Showing posts with label NF Picture Book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NF Picture Book. Show all posts

#IMWAYR January 2, 2023


Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. 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. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful winter break. We had the whole family here over Christmas. It was gloriously exhausting. I read a lot of Christmas picture books with my grandkids, but am not sharing those today. 


I'm working on all kinds of projects these days, but not finishing much. 
I haven't started a final update for my MustRead read challenges last year. 
I'm beginning to think about what might go on my MustRead lists for this year. 
I managed to get holds on just about all the books I will need for my job as a round two Cybil's Awards Judge. 

Today I'm just trying to get caught sharing what I've read since my last post December 12th. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

Poppy's House by Karla Courtney & Madeline Kloepper (Illustrator) June 7th 2022 🍁

A young girl spends time with her Poppy (grandfather) at his house on top of a hill in Newfoundland. This collaboration between Karla Courtney and Madeline Kloepper brims over with the love between the two of them as they go about their days together doing ordinary things. Thanks to Linda Bai for the introduction to this. 


Thanks to my friend Linda B for reminding me about this book. A boy notes one snowflake, then another and another. Still, the adults around him, the radio station and the TV report no snow. Fortunately for the boy, snow pays them no mind and continues to fall. The boy and his dog cavort in the falling snow along with characters who have escaped from the Mother Goose book shop. In the end the world is covered in white.


Wow!
Boy and dog and grandfather with beard walk to the river to watch the sun go down. On their way home boy and dog notice the darkening sky and the lighting of the windows. Three slightly maniacal rhyming poems of shoppers interrupt the dreamy lyrical prose portraying a magical world where the lights of Christmas, Kwanza, and Hanukkah shine in shop windows.

5 stars

Patchwork by Matt de la PeΓ±a & Corinna Luyken (Illustrator) August 30th 2022

I read this twice. This beautiful book affirms our complex humanity. Everyone, no matter their age, should read this book.

5 stars

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen (Illustrations) October 18th 2022 πŸ

This is a brilliant retelling of one of my all time favourite fairy tales.

5 stars

A Very Mercy Christmas by Kate DiCamillo & Chris Van Dusen (Illustrator) September 27th 2022

I purchased two copies of this to give to my sons and their families. As I was wrapping them I figured I should read it first.
I'm so glad I did.
I'm sure it will become one of my favourite Christmas stories. How can it not when it shows how one person, in this case Stella Endicott, manages to bring joy to the her world by heading off carolling all by herself. All kinds of ordinary miracles occur and in the end, as is always the case in a Mercy Watson tale, there is toast.

NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS

I knew next to nothing about Maya Angelou’s life before reading this picture book biography. Watson’s poems and Collier’s emotional artwork surpassed the brilliance I expected from them. Through their collaboration we come to know more about Angelou’s life: not only the events that formed her, but the emotional consequences of them.
Five stars is not enough.

4 stars

Finding My Dance by Ria Thundercloud & Kalila J. Fuller (Illustrator) September 13th 2022

Ria Thundercloud began jingle dancing when she was only four years old. She moved onto fancy dancing and from there on into tap, jazz, modern, contemporary and ballet. She travelled the world before returning home. She is an inspiration for all children who, like her, have dance in their souls.

I am enchanted by this chapter book. It's the story of an oddball witch who travels with her mother to the city of New Warts to shop at Broomingdales.
If you haven't figured out that this book is full of delightful puns, mostly there, I am sure, to entertain parents, then read that second sentence again.
The main message of this little story is to be yourself, help out when you can, and enjoy making new friends. Those are pretty good guidelines for witches of all ages.


MG NOVELS



Three different children from different parts of North America have to deal with the immediate consequences of the climate crisis. Their experiences are revealed in alternating chapters. A girl in Florida deals with a category 5 hurricane. Another girl in California is trapped inside a massive forest fire. In Churchill Ontario, two boys are stalked by polar bears.
This is similar in format to Gratz's Refugee.

I'll be publishing a full review of this book tomorrow. It's a lovely story about the relationship between a young girl and her grandmother. When the grandmother dies, the girl begins to believe that she has been reincarnated into someone else's body. 

