48. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

listened on Audible (borrowed from CCLS)
read by Bahni Turpin (great job)
Unabridged audio (11.56 - most I listened to at x1.25 because the narration was quite slow...)
2018 Baker & Bray
455 pgs.
YA dystopia
Finished June 1, 2019
Goodreads rating:  4.15 - 12,133 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  Baltimore, MD and Kansas outback after the Civil War

First line/s:  "The day I came screaming and squalling into the world was the first time someone tried to kill me."

My comments:  The premise of this book was so hatefully racist that it was hard to read.  Our heroine, Jane, is smart, cocky, and very sure of herself - very likable indeed.  She deals with her lot in life with humor and honesty and it's never hard to swallow her decisions and motivations.  I listened to this while driving back-and-forth to Michigan and it certainly kept my attention, the wailing of the Shamblers notwithstanding!

Goodreads synopsis:  Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.
          But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems. 

Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend – Calvin Alexander Ramsey & Bettye Stroud

A Civil Rights Story
Illustrated by John Holyfield
Candlewick Press, 2011
HC $15.99
32 pages
Rating: Wonderful/5
Endpapers: Deep Cranberry
Author’s Note
Illustrations: Acrylics – no white (happy sigh) – most pages have one side full illustration, opposite are text on soft “sponged” colors. Some double pages are ¾ illustration, ¼ text and one is a double page illustration with text across the top
Title page: Blue sky framed with trees and the corner of the general store.
Setting: Contemporary Gees Bend, Alabama
OSS: A young boy, while waiting for his mom to purchase a famous quilt from Gee’s Bend, learns of how the mule he’s watching came to pull the wagon that pulled Dr. King’s body down the streets of Atlanta to his funeral.
1st line/s: “Alex sat on a bench outside the store. He wanted to go and play, but his mother had told him to wait for her. There was nothing to do on the porch but an old mule eating in the garden across the street. There was no breeze. Not a leaf moved in the chinaberry trees. It was so still that Alex could hear the mule munching on a row of bright collard greens."
This must be used for MLK Day in January, with a few days preceding it learning about Gee’s Bend!

Beatrice's Dream - Karen Lynn Williams

A Story of Kibera Slum
photos by Wendy Stone
HC $17.95
Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2011
24 pages
Rating:  4
Endpapers:  Purple with vertical streaks

Kiberia is a huge slum in Nairobi, Kenya.  There are no roads and almost no electricity, plumbing, or drinking water.

13-year old Beatrice lives here with her brother and his wife.  Both her parents are dead.  But she's lucky to go to school every day and dreams, even in her extreme poverty, of becoming a nurse.

This simple photo journal tells of her daily life.  Well, the words are simple.  It's the photos that show her life.  A good one to share with my fourth graders when studying Africa and discussing poverty.

Yuvi's Candy Tree - Lesley Simpson

illustrated by Janice Lee Porter
Kar-Ben Publishing, 2011
HC $17.95
32 pgs.
Rating:  3.5
Endpapers:  Gold
Title page: all-over gold with painting of burro
Based on a true story from 1980's

Yuvi is traveling from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, stopping at a refugee camp and being flown from there to Israel.  They have no food, drink muddy water, and are robbed many times.  There is a donkey that she is able to ride for part of the way, but most of the way is on foot.  She dreams of trees made of candy, and when she arrives in Israel, she finds her candy  tree -  a tree covered with juicy, sweet oranges.

This was a really nice story, but I wish it had a little more....I guess it's good for very young children, but might be even better with just a little more information, it needs to be a tiny bit grittier to see the hardships, distance traveled, and unease, I didnt' feel like it had that, it seemed more like a simple trip to go to Israel.

48. Where Do You Stay? - Andrea Cheng

Boyds Mill Press, 2011
HC $17.95
for: Middle Grades
133 pgs.
Rating:  4

First line/s:  "Mr. Willie pulls every last weed in the driveway cracks, then sweeps the concrete clean.  Aunt Geneva comes out to pay him, but Mr. Willie doesn't want any money.  'A sandwich would be nice,' he says."

Setting:  Contemporary Cincinnati, Ohio

One-Sentence Summary:  After 11-year-old Jerome goes to live with his aunt and cousins after his mother dies of cancer, he has to learn to live without his precious piano.

Mr. Willie also played the piano, though he now is a squatter in the falling-down carriage house of the falling-down (and empty) big house across the street.  His fifteen-year-old cousin Damon is mouthing off to his mother, disappearing, and possibly getting into trouble.  His nine-year old Cousin Monte is afraid of everything.  And his Aunt Geneva is determined to adopt him, as she feels was his mother's wish.  The turning point in the story comes when a couple purchase the crumbling house across the street, not to tear it down, as everyone had thought, but to create a school. 

