Keep Sharp (Sanjay Gupta)

 

I've read quite a few books about aging, the brain and dementia. The thing I really like about this one is he gives solid steps for keeping your brain sharp...a 12 week program. I borrowed the book from the library but I will buy it so that I can get a copy of this 12 week program. It is full of great things to focus on for a healthy life!

Goodreads says:

Keep your brain young, healthy, and sharp with this science-driven guide to protecting your mind from decline by neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

Throughout our life, we look for ways to keep our mind sharp and effortlessly productive. Now, globetrotting neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta offers insights from top scientists all over the world, whose cutting-edge research can help you heighten and protect brain function and maintain cognitive health at any age.

Keep Sharp debunks common myths about aging and cognitive decline, explores whether there’s a “best” diet or exercise regimen for the brain, and explains whether it’s healthier to play video games that test memory and processing speed, or to engage in more social interaction. Discover what we can learn from “super-brained” people who are in their eighties and nineties with no signs of slowing down—and whether there are truly any benefits to drugs, supplements, and vitamins. Dr. Gupta also addresses brain disease, particularly Alzheimer’s, answers all your questions about the signs and symptoms, and shows how to ward against it and stay healthy while caring for a partner in cognitive decline. He likewise provides you with a personalized twelve-week program featuring practical strategies to strengthen your brain every day.

Keep Sharp is the only owner’s manual you’ll need to keep your brain young and healthy regardless of your age!

Sit (Deborah Ellis)

 

Deborah Ellis is brilliant. Each of these stories gives a unique glimpse into what life is like as a child. Adults are in charge. Life isn't fair. The children are considered less than....but they're not. They see more and understand more than many adults realize. Every single story was brilliant. It begins with the same story it ends with....only it's different.

Goodreads says:

The seated child. With a single powerful image, Deborah Ellis draws our attention to nine children and the situations they find themselves in, often through no fault of their own. In each story, a child makes a decision and takes action, be that a tiny gesture or a life-altering choice.

Jafar is a child laborer in a chair factory and longs to go to school. Sue sits on a swing as she and her brother wait to have a supervised visit with their father at the children’s aid society. Gretchen considers the lives of concentration camp victims during a school tour of Auschwitz. Mike survives seventy-two days of solitary as a young offender. Barry squirms on a food court chair as his parents tell him that they are separating. Macie sits on a too-small time-out chair while her mother receives visitors for tea. Noosala crouches in a fetid, crowded apartment in Uzbekistan, waiting for an unscrupulous refugee smuggler to decide her fate.

These children find the courage to face their situations in ways large and small, in this eloquent collection from a master storyteller.

Lift (Minh Le and Dan Santas)

 

Every kid will relate to Iris. Who doesn't love pushing the elevator buttons?!

This story doesn't have a lot of words...but the pictures tell a lot! 

One great thing that came out of this is one of my students made a comment that she is really being a rock brain (we are doing Superflex and have learned about the villain, Rock Brain). He was right! 

We loved how the girl lets her brother join in the adventure at the end. Good connections made to Magic Treehouse

Minh Le is amazing. I loved Drawn Together and I don't think I've ever come across a book Dan Santas is involved with that I didn't like. 

Goodreads says:
When Iris's elevator button-pushing is disrupted by a new member of the family, she's pretty put out.
That is, until the sudden appearance of a mysterious new button opens up entire realms of possibility, places where she can escape and explore on her own.
This is a story that will lift your spirits and expand your imagination, by the award-winning creators of Drawn Together.

Dragons in a Bag (Zetta Elliot)

 

This is a 2021 Global Read Aloud pick. I'm hoping that this year I can actually connect with another class as we use it for a read aloud. It's a great story! One thing that concerns me is that they only read a couple chapters a week. I'm not sure we can drag it out that long! I'd definitely be interested in reading the next books in the series.

There are lots of topics that could be discussed in this story: diversity, forgiveness, racism, segregation, forgiveness,  etc.  

In time we could use this as a "book club" book paired with Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher.

Read aloud to my class in October/November2021. It is way better as a read aloud! Then again, most books are.

Notice and Note Signposts

Words of the Wiser

• p. 116 Trub to Jax re: segregation
• p. 128...if you believe

Memory Moment

Contrasts and Contradictions

• p. 8 beer
• p. 10 box with no addresses
• p. 48 Ambrose invisible? 

Again and Again

Ah ha moments

Tough Qs

Goodreads says:

The dragon's out of the bag in this diverse, young urban fantasy from an award-winning author!

