Mr. S (Monica Arnoldo)

 

When I read this book myself, I didn't get it. 

Then I read a bunch of reviews on Goodreads and saw that there's a story inside a story. 

Okay. I sort of got it then. 

Then I read it to my class. They got it!  They noticed the story inside the story and the different "faces" the sandwich had. 

The ending though....what does Mr S stand for if it doesn't stand for sandwich?

We enjoyed the story....but we're left wondering.

Goodreads says:

Prepare for plenty of giggles as a kindergarten class arrives for their first day of school, but can't find their teacher—only a delicious-looking sandwich and the words "Mr. S" scribbled on the chalkboard. Chaos ensues as the kids argue whether or not the sandwich must be their teacher. A comical, first day of school book of mayhem and chaos by Monica Arnaldo, perfect fans of Miss Nelson Is Missing. “This might be the funniest first-day-of-school book I’ve ever read." —Adam Rex, New York Times bestselling author of School’s First Day of School It was the first day of school. But even the kindergarteners of room 2B could tell something was seriously wrong . . . Where was the teacher? Who left this sandwich on the desk? The only clue, written on the chalkboard, were three simple Mr. S Praise for Mr. "Confusion, mystery, and laughs are on the menu in Arnaldo’s deliciously goofy back-to-school tale." — Publishers Weekly  (starred review) "The tale's genuinely absurd situation, the mystery of the teacher's identity, and the deadpan storytelling make this a memorable read-aloud choice."—  Booklist  (starred review) "Mysteries for young readers are few and far between and this one is fun and entertaining." —School Library Journal  (starred review)

Reclaiming Our Students (Hannah Beach and Tamara Neufeld Strijack)

 I needed this book. This year, more than ever, I was coming home physically exhausted from problems at school. The authors say: What has changed is the culture in which children are being raised, a culture in which children no longer automatically seek the wisdom and leadership of the adults in their life. This cultural shift has disconnected children from the adults who care for them and it has taken away the cultural context that supports children in naturally being open to the guidance of adults. (p. 18)

As I read, I thought of many things I could have been doing differently this year. My plan is to start right away....and continue next year.

Goodreads says:

Children are more anxious, aggressive, and shut down than ever.

Faced with this epidemic of emotional health crises and behavioural problems, teachers are asking themselves what went wrong. Why have we lost our students? More importantly: How can we get them back? Hannah Beach, a celebrated educator and specialist in the field of emotional health, and Tamara Neufeld Strijack, clinical counsellor and academic dean of the acclaimed Neufeld Institute, provide a thoughtful guide to restoring the student-teacher relationship and creating the conditions for change. Reclaiming Our Students empowers teachers with relationship-based strategies to restore their leadership role and build emotional safety in the classroom.

You’ll learn:
• How to build, feed, and protect the student-teacher relationship
• Why children are anxious or bossy, aggressive or checked out, and what you can do to address these behavioural issues at their root
• How you can help students and classes shift their identity as the “problem student” or “bad class”
• Experiential activities for students of all ages that preserve and restore emotional health and well-being

Plus, you’ll find special considerations and information for parents, principals, counsellors, and home educators for building safety and support in the learning environment.

Combining Hannah’s groundbreaking experiential approach to creating emotional health and community in the classroom with the Neufeld Institute’s insightful approach to building relationships and making sense of children, Reclaiming Our Students is required reading for teachers who not only want to understand and overcome daily challenges, but also re-connect to their calling as educators.

Mrs Spitzer's Garden (Edith Pattou)

 

No children are mentioned in this book, but the connection between what the teacher does to nurture and help children grow spoke to my heart. 

This would be a great book to give someone when they graduate in education or when they retire. The author write up says that she wrote it originally to give to her daughter's kindergarten teacher.

Goodreads says:

A beautiful, moving story and the perfect teacher appreciation gift

Mrs. Spitzer is a wise teacher who knows many things. She knows about gardens. She knows about children. She knows how similar they are, and how both will flourish if tended lovingly.

There are many remarkable teachers like Mrs. Spitzer in the world, and Edith Pattou's simple, moving story along with Tricia Tusa's inspired, whimsical illustrations celebrate all they do, year after year, to help our children grow and blossom.

Game Changer! (Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp)

 

Just like The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild, this is a book to revisit regularly. It is full of great ideas for ways to help kids get access to books and fall in love with reading. What could be more important?! 

