Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Roller Girl written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson



I've been using my time sheltering-in-place because of the Coronavirus to catch up on some books I've been meaning to read. One of those is Roller Girl and, boy, was it good.

Astrid and Nicole have been best friends since fifth grade, but now they're 12 and cracks are beginning to show in their friendship. After a night at the roller derby to see Portland's Rose City Rollers, Astrid is obsessed with it, including a star skater named Rainbow Bite. Now, she wants to go to derby camp. There's just one problem - Astrid doesn't know how to skate. Nicole, on the other hand, is a great skater, but couldn't care less about roller derby. Her interest is in ballet...and boys.

But because they are best friends, Astrid automatically assumes that Nicole will want to go to derby camp, too. So you can imagine Astrid's disappointment when Nicole tells her she doesn't want to do that for the summer, but is going to ballet camp instead. Not only that, but Nicole has a new close friend, Rachel, who used to be their enemy. Meanwhile, Astrid's mom, Mrs Vasquez, has signed Astrid up for the Junior Derby Camp, believing Nicole is also going and that her mother will be picking the girls up after camp.

Derby camp is rough, tough and stressful, particularly since Astrid doesn't know how to skate and is the only real beginner there. Yet, despite the bumps and bruises, and the very long, hot walk home to keep up the charade that her friendship with Nicole is fine and that her mother is driving them home, Astrid sticks with it. It's really hard, tiring work, but when her coach sees Astrid walking home, she tells her to take her skates home to get more practice and build up her confidence, she hesitates. The next day, her coach suggest that they practice skating outdoors. It's Astrid's first good day, and she even works up the courage to leave a fangirl note on Rainbow Bite's locker.

Thought things begin to look up for her, there are still some difficult lesson for Astrid to learn before school begins, including trying to reconcile with Nicole, some mother-daughter problems when she is caught in her lie, and accepting just who she is and that it's OK to be different. But the most important lesson is learning to be a good sport and a team player, whether it's roller derby or personal relationships.

Roller Girl is such a wonderful coming of age story, and the graphic format is the perfect medium for it. The colorful panels done by author Victoria Jamieson are all clearly and distinctly illustrated and really capture Astrid's broad range of moods and feelings (and they are broad, she is 12, after all). And roller derby is the perfect metaphor for the ups and downs of Astrid's life the summer before she begins junior high school.

The bumps and bruises Astrid gets while learning to skate and then learning to skate competitively mirror the themes Jamieson explores in the novel, like identity and experimentation (Astrid's blue hair and fake nose ring), perseverance and failure, old and new relationships, change and acceptance. The angst of being that age really rings true to tween life, and isn't so different than when I, or for that matter, my Kiddo, was Astrid's age. And Astrid is such a multi-layered, fully dimensional character that she is someone readers won't easily forget, even if they have not interest in roller derby.

If you haven't read Roller Girl yet, I highly recommend it.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an eBook borrowed from Libby by Overdrive

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Mini Review: The Color of the Sun by David Almond


The Color of the Sun by David Almond
Candlewick Press, 2019, 224 pages

I’ve always liked David Almond’s writing because of his unique way of looking at things. But as I read The Color of the Sun I felt like I was re-reading a story I already knew but didn’t remember clearly. Then it came to me - this is similar, perhaps too similar, to Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist. So it’s not that The Color of the Sun isn’t good, it’s absolutely David Almond excellent.

Almond sets young Davie off an an odyssey through his hometown of Tyneside on a hot summer day. As he wanders, Davie thinks about his father, who has recently passed away. While walking, he is told that a boy has been murdered, and Davie heads to the place the body was found. It turns out to be a boy Davie knows, who was also the town bully, part of a gang. Davie decides he knows who probably killed the boy, and heads to a nearby hill, believing the murderer also headed
 that way. As he goes, he meets a variety of different townspeople, a dog, the girl he may grow up to love, and the spirit of his father. As Davie explore questions about life and what it means, and if love can help you though hard times and heartbreak. Needless to say, by the time he returns home at the end of the day, Davie is a changed person.

Davie’s odyssey is a metaphor for trying to find his place in the world now that his dad is gone, making this a true coming of age tale as Davie tries to find his way back home.

