Picture Book - Laxmi's Mooch by Shelly Anand

Illustrated by Nabi H. Ali
Endpapers:  Pale simple drawings on solid orange that explain nine Hindi words used in the story

found at Ellsworth Public Library

2021, Kokila/Penguin Random House

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:   4.42 - 820 ratings

My rating:  4.5

Illustrations:  big, bold, brightly colored

Text:  Just 1 -2 sentences per page.

1^st line/s:  "Hi!  I'm Laxmi.  Come here.  Closer.  You see that?  That's my mooch."

My comments:  After a young Indian-American gets noticed for the tiny dark hairs on her upper lips (mustache = mooch), she has a talk with her parents and is made to realize that this is a normal - and good - thing.  References are made to Frida Kahlo.  Then she returns to school and has kids examine their own upper lips - and on those that are completely hairless she draws on a mooch for them.

    Acceptance for all!  Everyone's different!

Goodreads:  A joyful, body-positive picture book about a young Indian American girl's journey to accept her body hair and celebrate her heritage after being teased about her mustache.

          Laxmi never paid much attention to the tiny hairs above her lip. But one day while playing farm animals at recess, her friends point out that her whiskers would make her the perfect cat. She starts to notice body hair all over--on her arms, legs, and even between her eyebrows.
        With her parents' help, Laxmi learns that hair isn't just for heads, but that it grows everywhere, regardless of gender. Featuring affirming text by Shelly Anand and exuberant, endearing illustrations by Nabi H. Ali, Laxmi's Mooch is a celebration of our bodies and our body hair, in whichever way they grow.

Picture Poetry Book: Dictionary for a Better World by Irene Latham & Charles Waters

Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z

Illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini

2020, Carolrhoda Books

120 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.68 - 213 ratings

Goodreads blurb:  How can we make the world a better place? This resource for middle-grade readers is organized as a dictionary; each entry presents a word related to creating a better world, such as ally, empathy, or respect. For each word, there is a poem, a quote, a personal anecdote from the authors, and a "try it" prompt for an activity.

EMPATHY

Ears open

Mouth closed

Paying

Attention

To the other person

Helping them know

Yes, they matter.

                Charles Waters

                 an acrostic poem

COURAGE

Sometimes

courage can be

getting up to face life's

stormy world when you'd rather hide

in bed.

                  Charles Waters

                   a cinquain

KINDNESS

Kindness boards a bus.

Kindness stands

so you can sit.

Kindness unwraps

a sandwich

and gives you the bigger half.

                    Irene Latham

                    a cherita (a three-stanza poem that tells a story.  The first stanza has one line and sets the scene, the second stanza has two lines, and the third stanza has three lines.)

VOICE

a poem for two voices

I like to shout                I like to whisper

loud, proud,                   tender,

strong words                  remember-me words.

                 words have power

words can split a city     words can rain down,

with the speed                 bringing spring bouquets

of an earthquake              to a barren desert

Picture Book - Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson

The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah
Illustrated by  Sean Qualls

2015, Schwartz & Wade Books, Random House Children's Books

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.38 - 2051 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers: A smudgy pinky, dusty solid

1^st line/s: 
"In Ghana, West Africa, a baby boy was born:
Two bright eyes blinked in the light,
two healthy lungs let oout a powerful cry,
two tiny fists opened and closed,
but only one strong leg kicked."

My comments: ONE PERSON CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.  This true story shows this  completely.  Born with a useless leg, Emmanuel was treated as and considered a beggar with no worth, but he wanted to EARN his way in the world.  This story shows how he really did make a difference, by proving to everyone that physical disabilities do not change a person's worth.  He biked - with one leg - for 400 miles across Ghana and had it recorded.  Because of his persistence and drive, Ghana's disability laws were changed!  This book is written really well and I totally enjoy the accompanying illustrations. A surefire winner for any "Making a Difference in the World" study!

Goodreads:  This picture book biography tells the true story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, who bicycled across Ghana--nearly 400 miles--with only one leg. With that achievement he forever changed how his country treats people with disabilities, and he shows us all that one person is enough to change the world.