I follow Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp on social media and think they're both great! They're people I'd love to have as friends.

Goodreads says:

Literacy advocates with a deep passion for books, bestselling author Donalyn Miller and 5th grade teacher Colby Sharp, showcase the power of children's access to books, providing teachers and administrators with the tools and information they need to increase children's meaningful interaction with books and to launch or sustain book access initiatives in their communities.

Through research and testimonials from voices in the field and their own classroom experiences, Miller and Sharp provide practical and resourceful information on a range of topics and areas, (including successful school and classroom libraries, the power of book ownership, the importance of cultural and social access to books, and meaningful family-community reading engagement) designed to help dramatically increase children's access to and life-changing engagement with books.

You Can't Teach Through a Rat (Marvin W Berkowitz)

 

This book reminded me (again!) about why it's so important to always be reading something about teaching. It was inspiring and there were many days where I was able to use something from what I was reading. Reading is powerful!


Some things I've never thought of: p. ix  why would a school that teaches caring, student-centered, value and purpose-driven education have a caricature of a feral beast (wildcat) as a mascot? 
Re: Pirates as mascots: interesting choice for an elementary school. Pirates rape, pillage and murder

p. 11 To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society (Theodore Roosevelt)

He talks about Golden Children and Tarnished Children....which seemed a little offensive at first to me. It does, however, make a lot of sense.

p. 23 Golden Children: the children that are a joy to have in class. They're ready to learn. They have supportive families. They grow up to be smart ang good. They look you in the eye, smile at you, greet you sincerely and enthusiastically because they like school and learning and are self-confident and socially and emotionally competent. They're the ones we love to spend our time with as teachers. But they don't need you. They will continue to sparkle, unblemished by your mediocrity and even ineptitude as a teacher. You are therefore, in a sense, wasting your time (sadly a disproportionate amount of time at that) on such children. 

p. 25 The Tarnished Children: .....need you desperately....you can be the single factor that changes the entire trajectory of that child's life. 

p. 29 Even though most teachers care about their students, it can be a challenge to form caring relationships with students who are difficult...these children often find it hard to believe that their teachers really care about them, despite the evidence that they do. 
When teachers have a framework that allows them to believe that even their most disruptive and disrespectful students want, deep down in their hearts, to be liked and respected, it will be possible to engage all students as partners who need assurances that they are worthy of care, as well as guidance and support, in their struggle to come competent members of the classroom community. It's important to be patient. Creating a classroom in which students and teacher alike feel trusted and cared for takes time. But it is that atmosphere of mutual trust and care that will lead to a naturally well-managed and disciplined classroom.   

p. 59 I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It si my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess a tremendous power to make a life miserable to joyous. I can be a tool of torture, or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a person humanized or dehumanized. 

p. 32 ...every adult in a school who comes into contact with children impacts their character development, for better or for worse. You cannot NOT (double negative intended) be a character educator. Character education is an enterprise from which you cannot abstain. It is not a personal choice, just as being a role model is not a personal choice. There is no off switch to character education, and there is no Harry Potter clock of invisibility for educators. Every day, for good or ill, students are seeing you, and that includes all of your blemishes and missteps, and you are always impacting their character development

Chapter 10: Hearing Voices: A Pedagogy of Empowerment Character lesson idea: Let the older kids teach the younger kids or let them teach their peers

Characteristics of our best teachers:

• build personal relationships with students
• make learning (and classrooms) fun
• set high standards (expect high performance)
• model a passion for learning and knowledge
• see the potential in students that others don't see
• they go above and beyond the standard boundaries of the normal school day

Characteristics of our worst teachers:

• they are mean to students, often for categorical reasons (eg race, ethnicity, gender, religion and appearance)
• they are insensitive to student pain, crisis, etc.
• they are rigid, inflexible and unfair
• they simply don't seem to care about students and/or teaching

Goodreads says: Whatever is on the mind of a child can be more important to the child than a lesson at school. This book is a collection of insights, designed and tested from decades of teaching, workshops and lessons learned, to help educators stimulate their epiphanies about how best to serve the academic and developmental needs of students. It is user-friendly, provocative, and humorous and intended for all who work with and love working with children. PERFECT for a total staff reading!