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was a eARC gratefully received from NetGalley

Friday, April 24, 2020

Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott


I've never really had much of an interest in Joan of Arc. I knew who she was, of course, and what she had done, thanks to a hand-me-down Classic Illustrated Comics collection. And I did go see Saint Joan with Condola Rashad on Broadway, which was excellent. But that was basically it...until I read Voices. WOW! Here was a book that blew me away from the first poem to the last.

In Voices: the Final Hours of Joan of Arc, David Elliott offers readers an amazing perspective on the life and final moments of this courageous young woman (she was, after all, still a teenager when she died). In well-crafted and carefully constructed, often visceral poems, Elliott begins Joan's story at the end of her life, as she is tied to a stake, about to be burned alive as a traitor. He then recreates Joan's life, beginning with her visions through to her military triumph of restoring Charles VIII to power, his ultimate betrayal of her, her subsequent trials, and finally, her execution. Throughout this fictionalized biography in verse, Elliott has carefully and consciously chosen the voices who gets to tell her story besides Joan herself.

 The poems are amazing. The language is affective without being sentimental. There is energy in Elliott's choice of line breaks, coming at just the right time to maintain the lyricism and musicality of each poem - in other words, the lines are neither too long nor too short.

The imagery that each of the poems creates is clear and fresh; there is a specificity of detail in each poem, and provides the reader with imaginative sensory details without being overwhelming.

And Elliott created these images that tell Joan's story using a variety of poetic forms, some dating back to the medieval period, along with a diversity of voices besides Joan. Some of these voices include that of Charles VIII, her father, even personification of objects close to Joan, including her sword, her armor, the crossbow that wounded her and the fire that is so lovingly consuming her.

Elliott has also made effective use of direct prose quotes from the transcripts of Joan's trials. He has creatively recounted the life of Joan of Arc in a somewhat three dimensional sense, not an easy accomplishment in a book, allowing the reader to look at all sides of Joan's story and to draw their own conclusions as to her guilt or innocence.

And Elliot does all this while interrogating ideas about Joan's gender identity, her class, her decision to be a knight instead of a peasant girl remaining on the family farm until she marries, as well as her innocence in view of the politics of the time and the reason for the guilty verdict at her trial.

Elliott has taken a medieval heroine, caught up in the politics of her day, and brought her into the 21st century where her story will definitely resonate with today's readers.

Small wonder that Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc won the Claudia Lewis Award for poetry awarded by the Bank Street Children's Book Committee. Sadly, the Coronavirus meant canceling our awards ceremony this year. However, David Elliott was kind enough to send us a video recording, which you can also enjoy:


This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was an ARC gratefully received from publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

April is 

Monday, April 20, 2020

Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye


Cast Away: Poems For Our Time 
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Greenwillow Books, 2020, 159 pages

This collection of more than 80 free-verse poems about trash, litter, and the things we throw away by Naomi Shihab Nye, Poetry Foundations' Young People's Poet Laureate (2019-2021), is my new favorite Earth Day book. Maybe because I live in a big city that I love and that has a large population and a great number of tourists roaming around, I am aware of the amount of litter people carelessly drop on the streets, the subways or the piles of garbage that don't get collected because of events like strikes, snowstorms (see "Snow Covers All the Trash" pg 35), and hurricanes.

Nye is a committed collector of trash, picking up after other people as she travels around the world. In fact, she begins her book with two epigraphs, the first being perhaps the most fitting: "I couldn't save the world, / but I could pick up trash." Nye covers a wide variety of trash and litter topics ranging from the purely ecological to the commercial to the political. She has even found that some trash is gift worthy - like the red purse given to Nye by a woman picking through a trash bin outside a restaurant in London the becomes her favorite purse, or the found blue mitten with dots and the word Heroes! knitted into it that became a gift. On the other hand, some trash is overwhelming like the 37,000 abandoned mustard packets from McDonald's that Nye has found by herself.