MG NON FICTION

4 stars

Meet David Suzuki (Scholastic Canada Biography) by Elizabeth MacLeod & Mike Deas (Illustrator) September 2021  πŸ

David Suzuki is one of Canada's most respected Canadians. In 2004 he came fifth in The Greatest Canadian Contest. Since 2006, David Suzuki has scored at or near the top of the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Canadian poll. I really appreciated learning so much about him in this short biography.
He was born in Vancouver BC, in 1936 and in 1942 his family was one of 22,000 Japanese Canadians forced into internment (prison camps) in the interior of the province.
After the war Suzuki's family moved to Ontario. He went to university in the USA and became a world renowned geneticist. Back in Canada he taught at different universities, and established radio and television programs about science. His focus on the environment was always part of what drove him. These days he actively works to get the rest of us aware of and involved in dealing with the climate crisis.

4 stars

Meet J. Armand Bombardier (Scholastic Canada Biography) by Elizabeth MacLeod & Mike Deas (Illustrator) September 6th 2022  πŸ

If you are a Canadian, you have most probably heard the word Bombardier - especially in the context of jet manufacturing. This delightful biography lets us know more about J. Armand Bombardier and his amazing inventions. His first inventions were vehicles that let people travel on top of the snow. They were used for delivering groceries and milk. There was even a school bus snow mobile that could carry 25 children. He developed special carriers to move men and equipment during world war two. Eventually he created the first small machine for personal use, the Ski-Doo, that became a recreational success.

YA & ADULT FICTION


This was a delightful post Christmas read. It's a feel good, joyful novel about coming home to a place you've never been before. It's about finding family in people around you and letting go of the past. It's about growing up and finding love in yourself and others. It's got just enough romance to make your heart sigh. It is exactly what I expect from this author.
It's been seven years since Sarah Addison Allen's last novel. It was worth the wait.


A missing son, a mysterious murdered man, and a gang of thieves lead Inspector Darling, Lane Winslow, and Ames into all kinds of territory. From Nelson's high society to the dark underbelly of corrupt immigration workers and a white supremacist cult, they do what they can to bring justice to their part of the world.


A Russian operative with plans to retire and move to England is betrayed. On his way to a gulag he escapes and makes his way to Canada to connect with Lane Winslow, the only person he feels he can trust.
In the meantime, a elderly Russian woman has come to Nelson in search of her missing brother. She ends up staying with Lane until a better home is found for her. She seems to be a harmless painter.
While Ames is in Vancouver taking a course to become a sergeant, his replacement is proving to be less than satisfactory.
Out in the forest a hunter is found with his throat cut.  
Are any of these people who they claim to be?
Will Inspector Darling and Lane Winslow finally tie the knot?  
I especially appreciated learning more about Russian history in this book.

CURRENTLY

The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune
The Universe in You by Jason Chin

UP NEXT 

Blackmail and Bibinka by Mia P Manansala
Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao
Whatever other Graphic Novels become available
READING GOALS FROM 2022

#MustReadFiction 24/24

#MustReadNonFiction 17/18

Canadian Authors 86/100 three in progress

Indigenous Authors 20/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 288/250



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#IMWAYR October 31, 2022

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. 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. These are fabulous places to start your search  for what to read next.

Tuesday, November 2nd is I Read Canadian Day!

I'm still working on a blog post highlighting the Canadian Authors I have read since the last I Read Canadian Day. I'll have it ready for this one! The links below will take you to earlier lists.
I tried to read only Canadian books last week, but I ended up substitute teaching and given that it's Halloween season, I dragged a couple of appropriate titles from my collection to bring along for back up activities. They both got used. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

BLOG POSTS LAST WEEK

Weird Rules to Follow by Kim Spencer πŸ

PICTURE BOOKS 

5 stars

Mina by Matthew Forsythe February 15 2022 πŸ

Mina is pretty much unflappable. She isn't bothered when her father brings home a tin can to make his jokes louder, or by his collection of antique art, or even by the band of musicians. Still, when he brings home an animal he is certain is a squirrel, she's not sure. She worries and has trouble sleeping, but everything seems fine until the new creature stops eating. Then her father brings home more of these animals. None of them want to eat. The doctor is called and as soon as he identifies them as a different species entirely, trouble erupts. 
I really liked this one. The gorgeous illustrations and the quirky story are just perfect. I appreciated the message about trusting your instincts. 
As soon as I finished it I downloaded Pokko and the Drum. 


Pokko's family have made mistakes before: getting her a slingshot, a llama, and the balloon, but giving her a drum was the worst. It was so loud her parents couldn't hear one another talk. They sent her outside to play her drum, but told her take it easy and not draw attention to herself. They were after all, just a little frog family who lived in a mushroom. Pokko tries, but ends up leading a huge noisy band of forest animals. 
I adore the art and the humour in both of the books by Matthew Forsythe. Each one has an important message. In this case I think it's about the power of practise, of not giving up. Maybe it's also about getting your children inappropriate gifts and letting them grow into who they will become. 

