Missing my People

This week brought to the forefront of my mind that I miss my people. 

We taped our 40th (?) #AuthorFanFaceOff episode featuring an 8th grader from Illinois with the sweetest smile ever vs. the amazing and wonderful, Rita Williams-Garcia.  I look forward to seeing "my people" every Monday. Our show gives so much joy to both the young challengers (although sometimes it may be hard to tell), the authors and to us, the hosts. The line up continues to be stellar.  Shameless plug--please subscribe and share if you don't already. 

This week reminded me how much I miss sitting side by side with my people and getting wow-ed by a keynote speaker. We learned about Jacqueline Woodson in third grade.  We watched her read The Day You Begin, illustrated by our Castleton Elementary School friend, Rafael Lopez, and researched her from one of my favorite databases, FactCite.  I love her recitation of the book. It never got old, even on Friday.  Unrelated but related, the fifth grade ELA teacher was looking for a new read aloud.  I met up with her with a pile of amazing books in my hands (many AFF episodes and or authors: One Crazy Summer, The Crossover, 14th Goldfish, The Parker Inheritance) and some not. Coincidentally, she chose Woodson's Harbor Me. Who knows? Maybe someday she will move into the AFF category...

Tuesday I was on a virtual panel through School Library Connection with four AH-MAZING school librarians.  It really made me wonder how I landed there, honestly. But I reminded myself the message from Woodson's reading of The Day You Begin that we are all fabulous. So yeah, great to be with my people on the panel and "see" folks in the chat, too.  Don't worry if you missed it! Check it out here.

It's been a long while since I took my hair down with my fellow librarians.  Slight tangent here--Just on the topic of hair, one third grader told me this week that it is time for me to see my hairdresser. Indeed, my hair needs to be colored and the appointment was rescheduled twice but alas, Wednesday is the day! From the mouths of babes, eh? Thursday night, the New York Library Association sponsored a fundraiser with Big Ditch Brewing Company in Buffalo.  It was fun to see familiar faces, including a guy who was in my very first graduate school class. At the time, I wasn't sure I was ready to take the leap into librarianship.  He and the other cool, smart and kind folks in that class definitely had an impact on my new career path.

I miss book festivals and conferences with my people. About an hour before it was to begin, I registered for the "Anderson's Book Shop Children's Literature Breakfast" yesterday morning and am so glad I did.  I multi tasked and only missed about 15 minutes of the whole event. Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is amazing period. Dan Santat had me laughing out loud in my not-Prius while I was driving to not buy some quinoa. Gary Paulsen had us all in tears. And the conversation between Meena Harris and Andrea Beaty was inspiring. I plan to spend a lot of money on books later today.

Today is Sunday. I am looking forward to this week (and not just because I am planning to get my hair cut and colored with turquoise highlights).  We have two great AFFs scheduled Monday and Tuesday.  My second grade lesson plan is about Teresa Carreno, a Maragita Engle book illustrated by Rafael Lopez. My Newbery Navigators chose to begin reading one of my all time faves, Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. So even though I may not be seeing my people in person, this week's virtual challenges alongside the written and illustrated pages of friends will definitely do for now.

BONUS:

The 38th Episode with Lisa Graff and three former students of mine:

The Day You Begin:

From Dan Santat's Twitter, a glimpse into A New Day by Brad Meltzer (book birthday Tuesday!):

A NEW DAY by me & @bradmeltzer comes out this Tuesday (March 2)

Sharing an early draft where SATURDAY, who is styled after the Dude from the movie, #TheBigLebowski, was actually drawn as @thejeffbridges in the 1st draft. Publisher came back with notes saying it was too weird 😂 pic.twitter.com/c51Ab1wZWt

— Dan “DANley Tucci” Santat😷 (@dsantat) February 27, 2021

Letters from Cuba

Happiest of book birthdays today to Ruth Behar's Letters from Cuba.

My Fountains of Silence trip to Madrid was still on the forefront of my mind when I read this book back in early, pre-Covid March. I was all set to plan my next international trip. Little did I know how much the world would change in a matter of days.