Nye has divided up this book into five sections: Sweepings, Titters & Tatters, Odds & Ends, Willy-Nilly, and Residue.  Throughout this collection, however, she is imploring us to pay more attention to the world around us and our part in contributing to the vastness of waste we create. To that end, at the end of the book, Nye has included 10  Ideas for Writing, Recycling, Reclaiming. These are all ideas designed to help kids get acquainted with what our trash is doing to the world, like that big floating island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. It's a world these children will inherit, but as Nye says "It's never too late to make things better. Understanding them more might help." (pg 151)

I have a lot of favorite poems in this book, but I would to share my #1 favorite with you here:
Click to Enlarge
But trash and litter are our problem and there is just so much to unpack in the poems included in this collection. Some don't think these are poems that will appeal to young readers, but I think that as they begin exploring them, they will find much that they can benefit from. Perhaps that next Jolly Rancher wrapper will make it into a trash bin instead of the sidewalk, or single use water bottles will be replaced with reusable bottles.

I'm sure now you can understand why I think this is an excellent choice to share with kids on Earth Day, April 22, 2020.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an ARC received from the publisher, Greenwillow Books.

2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. This year, it has gone digital. Find out what you can still do HERE

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Numenia and the Hurricane, Inspired by a True Migration Story written and illustrated by Fiona Halliday


Numenia and the Hurricane: Inspired by a True Migration Story
Written and illustrated by Fiona Halliday
Page Street Kids, 2020, 40 pages

As fall approaches, how many times have you looked up at the sky and watched flocks of birds migrating south but never considered the perils they might face on their journey? Here is the story of one whimbrel that may lead to a whole new appreciation of these migrating birds.

Hatched in the same nest one early spring, three young whimbrels spend the spring and summer growing bigger and stronger, learning how to fly and find food on northernmost Hudson Bay. But when autumn arrives, it is time to fly south. No sooner do they head for the warmer climes of the Caribbean, than rain begins to fall and the three sisters find themselves caught in a terrible hurricane. Suddenly one of them, Numenia, is torn away from her sisters, landing wet and weak on a high windowsill.
Click to enlarge
After resting through the night, Numenia takes off again in the morning, determined to be reunited with her sisters. Flying through heavy rain and strong winds, with no food, and losing weight, Numenia is determined to find her sisters.
Click to enlarge
As Numenia flies further south, the weather starts to becomes warmer. But, this poor weary bird finds more danger even after she arrives at her destination, making it even more difficult to find her sisters. How will Numenia ever find her sisters and the other birds that have flown so far from so far north to a warm Caribbean island?
Click to enlarge
No fear, the two sisters have been waiting for Numenia's arrival, confident that they will be reunited.

Numenia"s story is told in a spare but lyrical rhyme. In contrast, the detailed illustrations invites the reader into Numenia's world and encourages them to explore each and every detail. Each illustraion, done in traditional and digital mixed media, and harmonizes perfectly with the text.

Numenia's story is at once nail biting (will she make?) and uplifting. This is a perfect read aloud for young readers, one that will have them cheering this fragile little bird on to her ultimate reunion with her sisters. At the same time, it is a wonderful STEM book that can be used for introducing kids to birds and bird behavior (how do they know to fly south?)

Numenia and the Hurricane was inspired by the true story of a whimbrel named Hope who flew through Hurricane Gert in 2011 for 27 straight hours. Halliday was inspired by Hope's "courage and stoicism in the face of overwhelming odds." Hope's story is detailed in this book's back matter. and as Halliday concludes there "We can learn from [the birds] tenacity and determination to face our storms with the same quiet courage." Could there be a better time to read this inspiring story than now?

FYI: Numenia's name comes from her scientific name Numenius phaeopus. The crescent shape of a whimbrel's beak resembles the crescent of a new moon, which is what Numenius means in Greek, while phaeopus simply means "dark countenance."

Meet the Author:
Numenia and the Hurricane is Fiona Halliday's debut picture book. She is a Scottish picture book writer and illustration. She loves all things finned, furred, feathered, and fantastical. She started digitally doodling during her lunch breaks at work and hasn't stopped. She has a First in English Literature from Edinburgh University and a Masters in Photojournalism.
Halliday has worked as a freelance journalist and photographer, which took her on a few exciting trips like witnessing the great European Crane migration over the Hungarian Steppe, humpbacked whale spotting in Iceland and the great gannetries of Shetland. She has also worked as an English teacher, an organist, and currently as a product photographer and graphic designer.

