Strange Birds

It's been a very hot and humid day.  Our A/C is on and so is my oven. Please don't tell National Grid (shouldn't I be conserving?).  The oven's purpose? To bake Aster's Chips+Chips cookies.

So many good books are coming out this fall and Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Perez is one of them.  Four different girls with four different backgrounds in a tree house in Florida ruffling feathers literally and figuratively.


There's Ofelia Castillo, the journalist, who just wants support and permission to apply to the four week Qwerty Sholes contest that would land her a 4-week internship in New York City.

There's Cat Garcia, a bird watcher who just quit the Floras, unbeknownst to her mother.  Being a Flora has been in Cat's family history for forever and her mother has dreams of Cat becoming Miss Floras.  As Miss Floras, Cat would don a hat made "a hundred years ago when...people thought it was okay to kill birds and wear them." Cat is not okay with that.

There's Aster Douglas, a foodie, who lives with her grandfather and is on a mission to uncover the mystery of the Winter Sun orange (and the namesake of our cookies).

And finally Lane DiSanti who is staying in Sabal Palms with her grandmother while her parents figure out the future of their relationship. "All relationships require some kind of agreement." Lane comes from old Florida money and is the one behind bringing the girls together with an intriguing invitation.

This is a story about activism, friendship, standing up for what you believe in and using your voice.  Watch out, though, after learning that actions can make a difference, who knows what your middle grade readers will be inspired to do. Strange Birds teaches them that "most things that matter carry some risk" but will be worth it in the end. (and cause for celebration with Aster's cookies, of course--thankfully the recipe is included!)

Celia with her editor at a Penguin luncheon during ALA. The flamingo and sticky notes are key.

Before

After-YUM!

 

 

 

 

PS-The cookies are DELICIOUS! I love how they are one bowl, too! 🍪♡

All the Impossible Things

 

 

It always seems impossible until it's done-Nelson Mandela

We were driving to New Jersey this morning and I was in the back reading.
The good news is that my Mom had a box of tissues on the seat where I was sitting.
The bad news is that I used so many, the box now needs to be replaced.

All the Impossible Things by Lindsay Lackey
This book.
These characters.
That giant old tortoise.
All blow together in one nearly perfect book.

I was hooked by the first chapter.  If I was in my mom's car then, there would have been a shortage of Kleenex by the end of the book.

11 year old Ruby "Red" is no stranger to foster homes.  Her mom is incarcerated and her Gamma, who had been taking care of her, died of cancer. Ruby's latest placement  is with Celine and Jackson at their "Groovy Petting Zoo."  It is there she befriends next door neighbor, young videographer Marvin, Tuck the Tortoise, many other animals and her new foster parents.

Red counts the days patiently until the day her mom is released from jail and they will be reunited. But when the letters she writes to her all get returned, Red takes a difficult journey to find out the difference between hard and impossible and realizes that maybe,

"living without something-even something you really need-isn't the end.  Maybe it's the beginning of something better."

This book tugged at my heart. It made my stomach turn. There were times I wanted to just shake Red up. I knew what I wanted for her and just hoped she would discover it, too, in spite of the pain.  "Pain is funny...Sometimes it tricks us into thinking one thing is wrong, when really it is something else."

"Every good story starts in one place and ends somewhere else."  Find yourself a good solid block of time (with a cup of hot cocoa on the side) to be there where it starts and to see how it ends. 

I love having debut authors on my Newbery contender list.  Lindsay Lackey is one of them, for sure.

September 3 find your fans of Barbara O'Connor, Nikki Loftin and Natalie Lloyd and twirl over to them with this book. Oh, and don't say I didn't warn you about the sniffles...♡

 

I met Lindsay at ALA and am sad we didn't take a leap together.  It is very POSSIBLE that I will be soliciting her for a Skype visit in early winter.  When that happens, a leap will happen.

P.S.

If you were at NerdCampMI, you might have remembered Laura Shovan's response when asked "What are you sick and tired of?" She is sick and tired of "boy vs. girl books" and "periods." This is a book for all readers, girls or boys, who love realistic fiction with a sprinkle of magic. Additionally, Red gets her period during a very intense part of the book. It happens, she deals with it and we move on.  Please don't shy away from it now. For Red, getting her period not only symbolizes coming of age but so much more. Family, independence, maturity, motherhood, and, the simple impossibility of birth.

Quotable NErDCampMI 2019

Here's a VERY brief collection of quotes from Day 1.

Pen and trusty yellow legal pad in hand, I tried to get some good quotes.  Although, I have to admit, there were times when I inhaled for five, exhaled for ten and just listened deeply.

"No one else wants another silent female.  We have enough of those."-Pernille Ripp (and in my notes I put my daughter's initials with a ♡.  She is far from a silent female and makes me proud every day. Later Pernille said, "Nothing wrong with being angry if you do something about it...Embrace anger as a tool."

"What happens to one of us, happens to all of us."-Alicia Williams.  I was thrilled to listen to her and meet her later that day.  At least two people have recommended her book as a strong Newbery contender.

Ahhh...Cece Bell.  I love how she thought she visited my school.  I had to remind her that I was just an annoying, pushy librarian pre-Newbery 2015 and then we finally did get to Skype post-Newbery.

"We need to keep reading books so we can laugh together, discover ourselves and discover each other."

Cece has a new book out about underwear and feet. How could that NOT be funny?

Laurie.Halse.Anderson.  

I could listen to her SPEAK forever. A couple of times, I caught glimpses of her wandering but was too timid to say hello.  Here's my takeaway--I need to talk to my secondary librarian and MS ELA teachers. Chains has been part of the 7th grade curriculum forever.  Now let's make Speak part of 8th grade and Shout a HS and all district faculty book club.  Laurie referenced her January Time magazine essay.  Read it here.  My son will be 13 next month. He doesn't know it yet, but we have some uncomfortable, yet crucial, conversations ahead of us. And discussing Speak is at the top of that list.

Donalyn Miller.

Another idol of probably every camper and beyond.

"No matter who you signed a contract with, you made a contract to society and all its children."  Donalyn charged us all to "make good trouble" as we hold up our end of the contract.

Jason Reynolds.

"Jason Reynolds sits in your classroom every day unrecognized."

"Don't feel sad; feel angry."

"When that bell rings, everyone takes a different journey home." 

(about his forthcoming book, Look Both Ways, a collection of stories of ten kids during the 10 unsupervised minutes walking home.)

Want more? I'm sure when I was breathing, others were jotting. Check out the #NErDCampMI tweets for more inspiration...