PICTURE BOOK - The Artist and Me by Shane Peacock

Illustrated by Sophie Casson

2016 Owlkids Books

HC $16.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.92

My rating:  4.5

Endpapers:  white with pale blue/gray dabs of paint - a few generic photos in the front, none in the back

1^st line/s:  "In the beautiful countryside in southern France near the town of Arles long ago, I used to do an ugly thing."

My comments:  4.5  This book says SO much.  The story, from the point-of-view of a bully who was horrendous to VanGogh when he lived in Arles, is excellent and thought-provoking.  I love the way that Sophie Casson used Van Gogh's paintings and put her own "brand" to them for most of the illustrations in the book.  There is one illustration, however, that is a bit off-putting to me, a doubled page spread of the bullies laughing at him.  They are really ugly and don't fit with the rest of the story somehow.  Perhaps it's to show how ugly bullies really are?
     I've already got lots of lesson plans in mind to use with this book - both for Owning Up/ Annatude/ bullying and for the glory of VanGogh's art!  This is a really nice addition to the genre of art books for kids.
     1 - Van Gogh's art
     2 - info about Van Gogh (include info from the afterword)
     3 - read aloud the book
     4 - create a piece of art using the kinds of strokes that Van Gogh and Casson used

Publisher's Weekly review.
Kirkus review.

Goodreads:  Vincent van Gogh is now known as an acclaimed, incomparable Post-Impressionist painter. But when he lived in Arles, France, in the 1880s, he was mocked for being different. Back then, van Gogh was an eccentric man with wild red hair who used clashing hues to paint unusual-looking people and strange starry skies. Children and adults alike called him names and laughed at him. Nobody bought his art. But he kept painting.
          Inspired by these events, The Artist and Me is the fictional confession of one of van Gogh’s bullies — a young boy who adopted the popular attitude of adults around him. It’s not until the boy faces his victim alone that he realizes there is more than one way to see the world.
          Artwork in the book uses vibrant color and texture to bring the laneways, cafés, and wheat fields of southern France to life while playing on scenes from van Gogh’s own work. The lyrical text carries the emotional weight of the subject and will leave readers with the understanding that everyone’s point of view is valuable.

PICTURE BOOK - Desmond and the Very Mean Word by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams

Illustrated by A. G Ford

2013, Candlewick Press

HC $15.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.13

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers:  Musty peach

Illustrations: Gorgeous, full-paged; big and real.  Love 'em.

1^st line/s:  "Desmond was very proud of his new bicycle.  He was the only child in the whole township who had one, and he couldn't wait to show it to Father Trevor."

My comments: This is a visually inspriring story of an incident in Desmond Tutu's youth.  It is a story of forgiveness - how very difficult it is to do, but how rewqrding it can also be.

Goodreads:  Based on a true story from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s childhood in South Africa, Desmond and the Very Mean Word reveals the power of words and the secret of forgiveness.    
     When Desmond takes his new bicycle out for a ride through his neighborhood, his pride and joy turn to hurt and anger when a group of boys shout a very mean word at him. He first responds by shouting an insult, but soon discovers that fighting back with mean words doesn’t make him feel any better. With the help of kindly Father Trevor, Desmond comes to understand his conflicted feelings and see that all people deserve compassion, whether or not they say they are sorry. Brought to vivid life in A. G. Ford’s energetic illustrations, this heartfelt, relatable story conveys timeless wisdom about how to handle bullying and angry feelings, while seeing the good in everyone.

PICTURE BOOK - Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch - Eileen Spinelli

Illustrated by Paul Yalowitz

1991 Aladdin Paperbacks

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.43

My rating: 4.5

Illustrations:  "The illustrations in this book were first drawn with ebony pencil on Bristol plate paper and then colored over with Derwent color pencils.  Because the artist is right-handed, he starts on the left side of the paper and moves to the right so that the picture won't smudge.  The paper is very smooth, and only the artist knows where that mysterious texture comes from."  Cool.