This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was a EARC gratefully received from the author.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

It's...Cybils Time? YES, IT IS! It's time for the #CybilsReaddown TBR Challenge


It may be spring outside, but we are all stuck in the house doing our bit to help fight the spread of the coronavirus. What better time is there for a reading challenge? And the #Cybils Awards has stepped up to the plate with a reading challenge that will help you spring clean all those books sitting in you TBR pile. And it's such a simple challenge, but naturally there are a few rules⬇︎


CYBILS AWARDS TBR READING CHALLENGE
October 1st will be here before we know it, and we'll be looking for your nominations for Cybils 2020...and some of those nominees might just be sitting on your TBR pile! To help you find those nominees (and get through anything else on that pile) we're inviting you to join our challenge!

The #CybilsReaddown challenge runs from 4/15/2020 to 6/15/2020. This challenge is not about who read the most books!
Instead, the goal of this challenge is to share with other readers what you are reading, reviewing, and recommending (or not) to others.
To make it a little extra fun, we have a prize!! One lucky reader will win a Cybils Awards book tote! The winner will be selected in a random drawing of entries.

Participation Rules:

Step1: RSVP to the Cybils TBR Challenge Event on Facebook by 4/17

Step 2: Check-In with (a) "before" photo on Twitter or Instagram; and/or (b) number in the "TBR CHALLENGE STARTING LINE" post on Facebook.

Step 3: Start reading, reviewing, and sharing your progress to earn entries!
IMPORTANT: There are lots of ways to earn entries. BUT regardless of platform, an entry
much include the #CybilsReadDown to be valid.

Step 4: Between 6/15/2020 and 6/17/2020. Check-In with an "after" photo on Twitter or Instagram; or (b) the new number on our "TBR CHALLENGE FINISH LINE" post on Facebook.

Facebook:
  • Join the event HERE
  • Post your review (blog, vlog, Goodreads, etc in our "TBR CHALLENGE REVIEWS" post
  • Post your bookstack image on the "SHOW US YOUR STACK" post on Facebook
Goodreads:
  • Join our GoodReads community HERE
  • RSVP to the Challenge on GoodReads HERE
  • Create a Challenge-related GoodReads Shelf to track your reading and post the shelf name in our Event Discussion Board

Instagram:

  • Follow @CybilsAwards on Instagram
  • Show us your (dwindling) bookstack in an Instagram post (max. entry: 3 per week)
Twitter:
  • Follow @CybilsAwards on Twitter
  • Tweet or retweet a Challenge Invitations (max. 3 entries total)
  • Tweet about your progress (max. entry: 3 per week)
BONUS ENTRIES:

! Share your GoodReads review in our GoodReads group, on Twitter, and on our Facebook "TBR CHALLENGE REVIEWS" post.

! Tweet about or Instagram post a book you want nominated in the upcoming Cybils Awards cycle (Publication dates: 10/16/2019 - 10/15/2020).

! Read AND review any book on the Cybils Awards Finalists (any category) between 2009 - 2019. Find books HERE

Reminder: When posting via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, be sure to use the hashtag #CybilsReaddown to have your entries count.

Other Important Points (aka Terms and Conditions)
  • You must live in the United States or Canada to win the tote. We can't ship overseas.
  • We will use http://www.randomnumbergeneratory.com to determine the winning entry.
GOOD LUCK AND STAY SAFE!

Sunday, April 12, 2020

MMGM: Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly


Twelve-year-old Lalani Sarita lives on the mythical island of Sanlagita, a place where birds do not sing, the prick of a sewing needle while mending fishing nets can mean death, and the people are ruled by the menyoro, who doesn't know that he doesn't know much but his word is still law. Sanlagita is dominated by two mountains. The people of Sanlagita must offer up daily benedictions to dark Mount Kahana in the west in order to avoid trouble from the strange beast that lives there. To the north of Sanlagita is sunny Mount Isa where life is beautiful and bountiful, but whenever men sail off into the Veiled Sea to find it, they are never seen again. Lalani's father had been one of those chosen to try to reach Mount Isa. After he disappeared, she and her mother were forced to live with her mean uncle and his cruel son.

One day, Lalani returns home to find her mother, a mender, scrubbing her finger. Her needle had pricked deeply and dangerously and she soon falls ill with mender's disease. Sadly, a drought has killed all the plants that might be used to cure her mother. One day, Lalani, while chasing a runaway shek, finds herself far up Mount Kahana, where she finds an eyeless man living, who uses his magic token to bring rain to Sanlagita. The rain lasts for weeks and weeks and Lalani, who was seen leaving Mount Kahana, is blamed for it. But when she returns to Mount Kahana, the eyeless man refused to stop the rain unless she gives him her eyes.