Splat the Cat (Rob Scotton)

Read January 5, 2017 Cute story! It would be great to read this book in September when school starts. Splat has many of the feelings kids have when they're starting school. His attempts at trying to not go to school are quite funny and relate-able. The teacher is hilarious. Splat has a pet mouse, which of course, is going to cause a problem at cat school. We could see that one coming! We noticed that all the other cats are grey in this book and Splat is black.

Reread Sep 1, 2018 - My students mentioned that perhaps we should have read this on the first day of school. They caught on to the subtle humor where Splat is knocked over and it says "splat!" on the page. Many students were familiar with other books in the series and had comments about patterns in the series.

Goodreads summary:

It's Splat's first day of school and he's worried. What if he doesn't make any new friends? Just in case, Splat decides to bring along his pet mouse, Seymour, and hides him in his lunchbox. The teacher, Mrs. Wimpydimple, introduces Splat to the class and he soon starts learning all his important cat lessons. But when Seymour escapes and the cats do what cats do (they chase mice!), Splat's worried again. Maybe now he'll lose all his friends, old and new! Just in time, wise Mrs. Wimpydimple takes charge and teaches everyone an important new lesson. Maybe Cat School is going to be okay after all! 

Wayside School is Falling Down (Louis Sacher)

a

I read this for our Gr 4 Battle of the Books. At first I thought it was just a cute story. It would make a great read aloud. As a matter of fact, I think I will read it to my class! As I read though, I realized all kinds of little things that are brilliant!

- the book has 30 chapters. Each chapter is its own story. The school has 30 stories/floors too. 

- there is a character in the book that has the same name as the author. He is the guy that fixes everything. He is a great resource for all sorts of problems. The first chapter says he is the yard teacher. What is a yard teacher?

- chapter 17 doesn't seem to make any sense....until you read it backwards, paragraph by paragraph. 

I Am Malala (Malala Yousafzai)

I read this book for book club. It was my turn to choose a book and I've dabbled in this one a number of times (Goodreads says I started reading it Aug 20, 2015!) so I decided it was a good one to pick to read and discuss. In the end, I think it was a good book to discuss at book club.

When I read this book, I was struck by her love for education and had to think about how many of us take the opportunities we have for granted.

It was interesting to read an account of what life was like as the Taliban gradually took over.  Honestly, I'm not sure I would have been as valiant a fighter and she and her father have been. They have lived their life in danger simply because they value education, choice, religion and the freedom to choose. I hesitate to be judgmental, but I really wondered about parents who would allow their child to be so outspoken. Clearly, she suffered the consequences. In the end though, she is a hero. I do not know if I'd be as brave as she and her family has been.

Goodreads summary:

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. 

Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.

The Lemonade Club (Patricia Polacco)

It's good for kids to see the emotion that can come from a story, right?

This one definitely made me cry. It's a beautiful story! It would be good to read this one around Terry Fox run time as one of the girls gets cancer in the story.

Goodreads summary:

Everyone loves Miss Wichelman?s fifth-grade class?especially best friends Traci and Marilyn. That?s where they learn that when life hands you lemons, make lemonade! They are having a great year until Traci begins to notice some changes in Marilyn. She?s losing weight, and seems tired all the time. She has leukemia?and a tough road of chemotherapy ahead. It is not only Traci and Miss Wichelman who stand up for her, but in a surprising and unexpected turn, the whole fifth-grade class, who figures out a way to say we?re with you. In true Polacco fashion, this book turns lemons into lemonade and celebrates amazing life itself.

Mr. Lincoln's Way (Patricia Polacco)

When I asked my librarian for some recommendations for books this week she led me to the part of the library where the Patricia Polacco books are shelved. She raved on and on about her books. I was unfamiliar with them so decided to give them a try. This was one of those stories that captivated everyone in the class. Everyone was sitting and listening and looking at the pictures intently. There is magic in this book!

Goodreads summary:

Mr. Lincoln is the coolest principal ever! He knows how to do everything, from jumping rope to leading nature walks. Everyone loves him . . . except for Eugene Esterhause. "Mean Gene" hates everyone who's different. He's a bully, a bad student, and he calls people awful, racist names. But Mr. Lincoln knows that Eugene isn't really bad-he's just repeating things he's heard at home. Can the principal find a way to get through to "Mean Gene" and show him that the differences between people are what make them special? 