When Jaxon is sent to spend the day with a mean old lady his mother calls Ma, he finds out she's not his grandmother--but she is a witch! She needs his help delivering baby dragons to a magical world where they'll be safe. There are two rules when it comes to the dragons: don't let them out of the bag, and don't feed them anything sweet. Before he knows it, Jax and his friends Vikram and Kavita have broken both rules! Will Jax get the baby dragons delivered safe and sound? Or will they be lost in Brooklyn forever?

Little Bat In Night School (Brian Lies)

 Great book for September! I need to look into more books this author has written....lots of interesting books that I've never seen before!

This would be  good pair with lots of our favorite bat stories: Stellaluna, Bat Count, etc.

Goodreads says:

Little Bat is excited about his first night in school! Readers will love to see him spread his wings in this sweet, inspiring picture book from New York Times best-selling and Caldecott Honor–winning Brian Lies. Perfect for fans of We Don't Eat Our Classmates and The King of Kindergarten.

Little Bat can't wait for his first night of school. He is excited about everything: his new school supplies, learning amazing things, and making new friends.  
 
But when he finally arrives, his world turns upside down.

Any little bat who's tried something new or gone somewhere they've never been before knows that first times can be scary. With the help of Little Bat and his adorable classmates, readers will see that spreading your wings is easy when you listen, act with kindness, and take a chance on new friends.

With his signature, gorgeous artwork, New York Times bestseller and Caldecott Honor winner Brian Lies brings his expressive bats back for the youngest readers.  

My Dog Mouse (Eva Lindstrom)

 

Turns out mouse isn't her dog.

This is for anyone that loves dogs. 

I love dogs.

Goodreads says:

My Dog Mouse offers friendship, humor, and gentle heartache in one dog walk. This is a book for anyone who knows what it is to love an old, slow dog with ears as thin as pancakes.

Spectacularly Beautiful: A Refugee's Story (Lisa Lucas)

 

This is an amazingly simple book with a beautiful and true principle. Everyone is beautiful even though we all have scars from things we have experienced. Most of all, God loves us no matter what.

I'm curious about the style of the illustrations. It has realistic pictures as background and the characters are blobs of color. Maybe it is so that the people could be anyone? No skin colors or height or styles to get in the way. These characters could be any of us.

The author is a teacher who has taught children from difficult circumstances and clearly loves them as teachers do.

Goodreads says:

A young refugee living in America learns to see herself as beautiful, in spite of physical and emotional scars from her troubled homeland, thanks to a gifted teacher.

Spectacularly Beautiful tells the story of Shahad, a refugee who has moved to a new country and started at a new school with her new teacher, Ms. Truong. Shahad comes to school every day with perfectly braided hair tied in ribbons. But her hair can't hide the scars on her face and leg that are painful reminders of the country she fled, making her feel less than beautiful, and different from her peers. When a class project proves difficult for Shahad, Ms. Truong helps her come to see that her scars are only part of her story, and that she is not just beautiful...she is spectacularly beautiful. Little by little Shahad's confidence is renewed and she is able to return the same kindness to Ms. Truong.

Painting Pepette (Linda Ravin Lodding)

 

Josette is a little girl with a pet rabbit. The story is set in France and she wants someone to paint her rabbit. Along the way she meets many famous artists who all have different styles and therefore paint the rabbit differently.

This story made me think of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. It would be great to read this when we read about Picasso in our imagination unit.

Goodreads says:

Join one little girl named Josette as she searches 1920s Paris to find the best artist to paint a portrait of her stuffed-animal rabbit, Pepette.

After seeing all the fine portraits of her family in her house in Paris, Josette decides that her stuffed-animal rabbit Pepette needs a portrait of her own. The two of them set off for Montmartre, the art center of 1920s Paris, to seek out an artist to paint Pepette’s portrait. They encounter Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, and Henri Matisse, who all try their hand at capturing the rabbit.

Picasso gives Pepette two noses and three ears—which doesn’t sit well with Josette. Dalí gives Pepette very droopy eyes—so Josette says "no thank you" and moves on. Chagall paints Pepette flying through the clouds. Josette points out that Pepette doesn’t fly and is afraid of heights—so they decide to keep going through the square. When they meet Matisse, he paints Pepette pink, with lots of colorful dots and splashes covering the canvas. It’s a beautiful piece of art, but it’s not Pepette.

Giving up, Josette and Pepette make their way home. Josette is upset that no one was able to no one was able to capture the true essence of Pepette. Who could capture her soft gray ears, her heart-shaped nose, and all her wonderfulness? And then it comes to her—she, Josette, is the perfect person to do this.

Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners (Laurie Keller)

 

Lots of word play in this book right from the title (do unto others...) and on throughout the book. The illustrations are super cute and this book would bring lots of laughs and be a good launch pad for a discussion on friendship.

Goodreads says:

Mr. Rabbit's new neighbors are Otters. OTTERS! But he doesn't know anything about Otters. Will they get along? Will they be friends? Just treat otters the same way you'd like them to treat you, advises wise Mr. Owl. And so begins Mr. Rabbit's reflection on good manners.

In her smart, quirky style Laurie Keller highlights how to be a good friend and neighbor--just follow the Golden Rule! This title has Common Core connections.

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Do Unto Otters is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. 

Starbird (Sharon King-Chai)

 

Lesson: We cannot keep beautiful things caged up for ourselves. The beauty is in their freedom.

The illustrations are beautiful! Kids will love the shiny parts of the pages.

#freeBrittany style story?

Goodreads says:

A stunning gift to treasure from the astonishingly talented illustrator of Animalphabet by Julia Donaldson.

Starbird is an original fable about freedom and love. This unique book shimmers with shiny silver foil throughout its pages, and Sharon King-Chai's intricate illustrations of plants and animals are utterly beautiful.

Starbird's songs weave the richest dreams and delight all who hear him, but when the Moon King traps him in a cage, the colour and life in his voice begin to drip away. What follows is a story with the feel of a timeless myth, with the message that that captivity dims even the brightest star.

A heartfelt, lyrical story, and an exquisite gift for any child or adult.

About the Author

Sharon King-Chai is an enormously talented designer, illustrator and writer. Having grown up in Australia, she moved to London in 2003 and since then has brought her style and eye for beautiful design to album artwork, book covers, stationery and her own books Lucy Ladybird, Snail Mail and Animalphabet , a collaboration with Julia Donaldson. Sharon has a passion for innovation, and her artwork and clever use of paper cutting and finishes encourage the reader to think differently about the pages they hold in their hands.

My Grandmother Ironed The Kings Shirts (Torill Kove)

This reminds me of family lore that just gets better and better the more it is told. It's really funny! My favorite part is where they sabotage the enemy soldier's shirts and make them itchy....so all the soldiers end up naked and the war has to end because they have nothing to wear.

I'm not totally sure that the author is Canadian, but it does say she lives in Montreal and the book is part of the National Film Board collection. The film actually has a few more details than the book does (like a bit on Tonya Harding's skate in the 1994 Olympics where she was allowed to start over)

https://www.nfb.ca/film/my_grandmother_ironed_the_king_shirts/ 

Goodreads says:

One of three new titles in the Firefly Books-National Film Board of Canada partnership.

This tall tale of Kove's Norwegian grandmother was nominated for an Academy Award when first produced as an animated short film.

Torill Kove's grandmother often told stories to Torill when she was a young girl. One in particular revolved around ironing shirts for the King of Norway.

In My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, Kove follows a thread of family history, embroidering it with playful twists along the way, imaginatively rendering her grandmother's life and work in Oslo during World War II.

In Kove's retelling, her grandmother leads a Norwegian resistance to the invading German Army who had forced the King to flee for his safety.

When the task of ironing the King's shirts was replaced by those of the German Army officers, Kove's grandmother and her shirt pressing sisters sabotage the enemy uniforms until morale among the Germans is so low that they lose the war and head home without a thing to wear!

Full of sharp humor and myth making, My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts is a great example of how small contributions to the greater good count for a whole lot.

My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts was nominated for an Oscar in 2000 and won 17 awards in all. It has also been produced as a book in Norway. 

Whimsy's Heavy Things (Julie Kraulix)

 

I think the analogy in this story of taking the heavy things that weigh you down and breaking them down works in real life. The illustrations will help children understand the concept. This is a book that could be good for adults, teens and children. The name Whimsy also reminds the reader that life is easier when it's whimsy rather than weighed down. It's a you can't hide from your problems type of story.


Goodreads says:

Whimsy's heavy things are weighing her down. She tries to sweep them under the rug, but she trips over them. She tries to put them in a tree, but they fall on her. She even tries to sail them out to sea, but they always come back. Eventually Whimsy decides to deal with the heavy things one at a time... and a surprising thing happens. With exquisite illustrations and delightfully simple text, Whimsy's Heavy Things is a sweet story about changing the things that weigh us down into the things that lift us up.

Ada's Violin (Susan Hood)

 

This would be a great story to read during our Hearing and Sound unit when we make instruments. It is about children in Uruguay, but it would be interesting to read when we learn about the children in Peru that live in ghettos as well. It's a great perspective on great things that can be accomplished even though people live in difficult situations. The info at the back talks about some of the challenges they've had to being able to share their music (people who live in slums don't even always have ID papers that allow them to travel). Amazing story!