And here we are 5 1/2 months later celebrating the book birthday of the story of Esther, a Polish immigrant in Cuba.  It's 1938 and Esther joins her Papa in Cuba, leaving behind her sister, Malka, three brothers, her mother and Bubbe.  Together Esther and Papa work hard to save money to bring them all to Cuba. This is their story as Esther's letters to Malka.

I loved this book.  Thought it was even better than Ruth's Pura Belpre winner Lucky Broken Girl, which says a ton coming from another Briarwood PS 117 girl. It teachers us so much about hope, perseverance, acceptance, diversity, coping with prejudice. Read it with Emma Otheguy and Beatriz Vidal's Marti's Song for Freedom, Margarita Engle and Mike Curato's All the Way to Havana and another new middle grade novel about immigrants and food, A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan. Yes, I love when food shows up prominently in my books and this one is no exception. To begin with you will be yearning for challah, sour cherry tea, latkes and bananas.

Need to take a trip without getting on a plane or even in a car? This book is perfect then. Find Letters from Cuba today, cozy up in your favorite reading spot and bon voyage.

Unicorn Rescue Society PARTY 5

Tomorrow we'll be celebrating our third book birthday for the Unicorn Rescue Society. Yeah, we're fans.  I love these kids and their "twitchy" Professor Fauna. It's like Magic Tree House and Miss Frizzle conquer the Koch Brothers.  I hope that sounds like a super fun read to you because it most definitely is!

In this "episode" Uchenna and Elliot are in Havana to find the mysterious Madre de Auguas of Cuba, the "Mother of Waters."  Could this magical creature responsible for the drought on the island? Hmmm....or could it be related to something else?

The Unicorn Rescue Society regulars fly to Havana in the Phoenix (oh my!) picking up their new friend, Yoenis, on the way in Miami.  A little Cuban history and literature (Jose Marti) are sprinkled throughout as well as environmental and capitalism messages, with bouts of humor, making this enjoyable for kids and adults alike and opportunities for many kinds of conversations.

While reading I thought of other books about Cuba and Havana that I have loved:

Margarita Engle and Mike Curato's, All the Way to Havana:

(The RIF website is helpful again! Here's a word search to pair with the book.)


I was also reminded of a book that we'll be celebrating in August, Letters to Cuba by Ruth Behar. I loved this book filled with hope, perseverance, acceptance and diversity with quotes, like URS, from Jose Marti.  I even wrote in my notes about it to pair with Emma Otheguy's beautiful Marti's Song for Freedom and the already mentioned Engle/Curato book. We'll all be Marti fans before the end of the summer, if we weren't already.

Remember the Pura Belpre honor winning book, The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya? Poetry and Jose Marti make an appearance in it, too, and delicious Cuban food!  If this video doesn't get you hungry for food and parties, I don't know what will!

So let's PARTY!
See you tomorrow at 1:30 to celebrate it up with the URS kids, friends and antagonists.

Women + Music

A long, long time ago a friend of mine gave me a card that said, "If you leave it to the last minute, it only takes a minute to do."  That is forever my motto.  In fact, I got a call yesterday from NYSUT asking for a book review due in 2 weeks.  I was completely honest with her and said I would probably work on it in 13 days.

Today I had our usual "Pastries and Prose" meeting at 8:30.  When we have school IN the building, we begin at 7:25 before school starts.  This week and last I had it 8:30, thinking 4th graders would surely be up by then.  Well, I had four kids show up.  But it's not about the numbers, it's about the quality. And this was a good group.

Where does the procrastination come in?  I wanted to share a book but didn't know which one. I had one downloaded but wanted to keep looking for ideas.  This was at 8:18.  I go into SORA and Women's History Month is being promoted.  One of the first books available was Margarita Engle and Rafael Lopez's book, Drum Dream Girl.

I found today's book.  Not only is it still "Women's History Month" (longest March ever, huh?) but it is also "Music in Our Schools" month.  So this was a perfect match.

Drum Dream Girl

It's hard to believe that it has been almost a year now since Rafael Lopez took leaps with me in Castleton (and in the snow in April!).  I am the luckiest person ever because I get to see his inspired artwork every day outside my library.  