With Patricia Polacco's trademark illustrations and gentle text,Mr. Lincoln's Way celebrates the unforgettable school principal who touches the lives of his students and truly empowers them.

My Teacher is a Monster (Peter Brown)

This is a great book to start off our friendship unit. It reminds students that once you get to know someone they're not quite so scary. Depicting the teacher as a monster makes them laugh. I'm amazed at how every time I read this book to a group of kids they notice as soon as the teacher starts losing her monster-ish green hue.

Good picture book example of Notice and Note Signposts of contrasts and contradictions. We do not expect this teacher to be friendly!

Goodreads summary:

Bobby has a problem.

You see, his teacher is a monster.

But when Bobby runs into his teacher outside of school, he learns there is more to her than meets the eye.

Snow Day! (Lester Laminack)

Funny to be reading this in July! As I read, though, I could totally sense that awesome feeling that comes with a snow day. This story has a good twist at the end when you realize it is the dad telling the story (he is a teacher) rather than the boy.

Goodreads summary: 

When the television weatherman predicts a big snowfall, the narrator gleefully imagines the fun-filled possibilities of an unscheduled holiday from school.

Piling under warm blankets. Sipping hot chocolate in snowman mugs. Building a snow fort. Piling up a zillion snowballs inside. Sledding in the neighbor s field. In scene after snowy scene, from sunrise to sundown, a pair of siblings, with their father in tow, show how they would make the most of their day off.

But when the family wakes up the next morning, they are in for a disappointment. As the family members pile into the car so they won t be late for school, an unexpected twist reveals who wanted the snow day most of all.

Book Details: Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 9/1/2007 Pages: 32 Reading Level: Age 5 and Up

Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson)

I learned about this book from a Nerdy Book Club post by Donalyn Miller. I've seen a lot of tweets about it as well. It seemed like a book that I needed to carve out some special time for. I was fascinated that the entire book is written in verse. How weird could that be? It wasn't weird. It was beautiful and had magic. As Donalyn Miller said, "Jackie catches words, blows on them, and floats them on to me." 

I wanted this book to go on forever. I tend to be a fast reader. This book made me want to slow down and savor every word. Seriously.

Goodreads Summary:

Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.  A novel in verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become. 

I got this book from the library and must apologize to the librarian for all the pages I had to turn down. They were the pages I just couldn't quite let go of yet.

I loved the image this stirs.
p. 131 sometimes, no words are needed
Deep winter and the night air is cold. So still,
it feels like the world goes on forever in the darkness
until you look up and the earth stops
in a ceiling of stars. My head against
my grandfather's arm,
is a blanket around us as we sit on the front porch swing.
Its whine like a song.

You don't need words 
on a night like this. Just the warmth
of your grandfather's arm. Just the silent promise
That the world as we know it
will always be here.

I hope I can help all my students feel like this about school:
p. 158 first grade
My hand inside my sister's hand,
We walk the two blocks fo P.s. 106 - 
I am six years old and
my sister tells me our school was once a castle.
I believe her. The school stretches for a full city block.
Inside
marble stairs wind their way to classrooms filled
with dark wood desks
nailed down to dark wood floors polished to a high
and beautiful shine.

I am in love with everything around me,
the dotted white lines moving
across my teacher's blackboard, the smell of chalk,
the flag jutting out from the wall and slowly swaying 
above me.

There is nothing more beautiful than P.s. 106.
Nothing more perfect than my first-grade classroom.
No one more kind than Ms. Feidler, who meets me
at the door each morning,
takes my hand from my sister's, smiles down and says,
Now that Jacqueline is here, the day can finally begin.

And I believe her.
Yes. I truly believe her.

Jacqueline Woodson is a Jehovah's Witness and that plays a role in the story. It was a unique view into a religion I really don't understand.
p. 162 flag
When the kids in my class ask why
I am not allowed to pledge to the flag
I tell them It's against my religion but I don't say,
I am in the world but not of the world. This,
they would not understand.
Even though my mother's not a Jehovah's Witness,
she makes us follow their rules and
leave the classroom when the pledge is being said.

Every morning, I walk out with Gina and Alina
the two other Witnesses in my class.
Sometimes, Gina says,
Maybe we should pray for the kids inside
who don't know that God said
"No other idols before me." That our God
is a jealous God.
Gina is a true believer. Her Bible open
during reading time. But Alina and I walk through
our roles as Witnesses as though this is the part
we've been given in a play
and once offstage, we run free, sing
"America the Beautiful" and "The Star-Spangled Banner"
far away from our families - knowing every word.

