Reading Without Walls

One Shadow on the Wall

by Leah Henderson

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2017

Outside In

Jennifer Bradbury

Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2017

This pair of books put me "in the shoes" of orphan boys in Senegal (One Shadow on the Wall) and India (Outside In).

Each of the boys must do whatever it takes to survive. In both books, bullies play a big part in making that survival difficult. The spirit of his father helps Mor (One Shadow on the Wall), while Ram (Outside In) is guided by the traditional stories of how the princes Rama (who marries Sita) and Lakshmana endure fourteen years of exile and defeat the evil Ravana (with the help of the monkey army).

Family is important in both books. Mor works to keep his together, while Ram finds one.

In both books, there is an outsider who helps the boys. In One Shadow on the Wall, Demba is mystical and thought by the villagers to be crazy. In Outside In, Nek creates art in secret.

It was quite surprising to read these back-to-back and find so many similarities. Makes me wonder how my next-reads will connect!

Broadening Horizons With Play, Part Two

The Banana-Leaf Ball
by Katie Smith Milway
illustrated by Shane W. Evans
CitizenKid, 2017
review copy from the public library, on order for my classroom library

Another great CitizenKid book. The story of Deo is based on the true story of Benjamin Nzobonankira, who, at the age of 10, was a child refugee from Burundi. While in the refugee camp featured in the book, Lukole, Benjamin's life was impacted by a Right to Play volunteer and he went on to also become involved with Right to Play.

This is one of those rare books where the back matter is just as engaging as the story. I plan to incorporate the games (and information about the international organizations) listed in the back as team-builders and ice-breakers at the beginning of the year next fall!

Broadening Horizons, Part One

This is How We Do It
by Matt Lamothe
Chronicle Books, 2017
review copy from the public library, on order for my classroom library

First of all, props to Columbus Metropolitan Library for not pasting down the flaps on the cover so that the reader can study and appreciate the endpapers!

Readers of all ages will want to pore over every inch of this book! By showing how families from seven countries around the world in such common ways as where they live, how they get to school, how they play, and how they eat dinner, we can find the things that connect us to others, and the things that make us unique. In the back of the book, the photographs of the actual families the book is based on add to its authenticity. Wouldn't it be fun to have your students share photos of their meals, their families, their bedrooms...discovering the ways they are the same along with all the ways they are unique?

I briefly previewed this book in my 5th grade classroom, and it was positively magnetic the next time students had a chance to get their hands on it.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR

Go to Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers
for the It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Round-Up!

I did a pretty good job on my TBR pile from last week. I finished 3 of the 5 and added one I hadn't planned on.

FINISHED 

SURPRISE ADDITION

My Goodreads review:

Ms. Bixby is A Year of Reading's 147th 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature.

She is the teacher we all want to be. Not exactly her. We don't all need to run out and put a pink stripe in our hair. But we all want to be the ones who really SEE our students; who really HEAR them; who really KNOW them...and make a different difference in each of their lives.

KEEP YOUR EYE OUT FOR THESE

I got a big envelope full of goodies from Enchanted Lion Books last week. Editor Claudia Bedrick does an amazing job bringing international books to the US market. All of these books are coming out this fall, and you'll want to watch for them. 

The Happy Hunter

A reprint from the 1960's, this book by Swiss author/illustrator Roger Duvoisin gives us a character with a mentality we need in today's world.

Chirri & Chirra

The first in a trilogy by a famous-in-Japan children's bookmaker.

A Most Mysterious Mouse

From Italy, a cat who dreams of the perfect mouse...and when that mouse finally appears, the cat's life is changed forever and for the better.

Have You Seen My Trumpet?

Have You Seen My Trumpet? comes to us from France. Fans of Michaël Escoffier's two other word play books in this series -- TAKE AWAY THE A and WHERE'S THE BABOON? -- will want to check this one out. After a few spreads, readers will get the pattern, but there's still a fun surprise waiting in the end!

What Color Is The Wind?

First published in France by Belgian author Anne Herbauts, this book explores a myriad of ways to describe wind. Depending on who the blind boy asks for a description, color might be a smell, the sun, or time. Even the book itself is part of the exploration. It is "Created through embossing, debossing, die-cuts, lamination, and a variety of surfaces..." The fact that it's a paperback is also part of the experience of explaining wind. 

This is a fascinating book you'll want to get your hands on...literally. 

The most amazing of all of the Enchanted Lion books was this one -- 

Pinocchio: The Origin Story by Allesandro Sanna.

