This is an absolute must have for (I think) all libraries! It’s the story behind the name behind the award given out every year by the ALA. And not only that, but it’s also just a celebration of story. For years I’ve sought out winners of the Pura Belpre award to include in my collection, and I knew they were books that celebrate Latin American heritage and culture, but I didn’t know much about the person for whom the award is named. This is a beautifully illustrated book that shares Pura’s story, and confirms it is right and just that such an award should be given in her honor.
Author Archives: Courtney Morgan
Toucan with Two Cans
It’s a controlled-text early reader that plays a bit with sound-alike words and homonyms. It basically tells the story of a juggling toucan juggling cans. It has a certain element of the tongue twister about it that makes it kind of fun, but sometimes the use of the same words in different contexts makes building meaning from the story a bit confusing.
Sister Corita’s Words and Shapes
It’s a nice little picture book biography of a little-known (at least not to me) individual. Perhaps the subject is more well-known in art circles. Regardless, it would certainly make a nice addition to a collection with a strong art or religious focus. The story is told in a simple and direct manner for young children, infused with a sense of the joy and hope that it describes the Corita striving to share. The author’s note in the back is important to fleshing out the context for the story told in the main body of the book. It would have been enhanced by a few actual photos of the real individual and/or some samples of her art.
Keep Your Head Up
It’s a good book for helping kids think about and talk about and process their reactions to the world around them. It’s about a kid having a rough day. From the moment he woke up late, everything seems to go wrong all day long, and as he describes how the day is going, he also describes how he feels, and how those feelings build. At the beginning, he makes a conscious decision to walk to school with his head up even though he feels a little scrunch, because he knows any day can be a good day if you try. But as more problems pile up, his bad day face slips out, even though he’s trying not to let it. He reminds himself that his principal would tell him to keep his head up, so he does, but eventually he has a meltdown. When he’s sent to the principal’s office, he expects her face to be scrunchy, but it’s not. When his parents come to get him, he asks if this day is going to get any better, and his mom says it might, if asks him what he can do if it doesn’t, and he knows the right answer is to keep his head up, but he confesses that he doesn’t really want to, and his principal says he just has to want to try. I like that it’s a very believable, and relatable tale for a lot of kids, and it doesn’t offer a sugar-coated ending that everything’s turned around or he has overcome his feelings. I like that it reminds kids they just have to want to try. The illustrations are full of feeling, too, that support the story nicely.
Mr. Complain Takes the Train
Well, it is pretty much exactly as the title describes: an old codger opens the book by complaining that the train is late, and then he proceeds to continuously complain about absolutely everything. Luckily the ostrich/emu? taking tickets has a never ending supply of patience as he continuously adjusts things in an attempt to accommodate Mr. Complain. In the end, the train goes through a loop-de-loop that delights Mr. Complain so much he doesn’t want to get off when it reaches his destination. The pictures are cute, and it does invite a certain amount of interaction with the reader, but I guess I don’t have as much patience as our ticket-taker, because I just found it rather pointless. It’s not bad. It’s just not that great.
Moo-Moo, I Love You!
It’s one of those books for reminding children that they are loved unconditionally. Mama cow is telling her little cow how much she loves it, when she loves it, and what she loves about it, and to keep it silly instead of sappy, it plays on “moo”s throughout. She loves it no matter it’s moo-d, when they’re grooving to moo-sic, and when it’s sch-moo-zing with friends, etc. No child can be told too often how much they’re loved.
1, 2, 3, Off to School!
It’s the kind of book that invites children in to spend time with it. The illustrations are so full of small detail with lots happening on each two-page spread. The story is a simple one, that of a gnome child who is disappointed to be told he s/he won’t be starting kindergarten for another year, so s/he sets off to spend the first day of school visiting all the forest animals in their different schools, watching how their school day progresses. Each two-page spread shows a cross-section of another school, full of details (both pictorial and small word blurbs) showing all that’s happening at the mouse school, the bunny school, the hedgehog school, etc. At the end of the day Pom returns home to tell Momo about all that s/he is looking forward to in Kindergarten, and Momo asserts she will be right there waiting to hear about those adventures. The one editorial adjustment I would have wished for was more distinction in the font between the paragraphs on each page that tell the through story and the blurbs that share the details. The reader is unlikely to read all the words on every page every time they peruse the book, but for read-aloud purposes, it would be better if the continuing story stood out a little better, as it sometimes gets lost among all the other words on the pages.
Blueberry Cake
It’s a sweet story, told mostly in pictures, with limited, repeated text. When a young bear asks his mom to make blueberry cake, she points out that they need blueberries. He sets out very excitedly and finds and picks and eats blueberries, until he is distracted by a butterfly to a field of flowers, which he picks to fill his bucket. Upon returning home, he asks his mom again about blueberry cake, but when she asks again about blueberries, he has only flowers to offer. The next morning he rises early, picks blueberries, and leaves the bucket full for his mother to find, and they enjoy their blueberry cake together alongside a beautiful bouquet, until he asks about applesauce… Its simplicity makes it great for emergent readers, and in particular, the way the same words are used with varying punctuation makes it great for teaching about punctuation and context as clues for reading with expression.
Beautifully Me
I love the illustrations in this book: they are bright and beautiful and full of feeling. And I love the idea/purpose guiding the book: it’s about being comfortable in your own skin and not body shaming ourselves. I just didn’t like the story as much as I wanted to: it came across as rather preachy and pedantic. It is about a young Bangladeshi-American girl who is excited and confident about starting school for the first time, but is questioning comments she hears her family members make about their weight. At school she hears a boy tease another girl about looking fat. That night at dinner she puts all the pieces together and declares herself on a diet, turning down her favorite dinner. Her family gathers around her and explain their own mistaken thinkings and her mother tells her that “beauty is how you make people feel and the kind things you do,” and then all is right with the world again. I just wish it had been more subtle with more story and less preaching. It’s an important message, but it was delivered in too heavily handed a manner.
Animal Architects, by Amy Cherrix
The illustrations are all in earth tones, very suited to the topic, as the text shares about a variety of animals that are skilled builders, from the Great Barrier Reef to a penguin’s pebble nest to a beaver’s dam, and so on. The examples provide a good mix of familiar and less common. Several pages are given to each example so that there is some depth of detail, including why the animals build what they do. A solid choice.