The video below is super inspiring too!

Goodreads says:

From award-winning author Susan Hood and illustrator Sally Wern Comport comes the extraordinary true tale of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, an orchestra made up of children playing instruments built from recycled trash.

Ada Ríos grew up in Cateura, a small town in Paraguay built on a landfill. She dreamed of playing the violin, but with little money for anything but the bare essentials, it was never an option...until a music teacher named Favio Chávez arrived. He wanted to give the children of Cateura something special, so he made them instruments out of materials found in the trash. It was a crazy idea, but one that would leave Ada—and her town—forever changed. Now, the Recycled Orchestra plays venues around the world, spreading their message of hope and innovation.

Keeping the City Going (Brian Floca)

 

This is going to be a great book to read this year with my class. Brian Floca always creates beauty and he did it again with this book. I loved his references to the people cheering for front line workers every evening (I had forgot!) and how it felt as we all looked out and saw just a few people while we stayed inside. He even mentions the toilet paper issues (not that there were issues....only with people thinking there'd be issues and buying it all up!) I will never forget going to the grocery store and seeing row upon row of empty shelves. It was bizarre and kind of scary if I thought about it for too long. 

Goodreads says:

Brian Floca gives a thank you to the essential workers who keep their cities going during COVID-19 quarantine.

We are here at home now, watching the world through our windows. Outside we see the city we know, but not as we’ve seen it before. The once hustling and bustling streets are empty. Well, almost empty. Around the city there are still people, some, out and about. These are the people keeping us safe. Keeping us healthy. Keeping our mail and our food delivered. Keeping our grocery stores stocked. Keeping the whole city going.

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands (Chris Bohjalian)

 I didn't love this and as a result, didn't finish it. While I was interested in the dystopian type story with the nuclear disaster, I really felt gross about her stories of being homeless. I didn't feel good reading this book and that's not what I'm really looking for in a book. 

However, this was a book club pick and I did appreciate the discussion and am glad for book club because it forces me to read things I would not otherwise. I felt like they made some good points that I could consider to face these types of stories....namely empathy. 

The title of the book was a very powerful image. It came from the school shooting in CT. I found a fantastic article that spoke of this:

Adults hid themselves and the children in closets, in cupboards, under desks, behind file cabinets. When it was over, police had to lead the surviving children past the carnage that was their now lifeless classmates and teachers. They told the children, “Close your eyes. Hold hands” as they ushered them to safety.

That’s a powerful image.

Goodreads says:

A heartbreaking, wildly inventive, and moving novel narrated by a teenage runaway, from the best-selling author of Midwives and The Sandcastle Girls.

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless teen living in an igloo made of ice and trash bags filled with frozen leaves. Half a year earlier, a nuclear plant in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom had experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Was he drunk when it happened? Thousands of people are forced to flee their homes in the Kingdom; rivers and forests are destroyed; and Emily feels certain that, as the daughter of the most hated man in America, she is in danger. So instead of following the social workers and her classmates after the meltdown, Emily takes off on her own for Burlington, where she survives by stealing, sleeping on the floor of a drug dealer's apartment, and inventing a new identity for herself - an identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. When Emily befriends a young homeless boy named Cameron, she protects him with a ferocity she didn't know she had. But she still can't outrun her past, can't escape her grief, can't hide forever - and so she comes up with the only plan that she can.

A story of loss, adventure, and the search for friendship in the wake of catastrophe, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is one of Chris Bohjalian's finest novels to date - breathtaking, wise, and utterly transporting.

Rescue (Jennifer Nielsen)

 

I've read most of Jennifer Nielsen's books as they have come out and have really enjoyed them. I didn't love this one as much. It was too much like a "Catch Me If You Can" movie. There were spies during the war and crazy things did happen - I just couldn't get to the point of feeling like this one was authentic. The fact that Meg was only 12 years old and was able to fool so many people, crack codes, use explosives, cause avalanches, know the terrain to Switzerland....it was just too much.

Goodreads says: 

From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen comes a thrilling World War II story of espionage and intrigue, as one girl races to save her father and aid the French resistance.

Six hundred and fifty-seven days ago, Meg Kenyon's father left their home in France to fight for the Allies in World War II, and that was the last time Meg saw him. Recently, she heard he was being held prisoner by the Nazis, a terrible sentence from which Meg fears he'll never return. All she has left of him are the codes he placed in a jar for her to decipher, an affectionate game the two of them shared. But the codes are running low, and soon there'll be nothing left of Papa for Meg to hold on to at all.