Allesandro Sanna is the Italian author of The River, a visual memoir of his life on Italy's Po River. From Sanna's inspiration for this story, to the gorgeous and mysterious illustrations, this is a book to savor. It gives a new and deeper meaning to the idea of an origin story!

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye

The Turtle of Oman
by Naomi Shihab Nye
illustrated (with small sketches at the beginning of every chapter) by Betsy Peterschmidt
Greenwillow Books, 2014
review copy from the public library (but I'll be purchasing this one for my classroom library)

This book is not a novel in verse, but it is written so poetically that sometimes it feels like a poem.

This book is a love song to HOME. 

Young Aref is leaving Oman to live in Michigan for 3 years while his parents go to graduate school there. The story tells about his last week in Oman, spent procrastinating and delaying the packing of his suitcase, while savoring everything he loves the best in and near the city of Muscat in Oman with his wonderful grandfather Sidi. Together, they go to the nearby sea and spend some time on the beach. They go to a camp out in the desert and spend the night. They ride out with a fisherman into the sea. Aref spends the night at Sidi's house and they sleep out under the stars on the flat roof of Sidi's house. 

When they are at the Camp of a Thousand Stars, they meet a man with a falcon who flies away from his handler, but comes back every time to sit on his arm. When they go to the beach, they visit the place where the sea turtles come back every year to lay their  eggs. Out on the boat, Aref catches a fish, but lets it go back to its home in the sea. And slowly, throughout the course of the week, Aref can begin to imagine leaving Oman, because he knows that he, too, will return.

By showing us Oman through the eyes of a child whose heart is breaking to leave it, Naomi Shihab Nye gives the reader an intimate look at a place that, though very different from anywhere in North America, will invite the reader appreciate both Oman, as well as all the people and particular places that make HOME special to him/her.

 

Two Picture Books from France

Brief Thief
by Michael Escoffier
illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo
Enchanted Lion Books (April 12, 2013)
Review copy provided by the publisher

A pair of underwear left on a branch are swiped for a wipe and then discarded. A conscience engages and berates. The item is cleaned and re-treed. The owner returns, retrieves...and shocks the reader with a surprise ending!

Click here for two Dispatch Reader Kid reviews.

Me First!

by Michael Escoffier
illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo
Enchanted Lion Books (August 27, 2013)
Review copy provided by the publisher

By the same pair who wrote BRIEF THIEF, we have another fun character who is self-centered and impetuous. There is no conscience in this story, except maybe in the form of the Mother Duck, who seems to realize that a "business as usual" attitude on her part will allow circumstances to moderate her fourth duckling's bossy "Me first!" behavior. As with BRIEF THIEF, there is a very fun surprise ending.


Both of these books were originally published in France, and are brought to readers in the United States by Enchanted Lion Books.

Nonfiction From Around the World

Suryia and Roscoe: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship

by Bhagavan "Doc" Antle with Thea Feldman

Photographs by Barry Bland

Henry Holt, 2011

The setting of this book is an endangered animal preserve in North Carolina, but Orangutans are found in the wild in only Borneo and Sumatra, so we'll keep it here in our little collection of nonfiction from around the world. 

This book caught my eye at Cover to Cover. I am developing a small collection of books about animals that are unlikely friends. After I opened it and read it, I knew I had to have it. The photography is fantastic, and the story is told in a simple narrative style. This is a book that reluctant nonfiction readers will want to pick up and will be able to read all the way through.

Lighting Our World: A Year of Celebrations

by Catherine Rondina

illustrated by Jacqui Oakley

Kids Can Press, 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

The use of lights in all of the typical winter holidays has always been a unifying way to talk about the celebrations from different cultures.

Now, with Lighting Our World, we have a whole YEAR full of celebrations from many countries and cultures of the world...all of which feature the use of light! From Up Helly Aa in Scotland in January, to Inti Raymi in Cusco, Peru in June, to Guy Fawkes Day in New Zealand in November, this book has light-filled holidays for every month of the year!

Mimi's Village: And How Basic Health Care Transformed It (CitizenKid)

by Katie Smith Milway

illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

Kids Can Press (CitizenKid), 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

Mimi lives in a village in Kenya where clean water is not easily accessible, mosquitoes carry malaria, and the health clinic is a several-hour walk away. 

After a visit to the clinic when Mimi's sister sickens after drinking some unboiled water from the stream, Mimi suggests to her father that if he builds a clinic, maybe a health worker will come to their village. After a year of work, Mimi's dream comes true.

This narrative nonfiction story, with suggestions for ways kids can help provide simple, but effective resources like bed nets, will inspire budding social activists to make the world a better place for ALL people.