#IMWAYR April 1, 2019


#IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.



It's been another lovely, mostly restful, week. My husband and I returned to Vancouver on Wednesday, just in time to babysit our grandson for a couple of days. It was fun, but exhausting. Today we are celebrating our 42nd anniversary. We had plans to go out to our favourite French restaurant, but it is closed Mondays so we have to wait for Tuesday. 

 Last week I had planned to finish my part of the flower quilt that my sister and I are working on, but I left in in Oliver. Thankfully someone there is coming to the coast this weekend and will bring it down. It's all good anyway since the weather has been gorgeous and I managed to get some pruning done in the garden.

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK


PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

I adore Olivier Dunrea's books. Ollie, a stubborn young gosling, refuses to hatch from his egg. His older siblings, Gossie and Gertie have been waiting for ages, but no matter how much encouragement they give him, he just won't come out. You will have to read for yourself to find out what trickery they come up with that makes him change his mind.
I can hardly wait for Ada and her parents to come home from Korea so we can read it together. I am sure her trilingual Mom will appreciate that this version is in both Spanish and English.

4 stars

This duo are brilliant. This book works on so many levels. Triangle is such an endearing scalawag, I can hardly wait to read Square.
Jon Klassen, the brilliant illustrator, is Canadian.

5 stars

I became smitten with this book at Kidsbooks, but didn’t have time to fully read it before it had to go off to Korea as a gift. Luckily my library copy had just arrived.
A young boy follows a colourful flying insect through crowds of irritable suspicious people. He comes to a cobweb covered door, and using the key dropped by the insect, opens it into another realm. Colour finally makes an appearance. The black-and-white world is replaced with a family of beak faced humans and other animals that communicate with each other. Speech bubbles are full of indecipherable text. The boy picnics and plays together with them. This alternative world is full of love and friendship, the antithesis to the suspicion of the first one.
It’s when the boy ends up at a wedding reception for two dissimilar creatures that the message in this book becomes pronounced. Here in this realm, everyone gets along with everyone else no matter their species. You need to spend serious time with this wordless book to fully appreciate the art and story.

5 stars

I appreciated learning about the importance of a Navajo baby’s first laugh. I love that the story is set in both the city and the country and that Jonathan Nelson shows readers a modern family celebrating ancient traditions. At the end of the book are lists of other infant ceremonies from around the world.

NOVELS

4 stars

This book tells the stories, in alternating chapters, of the descendants of two African women. One of them married a white man and lived a life of luxury. The other was sold into slavery in the United States. It isn’t an easy read.  Some of these stories are brutal and keeping track of all the different characters is challenging.
I learned a lot about the history of Ghana at the same time as learning more about the history of slavery and segregation in the United States.

4.5 stars

This book was more compelling than I anticipated. I carried it around with me for days, but when I finally started reading I couldn't stop! I'm not usually a science fiction fan, but Murderbot is a fascinating character and the story is full of intrigue, suspense and action. As soon as I finished this I put Artificial Condition, the sequel, on reserve.

NONFICTION

5 stars
Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation by Monique Gray Smith

This book is a Netgalley title that I am very late reviewing. I tried to read it as an ebook from the library and then realized that it doesn't work well in that format. That's probably why I never finished it ages ago. I really appreciated it when I got my hands on a hard copy of it. It is an important read for all Canadians, not just the target audience of students. The book will help everyone understand our history and responsibility to ensure that our relationship with indigenous people is one of respect as we go forward. I wish it could have been around when I first started teaching. Read my review here if you want to know more. 
Monique Gray Smith is an indigenous Canadian.

CURRENTLY

I am reading Blended by Sharon Draper with my ears, and Wicked Nix by Lena Coakely with my eyes.

UP NEXT

My next audiobook will be Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. With my eyes I'll start reading Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy by Manjusha Pawagi.

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2018 8/25 

#MustReadNFIn2018 5/12

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 6/25

25 books by Canadian Authors 21/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge 115/333


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Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation by Monique Gray Smith

Publication Date: September 19, 2017 by Orca Book Publishers

 I was fortunate to be able to read a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. (I had to find a hard copy to read as the ebook just doesn't work with all the text features.)

 Monique Gray Smith explores Reconciliation in four main sections. In the first she looks at why a reconciliation journey is necessary. In the second, she analyzes Canadian history with respect to Indigenous peoples. In the third section she examines where we are at now. The fourth component queries just what reconciliation might mean and what it entails.

