The Girl Who Smiled Beads (Clementine Wamariya)

 

African countries are full of unbelievable stories. I just recently sat and listened to the stories of someone who lived in the DRC for two years and found the stories a universe away from my experiences. This book is like that. Clemantine's story is amazing. I am sure glad she told it, although, I don't know if I can ever say that I understand it. It's just so much. I have read some other books on the Rawandan war, and while this one starts there, it isn't really about Rawanda because Clemantine and her sister, Claire, are sent away when the war starts. However, the war comes to them and so they have to run. Their horrific journey travels through seven different African countries and then to the states. Her family is eventually reunited through an Oprah show. All doesn't end well there. How do you just start over and continue on when you have been through so much? This book was one I could not put down. It will stay with me for a long time. I have no answers. War is terrible.

Goodreads says:

A riveting story of dislocation, survival, and the power of the imagination to save us.

Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were "thunder." It was 1994, and in 100 days more than 800,000 people would be murdered in Rwanda and millions more displaced. Clemantine and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, ran and spent the next six years wandering through seven African countries searching for safety--hiding under beds, foraging for food, surviving and fleeing refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing unimaginable cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were alive.

At age twelve, Clemantine, along with Claire, was granted asylum in the United States--a chance to build a new life. Chicago was disorienting, filled with neon lights, antiseptic smells, endless concrete. Clemantine spoke five languages but almost no English, and had barely gone to school. Many people wanted to help--a family in the North Shore suburbs invited Clemantine to live with them as their daughter. Others saw her only as broken. They thought she needed, and wanted, to be saved. Meanwhile Claire, who had for so long protected and provided for Clemantine, found herself on a very different path, cleaning hotel rooms to support her three children.

Raw, urgent, yet disarmingly beautiful, The Girl Who Smiled Beads captures the true costs and aftershocks of war: what is forever lost, what can be repaired, the fragility and importance of memory, the faith that one can learn, again, to love oneself, even with deep scars.

Treaty Words (Aimee Craft)

 

I read this book because it was a nominee for the 2022 Rocky Mountain Book Awards. 

It's a small book, like the size of a handbook. In some ways, it is a handbook of reminders of not just treaties, but promises and covenants we make. It is a conversation, like many lessons taught by First Nations' people. I loved the feeling it brings....calming and thoughtful. It would be a good book to read at the beginning of the year when you are establishing class rules and expectations. It is short and could be a read aloud for the day. It would establish a good feeling in the room.

Goodreads says:

The first treaty that was made was between the earth and the sky. It was an agreement to work together. We build all of our treaties on that original treaty.

On the banks of the river that have been Mishomis’s home his whole life, he teaches his granddaughter to listen—to hear both the sounds and the silences, and so to learn her place in Creation. Most importantly, he teaches her about treaties—the bonds of reciprocity and renewal that endure for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow.

Accompanied by illustrations by Luke Swinson and an author’s note at the end, Aimée Craft communicates the importance of understanding an Indigenous perspective on treaties.The first treaty that was made was between the earth and the sky. It was an agreement to work together. We build all of our treaties on that original treaty.

On the banks of the river that have been Mishomis’s home his whole life, he teaches his granddaughter to listen—to hear both the sounds and the silences, and so to learn her place in Creation. Most importantly, he teaches her about treaties—the bonds of reciprocity and renewal that endure for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow.

Accompanied by illustrations by Luke Swinson and an author’s note at the end, Aimée Craft communicates the importance of understanding an Indigenous perspective on treaties.

The Barren Grounds (David A Robertson)

 

This book is bound for greatness! I see a multitude of classrooms doing novel studies. It is going to become a classic, I'm sure of it.

Topics for the classroom:

- foster care

- anger 

- environment

Fun reason to read it: I will never  forget how fun it was for my daughter to get the Harry Potter books as they came out. People would like up at the bookstore at midnight to get it on the first day and start reading immediately. This book is the first in a four part series. Book one and two are out and three and four are planned but not out yet. This is a chance to get in on the new books when they come out!

"Stories always lead people somewhere, "Arik said. "To a place, to a memory." (p. 232)

Setting Winnipeg in November

Characters:
Morgan - 13 Grade 8, in 8th foster home
Eli - always has a drawing pad, in grade 7
Kate - a teacher
James - a doctor
Emily Houldsworth p. 18 Calls Moran "Ghost"
Arik p. 124
Fischer p. 62
Mrs Edwards ELA teacher p. 21 Always overdressed
Elaborative detail:

p. 194 setting


Notice and Note Signposts

Again and Again
p. 40/41 wind bows when Eli draws (C&C?)
p. 44 adults apologizes for mistakes
p. 47Morgan hates  them trying so hard to  make her feel at home
p. 170 Morgan's dreams of mother (p. 170)

Ah Ha Moment?
p. 122 Eli feels more alive in the cold barren grounds
 Eli being taken by the wolf (p. 172) = Morgan being taken?
wolf = persecution by white men?

p. 181 nature of the wolf is to attack. White man's nature is....??

p. 191 Moran realizes she belongs on the land

Goodreads says:

Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home -- until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission. Accompanied by Arik, a sassy Squirrel they catch stealing from the trapline, they try to save Misewa before the icy grip of winter freezes everything -- including them. 