Isn't this one of the homeliest/unappealing book covers you've ever seen?  It certainly doesnt' say "pick me up!"I wasn't sure how to rate this book, 'cause I'm not sure how kids would like it.  Throughout the book, Jerome is comparing everything that happens to him to his mother's last days and death.  However, it's not particularly depressing, and it's a great way to worm yourself into Jerome's mind.  And the storyline is engaging and proceeds in a believable manner.  I discovered that I rather liked the whole package as I mulled it over after reading.

MOVIE - The Help

Wish I'd read the book - the movie was very good.
Wide release 8-10-11
PG-13 (2:17)
Aug. 16, 2011 at ElCon with Sheila
2nd viewing January 14, 2012 at Crossroads with Dede
RT:  74% cag: 87%
DreamWorks Studios
Director:  Tate Taylor

Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney

My favorite character:  Minny, played brilliantly by Octavia Spencer.  Emma Stone plays Skeeter, just returning home to Jackson, Mississippi in 1962/1963, with a degree from Ole Miss in journalism.  She gets a job writing the cleaning help column in the Jackson newspaper.  She knows nothing about her subject, so interviews a friend's reluctant black maid, Aibilene (Davis).  The black maids of Jackson raise all the white children and are not even allowed to use the bathroom of the houses they clean and cook and raise the children in.  The white women play bridge and belittle them.  All except Skeeter, who decides to try to write a book from their perspective about their plight.  It's not easy.  All the women are scared to tell any of the white family's secrets, afraid of losing their jobs and afraid of retaliation.

Hilly is the viscious young white homemaker that harrassess the maids and demolishes Celia, the "white trash" bride of her former boyfriend, Johnny.  Some of my favorite parts of the movie were the scenes with Celia and Minny, Hilly's former maid.  Octavia Spencer (Minny) was just wonderful!

Throughout the movie I got outraged again and again at the inhumanity, the insensitivity, the absolute ridiculousness of racism.  I just cannot imagine where it comes from and how some whites could (and can) possibly feel the way they do. 

It was a period piece, and the set was wonderful.  The cars (one Corvette, in particular, was breathtaking), the clothing and hairstyles, the home furnishings, Everyone I've spoken to that have read the book (and there have been many), simply loved it.  Everyone encouraged me to read the book before seeing the movie, but I didn't have the opportunity.  I still want to read the book.  I wonder how different the book and movie are?

14. The Jacket - Andrew Clements

Illustrated by McDavid Henderson
Scholastic, 2002
92 pgs, 6 chapters
4.1/640L/Q
Rating: 4
Short

Phil, a white boy, sees Daniel, an African American boy, wearing what he thinks is his brother's jacket. This starts a chain of events that gets Phil thinking about prejudice - convincing himself, to his dismay, that he himself is prejudice. He discusses it with his mother, thinks about it a lot, discovers that his dad is a bigot, and finally puts things right with Daniel - almost becoming friends.

There's a list of discussion questions at the end, and my fourth grade lit. circle group had a very healthy discussion around the story.

There are 19 full-page black and white pencil-drawn illustrations that could also be used as discussion starters - a nice addition to the story, which is a very quick read, but meaty.

Busing Brewster - Richard Michelson

Illustrated by R. G. Roth
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
$16.99
24 pgs.
Rating: 5 (Yup, this is a good one)
Endpapers: covered with stick-like figures playing on a school playground (pale, pale sage green)

Set in the 1970's, when schools were segretated and busing students far across town was used to begin to desegrate the schools. Brewster and his slightly-older brother Bryan are not as excited as their mom when they discover that they will be bused to a previously-all-white school, having to get up an hour earlier in the morning to go the distance. And when they get there, they are greeted by protestors, rocks being thrown, and nasty white classmates. Before school even begins on the first day, the brothers are put into detention in the library with "freckle-face", a white kid who'd heckled them and precipitated them getting caught arguing.

Well. By the time they leave the library they've made friends with the librarian (who then initiantes Brewster into the wonderful world of books and reading) and also with Freckle-face. When they leave school, however, a friendly wave goodbye to their new friend is ignored, because he's being picked up by his father, who is saying something derogatory about the desegreation - so young readers can see where the bigotry and hatred are coming from, and how it keeps gathering speed.

Great history lesson for kids - my kids - who, luckily, have no clue about the bigotry and racism so prevalent in the 60s and 70s. I only wish I could say it's gone....but it has to be better than it was. The Author's Note at the end gives additional information on the history and background of the story.

