At first glance Sweetest Kulu looks like an adorable children’s book, but this is not the case. Alexandria Neonakis’ soft muted illustrations of wild Arctic animals cuddling an infant are adorably heart-warming, but these images would never occur with wild animals in real life. The text is what makes this book for upper elementary,  middle, and high school readers. Each of the wild animals bestows an ideal, a trait, the “shared thoughts, feelings, and best wishes with you darling Kulu.”   Animals include: snow bunting, Arctic hare, fox, Arctic char, seal, narwhal and beluga, muskox, caribou, and polar bear.

“Polar Bear, with powerful instinct,

taught you to always treat animals with respect and to never scold them.

Polar Bear made an offering of gentleness, making you a modest

and kind Kulu.”

Author Celina Kalluk “is the Inuktitut Language Specialist and Cultural Arts teacher for grades seven through twelve at Qarmartalik School in Resolute Bay.”

An old carpenter enjoys the singing birds while walking through the park. He decides to build some bird houses. At first, the bird houses each have one hole in them which a pair of birds use. “2 birds times 2 houses… 2×2 = 4     2×2= 2+2 ”  The carpenter continues making bird houses, the some of the birds lay 2 eggs while others lay 3 eggs.  “2×3=6    2×3=2+2+2  …  3×2=6    3×2=3+3” 2 eggs in 3 house and 3 eggs in 2 houses  Soon the carpenter is building bird houses with two holes, then three holes and the multiplication and addition goes on and on in an entertaining fashion. The old carpenter has unwittingly created his own aviary.

The art work is very appealing and the story line is realistic. Illustrator Ju-kyoung Kim has made each bird house unique with many different species of birds coming to inhabit the houses. The facial expressions on the old carpenter convey pride and happiness in what he has accomplished.

The math concept is well represented within the story without being overpowering.  There are six pages following the story with additional practice, two of which are especially geared for adults to use while working with a child learning multiplication/addition.

A gust of wind blows Frog’s hat onto the ground where Elephant sits on it. When asked to move Elephant says, ” ‘ I can’t because I’m too hungry to move.’ ” Elephant asks Frog for something round to eat. Frog brings him an orange. Then Frog is asked for something triangular ( a sandwich), then rectangular ( chocolate bar), then a circle within a circle ( a bagel), then round inside of something triangular ( an ice cream cone), and finally “ ‘…something with a …special shape.’  The frog came back empty-handed…I hung it over there!… Then Elephant str-e-e-tched his long trunk to reach the thing with the special shape – and sucked the sweet honeycomb.” You probably have guessed what happened next, Elephant runs away from the attacking bees in their hexagonal honeycomb and frog finally gets her hat back.

There are six pages following the story, two of which are especially geared for adults to use while working with a child learning geometric shapes

The math concept (figures, shapes, space) is well represented and the story line is fine, too bad the art work isn’t more appealing. Frog and Elephant are torn paper tempera painted figures on a flat dull landscaped background. The most interesting aspect is Elephant’s trunk made of a single piece of torn corrugated cardboard.

Here is a great mini-biography, a part of the Ordinary People Change the World series. It grabs the attention of the reader with its full color comic illustrations including the conversation bubbles. It is written in first person narrative.

Helen was a “normal” child, until sickness at 19 months left her deaf and blind. She lived in a world of quiet and darkness, but then when she was 6 years old, Anne Sullivan, her private teacher, came to live with her family. “I got angry a lot back then. It was so hard for me. I was frustrated.” Anne Sullivan began the slow process of spelling words into Helen’s hand. Once Helen understood the process (no easy job) there was no stopping her. “Close your eyes.” Author Brad Meltzer builds in empathy. Later, Helen learned to read Braille. Because of this book’s thick pages, a raised dot Braille alphabet is included within the book itself. At nine years of age, Miss Sullivan took Helen to teacher Sarah Fuller, who began teaching Helen to talk. Miss Fuller let Helen “put my hands to her face and let me feel her tongue and lips as she made each sound. In an hour, I learned the letters M, P, A, S, T, and I.” Helen went on to graduate college from Radcliffe at Harvard University. Helen became a public speaker. “I started fighting for social change: to help women vote, to help the poor survive, and to help people who needed it most. “

The book ends with a timeline of Helen’s life and 4 black and white photos of her.

