- Floyd Cooper. Perfect!

BRICK BY BRICK- CHARLES R. SMITH

Monday, January 21st, is Inauguration Day. It seems a perfect time then, to share Charles R. Smith's latest picture book,  BRICK BY BRICK. This picture book tells the story of how the White House was actually built.

By slaves.

Did you know that?

I didn't.

In the author's notes, Smith says:

When construction began in 1792, it (the White House) was in the middle of nowhere.

Manpower was needed to clear the forest, build the house, and make all the beautiful details inside. Lots of manpower. Local workers including immigrants from Scotland and other countries were hired, as well as free blacks, but it wasn't enough.

That's where the slaves come in.

After realizing there weren't enough workers in the population to assist in construction, the government looked to slaves to round out the workforce. Slave owners from Virginia and Maryland received five dollars a month to rent out each slave. After a hard day of work, slaves returned to a small, shared hut and ate from the rations of pork, beef, and cornmeal provided to them. 

Slaves endured a snake-infested swamp island and mosquito swarms to dig up the stones needed for the walls of the house. They endured hour after hour of cutting and trimming wood, often until their hands were bloodied or deformed. The work was hard on the body, especially the hands. 

I chose to focus on the hands…

 And so Smith takes readers through the slaves' building of the White House- digging and breaking the stone, sawing down trees, making bricks, building walls, completing the finish work- focusing on the hands with his typical, gorgeous, rhythmic, repetitious poetry,  and tight-in specificity. Listen to a page:

Sawyers saw blades
through logs of oak wood,
seven days a week
where a forest once stood.

Alick
Ben
William
Moses

Simon
Peter
Frank
Thomas

Up, down, push, pull
two men per pit saw,
spraying sawdust
until slave hands are raw.

Slave hands saw
twelve hours a day,
but slave owners take
slave hands' pay.

Hands also feature prominently in Floyd Cooper's illustrations. Cooper, illustrator of many, many books, including classics like BROWN HONEY AND BROOMWHEAT TEA and MEET DANITRA BROWN, and newer work like QUEEN OF THE TRACK: ALICE COACHMAN, OLYMPIC HIGH JUMPER, and IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is right up there with Kadir Nelson on my list of favorites. The illustrations for BRICK BY BRICK, done in tans, browns, sepia, and blues, are perfect.

A book you will definitely want to share this week…