Alina and I want
more than anything to walk back into our classroom
press our hands against our hearts, Say,
"I pledge allegiance..." loud
without our jealous God looking down on us.
  Without our parents finding out.
Without our mothers' voices
in our heads saying, You are different.
Chosen.
Good.

When the pledge is over, we walk single file
back into the classroom, take our separate seats
Alina and I far away from Gina. But Gina
always looks back at us - as if to say,
I'm watching you. As if to say,
I know.

Jacqueline also struggles with comparing herself to her brilliant sister:
p. 169 gifted
Everyone knows my sister
is brilliant. The letters come home folded neatly
inside official-looking envelopes that my sister proudly
hands over to my mother.
Odella has achieved
Odella has excelled at
Odella has been recommended to
Odella's outstanding performance in

She is gifted
we are told
And I imagine presents surrounding her.

I am not gifted. When I read, the words twist
twirl across the page.
When they settle, it is too late.
The class has already moved on.

I want to catch words one day. I want to hold them
then blow gently,
watch them float
right out of my hands.

I was really taken by her ability to describe her difficulties with reading.
p. 226 reading
I am not my sister.
Words from the books curl around each other
make little sense
until
I read them again
and again, the story
settling into memory. Too slow
the teacher says.
Read faster.
Too babyish, the teacher says.
Read older.
but I don't want to read faster or older or 
any way else that might
make the story disappear too quickly from where
  it's settling
inside my brain,
slowly becoming 
a part of me.
A story I will remember
long after I've read it for the second, third,
tenth, hundredth time.

I know this story! It's called Stevie. 
p. 227 stevie and me
Every Monday my mother takes us
to the library around the corner. We are allowed
to take out seven books each. One those days,
no one complains
that all I want are picture books.

These days no one tells me to read faster
to read harder books
to read like Dell

No one is there to say, Not that book,
when I stop in front of the small paperback 
with a brown boy on the cover.
Stevie.

I read:
One day my momma told me,
"You know you're gonna have
a little friend come stay with you."
And I said, "Who is it?"

If someone had been fussing with me
to read like my sister, I might have missed
the picture book filled with brown people, more
brown people than I'd ever seen
In a book before.

The little boy's name was Steven but 
his mother kept calling him Stevie.
My name is Robert but my momma don't
call me Robertie.

If someone had taken
that book out of my hand
said, You're too old for this
maybe
I'd never have believed
that someone who looked like me
could be in the pages of the book
that someone who looked like me
had a story.


One fascinating part of the story was the aftermath of segregation. During her time as a child there wasn't segregation, well, sort of. I wish I was more like Jacqueline Woodson when it comes to change. I'm a little more like the grandma sometimes though, a little afraid to step out. And when I do step out, I do it pretty quietly. I don't like that about myself.
p. 237 what everybody knows now

Even though the laws have changed
my grandmother still takes us
to the back of the bus when we go downtown
in the rain. It's easier, my grandmother says,
than having white folks look at me like I'm dirt.

But we aren't dirt. We are people
paying the same fare as other people.
When I say this to my grandmother,
she nods, says, Easier to stay where you belong.

I look around and see the ones
who walk straight to the back. See
the ones who take a seat up front, daring
anyone to make them move. And know
this is who I want to be. Not scared
like that. Brave
like that.

Still, my grandmother takes my hand downtown
pulls me right past the restaurants that have to let us sit
wherever we want now. No need in making trouble
she says.  You'll all go back to New York City but
I have to live here.

We walk straight past Woolworth's
without even looking in the windows
because the one time my grandmother went inside
they made her wait and wait. Acted like
I wasn't even there. It's hard not to see the moment - 
my grandmother in her Sunday clothes, a hat
with a flower pinned to it
neatly on her head, her patent-leather purse,
perfectly clasped
between her gloved hands - waiting quietly
long past her turn.

Because of Mr. Terupt (Rob Buyea)

This book was recommended by Erin Soderberg, when we skyped with her. It took me a little while to get into it, and I found I had to keep notes on each of the characters because I wasn't keeping them straight in my head - but once I got into it it got easier.