5 stars

One Dark Night by Edna Mitchell Preston & Kurt Werth (Illustrator) September 15, 1969

This is a cumulative Halloween tale with rhythmic, repetitive language. It follows a group of Halloween trick or treaters as they head off into the night. Then they hear a terrifying squeak. In their haste to get away from the sound they fall over each other scaring themselves even more.




I wish more teachers would work with books like this. I wish we had more books like this. I brought it along with me to read to individual students when I was substitute teaching. I listened to one girl read from the levelled text she had been assigned. Then we read this together. Well she mostly read it and I helped out if she needed it. The difference between the two readings was profound. The first was stilted, dry and boring. Not long after she started the second she was into the pattern of the language and reading with expression. You can download it and read it at the Open Library


I own a copy of this book and have read it many times with children of all ages. The younger ones need a bit of help following the story line, but all of them were in awe of Tor Lokvig's paper engineering.
This pop out book takes us through different rooms in a haunted house. We follow a couple of mice as they make their way to the attic. Readers must depend on inference to follow the storyline as they integrate it with the fabulous artwork. A lot is going on, so it's easy to lose the narrative. I'm not sure it really matters.
The small groups I read it to on Friday appreciated it as much as every other group has.


Mary Ann Shad was the first woman publisher in Canada and the first black woman to publish a newspaper in North America. She was born in 1823 in Wilmington Delaware. Slavery was still legal but her family were not slaves. Her parents were involved with the Underground Railroad as station masters. In 1850, the law was changed to make it legal for any black person, free or not, to be snatched by slave catchers. Their family moved to Canada soon after that.
In what is now Windsor, Ontario, Marianne started an integrated school where skin colour didn’t matter. She wrote numerous letters to the editor about her opinions but these were either not printed or edited so that her meaning was obscured. 
In 1853 she started her own newspaper. She had to work hard to raise money for it. They sold subscriptions but had to fund raise in other ways: holding fares, bazaars, and tea parties. The newspaper was a forum to talk about the discrimination Black people, both men and women, faced. By1860 the paper had run out of funds and had to close. 
Over the years Mary Ann Shadd travelled back and forth from Canada to the United States to try and make life better for Black people. She was also very involved in the women’s suffrage movement fighting for the rights of Black women at a time when many white suffragettes didn't want Black people to have the right to vote. 
In 1869 she started night classes at Howard university to become the first Black woman to to attend law school. She was 60 years old when she graduated. Throughout her life she worked for the rights of her self and others.


This illustrated chapter book tells the story of Anne's tea party with her best friend, Diana. The two girls had a great time drinking raspberry cordial and pretending to be grown-up. Unfortunately, Marilla had mistakenly mixed up the raspberry cordial with the current wine, and Diana went home sick. Even though Marilla tried to explain, Mrs Barry, Diana's mother, was sure it was all Anne's fault and refused to let Diana have anything more to do with her.
Then one evening Diana flung open the Shirley's kitchen door. Her parents were away and her little sister was deathly ill. Matthew went for the doctor, but it was Anne who worked tirelessly all night to save Minnie May's life. Mrs Barry acknowledged that she was wrong about Anne's character and the two girls were allowed to be boon companions once again. 
I love how this series captures the essence of the original books. 

I am always content to read a Becky Citra novel. Not only does she create authentic characters, she places them in environments so real, readers experience a sense of having been there.
She does it again with Rachel Bird.
Rachel is a 14 year old teen with a 5 year old sister, Jane. Their mother died and as the story begins, they are spending time in Vancouver, BC, with an uncle they knew nothing about. During the summer holidays they are sent to live with Margaret and Wayne, grandparents they have neither met nor heard of. They end up on a ranch north of 100 Mile House in the Caribou region of British Columbia.
At first Rachel wants to just return to Vancouver, but eventually she makes connections to Margaret and Wayne; Magic, her mother's horse; new friends; and the land itself.
As a reader I couldn't help but wonder, why the mother left the family and had nothing to do with them afterwards?
Rachel wonders the same thing and as the story unfolds, secrets are forced into the open and we learn the answers.


Let me just get this on the table right off the bat. I hate books that end in cliffhangers. This one ends with a cliffhanger.
It's a good thing I was already hooked on this series or I might just refuse to read more on general principle.
Ma takes Jaxon to Chicago to a Witch and Wizard convention, but when they are there, refuses to let him attend. Instead she sets him up with a guide who shows him around the city and teaches him about the history of Black people in the area. His guide reconnects Jaxon to Blue, a trickster from the previous book. Through them he learns that he has been summoned to attend a court case at the convention, but that Ma has hidden this from him. Of course Jaxon tried to keep his phoenix egg and now hatched phoenix from her. 
In the end, Jaxon gets to the court session and ends up in a trap set by Blue and others. 


