New reading delights - Responding to LIS721

The War that Saved my Life In the Newberry Honor and Schneider Family Book Award winning book, The War that Saved My Life , the story is set in England as World War II breaks out. Ada and her younger brother Jamie live with their abusive mother. Due to her mother’s humiliation over Ada’s deformed foot, Ada is never allowed outside a single room. However, as the war heats up and the city’s children are evacuated to the country, Ada and Jamie sneak off. Ada and Jamie now live with Susan, a woman who was opposed to taking in evacuees and especially children. Told with the voice and perspective of Ada, the narrative engages readers as Ada learns more about the world in general, the war that is changing everything, and begins to process the trauma from her past. Coming from a place where Ada knew nothing of the outside world, the premise of the story helps to explain to readers what is happening through Ada’s questions about the whys and how things are different for the time period. Portr

I confess, I’ve never really been into graphic novels, just as I’ve never gotten into superheroes. In my mind those have always been synonymous. However, this week, we’ve been exploring graphic novels and it’s a whole new world and one where I’m delighted to find more. Fox & Rabbit The first in a three-part series, Fox & Rabbit is a set of 5 stories of an unlikely pair of animal friends as they have adventures in a fair, a garden, and even a lemonade stand. The stories are heartwarming tales of friendship, forgiveness, and learning to accept each other’s foibles and mistakes. The pictures work well together, with the visual clues from the graphics providing additional information and storyline, such as when Rabbit is sad at not winning anything from the fair. The plots are easy to follow in their simplicity and are tales with which children can easily identify, such as setting up a lemonade stand but no one comes. While each of the 5 tales can be read on their own, they are al

  For this week, we are looking at beginning and transitional books for children. These are books that help children to read more independently. As Kathleen Horning points out in the book From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reading Children’s Books , almost paradoxically, beginning books for children are written at a simpler reading level than picture books because they are meant to be read because they are meant to be read by the children instead of to the children. Thus, finding books that engage children independently is the next important step for encouraging reading adventures.   We are Growing! Introduced by the beloved Elephant and Piggie duo from Mo Willems, We are Growing! Tells the tale of blades of grass that are growing and changing. As they grow, they each discover something about themselves that makes them special and unique, except for one, Walt. When the grasses are cut by the lawn mower, Walt discovers his talent, while the other grasses learn that they will grow

This week we're jumping into books of information, which has quite a range in content and presentation. For my selections this week, I chose both story narratives, an infographic, and "facts and figures" type books. Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table Jacqueline Briggs Martin, a Caldecott Medal winner, tells the story of Will Allen, a former basketball player whose vision helped him to create and expand massive urban farming projects. Like the subject of her book, Martin has a passion for urban farming and home-grown food. Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table was the first in Martin’s Food Hero series. Martin’s collection of additional resources demonstrates thoughtful research into the topic and audience, with focus on urban gardening and gardening with children. With a target audience of 6-10 year olds, the content focuses on the challenges that Will Allen faced with beginning urban gardening and how he was able to overcome them with new and inventive ways. Th

 I love poetry, The language is often evocative and imaginative, encouraging new ways of looking at the world and seeing new truths. This week we are looking at a wide range of types of poetry for children. Yes, We are Latinos!: Poems and Prose about the Latino Experience Yes! We are Latinos is a collection of poetry and prose that explores the depth and breadth of the young Latino/a community and experience in the United States. The 13 profiles are gathered to bring the reader to ask what makes someone Latino/a and the rich cultural history that comes with it. Ada and Campoy directly address the readers directly in the introduction to encourage them to explore and to learn more, challenging what may be assumptions about the diverse group of people. After each profile and poem, there is background information and history related to the story, providing more context and knowledge of the Latino culture and histories Bringing to the classroom, these poems provide the opportunity to help

 This week are some folktales.One is the origin of many well known tales, such as hansel and Gretel, but are the true versions, which tend toward much darker content. The other is rich in hisotry and inspiration of people working to survive in a harsh reality. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm are a collection of 27 of some of the classic Grimm fairytales, ranging from very well known to rarely heard. Segal stays true to the original German text for the translation, without interpretations or additional reworking. There is no commentary on how the stories relate, so the reader is left to see the through lines of these stories. In a translator’s note, Segal reports translating primarily from later texts that had been reworked by the original Brothers Grimm and attempted to stay as true to the German as possible. The Grimm stories are mean tot be read aloud and retold and the language works for that in this edition. The simplistic la