Goodreads Summary:

It’s the start of fifth grade for seven kids at Snow Hill School. There’s . . . Jessica, the new girl, smart and perceptive, who’s having a hard time fitting in; Alexia, a bully, your friend one second, your enemy the next; Peter, class prankster and troublemaker; Luke, the brain; Danielle, who never stands up for herself; shy Anna, whose home situation makes her an outcast; and Jeffrey, who hates school.

Only Mr. Terupt, their new and energetic teacher, seems to know how to deal with them all. He makes the classroom a fun place, even if he doesn’t let them get away with much . . . until the snowy winter day when an accident changes everything—and everyone.

This story made me reflect on how everyone has a story and everyone deserves a little extra kindness. The influence of a good teacher made my heart swell. The story is told from each student's perspective, similar to how Wonder is told. It was a really effective way to tell the story.


Far be it from me to ever disagree with Donalyn Miller - until today. In her review she thought the student's voices were too mature for grade 5. I don't know though. Kids can have a lot of depth and I didn't find it too unrealistic.


The teacher, Mr. Terupt, is new and is a fabulous teacher. He helps his students work together and realize they're stronger when they're united. He teaches them to be kind through experiences with students with special needs. He allows them choice. He gives them rewards. He is real and open with them....and he changes a lot of lives.


The end of the story made me cry. I was reading in a public place. Be warned! You might want to be alone for the ending.

The Nightingale's Nest (Nikki Loftin)

I learned about this book from the Nerdy Book Club. I also noticed a few other bloggers writing about it, so I decided I needed to read it. Unfortunately, I think it is meant for kids older than my students who are in grade three. However, after reading it, I am quite motivated to go find The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy since the Nerdy Book Club blogger said she read it to her students in grade three.

A lot of people connected it to Bridge to Terabithia, which is great, because I am reading that next!

This story is based on a Hans Christian Andersen story called The Nightingale. It is a great take on the story.

I am a real sucker for magic in real life. In this story, Little John takes on issues that he shouldn't have to deal with - but he does. And somehow, he makes it through, even though it seems impossible - well, all with a little magical help. The magic of birds and music and giving all we can is a great meta narrative.

In the acknowledgements, at the back of the book, the author totally won me over with this:

Throughout my life, I have been blessed with extraordinary teachers who built nests of knowledge, safety, and love for me, and later for my children. In gratitude and memory, I placed the names of many of them in these pages. If you see your name here, thank you for ever for the gifts you gave in the classroom and beyond. I never forgot you, and I never will.

Goodreads Summary:

Twelve-year-old John Fischer Jr., or "Little John" as he’s always been known, is spending his summer helping his father with his tree removal business, clearing brush for Mr. King, the wealthy owner of a chain of Texas dollar stores, when he hears a beautiful song that transfixes him. He follows the melody and finds, not a bird, but a young girl sitting in the branches of a tall sycamore tree.

There’s something magical about this girl, Gayle, especially her soaring singing voice, and Little John’s friendship with Gayle quickly becomes the one bright spot in his life, for his home is dominated by sorrow over his sister’s death and his parents’ ever-tightening financial difficulties.

But then Mr. King draws Little John into an impossible choice—forced to choose between his family’s survival and a betrayal of Gayle that puts her future in jeopardy.

Inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen story, Nightingale's Nest is an unforgettable novel about a boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders and a girl with the gift of healing in her voice.


Tags

Addictions - the father spends his weekends drunk
Children - the story is centred around children who have to deal with issues children shouldn't have to worry about
Death - Little John's sister has passed away and he feels responsible for her death. Her mother is not dealing well with everything either and often talks of the daughter as though she were still alive
Family - Little John's family cannot pay the rent, the neighbour's family is friends with them, plus there is a foster family in the story
Fears - Little John's father is intimidating. They are afraid they will be evicted. Gayle is afraid of Mr. king
Foster Children - Gayle is a foster child who has run away a number of times. She lives with a foster family who don't take very good care of her.
Homelessness - The family is afraid they will be evicted. They are always paying the rent late and the landlord is getting impatient.
Imagination - is Gayle simply a child with a good imagination? Does she really have magical powers?
Magic - Gayle is able to heal people with her songs
Mercy - In the end, things do work out

Teachers - The author writes a beautiful tribute to teachers in her acknowledgements. Beautiful!