Multi award winning author and poet, Margarita Engle's lyrical text paired with Rafael's artwork (which won him the Pura Belpre medal) makes one perfect book.  I just texted Mrs. Gibney, our music teacher and she simply said, "Love that book."  Is there anyone who doesn't?

This book trailer will get you moving and wanting more, for sure:

There are many activities you can do with Drum Dream Girl.  To start off,  here is a discussion guide.

This article has SO many ideas and further links.  These are a few I particularly like:

• Write a story or poem about your own dreams. 
• Check out drums on Garage Band, if you have a Mac, or another program out there if you have a PC. Play around with it and make a song.
• Make your own instrument out of toilet paper or paper towel rolls, paper plates and beans or anything else you can think of!
• Listen to Cuban music. Maybe have some art supplies available and see if you are inspired to create something while you are listening.
• Create a mural of dreams with your family.  
• Read other books by Margarita Engle, Rafael Lopez or on the same subject or idea. For middle grade readers, I suggest Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson which is her Newbery Honor biography in verse or Ruth Behar's Pura Belpre winning Lucky Broken Girl, based on her own life in fifth grade (in Briarwood, Queens, where I also grew up!) with her Cuban American family. Note: Ruth has a new book, Letters from Cuba, coming out in August that I love, love, love.
• Of course, check out more of Margarita and Rafael's books. There are more books they have done together (Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics and Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreo Played the Piano for President Lincoln) More love.

I found this short video from Ms. Carmina Reads about Millo Castro Zaldarriaga from the book, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls.

Be sure and check out Rafael's blog every day for a different coloring page.  You could print them out and have a whole book when this is over.

Hope these photos get you leaping:

April 5, 2019 

(Check out the blank wall behind us!)

The finished mural taken end of June 2019.

I miss that artwork so much now.💜

Haha Elisha Cooper :-)

By The Way

Speaking of Women's History Month, today is the birthday of Sandra Day O'Connor, born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas (yes, plug for my favorite state where I was hoping to be right now for the Texas Library Association conference) and Nancy Pelosi, born in 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland.  You can find more information about both of these leaders in our databases: FactCite, PebbleGo (only Justice O'Connor) and of course, WorldBook and Britannica.  

Happy Birthday Researching! Happy Women's History Month! Happy Music in Our Schools Month! xo

My Favorite Latino Book People of 2017

I was driving around the other day and got excited when this came on NPR:



I completely agree that "2017 was a great year for Latino culture and the arts." I'm just disappointed that not one reference to poetry or prose by Latino writers or illustrators was mentioned. So here's my own personal addendum to the story.  

Picture Books 

I love anything that Carmen Agra Deedy writes and says.  If you ever have the opportunity to hear her speak, drop everything and go.  She will make you laugh and cry and laugh again.  Then you will cry because it's over.  I was fortunate enough to see her twice in 2017--once at the TLA conference in San Antonio in April and then in October at the Bank Street Book Festival in NYC.  Both times wonderful.  I love The Rooster Who Wouldn't be Quiet.  It has a great message and is a fun read aloud.  Mrs. Yager's third graders even performed it at our November assembly.

My fifth grade Reading Ambassadors loved The Chupacabra Ate the Candlelebra written by Marc Tyler Nobleman and illustrated by Ana Aranda.  A fun story with vibrant illustrations that light up the page.  We all love the funny and unpredictable ending.  

Everyone is talking (including me) about Margarita Engle's poetry anthology, Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics, beautifully illustrated by Rafael Lopez.  I referenced the book and shared the poem on Pura Belpre when teaching about the award named after her.

I was introduced to author poet Emma Otheguy at the Bank Street Book Festival when I attended her Latinx literature book group.  Her gorgeous English and Spanish biography in verse on Jose Marti, Marti's Song for Freedom, illustrated by Beatriz Vidal, is a must for all collections in all buildings.  

One of my second graders in my Mock Caldecott class pretty strongly shared that All the Way to Havana by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Mike Curato is his top pick for Caldecott so far.  Enough said.

