CHRISTMAS BOOK: THOSE SHOES- Maribeth Boelts

I have spent my entire career in urban schools. I love teaching urban kids about 95% of the year. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, however, are absolutely heartbreaking. My urban kids watch as much television and see as many commercials as their more affluent peers. Their families don't have the resources, though, to provide the expensive toys and name brand clothes and shoes that they want. The little kids are sure that Santa will bring them. The older kids know Santa won't come, but they still hope for miracles. The financial stress present in most families during this time, is even greater in urban settings. And as a teacher, even a teacher who is not particularly materialistic, I still wish that every child could wake up Christmas morning to a tree of presents and more importantly, a houseful of love.

THOSE SHOES is the first book I will read to kids during the holiday season. Jeremy desperately wants the high top, two stripe tennis shoes that all of his friends are wearing. His grandmother, however, is clear on the difference between needs and wants. Jeremy needs new winter boots, he doesn't need new high top, two stripe tennis shoes. When his tennis shoes fall apart, he has to go to the social worker's office, and select a pair of babyish, cartoon character tennis shoes that are nothing like the two stripe high tops he was hoping for. Later, he finds the longed for shoes at a thrift shop; he buys them, but they are too small, and they give him blisters. He finally gives his special high top two stripe shoes to another little boy that needs them.

I can't change my kids' lives. I don't have the money to give them the things they want or even sometimes the things they need. I can't fix their lives- the deep hurt of absent parents, or substance abuse, or homelessness. I can, however, give them places to talk and make sense of their lives. I can help them understand that family is the people that love you and care about you, and whether that comes from actual parents, grandparents, or coaches, or teachers, or the school lunch lady, it still counts. I can help them to understand that as little as they have, they can still give to others. And for those reasons, THOSE SHOES is the book I will read aloud tomorrow…

JACKSON AND BUD'S BUMPY RIDE- ELIZABETH KOEHLER-PENTACOFF

The year is 1903. The car, or at least the car as we know it, has been in existence for about ten years, and there are only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire United States. Horatio Jackson, a wealthy doctor from Vermont who is vacationing in San Francisco, takes a bet that no one can drive a horseless buggy cross country from California to New York.

Four days later, Jackson and a mechanic, Sewall Crocker, set out on their cross country adventure. A few weeks later, they are joined by Bud, a bull dog, who makes the trip perched in the front seat, wearing driving goggles. The trio plows through various obstacles- the rocky ledges of the California Sierras, the sand of the Oregon desert, a storm of grasshoppers in Omaha, rain and more rain, mud, mud, and more mud, not to mention endless flat tires. Eight thousand dollars 5600 miles, and 63 days later, they arrive in New York City.

A fun, light-hearted story with cartoon-like illustrations that I know kids are absolutely going to love.

POETRY FRIDAY

From the time I was very young, I loved , loved, loved horses. Despite the fact that we lived right smack in the middle of the city, I wanted a horse more than anything. I took horseback riding lessons on the old tired trail animals at Mark Reyner's riding stable, collected horses and horse memorabilia, and read every horse book I could get my hands on. Two of my absolute favorites were MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE and STORMY, MISTY'S FOAL by Marguerite Henry.

This week, reading through the stack of CYBILS nominees, I came across PONY ISLAND by Candice F. Ransom. PONY ISLAND tells the stories of the Chincoteague ponies in verse. Listen to a couple of pages:

Big ship wrecks.

Stormy sea.

Cargo horses.

Swimming free

*******

Swim the channel,

Noses high.

Ponies dripping.

Crowds stand by.

*******

Morning sunrise

By the sea

Ponies gallop

Wild and free.

According to an author's note, the ponies actually live on the island of Assateague. There are various stories about how they got there- some believe they were castaways from a Spanish shipwreck, others think farmers moved them there to avoid paying taxes. However the ponies came to the island, they have been there a long, long time. Since 1925, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department has a pony roundup once a year. They swim the ponies across the channel from Assateague to Chincoteague. The pony auction and carnival raise money for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department. Each year, more than 75,000 people flock to the island to watch the ponies make their five minute swim. After the event is over, the ponies return to Assateague, where they run wild for another year. (For the animal lovers in the crowd, the fire department feeds and cares for the ponies throughout the winter, and they are checked by a veterinarian several times throughout the year).

Ransom has done a terrific job capturing this historic event in rhyming poetry. Equally wonderful, however, are Wade Zaharas' beautiful illustrations. Bold, vivid oil paintings, with lots of interesting use of line and shadow. The end pages feature the island at dawn or dusk, and are pretty and quiet and peaceful. Other pages, like the page where the ship wrecks, or where the ponies run through the village, are bold and action packed. I think kids will want to go back and look again and again; I know I sure did.

POETRY FRIDAY is at Becky's Book Reviews.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Jim Burke posted this poem on the ENGLISH COMPANION NING this morning.Jane Kenyon is much more articulate than I am, so I'm borrowing it, with huge thanks to Jim (not sure why the whole poem can be posted, but I figure Jim is much savvier than I am on the ways of the internet, so I am posting the whole thing too).

