Hello, Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde

Lunde, D.  (2007).  Charlesbridge.  Unpaged, $15.95.  Illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne.

The bumblebee bat may be small, but it's a great flyer.  What else can you learn about this endangered species?  Read this book to find out.

This Theodor Geisel Honor book is about the bumblebee bat and the likes and dislikes, fears, food, habitat, and characteristics of this endangered species.  The book is nonfictional, written in question and answer format:  questions are asked of the bumblebee bat and the bat answers the questions.  It is suitable for ages five through eight, as any child interested in bats (or animals in general) would enjoy it.  The text is simple and easy to understand while the pictures help illustrate the explanations of the text.  I enjoyed reading this book.  I thought it was very informative and told simply; the question and answer format makes the information easily understood, and the pictures complemented the information.  The title refers to greeting the Bumblebee Bat, and starting a conversation with him by getting to know him and learning about it through questions and answers.

Darrin Lunde and Patricia J. Wynne have worked together for a few books including Hello, Baby Baluga and Meet the Meerkat. 

Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni

Lionni, L.  (1960).  Inch by Inch.  HarperCollinsPublishers.  Unpaged.

The inchworm escapes being eaten by the robin because of his unique talent:  he can measure anything.  If the inchworm doesn't measure his song, he'll eat him.  How can you measure a song?  Will the inchworm survive this time?

The title of this Caldecott Honor book refers to how an inchworm survives and escapes from being eaten by a nightingale.  A robin is about to eat an inchworm, who asks the robin to spare his life because he has a very useful talent:  he can measure things such as birds, beaks, tails, legs, and bodies.  The robin spares him, but one day a mean nightingale asks him to measure his song or else he will eat him, but the inchworm does not know how to measure a song.  While the nightingale starts to sing, the inchworm starts “measuring” and slowly inches away while the nightingale is singing with his eyes closed.  Inch by inch, the inchworm slowly but surely inched its way to survival.

I thought this book was cute.  I found it clever that the inchworm was able to get away from the nightingale and avoid being eaten.  Five- to six-year-old children would like this book.  The text is simple and easily understood.  The pictures are also simple, but are bright and colorful, complementing the story.

In addition to getting Honor from the Caldecott Award, this book was also voted Best Illustrated Children's Book and was on the Fanfare Honor List.  Find out about Leo Lionni by going here http://inkfist.com/iknow/jenniferjacobson.com/html/wp-content/uploads/file/TeachingSixTraitswithAndyShane.pdf.  Other books by Leo Lionni include A Color of His Own, Colors, Numbers, Letters, and Frederick.

 

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

Cronin, D.  (2000).  Click, Clack, Moo:  Cows That Type.  Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.  Unpaged, $15.95

Led by the cows, the farm animals demand better conditions from the farmer.  Will the animals and the farmer be able to reach a compromise?

In this book, cows can type.  These cows are not happy with their living conditions on the farm, so one day they type a note to the farmer asking for electric blankets, but the farmer refuses, so the cows go on strike.  The other farm animals soon join in and have their own demands, which they give to the cows to type, but the farmer refuses their demands.  Realizing that it is impossible to run a farm without animals, the cows, the other farm animals, and the farmer reach a compromise, restoring order on the farm. 

This Caldecott Honor book is great for five- and six-year-old children to enjoy during story time.  The pictures are entertaining and colorful, and the story is funny and easy to understand.  This book can be used to demonstrate to children that they cannot always have what they want right away, but good things come to those who are patient or that sometimes they'll have to make compromises and stand up for what they believe in or for what they believe is right.  This was an interesting book to read because of the content.  I think it showed an important lesson in a light-hearted way.  The title refers to the cows and what they do to get better conditions for themselves as well as for the other animals on the farm.

This book has also been honored with the following awards:  Caldecott Honor book; ALA Notable Book; School Library Journal Best Book; Publisher’s Weekly Best Children’s Book of 2000/Picture book; Child Magazine’s Guide to Top Books, Videos, and Software of the Year.

Learn more about Doreen Cronin by visiting her website at http://www.doreencronin.com/www.doreencronin.com/Home.html.  Other books that she's written are Duck for President and Diary of a Worm. 

Betsy Lewin illustrated Click, Clack, Moo:  Cows That Type.  Check out her website at http://www.betsylewin.com/.  Other books she has illustrated are Dooby Dooby Moo (which is also by Doreen Cronin) and The Little Bitty Bakery.  She and Doreen Cronin have worked together often.

Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes

Montes, M.  (2006).  Los Gatos Black on Halloween.  Henry Holt and Company.  Unpaged, $16.95

What really happens on Halloween?  Who are the scary creatures who come out on Halloween?  Ghosts and goblins, or children?

This book takes readers on a Halloween adventure telling about black cats, witches, skeletons, ghosts and goblins, and tombs, adding in Spanish words.  The story is told as a poem and includes end rhyme to describe these Halloween objects.  The scariest part of Halloween is not black cats, witches, ghosts, or goblins, but the children.  This book would make readers wonder about what happens on Halloween.  Do ghosts and goblins really come out to play?  Is there a goblin dance party?  Readers might never really know, but the book lets their minds have a taste of the possibility of these things happening on Halloween. 

This was a fun book to read and would appeal to children ages five through eight.  It has an educational aspect to it as it includes Spanish words as well as a glossary for the Spanish terms.  The illustrations are vibrant, colorful, and fun with their great use of color.  It reminded me about when I used to go trick-or-treating with my cousins and how I would (secretly) be scared of the frightening costumes.  I think it's interesting to imagine what ghosts and goblins think of people when they go out trick or treating and dressing up in various types of costumes.  It makes me think that they might be perceiving us in the same way we look at and perceive them:  scary.  This title refers to black cats on Halloween and what they and other scary, Halloween things might be capable of on Halloween and what really happens with these when people aren't paying attention to them.

This book won the Pura Belpre Award for illustrations and honor for this same award for the text in 2008.  You can learn more about the author and her other books by visiting http://www.marisamontes.com/.  Other books by the author include Juan Bobo Goes to Work and Egg-Napped!  Learn about the illustrator, Yuyi Morales, at http://www.yuyimorales.com/.  Other books that she's illustrated include My Abuelita and Floating on Mama's Song.

Yuyi Morales, illustrator

Marisa Montes, author







The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Patron, S.  (2006).  The Higher Power of Lucky.  Antheneum Books for Young Readers.  134 pages, $16.95

Why is Brigitte acting weird lately?  Lucky discovers Brigitte's (her guardian) passport and suitcase out when they're usually in a safe and in the closet, respectively.  Is Brigitte planning on returning to France?  What will happen to Lucky?  Can Lucky convince Brigitte that she belongs with her and nowhere else?

Lucky is a girl who lives with Brigitte in Hard Pan, a town in the Mojave Desert.  Lucky’s mother died two years ago, and she feels very fortunate that Brigitte is her guardian; otherwise she would have to live in an orphanage in Los Angeles.  Even though Lucky knows that Hard Pan is not the greatest place to live, she likes it, and wants Brigitte to like it too, but Lucky is constantly worrying that Brigitte will decide that Hard Pan is not the place for her and return to France.  Lucky realizes her fears when she sees Brigitte’s passport out, which she keeps in a safe deposit box in a bank in Sierra City and her suitcase is out, which is always kept in her closet.  She also sees a brochure for a culinary institute in France.  Lucky is sure Brigitte is going back to France, so she decides to run away to make Brigitte realize how much she loves Lucky.  On runaway day, Lucky’s plans do not go as they should, but she realizes that Brigitte was not planning on returning to France and she needed her passport as identification for the adoption agency so she can adopt her. 

I really enjoyed this story.  I think the title referred to Lucky and what she is able to do when she puts her mind to it.  She is a very spunky girl, and I wanted her to get the love she deserved from the person she loved the most.  Even though it's clear that Brigitte loves her, for a little while I thought she was going to give up Lucky, but really she was planning on adopting her, which is what Lucky really wanted.  I also enjoyed the simple black and white pictures throughout the book.  I thought that they truly complement the plot of the story.  I think this would be a good book to share with a child who is in Lucky’s situation, but I also think that any child would be able to empathize with Lucky.  From reading this book, they could see that their parents and/or guardians care for them and would do anything and everything they can to protect them.  I think the title refers to Lucky, the main character, and what she can do when she really sets her mind to accomplish something that's very important to her.

This book won the Newbery Award in 2007.  Learn more about the author by visiting her website at http://www.susanpatron.com/.  A companion to The Higher Power of Lucky is Lucky for Good, which is expected to come out in August 2011.  Lucky Breaks is another companion to The Higher Power of Lucky.  Susan Patron has also written Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe.

One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Seeger, L. V.  (2008).  One boy.  Roaring Book Press.  Unpaged, $14.95

Learn to count and recognize new words within familiar words by reading this book.