Deciding that is a too high a price, Lalani returns home, asks her friend Veyda to move her mother to her house, choses the first boat she sees and sets off across the sea that has already taken the lives of so many men, including her father, to find a cure for her mother and a way to make things right again. After all, it is rumored that there is a bright yellow flower that has the cure nestled inside its petals growing on Mount Isa. Can Lalani survive a journey that others have failed at?

Lalani of the Distant Sea is an interesting book, so different from Erin Entrada Kelly's previous novels. It is a fantasy inspired by her Filipino culture, folklore, and oral tradition, resulting in a story that is as dark as it is hopeful - just like the two mountains dominating the lives of the Sanlagitans.

Lalani is one of my favorite kidlit heroines. She's kind, honest, curious, and I particularly like her fearsomeness even in the face of fear. Imagine setting off into the unknown to find a way to help her mother, in a little boat that isn't even reliable. Though her best friend Veyda may be outwardly rebellious, refusing to do her daily benedictions, Lalani plays by the rules, but quietly goes her own way to help those she loves.

Interspersed throughout Lalani's narrative are short tales about different creatures, complete with black and white illustrations. Do not skip these, thinking they have nothing to do with the plot. This is a well-crafted novel (as are all of Kelly's novels) and she pulls it all together when the plot needs it.

Lalani of the Distant Sea is a multilayered, creative novel, richly and vibrantly written with themes that touch on family, friendship, bravery, bullying, and power, a should-read for everyone whether they are fans of fantasy or not.

If you would like to learn more about creatures in Filipino folklore, click HERE

A helpful Teacher's Guide is available to download HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an EARC gratefully received from Edelweiss+
Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle. 

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender


The sudden death of his older brother forces an African American boy to confront his loneliness, grief, and shame, but to ultimately own his truth and find self-acceptance.

When Khalid James, 16, overhears his younger brother Kington's white best friend Sandy Sanders secretly telling him he's gay, he tells King not to hang out with Sandy anymore. After all, King doesn't want people to think he's gay, too, does he? And King, because he loves and looks up to his brother, stops being friends with Sandy, even though he didn't want to. But King has a secret, too. Would Khalid stop loving him if he knew King's secret?

Shortly after that, Khalid suddenly dies while playing basketball. With unresolved issues, King can't let go of his brother. At the funeral, when a dragonfly suddenly flies into the church and lands on Khalid's casket. King takes it as a sign that his brother isn't really gone, he's just become a dragonfly.

And so everyday, King walks to the bayou in his Louisiana town where the dragonflies are, looking for Khalid, desperate to keep a connection with him. Later, at night, he reads the journal he had kept of the things Khalid said in his sleep, describing his vivid dreams about the different worlds he visited at night. And King takes comfort in his own dreams about Khalid.

And it's at the bayou, that he runs into Sandy Sanders, who offers to listen if King needs to talk, an offer King rejects. That night at dinner, however, King learns that Sandy Sanders has gone missing, and even though King knows he's probably the last person to see Sandy, he doesn't say anything about it - not to his parents, not even to his friends at school.

But then King discovers Sandy hiding in his backyard tent, and once again, secrets are revealed when Sandy confirms King's suspicions that his father Sheriff Sanders, whom King knows is a scary racist, is also cruel and abusive at home and Sandy is his prime target. Despite Khalid's warning not to hang out with Sandy, the two former best friends begin to talk again. When it becomes dangerous for Sandy to live in the tent, they move him into an empty, rundown fishing shack not far from where King watches the dragonflies.

There, they reignite their friendship, but when Sandy is discovered sleeping in the shack, he decides it's time to run away and wants King to come with him, King finds himself even more conflicted. To begin with, his parents, so grief stricken by Khalid's death, are beginning to move on with life and want King to do the same, but he just can't do that yet. And more and more, King is admitting to himself that he doesn't like girls the same way he likes boys. But his brother's words keep coming back to him and King knows that in a small, southern homophobic town, being gay and black isn't going to be easy. Maybe he should run away, too.

