I am going to have to temporarily pause my brief picture book reviews until June 2019 when I can start back up again doing what I love –reading and talking about picture books.
I will still maintain my Facebook and Twitter accounts in which I will share current library, book, and reading related news and humor.
Thank you so much for following me. See you in the summer of 2019!!!
Thank You, Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet by April Pulley Sayre; illustrated by April Pulley Sayre. 2018. Photography. Published by Greenwillow Books.
Brief summary: This beautiful rhyming love letter thanking the earth of all its wonderful life and land is illustrated with superb nature photos capturing the awesomeness of the planet.
Comments: This book could be shared at Thanksgiving with a discussion of what each child is thankful for that the earth gives us. It could also be shared on Earth Day. Topnotch photography as in her other books Raindrops Roll, Best in Snow, and Fall of Fall.
There is A Note From the Author in back.
Knock Knock by Tammi Sauer; illustrated by Guy Francis. 2018.
Brief summary: Bear is trying to get ready for winter and settle into hibernation when he keeps getting interrupted with knocks on his door.
Comments: A cute and clever story unfolds with the illustrations moving the story along with each knock knock joke. I would introduce this with the kindergarten unit on how animals get ready for winter.
A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women’s Rights by Kate Hannigan; illustrated by Alison Jay. 2018. Alkyd paint with crackle varnish. Published by Calkins Creek.
Brief summary: Belva was already a teacher at age 14 and went to college in 1857 to learn more. She taught in New York encouraging and teaching girls how to speak publicly and for the girls to be able to have gym classes. She went to law school and completed her studies but was not given her diploma, because she was a woman. Belva wrote to the president of the school who later delivered it to her personally…Ulysses S. Grant who just happened to also be the President of the United States of America at the time. Belva was the first woman to have a law license. She fought for widows and Civil War veterans. She was not allowed to argue her cases, because she was a woman. She was the first woman to run for President under the National Equal Rights Party.
Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery by Sandra Neil Wallace; illustrated by Bryan Collier. 2018. Watercolor and collage. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Brief summary: It was the 1940s. Ernie Barnes really did not want to play football but was encouraged to make a living from it. He played for several teams. Although he was successful, his heart was not into it. He found himself drawing and painting all the time. He stopped playing football after a foot injury and was able to put his time into his art.
The Great Dictionary Caper by Judy Sierra; illustrated by Eric Comstock. 2018. Digital. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Brief summary: Grand Marshall, I, tries to get everyone ready for a parade but has trouble with the longest word(see if you can guess what it is), action verbs, no action contractions, homophones, antonyms, palindrome, archaic words, proper nouns, anagrams, interjections, and others to get back into the dictionary with the help of Noah Webster(first dictionary) and Peter Mark Roget(thesaurus).
Comments: Glossary in the back. This actually will be better understood by the older young reader who can understand and is familiar with all the types of word categories. I would share this with third grade on up.
Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker’s Story by Joseph Bruchac; illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes. 2018.
Brief summary: In 1929, a missionary truck took an eight-year-old Navajo boy from his family to go to a Catholic boarding school. It wasn’t optional. He was stripped of his Navajo name and given his new English name of Chester by a missionary nun. His hair was cut and he was not allowed to speak his native tongue; only English. He was forced to become Catholic and told that his heritage was to be forgotten. During tenth grade, Chester joined the Marines in 1941 after the Pearl Harbor bombing. Platoon 382 consisted of 29 Navajos. These men created the famous Navajo code that the enemies could not decipher. Ironically, the language they were forbidden to speak saved the English speaking one.
Comments: The back consists of an Author’s note, The Navajo Code, and a timeline. I’m glad to see more of these books being published lately on the subject of mandatory boarding school for Native American children and other atrocities that the Canadian and US government forced upon these indigenous people.
Joseph Bruchac (of the Abenaki Tribe) is one of my favorite Native American writers. Thanks to him, many of the Native American stories told through oral tradition are being put into print. Students love his monster lore.
Rhyme Crime by Jon Burgerman; illustrated by Jon Burgerman. 2018. Published by Dial Books for Young Readers.
Brief summary: Hammy’s hat is stolen and switched for a cat. A mystery shadow hand is seen throughout the book taking and switching it with rhyming items from the many characters in this silly and clever book of rhymes. Who is this mysterious thief? Will the police catch the perpetrator? Where did it all go wrong?
Comments: I can’t wait to share this with primary students when we go back to school. Students will need to think of a rhyming word that could match what was just stolen by the mystery hand. Turn the page to see if they are correct and then get ready for the next character on the right side of the page that gets something stolen.
Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe; illustrated by Barbara McClintock. 2018. Pen-and-ink, watercolor, and collage. Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Brief summary: Sophie lived during the French Revolution in Paris. During this turbulent time in history, Sophie was interested in math. Her family tried to get her to stop studying at night by taking away her candles, fires, and warm dresses to keep her in her bed and not calculating complex math problems. By age 19, she wanted to go to a university to study math, but that was unheard of for a woman to do that. She was able to get notes from math classes and turned in assignments signing them “Monsieur LeBlanc”. A professor came to her house and discovered she was the student. She met several scholars and was quietly becoming known. Her most famous math contribution was when she was able to find a mathematical formula that would predict vibration patterns. The Academy of Sciences had a math contest that had a prize of 3,000 francs. Sophie applied had the wrong solution. She kept testing and experimenting until 1826 when she found the answer to the problem and won.
Comments: Sections in the back are: short bio sketch, Is this Math or Science? Discover the Effects of Vibration for Yourself, Notes from the author and illustrator, and a bibliography.
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