Suddenly, an impossible chance to save her father falls into Meg's lap. After following a trail of blood in the snow, Meggie finds an injured British spy hiding in her grandmother's barn. Captain Stewart tells her that a family of German refugees must be guided across Nazi-occupied France to neutral Spain, whereupon one of them has promised to free Meg's father. Captain Stewart was meant to take that family on their journey, but too injured to complete the task himself, he offers it to Meg, along with a final code from Papa to help complete the mission -- perhaps the most important, and most difficult, riddle she's received yet.

As the Nazis flood Meg's village in fierce pursuit, she accepts the duty and begins the trek across France. Leading strangers through treacherous territory, Meg faces danger and uncertainty at every turn, all the while struggling to crack her father's code. The message, as she unravels it, reveals secrets costly enough to risk the mission and even her own life. Can Meg solve the puzzle, rescue the family, and save her father?

No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness (Michelle Segar)

 

This is a great book! Years ago I decided to start a walking streak after reading a number of books on aging. I realized how important daily exercise is and the key for me to doing it every day was to quit trying to exercise to lose weight. That changed everything. My best attempts at being active daily have been when I figured out a way to walk to work.

This book is a keeper....one to review again and again. It could be used for all sorts of goals, to be honest!

Goodreads syas:

We start out with the best intentions. We're going to exercise more and get in shape! Then five days a week at the gym turns into two... then becomes none. We hit the snooze button and skip the morning run.

We really do want to be healthy and fit, but we're over whelmed and overextended—and exercise feels like another chore to complete. Is it any wonder we don't stick with it? Behavior expert Michelle Segar has devoted her career to the science of motivation. In No Sweat, she reveals that while "better health" or "weight loss" sound like strong incentives, human beings are hardwired to choose immediate gratification over delayed benefits. In other words, we're not going to exercise unless it makes us happy right now.

So what's the solution? To achieve lasting fitness, we have to change our minds—before we can change our bodies. In No Sweat, Segar shows us how. Translating twenty years of research on exercise and motivation into a simple four-point program,she helps readers broaden their definition of exercise, find pleasure in physical activity, and discover realistic ways to fit it into their lives. Activities we enjoy, we repeat--making this evidence-based system more sustainable in the long run than a regimen of intense workouts. Even if we don't sweat, we really benefit.

The success of the clients Segar has coached testifies to the power of her program. Their stories punctuate the book, entertaining and emboldening readers to break the cycle of exercise failure once and for all. Complete with worksheets, tips, and techniques, getting in shape has never been so easy—or so much fun.

The King of Jam Sandwiches (Eric Walters)

 

This is a great story! I love stories of people who figure out how to not just survive, but succeed in life despite everything being against them. The author (who is Canadian!) says this was a very personal story and that he also grew up in poverty. I was left wondering how much of it was directly from his life and how much he made up and who is the girl?! Is she a real person? It sounds like she is, from the afterward.

In some ways, we're all the underdog and this story inspires me to think I can do anything! 

I recently heard it won a 2021 Govenor General's Award for Young People's Literature.

Goodreads says:

★ "Tug at the heartstrings and tickle the funny bone...This warm tale is definitely one for the keeper shelves. Highly recommended."--School Library Journal, starred review

Thirteen-year-old Robbie leads a double life. It's just Robbie and his dad, but no one knows that his dad isn't like most parents. Sometimes he wakes Robbie up in the middle of the night to talk about dying. Sometimes he just leaves without telling Robbie where he's going. Once when Robbie was younger, he was gone for more than a week. Robbie was terrified of being left alone but even more scared of telling anyone in case he was put into foster care. No one can know. Until one day when Robbie has to show the tough new girl, Harmony, around school. Their first meeting ends horribly and she punches Robbie in the face. But eventually they come to realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought. Can Robbie's new friend be trusted to keep his secret?   

Hey, Little Ant (Phillip and Hannah Hoose)

 

Whenever we do our animal life cycles unit, kids are grossed out by insects. My goal always is to get them to realize that insects are really cool! This book will fit perfectly in our unit. The best page is the one where you turn the book and the ant is looking WAAAAY up at the boy.

Goodreads says:

What would you do if the ant you were about to step on looked up and started talking? Would you stop and listen? What if your friends saw you hesitate? That’s what happens in this funny, thought-provoking book. Originally a song by a father-daughter team, this conversation between two creatures, large and small, is bound to inspire important discussions. It might even answer that classic childhood question: To squish or not to squish?