King is a 12-year-old with a lot on his plate and no one to talk to now that Khalid is gone. Kacen Callender has caught King's anger about Khalid's death, his unresolved issue of whether or not Khalid would still love him knowing King's secret, and his confusion about his sexuality so realistically it's hard to remember King is a fictional character. The family dynamics are also spot on, giving the reader just enough of a glimpse to see what a happy family the James' were before losing Khalid, and contrasting it to who they became as they processed their grief and bereavement, his mother's retreat into her grief, his father trying to hold it together and finally breaking down.

And as if Callender's well-drawn character's aren't enough, he throws in one more - a small town in Louisiana, complete with the humidity, the heat, sweaty clothes, insects, racists, and rumors. The nuanced setting added so much ambiance of King's world.

King and the Dragonflies is a thought provoking coming of age/coming out novel. King's conflicts and his confusion about how to define himself without Khalid are palpable, emotional, and moving. This is a novel not to be missed.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an ARC provided by the publisher, Scholastic Press

Friday, April 3, 2020

Remembering Tomie dePaola (1934-2020)


Like everyone else, I was stunned and saddened to read about the passing of Tomie dePaola this week. Over the years, I read and recommended a number of this books, including stories about my favorite magical grandmother Strega Nona. But it was Tomie's books about his home front experiences during World War II that I really liked and appreciated. Tomie's books about his experiences during the war are a window into exactly the kind of things I was interested in - how war impacts children. They are so open and honest. He wrote about them in the last four of the eight books that make up his 26 Fairmount Avenue series, and are subtitled The War Years
This post probably contains spoilers
(This review was originally published on The Children's War in 2013)
In Book 5, Things Will Never Be the Same, begins in January 1941, first-grader Tomie had just received his two best Christmas presents - a Junior Flexible Flyer sled and a diary with a lock and key, and so Book 5 begins with his very first diary entry.  With all the charm, honesty and bluntness of a very precocious and artistic 6 year old, Tomie takes us through the year 1941, diary entry by diary entry.  Each chapter begins with a short diary entry and the rest of the chapter goes into more depth everything that was going on at the time.  And 1941 is an exciting year for Tomie.  Through his diary, Tomie presents a wonderful picture of what life was life in that year preceding America's entry into the war.  Things he writes about include the day to day family life of the dePaola family, and the world of a first grader, for example, learning about President Roosevelt and the March of Dimes, and not being able to swim in the summer because of a Polio scare; the excitement over seeing Disney's Fantasia in the theater, his disappointment over who is second grade teacher is, about his tap dancing lessons which he loves, and of course all the holidays over the course of the year.  But all this changes on December 7, 1941.  Tomie writes in his diary:
As the dePaola's listen, along with the whole country, to the radio announcer talking about the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tomie's mother says to her family, "Things will never be the same."

Unlike Things Will Never Be the Same, which covers a whole yearBook 6, I'm Still Scared, diary entries only cover one month, December 7, 1941 to December 31, 1941, but is is a powerful month for second grader Tomie.  Not quite understanding what has happened and the implications of war, Tomie is a scared little boy and to make matters worse, no one really wants to explain what's going on to him.  Luckily for him, after listening to Roosevelt's speech on the radio, the family go to visit Tomie's grandparents and his grandfather, Tom, takes some time he talk to him about his fears.  But life had indeed changed.  At school, there were air raid drills, and at home, an air raid shelter had to be created in the basement just in case.  And Tomie had to contend with being called the ENEMY because of his Italian heritage.  War was everywhere.  Even at the movies showing a children's feature, the newsreels showed London in the Blitz, and Tomie realized it was the first time he had seen what war was like.  At the end of December, young Tomie is still scared.

Book 7, Why?, begins on January 1, 1942 and runs until April 29, 1942.  In his new diary, Tomie gives more details of his day to day life.  He writes about his excitement about being able to stay up late for New Year's Eve, of going to help in his grandfather's grocery store, and of his first surprise air raid drill at school.  But his real trouble comes when his teacher starts teaching the kids to write in cursive and refused to allow Tomie, a lefty, to hold the pen in a way that worked for him.  And Tomie talks more about his older brother Buddy and how angry/annoyed Buddy gets with him.  But perhaps saddest of all are the entries about his cousin Anthony A/K/A Blackie.  Blackie was a favorite cousin who had joined the Army Air Corps.  Tomie seemed able to adjust to everything involving the war - like rationing and air raid drills - but the news of Blackie's death is just incomprehensible to him.  In the end, he is left asking himself Why?