1^st line/s:  "Mr. Hatch was tall and thin and he did not simle.  Every morning at 6:30 sharp he would leave his brick house and walk eight blocks to the shoelace factory where he worked.  At lunchtime he would sit alone in a corner, eat his cheese and mustard sandwich and drink a cup of coffee.  Sometimes he brought a prune for desert."

My comments:  I'm going to use this for Annatude/ Owning Up/ Character Education immediately.  It will follow up perfectly with "being present."  It's SO easy to brighten up someone else's day.  Just a hello, a smile, a good word, a tiny gift, holding a door open for someone with a grin.  Kids are sometimes (umm...frequently) so absorbed in their own worlds that they don't realize how much little things make a huge difference.  This book with bring that idea home...LOUD, HARD, and FAST! (And although this takes place because of a valentine's day gift, it really isn't a valentine's story.)

In-Class Follow-up:   I will follow this up with brainstorming little ways that we can make days better for people.  Then we'll brainstorm (individually) people that have done kind things for us, or that are just great people in our lives.  I'll pull out some cool, cute stationary and we'll write notes to them and MAIL them, too!

When I read this book, I'm going to end with this poem by Bruce Coville:

Ripples

No one acts in isolation
And no act leaves the world the same.
Words and gestures ripple outward,
What shores they reach we cannot name.

All our lives end in a riddle --
A mystery without an answer,
For even gone we ripple on,
Like a dance without the dancer.

Did you extend a friendly hand?
Did you lift a battered spirit?
The one you helped helped someone else
Ah! Now we're getting near it.

That second someone dropped despair
Did not give in, instead revived
To teach, to love, to fight, to dare,
And what you've done lived on, survived.

On and out the circle widens,
Past all hope of comprehending.
The slightest touch can change the world
Healing, helping, lifting, mending,

Actions last for generations
Our fathers' mothers mold our hearts.
We in turn shape all that follows;
Each time we act, a ripple starts.

       ~Bruce Coville

Goodreads:  One wintry day, a postman delivers a mysterious package with a big pink bow to a lonely man named Mr. Hatch. "Somebody loves you" the note says.
          "Somebody loves me!" Mr. Hatch sings as he dusts his living room. "Somebody loves me!" Mr. Hatch whistles as he does his errands in town. "But who, " Mr. Hatch wonders, "could that somebody be?"
          After some time, Mr. Hatch discovers just who his secret admirer is and, in doing so, enjoys the biggest surprise of his life!

PICTURE BOOK - Giant Steps to Change the World - Spike Lee & Tonya Lewis Lee

Illustrated by Sean Qualls

2011, Madstone: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 

32 pages

Goodreads rating: 3.93

My rating: 3

Endpapers: pink background, with 12 different quotes in 12 differently-colored and shaped quadrilaterals

Illustrations:  I liked some of them a lot, but others didn't do anything at all to inspire me...

My comments:  I hunted for this book in anticipation of using it during one of my Owning Up/Character education lessons each week.  Unfortunately, it's not going to work for that.  The ideas put forth are wonderful but....vague.  Each set of pages referred to someone special in the history of the world.  Granted, there were quotes from each of them on the endpapers, but an addendum at the end of the book - or even a separate space on each page - would have been informative and helpful.
     Perhaps researching, or even discussing, the people ahead of time....or finding picture books about some of them...this would be the good ENDING to a mini-unit, but does not stand up well on its own.

Mohammad Ali
Harriet Tubman
Jesse Owen
Ben Carson
Marva Collins
Albert Einstein
Langston HughesJean-Michel Basquait
Barack Obama
the Tuskegee Airmen
Neil Armstrong
Mother Teresa

Goodreads:  "On some days your dreams may seem too away far to realize… Listen to the whispers of those that came before..." 
          Following the success of their much beloved picture books, Please, Baby, Please and Please, Puppy, Please; Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee, and his talented wife Tonya Lewis Lee offer up an inspirational picture book about activism and taking the big steps to set things right set to beautiful illustrations by the award-winning Sean Qualls. Using examples of people throughout history who have taken "giant steps", this book urges kids to follow in their footsteps and not be hindered by fear or a sense that you are not good enough. Despite the challenges, even the smallest step can change the world. So, what's your next step going to be?