Middle Grade

Mr. Reischer and his book group

I absolutely LOVE The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez.  Malu is full of the spunk that I wish I had when I was 12 and she is way cooler than I ever will be.  I'm going to recommend this book to everyone beginning from strong readers in third grade through middle school. If it's up to me we'll all be singing Ramones alongside Lola Beltran.

There hasn't been much buzz around My Brigadista Year, Katherine Paterson's latest, but I enjoyed it. It's the 1960s and brave young Lora leaves her family in Havana for a year to teach folks in the country how to read.  Seems simple, but Lora learns so much from her year away from home.

If you read my blog, you already know that I love Ruth Behar and her middle grade debut, Lucky Broken Girl.

Grab your apron and your poetry pen before you begin reading The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya. Right after I read it I wrote in my notes, "Pick up this epically awesome MG novel about family, love and the courage to speak your mind."

Young Adult

In September I read Benjamin Alire Saenz's The Inexplicable Logic of My Life and fell hard for the characters and Saenz.  I literally could not put it down.  Brushed my teeth with it, listened to the audio everywhere, and read past midnight many nights. It's not a short book but I got it finished in only a few days and that's with being swamped at work.


One of the last books I read this year was I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez.  The first line has you hooked, "What surprised me most about seeing my sister dead is the lingering smirk on her face." It made me cry, laugh ("You think you're all grow up.  You're only fifteen.  You don't even know how to make a tortilla...", smile (boyfriend Connor), hold my breath...I don't know if it was because I am a parent of a fifteen year old myself, Jewish (there are so many similarities in cultures), a good story with a strong heroine or a combination but this was an all around winner in my book. 

I also really loved Adam Silvera's They Both Die in the End. I kept hoping throughout the whole book that for once Death-Cast would be wrong.  "Life isn't meant to be lived alone.  Neither are End Days."

May your loved ones, friends, colleagues, students and beloved characters keep you from being alone in 2018.  Happy New Year!

Enchanted Air + Stella By Starlight = Double ** Reviews

I read two really great books in the past few days.  I must preface this post with saying that I'm not a very good book reviewer and I usually forget many details shortly after I've read a book.  That said, I wanted to jot down some of my thoughts so you could see that you should run out and get these books tomorrow!

Mr. Reischer, my 5th grade ELA teacher and collaborator, got five or six copies of Sharon Draper's Stella by Starlight  for me last Spring with his Scholastic points.  I can't believe they sat in the library untouched.  No longer!  This will definitely be on my Newbery 2016 list.

Stella lives in Bumblebee, North Carolina in the 1930s.  She goes to school with her younger brother in a one room school house.  Shoes are a luxury.  She comes from a good family and strong community. This is Stella's story.  It's about finding out who she is during a time when the Klan is present and the black men in her community are about to take advantage of their right to vote for the first time. It's a story of a young girl who wants to be a better writer and who is given the advice to "Find your family. Find your destiny. Find your wings." (p. 94) Then when Stella's dad and two other men in town try and register to vote, Papa says out loud for Stella to hear, "What's the sense of living if you're ashamed of yourself?" (p. 112) and later, when it could be dangerous to vote that he is "...standing up for all of us.  If I don't stand up, I feel like I'm crouching low.  And I ain't gonna feel low no more." (p. 228) Like her Papa, Stella stands strong in daylight and by the starlight, making us all crave more when it is over.

It took me a day to read Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings by Margarita Engle.  This is a lovely memoir in verse about the author's life from birth till her teens.  Her mother is from the beautiful island of Cuba and her father is American.  They live in America but travel to Cuba up until the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The book opened up my mind and heart to the people of Cuba, their families and how life was in the early-mid 1960s.  It gave me a lot to think about, especially now since we are re-opening our doors to Cuba and it is in the news so often.

My favorite poem in the book is on page 54.  Here is an excerpt:

When I climb a tree, I take a book with me.

When I walk home from school, I carry

my own poems, inside my mind,

where no one else

can reach the words

that are entirely

completely

forever

mine.

Although I would love to have this on my 5th grade Newbery list, I think the content is a little mature.  But I will surely be watching out how it does during the Awards. The copy I borrowed from the library actually has a "YA" sticker on the spine.