This book compares the experiences of best friends growing up on the same cul-de-sac in Prince Rupert in the 1980's. Mia, the half Indigenous narrator, lives in poverty. Lara is a middle class white girl. Class and culture matter. You can read my full review here. 

I am a hard core fan of cosy mysteries. If they are historical, I'm even happier. When the book is well written by a Canadian author and highlights a Canadian landscape, it's a dream come true.
It's 1946 and Lane Winslow, ex-intelligence officer, has left London and her war trauma behind her to settle in a small hamlet in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. She's just settling in, making new friends, and dealing with an unwanted suitor, when she and her cantankerous neighbour discover a body plugging up their water system. The discovery and following machinations have her past catching up with her, and puts her smack in the frame for the murder. In the process we are introduced to a handsome police detective who doesn't want to arrest her, but might have no choice. In the end, Lane comes up with a deadly plan to draw the murderer out into the open.
I can hardly wait to start the next in the series to see what Lane gets up to next, and how her relationship with the handsome detective unfolds. 
 
CURRENTLY

Butt Sandwich & Tree by Wesley King  πŸ
Science Comics: Crows: Genius Birds (Science Comics) by Kyla Vanderklugt  πŸ
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

UP NEXT - MAYBE

Death in a Darkening Mist (Lane Winslow #2) by Iona Whishaw πŸ
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
  
READING GOALS

#MustReadFiction 22/24 

#MustReadNonFiction 14/18 one in progress

Canadian Authors 65/100 two in progress

Indigenous Authors 16/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 248/250

2022 Big Book Summer Challenge 7
Canada Reads shortlist 5/5 

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#IMWAYR July 26, 2021

Hello everyone. It's #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.


The world is on fire. At least, our part of it is. As of Sunday, we have 1,217 fires burning in our province. One of them is raging across the valley from where I live. So far it has burned 6,871.8 hectares (16,980.6 acres) It's moved from the grassland areas where people live into the treed area above it. On Sunday evening we sat on our front lawns with friends. Looking through our binoculars, we watched trees candling. I wept. 
 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator. 

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.


PICTURE BOOKS


This book features a diversity of boys engaged in all kinds of activities. They all focus on positive attributes. The books works to eliminate toxic masculinity from boys and men.

4 stars

Story Boat by Kyo Maclear & Rashin Kheiriyeh (Illustrations) πŸ

A family of refugees makes their home in different places on a daily basis. It’s the small things: a special cup, blanket, or light, that comfort them.
Rashin Kheiriyeh’s lovely artwork “was created with the coloured pencil and watercolour, oil and acrylic paint and painted paper, with additional natural materials including wood, wall and cut paper.”

4 stars

Escape Goat by Ann Patchett & Robin Preiss Glasser (Illustrations)

When this adorable goat decides it wants to see more of the world, it ends up getting accused of all kinds of things it didn’t do. I loved Robin Preiss Glaser‘s detailed artwork. She used ink and watercolour to create these illustrations. Many thanks to Shaye Miller for turning me onto this book.

4 stars

The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen πŸ

This is dark and weird and screamingly hilarious.

NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

The Bat by Elise Gravel πŸ

Elise Gravel creates absolutely delightful nonfiction titles for younger readers. They are so much fun, you hardly know you are learning. She proves that bats are fascinating in this one. I appreciate that she even mentions how we humans are threatening bats with extinction.

5 stars

Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued by Peter SΓ­s

I knew about the kindertransport, but this similar story is new to me. Nicolas Winton was a young man in 1938 when he arranged for 669 Jewish children to leave Czechoslovakia before the German invasion. Vera is one of the young girls he saved. This beautiful book, that celebrates the good that an ordinary person can do, gave me shivers.

CHAPTER BOOKS 

4 stars

Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-Be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley & Tara Audibert (Illustrations) πŸ

Jo Jo is a first grade Ojibwe girl. Her first best friend is a cat. She’s not sure about Fern, her school best friend. At the same time as this book is delightfully funny, it also deals with the important topic of how to be a friend.

Jo Jo reminds me of Junie B Jones.
Tara Audibert is Canadian. 