This is a book about counting and about recognizing words within words.  It gives a visual representation of objects representing the numbers one through 10.  A cut-out on the pages boxes each number to help children read the number words one through 10 and then recognize the words within other words.  This book is well-suited for five-year-old children as they are learning to read, count, and recognize new words.  The words on the pages are big and simple, sometimes rhyming and sometimes not rhyming, but still helping the children understand the concept of the book.  The pictures are simple and colorful with a child-like quality to them.  I read this book with my little cousin who is learning to count, and she really seemed to enjoy it.  Her face lit up when (after reading the book several times) she was able to recognize the words in the book.  She was able to read it, and she was so excited about it!  I think the title refers to numbers and counting since (aside from zero) we usually start counting with the number one.  In addition, 'one' is a word that you might find as part of longer words, and children who are learning to read might be able to read longer words by recognizing smaller words within words.

In 2009 this book received Honor for the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award.  Learn more about the author and illustrator Laura Vaccaro Seeger at http://us.macmillan.com/author/lauravaccaroseeger.  She has also written and illustrated First the Egg, The Hidden Alphabet, and What If?

Lena by Jacqueline Woodson

Woodson, J.  (1999).  Lena.  New York:  Speak

Thirteen-year-old Lena and her younger sister, Dion, have just lost their mother and are getting away from their abusive father.  Will they find a place where they belong?  A place to call home?

This book refers to Lena.  After their mother dies of cancer, Lena decides that she and her sister have to get away from their abusive father in Chauncy, Ohio and find their mother's people in Kentucky.  She is sure that they will take them in, after all they're family, and family sticks together.  Lena had been planning this for quite some time, so she was prepared with supplies they would need while on the road.  Her plan is to make it to Kentucky by walking and hitching rides.  The girls have cut their hair short so that they can look like boys when they're riding with men.  While on the road, they've met some interesting people, some nicer than others, and some willing to help by offering them money for their journey or meals.  Their story is that they're going to meet their mother, who has just had a baby, at the hospital, but they're walking because somehow the money their mother sent got lost.  The girls have their stories straight, but are getting tired of and feeling bad about constantly lying.  It isn't until a woman, Miz Lily, tells them to get in her car that someone (Miz Lily) starts to notice that something isn't right about two young girls hitchhiking their way to Kentucky in the middle of winter.  The girls also get mixed up with their story, which causes Miz Lily to further suspect that there's more to the girls' story than they're letting on.  Miz Lily offers them food and a warm place to stay, and they gladly accept.  While at Miz Lily's Lena starts to think about their situation.  She is starting to miss Ohio.  Not her dad, but Marie, her best friend, and Ms. Cory, her teacher at her middle school.  They both cared about her.  She starts to think about her mother's people.  She doesn't know where she'd even begin to start looking for them.  Lena also thinks about how they didn't attend her mother's funeral, send a card, or answer the social worker's call when the girls were separated.  Would they really be willing to take them in?  Lena isn't so sure anymore.  Missing Marie, she calls her and discovers that Marie misses her terribly and that Lena's dad left and is nowhere to be found.  Marie's father is the one who is trying desperately to find the girls and make sure they're OK.  Now Lena knows that she has to return to Ohio.  Marie tells Lena to stay where she's at and that she will talk to her dad and call her the next day.  In the morning, Lena is anxiously waiting for Marie's call, but never gets it, so Miz Lily takes Lena and Dion to the hospital (where her friend happens to work) so that they can get to their mom.  Later Miz Lily returns to the hospital, where her suspicions that the girls are still there are confirmed.  She spoke to Marie and worked things out with Marie's father to have him pick up the girls at the airport in Ohio and get the ball rolling to have Lena and Dion stay with them.  Lena can't believe that after all she and Dion have been through, they'll have a home again.

This was a very heartwarming story.  I'm not one to cry, but there were some tears stinging my eyes.  The story was very well-written in the dialect of the area and the descriptions of the cities the girls traveled through were very easy to picture.  Lena seemed so brave and selfless...wanting what was best for her sister and always looking after her.  I kept thinking that their mother's people might not take them in and then they'd be right where they started:  without a home to feel safe in and no one to love them.  When they met Miz Lily, I thought she'd figure things out (she kind of did) and take them in (which she said she would if things didn't work out with Marie and her father).  I just wanted them to get what they deserved after all they'd been through, and they finally did.  I think students would be able to empathize with the girls and root for them to get the loving home, family, and love they deserve.

Jacqueline Woodson, the author

This is a Newbery Honor book and it won the Margaret A. Edwards Award.  It is the sequel to I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This.
You can learn more about Jacqueline Woodson by visiting her website at http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/.  Other books she's written include Behind You, Hush, and If You Come Softly.