POETRY PICTURE BOOK: Dare to Dream...Change the World - Jill Corcoran

Illustrated by J. Beth Jepson
2012, Kane Miller, a division of EDC Publishing

36 pgs.

Written for kids (but accessible to us all!)

Finished 10/26/2013

Poetry

Goodreads Rating: 4.71

My Rating:  Awesome (5)

Acquired: Through TPPL interlibrary loan from the Geneva, Illinois Public Library

People included:  Sylvia Mendez (discrimination against Mexicans in American schools),  Nicholas Cobb (a kids helping homeless people in a big way), Father Gregory Boyle (humanitarian working with LA gangs), Anne Frank, Jonas Salk, Jean-Michel Basquiat (contemporary artist who died young), Michelle Kwan (most decorated female ice skater in American history), ASHLEY BRYAN (see separate blog), Temple Grandin (autistic cattle rancher), Martha Graham, GEORGIA O'KEEFFE, Christa McAuliffe, Steven Spielberg, and last but not least, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim (YouTube founders)

Poets included:  Jill Corcoran, J. Patrick Lewis, Alice Schertle, David L. Harrison, Jane Yolen, Joan Bransfield Graham, Ellen Hopkins, Georgia Heard, Hope Anita Smith, Elaine Magliaro, Janet S. Wong, Curtis Crisler, Denise Lewis Patrick, Joyce Lee Wong, Jacqui Robbins, Julia Durango, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Lisa Wheeler, Hope Vestergaard, Carol M. Tanzman, Stephanie Hemphill, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Rose Horowitz, Alan Katz, Kelly Ramsdell Fineman, Laura Purdie Salas, and Bruce Coville.  WOW!

My comments:  This is a really special book. You don't even have to be a poetry lover to totally enjoy the thoughts, the words, the information, and the illustrations in this book. It tells of people who, mostly in their own quiet way, have made a difference in our world. 
     This book has a great rating.  It's an amazingly wonderful book.  To even borrow it from a library (there were none in any of the Tucson, Arizona branches), they were able to obtain it from interlibrary loan from....Geneva, Illinois!  What's going on?  Why is a special book like this so difficult to find?

Goodreads Review:

Nicholas Cobb

Four-year-old Nicholas Cobb
saw people living under a bridge, asked
why,

Asking still as years passed,
Boy Scout Cobb decided to do...
something...
make a difference.
Fifty-four kids at City House
needed more than shelter.
They needed hope, a way to cope,
a gift of love,
a warm coat.

That was something.

Nicholas asked friends to give,
left jars in barbershops,
made a website - Comfort and Joy,
did what he could
and
     money came in.

Ten years from the bridge,
Eagle Scout Cobb,
doing what he could,
bought fifty-four coats

By learning what it means
to ask not why
but how
to make
a difference.

David L. Harrison

Some pages have two poems about the same person linked --

This Moment
The Frank Family - Monday 7:30 am July 6, 1942

Stepping over puddles on Prinsengracht Street,
shoes soaked, heavy rucksacks on their backs,
coats, caps and scarves although it's warm July;
silence between them.
Anne wonders how others on the street
can act like it's a normal day;
no knots in their stomachs, no legs trembling with fear,
At her father's office building, a spice warehouse,
they open the door - sweet cinnamon fills the air.
Now it's quiet.  Office workers haven't yet arrived.
They climb the narrow staircase to the small rooms
in the back of the secret annex

where this moment turns into days
into weeks and months
into two years hiding - waiting.
Eerily ordinary days -
Westertoren church clock chiming every half hour,
playing Monopoly with Peter,
cooking supper,
eating split-pea soup and potatoes with dumplings
washing up
listening to the radio at night for news of the war
like any family.

While in hiding Anne writes to Kitty.
Her words thread through
her dreams;
and later
ours -
threat through every moment -
ever after.