Book 8, For the Duration, is the final book in the 26 Fairmount Avenue series and begins on May 1, 1942 and runs through... Well, that's hard to say.  It seems that early on, Tomie's diary key disappeared.  While there are not more diary entries, Tomie still talks about his life and in 1942, patriotism is in full swing.  At school, Tomie gets very sad and runs out of the room when the class starts singing the Army Air Corps anthem.  At dancing school. there is a lot so rehearsing for a wonderful recital, but there are also bullies in the schoolyard who take his new tap shoes and start tossing them around.  And there are victory gardens and ration books and helping again in his grandfather's grocery.  Things between Tomie and his brother Buddy get worse and in the end, it is Buddy who has taken the diary key.  But one thing Tomie learns to understand completely is that some things disappear (chewing gum, fireworks) and other thing come into being (war bonds, war stamps), all "for the duration."

The 26 Fairmount Avenue series is an extraordinary group of chapter books recalling Tomie dePaola's early life living in Meridan, Connecticut. For the most part, they are a series of vignettes told in great detail and include whimsical illustrations by Tomie throughout. Much of what he writes is funny, charming, sad and so typical of kids that age. Though I haven't reviewed for first four books here, I would really recommend the whole series to anyone who is a Tomie dePaola fan.  

Thank you, Tomie, for all your wonderfully written books and illustrations.
You did, indeed, decorate all of our lives.

And if you are a Tomie dePaola fan, be sure to read Lee Wind's interview with him:
Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here
Part 3 can be found here

These books are recommended for readers age 7+
These books have been purchased for my personal library

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Be A Coronavirus Fighter by Songju Ma Daemicke and Helen Wu, illustrated by Helen H. Wu


Be A Coronavirus Fighter 
by Songju Ma Daemicke and Helen H. Wu
2020, Yeehoo Press, 21 pages
A print ready PDF of this book is available to download HERE

The coronavirus is spreading so fast, and there is so much on television about it, that even if you try to protect your kids from hearing about what's going on, it's almost impossible. After all, they are home 24/7 now, no longer going to school, but learning by remote, their extracurricular are canceled indefinitely and they have been told to shelter-in-place. They have to be wondering about all of this.

So, it's understandable that kids might be feeling a little more anxious than usual. But sometimes understanding what and why something is happening can help alleviate some of that anxiety and make staying home a little better. To that end, authors Songju Ma Daemike and Helen Wu have written an accessible kid-friendly book that explains the coronavirus in straightforward language to share with the whole family.

The book begins at the beginning with the most basic question What is the coronavirus? A clear explanation of it follows, including how this particular virus got it's name, which I personally found very informative, where it comes from (animals), and the most common symptoms of people infected with it.
This is followed with details of how easily the coronavirus spreads and why we need to stay 6 feet apart from each other, even best friends, when we are out, but a reminder that it is better to stay home as much as possible.

So...
Understanding what is being done and what families can to do help fight the coronavirus can be very empowering for anxious young kids, and the authors understand this. Showing the different people who are what Fred Rogers calls "the helpers" can be particularly reassuring, from the scientist working to find a vaccine, to the doctors and nurses caring for infected people, to the workers making protective face masks, and the delivery people bringing groceries and medicines to those who stay at home, and everyone else fighting to keep the coronavirus from spreading.

But fighting the coronavirus is also something kids and their families can actively do. Staying inside and doing things with parents and siblings means that kids can also be helpers, plus it's a good time to learn new things, to read a good book or play some games as a family, and most important of all, to protect themselves and others:
The coronavirus is a scary disease, and sometimes it feels like it has impacted everyone's life already. But, whether or not it has impacted your lives, whether or not your kids are anxious about what is happening in the world right now, this small, 21-page book is a great resource to have on hand and to share with family, friends, and neighbors who might find it just what they need to help their children.

And remember, it is a free download HERE, a gift to you from the authors.   

Stay Safe, Stay Strong, Stay Home
 
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