A gorgeous tale about sharing!

This book is published by Island Heritage Publishing and I picked it up on the island of Maui! I love the soft colors of the book and the expressions of the characters. Two children are told by their grandfather to fill their wagon with excess mangoes (the plural of mango can be mangos or mangoes in English) and share them with their neighbors. Each neighbor sends a mahalo (thank you) gift back with the children to their grandfather. He sets a lovely meal together from what has been shared. I act this out with children.

TOO MANY MANGOS Written by Tammy Paikai; Illustrated by Don Robinson

Charlotte Zolotow Award winner

 

We just found out that this book is the winner of the Charlotte Zolotow award. Congratulations!
A Vietnamese son goes fishing in the early morning hours with his father. This is before his father has to go to work. The intimacy of fishing together allows the father to tell his son about his home country, Vietnam. This book, in a loving way, captures the refugee experience and the immigrant experience. And even if readers cannot relate to either of those, they will be able to relate to the struggles of getting through the day and getting food on the table. No matter the circumstances, the overreaching universal theme of survival is what we all know and understand. We all share this at differing levels. We can applaud the people who take care of their families and push through exhaustion especially after having escaped a war. We never know people's stories until we ask...and listen.

A fun alphabet book!

We did an author study (with adults) of James Patterson at our library and Jill discovered this picture book written by James & Susan Patterson. It is illustrated by Hsinping Pan. And we found out that Susan Patterson attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

BIG WORDS FOR LITTLE GENIUSES c) 2017

     The book teaches "big" words for each letter of the alphabet. Very fun! The illustrations carry the book beautifully!
For "q" I learned a new word, "quokka". A quokka is an animal who happens to smile a lot! I found this cutie pie online.

A favorite Christmas picture book!

Every year, this book is my gentle & thoughtful reminder to break down holiday activities into happy and manageable pieces. And, of course, be generous to nature and wildlife! (Picture book!)

Poor Pamela!

Charming! This book is about Pamela, a cow, who LOVES pears. The situation is out of control so Amy, her young owner, decides to solve the problem by offering Pamela as many pears as she could possibly want. (This is along the lines of the theory that if you overdose on something you will get over your craving for it.) Poor Pamela gets very sick. And, yes, she is done with pears but onto something else perhaps? Hilarious. (This book is written in both English and Spanish.)

Thursday on Thursday!

This is the last day of picture book month. “Because of Thursday” c) 2016 by Patricia Polacco. “The Keeping Quilt” and “Rechenka’s Eggs” were her two big hits in 1988 and she has been creating and publishing ever since.  I was curious as to what this author/illustrator was up to lately. She is still offering up beautiful literature. In this story, Annie and Mario love each other and love to cook. When Mario dies, Annie suffers. One day, a kitten enters her life. And it reminds her of Mario. Annie is able to get to cooking and hostessing again. The disclaimer says likenesses are purely coincidental but I definitely see a cameo from GUY FIERI in this book!

Important history lesson

“Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down” c)2010 By Andrea Davis Pinkney; Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. The author showed slides of this book at the Wisconsin Library Association Conference in October. I had to read the whole thing! What a beautiful and powerful book about important moments during the civil rights movement. We take so much for granted now but restaurants, schools, businesses, buses, parks, pools and even LIBRARIES in the southern United States were segregated. Thank goodness for the wisdom and courage of so many people who peacefully resisted these restrictions. As a result, President Kennedy asked the American people to consider a change in June of 1963. Then on July 2, 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson made the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a law. This book teaches great lessons about peaceful protests and how much of a difference even the youngest among us can make.