NOVELS

4 stars

Ways to Grow Love (Ryan Hart, #2) by RenΓ©e Watson

There is less cooking in this second Ryan Hart novel, but that's because Ryan has so much going on in her life! Her pregnant mom is on bed rest so she spends more time with her Grandma. She's busy reading books from the library for their summer reading program. There is the excitement of summer camp with her best friends. It isn't until the end of the book that we see this young chef cooking up a storm again.
Ryan learns a lot about caring for all your neighbours, even the ones you don't know. She comes to understand forgiveness. At the end of the book, Ryan discovers the overwhelming love of a baby sister when she arrives.

5 star reads

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon & Bahni Turpin (Narrator)

Every time I read something by Nicola Yoon, I fall more in love with her writing. If you add Bahni Turpin's narration into the mix, you get about as close to perfection as is possible.

I thought this would be a light fun romance. I needed it after all the intense adult nonfiction I've been reading. It has many of the aspects of a fun filled romcom. It's even got a bit of magic.

Ever since Evie Thomas caught her father kissing another woman, she doesn't believe in romance. Then she developed the ability to read the past and future of kissing couples. None of them have had happy endings. This new ability of hers led her to a dance studio where she ended up partnering with X, a gorgeous young man. The two of them enter a dance contest. Of course they fall in love. It seems perfect until Evie has one of her visions while the two of them are kissing.

What suprised me about this book is how deeply it looks into the nature of love. It's a lot about forgiveness, living for the moment, and embracing the love you get for however long you are lucky enough to have it.


This book deals with sexual assault.
Kiran Kaur was raped by her brother in law to be, a police officer, when she was still in Punjab. She left to go to Simon Fraser University, and didn't tell her mother about her pregnancy til she had safely arrived in Canada. Her mother doesn't believe her. 
Kiran was lucky to make a good friend, Joti, at university. Kiran moved into their house and Joti's family became Kiran and her daughter, Sahaara's family. 
Kiran remained in Canada as an undocumented immigrant while Sahaara grew up. When Sahaara was eighteen, Kiran was picked up by border officials. This is when Sahaara learned about her mother's history.
This book tells the stories of Kiran and Sahaara. At first Sahaara wonders about who her father was, and then when she finds out she struggles with hating herself. 
This is written in both poetry and prose. It's intense - so intense that I could only read it in bits and pieces. It's an emotionally hard read that speaks authentically about the reality of sexual assault and it's ramification for survivors. It's a story of love, survival, and speaking your truth. 


“This [is] has been a book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.”

We are living in the Anthropocene age. In our meddling with ecosystems, we always end up making things worse. We have destroyed our planet to such an extent, that we have put our species at great risk. A review in the New York Times states, "Leaving the natural world to repair itself isn’t an option anymore — or, at least, it’s not an acceptable one, considering the death and suffering that would inevitably ensue."
Kolbert writes about different mega projects either in the works, or in the research stage, in an effort to mitigate the worst of the damage. All this just so we can save ourselves from ourselves. She shows us an electrified river created to keep the voracious Asian Carp out the the great lakes water system. She talks about the terraforming attempts to return land to the areas around New Orleans. There are attempts to remove carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into rocks, ideas for seeding the atmosphere with diamonds, and projects to genetically modify coral polyps in hopes of saving the Great Barrier Reef. It isn't very hopeful.
As I finish this we have another wildfire burning out of control across the valley from us. It's the fourth fire in our vicinity this year. We haven't even reached the traditional fire season yet. While Kolbert didn't talk about fires in her book, I can’t help but make the connection between the constant roar of the helicopters and airplanes in the air here trying to keep us safe and what it's costing us to cope with this aspect of the climate crisis.

CURRENTLY 

Code Name HΓ©lΓ¨ne by Ariel Lawhon with Barrie Kreinik & Peter Ganim (Narrators)
The Disability Experience: Working Toward Belonging by Hannalora Leavitt 
History Is Delicious by Joshua Lurie

UP NEXT
 
The Fabulous Zed Watson! by Kevin Sylvester & Basil Sylvester
Bruised by Tanya Boteju
I'll continue to work at getting the picture book pile under control.

BLOG POSTS PLANNED FOR NEXT WEEK

A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid by Sara O'Leary
History Is Delicious by Joshua Lurie

PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS

#MustReadIn2021 20/25 

#MustReadNFIn2021 8/12

#MustReadPBIn2021 48/100 

Big Book Summer Challenge 5 one in progress

Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 24/25

Books by Canadian Authors: 76/100 - one in progress

Canada Reads 2021 4/5 

Discworld Series 41/41

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 276 /333 

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