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (Kim Michele Richardson)

 

The more I read this book, the more I loved it. It's amazing that it's all true...the pack horse librarians, the racism, the blue people. It's all really happened. The author's note really gave a sense of the importance of this story. She says it's the most important story she's ever told. It was a book I didn't want to rush through. I read it slowly and carefully, soaking up the story.

I love the idea of the librarians who packed books to the rural areas and up mountains so that people could have books to read. This book seems to reflect well the relationships that would grow out of experiences with books together. The story told is really similar to experiences I have had sharing books with my students. Also, the racism faced by the "blue people" (they were people who had a blood disorder and made their skin look blue) is an interesting experience compared to the racism we see today. Also, Cussy Mary is a woman who suffers not just because of racism, but also because of society's view on women. She is a strong character and she will stay in my heart for a long time.

Goodreads says:

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.

The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.

Whale in a Fish Bowl (Troy Howell)

 

Sometimes my class amazes me. When this story ended, there was quiet for a moment. Then one girl said, "That's kind of sad, really." They thought it was sad that she only knew her fish bowl and had no idea until she had escaped where she really belonged and how happy she'd be. My class also hoped she found a mate. 

And we LOVED the big fold out page that showed how high Wednesday had leaped when she finally escaped.

I love books that make kids think! We had a good discussion about zoos and other animals in captivity.

Goodreads says:

A moving, poetic story about a whale in captivity who longs for the ocean . . . because whales don’t belong in fishbowls, do they?

Wednesday is a whale who lives in a fishbowl smack dab in the middle of a city–it’s the only home she’s ever known. Cars whizz around her and people hurry past; even the sun and moon circle above. But if she leaps high enough out of her bowl, Wednesday can see it: a calm bit of blue off in the distance. When a girl in a paisley dress tells Wednesday “You belong in the sea,” the whale starts to wonder, what is the sea? Readers will cheer–and get all choked up– when, one day, Wednesday leaps higher than ever before and sets in motion a breathtaking chain of events that will carry her to her rightful home. Touching, and ultimately uplifting, here is a story about a lonely creature longing to be free–and longing to find someone just like her. 

Creature Choir (David Walliams)

 

We got a little silly with everyone making all the sounds the animals make. After, we brainstormed the lessons from it....and there were a multitude. David Walliams isn't just for silliness, after all!

Goodreads says:

Sing your heart out with a whole choir of characters, in the showstopping new picture book from number one bestselling author David Walliams, illustrated by the artistic genius, Tony Ross!


There’s more than one star of the show… In fact, there’s a whole choir of them!


Warble the walrus LOVES to sing.


Unfortunately, she is not very good at it! And when her atrocious warbling causes an avalanche, the other walruses leave her all alone.


But when you SING like no-one is listening, SOMETIMES, they start to hear you…


The perfect story for anyone who loves to laugh or sing, this brand-new story from David Walliams is a delightfully wonderful warble about doing what makes you HAPPY, and being LOUD about it! 

John Henry - An American Legend (Ezra Jack Keats)

 

This one surprised us because he dies in the story! Died of working so hard!! Everyone was very captivated by the story, however. Quite a book for Ezra Jack Keats. His website says:

Long before multicultural characters and themes were fashionable, Ezra Jack Keats crossed social boundaries by being the first American picture-book maker to give the black child a central place in children’s literature.

In the books that Keats wrote and illustrated, he used his special artistic techniques to portray his subjects in a unique manner. One of these was his blending of gouache with collage. Gouache is an opaque watercolor mixed with a gum that produces an oil-like glaze.

The characters in Keats’ books come from the community around him. Many of his stories illustrate family life, the simple pleasures and more complex problems, that a child often encounters in his daily routine. To create his books, Keats drew upon his own childhood experiences, from having to flee from bullies to taking a ribbing from his pals for liking girls. But these are also the experiences of almost all children growing up in neighborhoods and communities in many parts of the world. This commonality explains the continuing popularity of Keats’ books and characters.

By the time of Keats’ death following a heart attack in 1983, Keats had illustrated over eighty-five books for children, and written and illustrated twenty-four children’s classics.

Goodreads says:

Illus. in full color. The Caldecott Medalist's powerful classic is now reissued in a handsome paperback edition, as well as a library edition. 

(Goodreads doesn't say a lot!)