 I appreciate the layout of this book. it's full of different nonfiction text features. There are plenty of captioned photographs. Different coloured sidebars are filled with different kinds of information. Indigo inserts provide additional information. Green inserts explain vocabulary. A map shows the location of all the residential schools in Canada. Reflection pieces, composed of text within orange circles, asks readers to contemplate what they have just read. Each section is highlighted with titles and subtitles. Words in bold print can be found in the glossary at the end of the book. The back matter also includes acknowledgements, online resources, a reading list, a list of residential schools, an index and information about the author.

 Even though this is book for intermediate and teen age children, don't assume it's an easy read. While it doesn't reveal the graphic details of the abuse suffered by so many children, I was still forced to put the book down at times and take a break. Granted, I have listened to the first hand accounts of survivors and survivors of survivors. Perhaps it's this background knowledge that made reading it difficult, but I suspect that if you are human, you would be troubled. It's not a comfortable topic.

 While I thought I knew a lot about residential schools, I was still suprised by information in this book. Given todays attitudes around accumulation as wealth, I found this sentence particularly profound, "Wealth was often determined by how much a person or family could give away and share with other families and community members." If only we determined wealth like this today. I knew that these schools had been around for a long time, but hadn't put put the 165 years into the context of seven generations of children being taken away from their parents. Sherman Alexie, in his book, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, claims that if you wanted to create as dysfunctional a society as possible, you would take the children away from their families, subject them to all kinds of abuse, return them home again, and repeat for generation after generation. Monique Gray Smith shows us what this looks like in reality.

 In the last section when the author speaks to what reconciliation means, I had a hard time. I agree that love and mutual respect have to be in the solution, but it seems simplified. I want direct action. I especially appreciated the words of Carey Newman, "When you read the definition of reconciliation, it is one of coming back, the reinstatement of the relationship. I have a problem with that because there wasn't really good relationships to begin with, so let's call it conciliation." As I think about reconciliation in the context of living in Canada today, I’m certain that doing nothing about lack of safe drinking water on reserves, underfunding indigenous education compared to that of other children, ignoring indigenous rights and land claims, (as with the Site C Dam and oil pipelines,) is not only NOT reconciliation, it’s a continuation of the system that brought it in. We have a long way to go before we really come to a place where the human rights of indigenous peoples in this country are respected. Until we get there, we aren't close to conciliation.
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#IMWAYR MARCH 25, 2019


#IMWAYR time again, when readers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to in the past week. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. Whatever you are looking forward to in your next great read, these are fabulous places to start your search.


I am enjoying a blessed time of relaxation here in our house in the small town of Oliver, B.C.  I have a list of chores to do and while there is company to invite over and friends and family to go see, in spite of this, I'm still feeling rested and calm. 

 My biggest problem is that I have finished up all of the fiction titles I brought with me. I have no idea what I was thinking. I even cleaned my bedroom here thinking that maybe one of them got lost. No such luck. 

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK




PICTURE BOOKS


I went through this book once, but knew then that I needed to delve into it more deeply. I finally made time, but even after poring over it, I'm sure there are more connections to be made. Blexbolex takes us through a few cycles of the seasons. Each go round captures images that provide a captioned snapshot of an event. Some, like leaves changing colours in fall, and nests in spring, are predictable. Then in the middle of one season is, unexpectedly, a car crash, reminding us that our lives and deaths are inextricably linked to these perpetually cycling seasons.


Gorgeous! Wonderful! Important! Your voice matters and don't you forget it!
Shhhh. Don't tell anyone how subversive this book is!


I would give this beautiful book more stars if I could. Juan Felipe Herrera takes us through his life in this poem, and at the same time, inspires readers to image who and what they might become. Lauren Castillo's illustrations incite his words to fly off the pages.


This is the story of a young boy visiting his father in prison. Zaü's brown toned illustrations create a somber ambience for this complicated book. It's full of love and sadness and anger; all of it completely authentic.

NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS


This is a brilliantly simple, and fun way to introduce coding. A section in the back matter provides additional information.


Every primary group I read this one to loved it. It's the perfect nonfiction picture book for that age group. There are plenty of opportunities to stop and talk about what they are wondering about and what they have noticed. My favourite conversations were about why all the male birds were so colourful compared to the females. A kindergarten student surmised that, "The mom's have to be camouflaged because they have to be safe to look after the babies."
The artwork is absolutely glorious! I loved this book so much that I sent a copy along for our granddaughter in law in Korea.