Otherwise

by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed

on two strong legs.

It might have been

otherwise. I ate

cereal, sweet

milk, ripe, flawless

peach. It might

have been otherwise.

I took the dog uphill

to the birch wood.

All morning I did

the work I love.

At noon I lay down

with my mate. It might

have been otherwise.

We ate dinner together

at a table with silver

candlesticks. It might

have been otherwise.

I slept in a bed

in a room with paintings

on the walls, and

planned another day

just like this day.

But one day, I know,

it will be otherwise.

from Otherwise, 1996

Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minn.

THE BOOK AUNTIE: FOR THE HORSE LOVERS IN YOUR LIFE

Review copy provided by publisher

My niece and nephew have always known me as the book auntie. Since they were born, I've deluged them with books for every Christmas, holiday, and birthday. Yeah, I give the stuff on their lists- the purses and legos and video games, but I also make sure there is a book (or two or three or ten) under the Christmas tree. My books were never the first presents Gregory or Megan opened or played with, but they always got used and loved eventually. And the books they usually lasted a whole lot longer than the other stuff I bought! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to feature a few books that would be perfect book auntie presents.

HORSES: ACTION FILES (Silver Dolphin Books) is a book for the horse lovers in your life. The book is not really just a book, it's actually a collection of all things horse. Opening the cool 3D cover (which makes me a little nauseous, but I think it's a function of old age!), the reader finds a 24 page fact file with sections on the anatomy of a horse, horse types, horse care, and fun and games with horses. There are lots of great photos and drawings, diagrams, fascinating facts, and suggestions for further research and activities. The publisher has a website that covers not only horses, but lots of other great nonfiction topics as well. There are suggestions for other books (fiction and nonfiction) and also movies. I can definitely see myself using this book in a classroom nonfiction study- it's well written, has interesting information, and it has lots of text features that kids need to know and be able to use.

I would have bought HORSES based on the fact file alone. This book contains lots of other goodies though, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention them. There are sixty horse stickers, scattered on pages throughout the book. There are 18 info cards, each showing a different breed of horse (kind of like baseball trading cards) and a special envelope to keep them in. There is a horse mask kids can assemble. There is a giant foldout poster. And there is a fiction selection, not quite novel length, but longer than a picture book.

More good news. If you know kids who love sharks, or Egypt, or gladiators, those are other topics currently available in this series. I'm hoping there will be lots more eventually.

My niece and nephew are 19 and 21. HORSES probably won't work for either of them, but it's definitely going under someone's tree…

LET THERE BE PEACE: PRAYERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD- Jeremy Brooks

Yesterday I reviewed FAITH, a terrific photo essay by The Global Children's Fund. I loved how the book emphasized the similarities, and not the differences in world religions. Certainly, one of those similarities is that we all pray, and more specifically, that we all pray for peace. In LET THERE BE PEACE, Jeremy Brooks has collected prayers of peace from all over the world. Here are a couple that I especially loved:

Goodness is stronger than evil,

Love is stronger than hate,

Light is stronger than darkness

victory is ours through him who loves us.

Father Desmond Tutu

Lead us from death to life,

from falsehood to truth,

from despair to hope,

from fear to trust,

Lead us from hate to love,

from war to peace,

Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe--

peace, peace, peace.

Satish Kumar, a Jain Monk

The gentle, colorful illustrations of people from all over the world,

contribute to the peaceful feeling of this book.

FAITH- Maya Agjmer, Magda Nakassis, Cynthia Pon

Are you familiar with the The Global Fund for Children? They are an organization dedicated to bettering the plight of children and youth around the world through providing grants to organizations working in those areas. They also strive to "promote global understanding through the use of film, photography, and children's books." I've enjoyed many of their books over the past ten years- GLOBAL BABIES is one of my favorite baby shower presents, I also love sharing TO BE A KID with students.

The Global Fund for Children has come out with a new book this year, and it's a stunner. FAITH is a photo essay that captures the essence of different religions around the world. Each two-page spread addresses a different tenet of faith, e.g. we pray, we chant and sing, we read our holy books, we listen to and learn from others, we cleanse ourselves, we visit holy places, we observe holidays in our homes or places of worship, we care for those around us. The text is usually only one sentence; it's the beautiful, beautiful photographs that proclaim, again and again, that though we are all very different, we are also very much alike. On one page, for instance, the text says, "We show our faiths through what we wear…" The photos show six different religions- four little Muslim girls from Turkey, wearing decorative head scarves, an Indonesian boy wearing a songket udeng (a ceremonial headdress), a Mennonite boy dressed in "plain clothes," a Buddhist girl with thanaka face paint, three beautiful Jain girls in ceremonial headdresses before a procession, and Sikh boy wearing a Patka. The authors have included every religion I can think of-- there are photographs of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Farsi, Native Americans, Hindus, Jains, and many others.

A map in the back shows the loctions of all of the countries in the book. There are also three or four pages of notes about the elements of faith, as well as an extensive, and very detailed glossary of words to know.

Thank you, Global Fund for Children, for helping us to understand that we are all much more alike than different!