Georgia Heard

Faith of a Mustard Seed

In the attic, everything happens on a piece of paper: happiness, disappointment, fear,
Spite.  I can laugh out loud.  Shout.  Make my voice heard. Tell
Of my love for a complicated boy.
Everything is documented.
I let my pen whisper my secrets into the ear of the page.
Still, I wish my dear Kitty could hear them first hand.  I allow myself to
Believe that one day Peter and I will share a life together.  That the
People we love will eat Shabbat dinner at our table.  That we
Are only here until the world rights itself.
Basically, when someone soothes the beast.
Good always prevails.  Doesn't it?
At least that's what I believe in my
Heart of hearts.

Hope Anita Smith

Painter
"Where I was born and where and how I lived is unimportant.  It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest." ~Georgia O'Keeffe

Sky will always be.
So shall I.

Feel my sudden thrill
as I stand atop
a beloved red hill.

Hear my silent voice rush
from Charcoal, paint, a well-used brush
as I speak with hues --
vibrant violet, a grandeur of green -
bringing to life what I have seen.

Sense my strength
of a gigantic flower,
dry, desolate desert sands
I hard-studied hour after patient hour.

View my
ancient skulls of deer,
horse,
dried up ram ---

then you'll know just who I am.

Yes.

Sky will always be.
So shall I.

So shall I.

Lee Bennett Hopkins

Ripples

No one acts in isolation
And no act leaves the world the same.
Words and gestures ripple outward,
What shores they reach we cannot name.

All our lives end in a riddle --
A mystery without an answer,
For even gone we ripple on,
Like a dance without the dancer.

Did you extend a friendly hand?
Did you lift a battered spirit?
The one you helped helped someone else
Ah! Now we're getting near it.

That second someone dropped despair
Did not give in, instead revived
To teach, to love, to fight, to dare,
And what you've done lived on, survived.

On and out the circle widens,
Past all hope of comprehending.
The slightest touch can change the world
Healing, helping, lifting, mending,

Actions last for generations
Our fathers' mothers mold our hearts.
We in turn shape all that follows;
Each time we act, a ripple starts.

Bruce Coville

56. A Long Walk to Water - Linda Sue Park

Based on the true story of Salva Dut
2010, Clarion Books
122 pgs.
Goodreads: 4.18
My rating:  4.5

1st sentence/s:  "Going was easy.  Going, the big plastic container held only air.  Tall for her eleven years, Nya could switch the handle from one hand to the other, swing the container by her side, or cradle it in bot arms."

Setting:  southern Sudan, between 1985 and now.

OSS:  Two different voices, one of a Dinka "lost boy" of Sudan on a many-yeared journey to find a home, and a life; and one of a contemporary Nuer girl whose entire day is spent gathering water instead of going to school.

Wow.  Salva spends from 1985 to 1996 wandering, orphaned and homeless, from Sudan to Ethiopia to Kenya and finally to the United States before he can put down any kind of roots, get an education, and even find a few - new and old - family connections.  This is an amazing and wonderful true story of one of the thousands of "lost boys of Sudan," written by an award-winning author who actually knows him.

Salva has done amazing things with his life.  After you read this book (and you must) go to Salva's website:  Water for Southern Sudan.

The Mangrove Tree - Susan L. Roth & Cindy Trumbore

Planting Trees to Feed Families
collages by Susan L. Roth
2011 Lee & Low Books, Inc.
32 pgs.
endpapers:  collage of Eritrean countryside/seaside
title page:  collage papers with one mangrove tree
illustrations:  collages of lovely textured papers with one big photo (of Dr. Gordon Sato)

"By the Red Sea,
in the African country of Eritrea,
lies a little village called Hargigo.
The children play in the dust
between houses made of cloth,
tin cans, and flattened iron.
The families used to be hungry.
Their animals were hungry too.
But then things began to change . . .
all because of a tree."

Scientist Dr. Gordon Sato planted mangrove trees on the shores of the Red Sea, because they survive in a very salty environment. He taught the women of the villages to fertilize and grow them.  Goats and sheep thrive on eating the leaves, so the animals flourished.  Dry mangrove tree branches make great fuel, there's more meat to cook and milk to drink, and the roots of the plants harbor sea creatures, so that fishermen are finding their hauls more plentiful.  What a wonderful collaboration!