Here is a great mini-biography, a part of the Ordinary People Change the World series. It grabs the attention of the reader with its full color comic illustrations including the conversation bubbles. It is written in first person narrative.

Little Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was often scared as a child, but sports, of any kind, made him happy. “Those childhood games were some of the only times I wasn’t judged by the color of my skin.” In the 1920s and 1930s Jackie experienced not being able to go swimming in the all white pool until people complained. Then, “Every Wednesday, from 2 to 5 P.M., they’d open the pool to anybody black, Mexican, or Asian.” Later, Jackie was the first UCLA student to letter in four sports: baseball, football, basketball, and track. His white teammates would sometimes try to injure him, perhaps out of jealousy. Prior to World War II all white and all black sports teams played in separate leagues.  Due to the war, sports teams were short on players. Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, needed baseball players. After scouting out black players, Rickey approached Robinson with a job offer. On April 18, 1946, Jackie Robinson played his first baseball game for Branch Rickey’s farm team, at the age of 27 yrs.

During his time with the Brooklyn Dodgers players purposely hit him in the head with baseballs, cleated him, spat on him, and threatened his family. “Was I mad? Yes. Was I scared? Yes. But I never let it stop me… for real change to come, you need to lead by example… When others see your example, they’ll stand with you. It’s the only way the world ever gets changed: Together.”

The “Dodgers won 6 penants in his 10 seasons“.

Following this powerful message there is a timeline of Jackie’s life through April 15, 2004 and 5 black and white photos of him.

Katie’s London Christmas is a beautiful, artistic rendering of famous landmarks in London, England.  The story takes place on Christmas Eve when Katie and her brother, Jack, hear Santa sneeze and go to investigate.  He invites them to come along which they do and they help him deliver presents in London.  It’s every kid’s fantasy come true.  However, the landmarks of London don’t mean much to the average American child who hasn’t been there nor even heard of the places.  Nice book but not a good purchase for our school library.

In this beautifully illustrated non-fiction book, Young, a master storyteller as well as author, weaves together a mystery as to who stole the Queen’s shadow.  As each animal accuses another, the story is how the accused could not have commit the theft because of their ability, or lack thereof, to see.  Round and round it goes, as each animal’s vision ability is discussed and proves them innocent.  The language and vocabulary isn’t for the younger children as the story is told in more mature language.  At the end of the book is information about how humans see, a glossary of vocabulary used, and an illustration and summary of how each of the animals in the story see and use their vision.  This book is the first of it’s kind that I have read and is so interesting and captivating that it was impossible to put down.  Learning was never so interesting.  Highly recommended.

My husband pores over sports news, trades, statistics, you name it.  His theory is that sports is a safe, gender neutral topic that just about anywhere and anytime you can find someone to talk to about.  This book would be right up his alley!  Football Rivalries goes back decades in the history of football with details of the games, players, weather, and anything else that was involved in the outcome of the game.  Sports enthusiasts and possibly reluctant readers, especially boys, will find something to talk about from this book.

Snow! is basically a wordless picture book with rich, creamy, thick paper and beautiful illustrations.  Young students will enjoy looking at the detail of bear and hare if they are inclined to be artistic.  Hare loves the snow and bear not so much.  Finally bear learns to love it when he gets to go sledding.

A proverb is an often-used saying that expresses a truth.  Kids used to be familiar with proverbs, as well as idioms, but nowadays it seems that kids don’t talk or listen to adults and they are not familiar with sayings.  It’s all new to them.  This book teaches students some basic facts about life, such as treating one another with kindness, doing a job well, using time well, taking care of yourself, just common sense stuff that they need to hear.