GRAPHIC


This essential read tells the story of two indigenous girls growing up in a city. The two best friends carry huge weights on their shoulders as they navigate their way through an urban world full of danger. The art is just stunning. Go read my blog post if you want to know more and see some of the images. Even better, go and purchase your own copy.
Both of these creators are Canadian.🍁


Imagine if Tim Federle's Nate was into hockey. Throw in a hint of David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy. Add a figure skating, queer hockey player. 
Bitty, (Eric Bittle) is a talented player, but he's terrified of getting checked. He also happens to be a wizard at baking pies.
Imagine it as a graphic novel. Imagine that it's a love story. It's about love for the game of hockey. It's about the love for teammates. It's about the love of one person for another. As weird as it all sounds, it works because it's so chock full of sweetness.

NOVELS
This is more than a picture book and less than a novel. It's a story about childhood, written for adults. Using the vernacular of his nephew’s Harlem community, this book provides a window into a young black boy’s experience in the 1970’s. While the story is illustrated, it’s not a picture book in a traditional sense. It’s more like an illustrated short story. It doesn’t follow a traditional story arc. Rather, it’s a string of anecdotes that reveal what ordinary life was like for children living there at the time. It isn’t without trauma as is shown when TJ, the little man, imagines cops on the street searching for someone. Adults are mostly kind, but that doesn't mean they don't have their own issues.
I can imagine readers gasping at the thought of sending a four year old to the store. This resonated as normal for me since a dozen or so years earlier than this, when I was only four, my mother regularly sent me off to pick up groceries for her. (You can bet I never sent my four year olds anywhere on their own!)
I decided to read the story before reading the forward, afterward, and additional notes. I'm glad I did, but these additions provide important background knowledge about the community at that time.
3.5 stars
The Way Home Looks Now by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

After his older brother's death, Peter Lee's mother sinks into a deep depression. Baseball was something the family celebrated together, so he concocts a plan to play baseball as a way of bringing her back to them. Whether it worked or not you won't find out in this book, but it does mend the schism between Peter and his father that was growing prior to the tragedy.

I want to say I loved this book but the truth is I only loved the last half of it or so. I'm tired of books where there is a death in the family. It's worse that the mother's sinking into such a deep depression as a consequence, didn't feel authentic to me. Perhaps it would feel more realistic if there had been previous signs of mental health issues, but there weren't. As a parent I can't imagine ignoring my living children, no matter the catastrophe.
4 stars
Missing Mike by Shari Green
Shari Green writes the kind of middle grade novels that I love best. Her stories and characters are full of heart and soul.
Cara and her family are forced to evacuate their home due to encroaching wildfires. She left her dog, Mike, alone for a few moments when they had to go, but he ran off, so they had to leave without him.
They end up staying with a host family in the nearest, safe, large centre. Even though Cara, and her new friend, Jewel, do everything they can to find Mike, there is no sign of him.
In spite of the loss, sadness and heartache that overwhelm people at a time like this, Shari Green shows us the silver lining. Evacuated families are greeted with kindness and support wherever they go. Cara's host family goes out of their way to make them feel as comfortable as possible.
Ultimately this book is a look at what home means to us. By the end, Cara is beginning to realize that it is much more than a house.
For the last few years we have sat on the back deck of our home in Oliver and watched wildfires burning. They were close enough that we could see trees candling. We were lucky to not have to evacuate, but others in our small town ended up having to leave their houses. We listened to the news of people in other parts of the province having to leave and ending up with nothing to go back to. Everyone in the province had to deal with the smoke that blocked out the sun. I appreciate the author for personalizing this experience for readers.
Shari Green is Canadian.🍁

CURRENTLY

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi with Dominic Hoffman narrating, is a brilliant but hard listen. I reached a place where I was afraid of what would happen next and had trouble making myself go back to the book. It's the problem with audiobooks. With text I can quickly skim over the terrifying bits. I did force myself to return to the book and am glad I did. I should finish this one soon. I'm also reading, as an ebook, Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation by Monique Gray Smith, one of the indigenous titles on my list this year (and one of the Netgalley titles that I need to review from ages and ages ago). Even though much of the history isn't new to me, it's still a heavy read. I've downloaded On the Come Up by Angie Thomas as a digital fast read. While, I've got scintillating stuff available, I miss something I can hold in my hands with real pages to turn!

UP NEXT

I plan to get to All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Wicked Nix by Lena Coakely. My next audiobook will probably be either Blended by Sharon Draper, or Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. It's going to be difficult to decide. 

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2018 7/25 1 in progress

#MustReadNFIn2018 5/12 

25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 5/25

25 books by Canadian Authors 21/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge 108/333
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