"This is Gordon
Whose greatet wish

Is to help all the fishermen
Catching their fish,
To help all the children
With dusty feet,
To help all the shepherds
Who watch goats and sheep,
To help all the women
Who tend the seedlings ---
By planting trees,
Mangrove trees,
By the sea."

Plant a Mangrove Tree -- Feed a Family
The Manzanar Project
P. O. Box. 98
Gloucester, MA   01931

Love it!  Ella says, "I liked the book because it told how the mangrove tree could help families in Africa."

Olivia's Birds: Saving the Gulf - Olivia Bouler

illustrated by the author
Sterling Children's Books, 2011
HC $14.95
32 pgs.
endpapers - vertical lime green stripes zentangled

Olivia Bouler is 11 years. old.  She loves birds and draws them simply and beautifully.  An aspiring ornithologist, she was devastated by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and offered her help to the Audubon Society -- sending bird paintings to contributors.

So far, this young lady has earned $150,000 for the Save the Gulf campaign!

For the first 23 pages, Olivia describes, discusses, and shows different birds, including some weird birds, birds in their habitats, fierce birds, beautiful birds, and endangered and extinct birds.  Though the information is certainly not complete, it is simply stated, written in a font that is fun to read, and is a great start for kids who are interested in helping the plight of our world.

Bravo, Olivia!  You're an inspiration.

It's Okay to Be Different - Todd Parr

Illustrated by the author
Megan Tingley Books, Little Brown & Co., 2001
HC $9.99
32 pgs
For:  kids
Rating:  4
Endpapers:  Solid purple

I think I'm going to use this book to introduce "Owning Up" this year.  Each of the pages highlights a way that people can be different and opens up all sort of conversation about differences which could lead easily into teasing and bullying.  I have lesson plans bouncing around my brain right now....

It's okay to be missing a tooth (or two or three)
It's okay to need some help (blind girl with seeing-eye dog)
It's okay to have a different nose (pink elephant with a long trunk)
It's okay to be a different color (normal zebra & colorfully striped zebra)

.....and many more......

Questions to ask PRE and/or POST reading (I think I'm going to do both.)::

How are you different?
Have you ever been teased or bullied about something?  What?
Be honest - have YOU ever teased or bullied someone about anything?  Explain.

R/A the book page by page, not quickly from beginning to end.  Perhaps have students respond in someway after each page, thinking about things they relate to, or what is he REALLY talking about....

After the reading and responses, I'd have kids brainstorm and pair up to come up with their OWN "It's okay to..." ideas.  

Create a class book adding pages for Parr's words that they illustrate differently and/or adding their own "it's okay" statements and illustrations.  OH!  And then I could coordinate with the kid's Hebrew class and write each line in Hebrew.  Brilliant!

The Can Man - Laura E. Williams

Illustrated by Craig Orback
Lee & Low Books, 2010
$18.95 (they keep going up!)
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: clay-colored wash over linen/board

Mr. Peters used to live in the same apartment building as Tim, but with the loss of his job and income he is now homeless. He spends his days digging through trash cans to find empty soda cans he can redeem for a nickel apiece. He's now called "the Can Man" by everyone.

Tim badly wants a skateboard, but even with his birthday coming, his parents can't afford one. After watching the Can Man, he decides he'll earn money for a skateboard in the same way.

I wonder if young readers will figure out that what Tim's doing is unfair to the Can Man. I was getting more and more bothered - as I know I was supposed to. Mr. Peters is a lovely man who even helps Tim transport his bags of cans to the redemption center.

Well, of course Time comes through - he ends up giving all his can earnings to the Can Man, who badly needs a winter jacket as the cold season approaches. And (final SPOILER) on his birthday, Tim finds a used but newly painted skateboard on his front step.

Most of the illustrations cover 3/4 of the 2-page spread, edge to edge, with a vertical edge of white where the words are printed.

A great book to talk about!

Call the Horse Lucky - Juanita Havill

Illustrated by Nancy Lane
The Gryphon Press, 2010
$15.95
24 pages
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers - Lucky and Flicker trotting in a green field

Lovely, lovely edge-to-edge illustrations, particularly the first one.

Mel and her grandmother, while riding their bikes through the countryside, see a tired, skinny, sick horse. They call the Humane Society and the hrose, Mel has named him Lucky, is taken to a horse rescue ranch. Once Lucky recovers, he's taken to a horse therapy ranch.

The book ends with info on how kids can help abused horses in many different ways - including volunteering at a horse therapy ranch like T.R.O.T. right here in Tucson....one of the kids featured this organization in our school's Passport to Peace a couple of years ago, and T.R.O.T. is mentioned in the book.

New Old Shoes - Charlotte Blessing

Illustrated by Gary R. Phillips
Pleasant Street Press, 2009
28 pages
HC $16.99
Endpapers: Spiral 'tiles" in a brownish with rainbow

Told from the p-o-v of a pair of red sneakers, we learn of the children who wear them and the many things that happen to them. We watch them travel from America to Africa and the life they take on there, until, completely worn out, they become the hands of a scarecrow.

The illustrations cover the entire page - the attractive, large font appearing in the background of the illustrations. Lovely pictures.

Transitions from wearer to wearer could have been better -- this might be a good book to use with kids learning to create better transitiions. They could haver a go.

http://www.soles4souls.org/ "Changing the World One Pair at a Time"

Beatrice's Goat - Page McBrier

Illutrated by Lori Lohstoeter
An Anne Schwartz Book, Atheneum, 2001
32 pages
5 stars
Endpapers: Cream, a rooster in the middle of the left side and a slateboard and chalk laying on a banana leaf on the right

Written in coordination with Heifer Project, we hear the true story of Beatrice and her family in Uganda, Africa, and how their lives become incredibly better because of the gift of a Heifer Project goat. One single, pregnant goat. The goat has two kids. The kids can be raised and sold and the mother, named Mugisa, will continue to produce milk, which they can sell.

Beatrice has always longed to go to school, but cannot afford the uniform or the books. However, the proceeds from the milk sales grow and school becomes a reality. So does a new house with a tin roof which won't leak. Wow.

Lori Lohstoeter's illustrations give a feel for the Ugandan countryside, for Beatrice, and for Mugisa. This is a very special book. I plan to read it to my student government kids (not baby goats....children) at our next meeting. They've learned much about Heifer Project during our last two Passport to Peace festivals. And I shall certainly read it to my fourth graders. Now, let's see....the current Heifer Project International Catalog says a goat can be purchased for $120. That's really so little to help create a much better life for an African family....

http://www.heifer.org/ Check it out.

I've also read about a book called Give a Goat by Jan West Schrock that's about a class of kids that reads Beatrice's Goat and what they do because of it. The library doesn't have it...but I plan to track it down!

Because of You - B. G. Hennessy

Illustrated by Hiroe Nakata
Candlewick, 2005
24 pages
$15.99
Endpapers: Dark blue-aqua watercolors

One person CAN make a difference! This book should be read and shared at my school's next Passport to Peace event. It's simple:

"When you were born, there was a new person for your family to love and care for.

And because of you, there is one more person who can love and care for others."

Back and forth, this story tells how simple acts of kindness can be the beginning of peace in our world. Gentle. Simple.

The watercolors are an excellent model for kids that are beginning to use watercolors carefully and with detail.

14 Cows for America - Carmen Agra Deedy

In collaboration with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah
Illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez
Peachtree, 2009
36 pgs.
Rating: 4
Endpapers: (front) blazing sunset, (back) dusky sky

Kimeli comes home to his remote native village in Wesern Kenya from his studies at Stanford University. It's been most of a year since September 11th, and he tells the devastating story to his village. To these Masai people, the cow is life. They invite the U. S. Ambassador to their village and present him with 14 cows they've specially blessed - as an offering for the future. The book ends, "Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort."

There's a two-page explanation at the end by Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah, for this is his story. The full-page deeply-colored illustrations accentuate the uniqueness of these Masai people artistically showing their customs and life in lovely detail - a beautiful story.

Note: The 14 cows are being cared for in Kenya. They are blessed, sacred, and can never be slaughtered. The herd now numbers 35.

There are reviews at 5 Minutes for Books, the Scrub-a-Dub-Tub Blog, and at School Library Journal.

One Hen - Katie Smith Milway

How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference
Illustrated by: Eugenie Fernandes
2008
Kid's Can Press
$18.95
Rating: 4.5
32 pages
Endpapers: Bright yellow

This story is based on a true story from Ghana, West Africa. When Kojo's mother is given a community loan, she buys a cart to transport firewood for sale in the market. She has enough left over to lend Kojo enough to buy one egg-laying hen. He begins to sell his eggs, earning enough for more and more hens, until he has 25, and he can affort the cost of school. He goes to college in Israel, learning more about business and marketing, and upon returning to Ghana is able to receive a small loan from a Ghanan bank. His business...and his life....thrive from there. As a grandfather he employs hundreds on his huge egg farm, and begins a business to give small loans to people with nothing who'd like to start a small business themselves. He's had a 97% repayment rate!

The book ends with information about current agencies that lend small amounts to help people get on their feet. It also shows how a small donation to an agency like Heifer Project can go a long, long way, as well as how it all works.

Vibrant, brightly colored illustrations with lots of yellow and yellow-gold--no white--with all the text on a yellow-gold background. Very attractive.

Exceedingly interesting.

Take a look at One Hen's webpage - which includes pages for teachers and librarians, accompanied by great African music. A+

Listen to NPR's "All Things Considered" March 6, 2008 -a great review, as well as an interview with the original Kojo, Kwabena Darko. EXCELLENT.

All in a Day - Cynthia Rylant

Illustrated by Nikki McClure (with unbelievable paper cuts)
2009
$17.95
Rating: 4 (A hard book to rate. Does it work as a book? It works as a poem, and the illustrations are A+, but will it appeal to a child?)

Ten years ago, when traveling south from Maine, I routed us through West Virginia so that I could see where Cynthia Rylant "came from." Well, we went in the middle of July when everything is green and beautiful, and, as a tourist, I saw mainly touristy things - but I now love West Virginia. I've been back twice, and would love to go again. I really loved Cynthia Rylant's words. I loved her poetry and stories for young adults. Since then she's written many verses and stories that have become picture books, and I haven't been quite as excited over many of them as her previous/first work. I read them all, though!

This simple poem says so much. The illustations look so simple, but, oh my! They are paper cuts! ! ! Simply amazing. Alternating double page spreads of pale blue, black and white, with bright yellow, black, and white, are STUNNING. How can anoyone do this?

So many wasy to incorporate this into my classroom next year! I think I'll read the poem as a poem, without the illustrations. Then I'll show them the illustrations. Then I think we'll divide the poem into the number of kids in the class, with each designing their own class. Paper cuts will be encourage, or a mixture of papers cuts with other media - water color, particularly.

It would also make a wonderful whole-group activity as one of the sessions for our school's annual Passport to Peace!

A day is a perfect piece of time
to live a life,
to plant a seed,
to watch the sun go by.
A day starts early,
work to do,
beneath a brand-new sky.
A day brings hope
and kindness, too...
a day is all its own.
You can make a wish,
and start again,
you can find your way back home.
Every bird and every tree
and every living thing
loves the promise in a day,
loves what it can bring. (Gorgeous page!)
There is a faith in morningtime,
there is belief in noon.
Evening will come whispering
and shine a bright round moon.
A day can change just everything,
given half a chance.
Rain could show up at our door
and teach you how to dance.
The past is sailing off to sea,
the future's fast asleep.
A day is all you have to be,
it's all you get to keep.
Underneath that great big sky
the earth is all a-spin.
This day will soon e over
and it won't come back again.
So live it well, make it count,
fill it up with you.
The day's all yours, its waiting now...
See what you can do.