The illustrations are great. It's somewhat difficult to describe them. Cut paper. Sponged stencils. Tiny, tiny repetetive patterns. Pale watercolor-brushed lines. I'm only guessing at all this, but I love the mixed media look. The colors are muted, lots of grays and muddied greens, mustards, clays.

Great book. The more I think about it the more I like it. Storytelling in a positive way. Great protagonist. Kids doing real things, especially at the playground. Super illustrations. Yippee!

MOVIE - Just Wright

Predictable romantic comedy with the wonderful Queen Latifah
Released 5-14-10
PG (1 hr. 51 min.)
July 2. 2010 at the Cheap movies on Kolb (not cheap popcorn and soda, though)
RT: 49% cag; 72%
Director: Sanaa Hamei
Queen Latifah
Common - a rapper from Chicago, he's been in a couple of movies including Date Night. Beautiful man.

Queen Latifah's plays Leslie Wright, a physical therapist who works in NYC, lives in NJ, has bought a fixer-upper that her adoring father (played wonderfully by the head doctor on Grey's Anatomy, James Pickens Jr.) helps her fix up (well, sort of), drives a clanking, old, dented pale yellow Mustang, and is a huge basketball fan. She "bumps into" the handsome star basketball player of the New Jersey Jets at a gas station, who ends up asking her to his birthday party. Mmm Hmm. Enter her gorgeous godsister, who is a player, and who sets out immediately to get her man.

Well, there's not one surprise in the plot. You know exactly what's going to happen, but you enjoy it anyway. This was a super way to spend a very hot Friday afternoon. I'd watch Queen Latifah in anything!

36. Year of No Rain - Alice Mead

For: Middle Grades
Dell Yearling/Random House, 2003
130 pgs.
RL 4.5, ages 9-12
Rating: perfect for my 4th grade Africa Unit
Dedication: For the children of South Sudan

It is 1999. Stephen Majok's life is irrevocably changed when his southern Sudan village is attacked, cows and relief food stolen, and most people killed. Stephen had been sent to hide in the woods, and returns to find his mother dead and his older sister gone. No one is left, the food has all been stolen, the rope to the well is gone so water is unavailable, everything seems useless. So Stephen and his two friends set off for Kenya, or at least for somewhere they can find food and shelter.

This is the story of 10-year-old Stephen's journey. Trying to find water, protecting themselves from lions, hiding from trucks and planes that transport soldiers, and even contracting malaria are some of the hazards of this new life. The reader gets a feel for Sudan - its way of life, its landscape, and some customs of the Dinka people. It's somewhat adventurous, and incredibly difficult to imagine. It's real...and it's contemporary. It's happening now, and kids can learn about Africa as well as current events. A tough topic.

Yes the mother dies, but it is not too graphic..."He ducked his head and entered and saw immediately that his mother was there, dead. Keeping his eyes averted, he quickly covered her with a straw mat."

I think Alice Mead did a good job.

The Hallelujah Flight - Phil Bildner

Illustrated by John Holyfield
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2010
$16.99
32 pgs.
Rating: 5
Endpapers: brown & white US map with route and stops between LA and NYC

Using wonderful words that tell a terrific story - based on a real event - Phil Bildner recreates a 1932 transcontinental flight piloted by James Banning and told by his co-pilot, Thomas Allen. We see joy and excitement, danger and prejudice, but most of all, never-ending spirit and good will. This is a wonderful story that urges us to learn more about James Banning.

And then there are the illustrations. They, too, show all the emotion and detail of the story. They make the journey complete.

What a perfect book - cleverly written and joyfully illustrated with an exciting, super-interesting, adventurous, real-life story!

Over the Green Hills - Rachel Isadora

Greenwillow Books, 1992
32 pages
Rating: 3.5

Endpapers: Dark Brown

This story was written while apartheid was still in force in South Africa. The setting of this story is on the eastern coast of South Africa, and according to an author's note, in the Transkei, a South African government-assigned independent state.

Zolani and his mother spend the best part of the day walking to their grandmother's village, trading goods and being given gifts for Grandma Zindzi as well.l The mother carries a box, a pumpkin, and a live chicken on her head! Zolani brings his goat, who carries mussels and firewood.

This book gives a sense of living in this part of South Africa. I've got a feeling, however, that the area is a lot poorer than it appears.

Full-page illustrations are created in deep, rich watercolors. Very lovely, heartwarming and realistic.

28. Home of the Brave - Katherine Applegate

Audio read by Dominic Hoffman (wonderfully)
Listening Library, 2007
3 unabridged cds
2 hrs 47 min.
256 pgs.
Excellent story, great descriptions that include many similes, believable point-of-view

Kek arrives in Minnesota, fresh from a refugee camp in Africa (Sudan is mentioned once, but otherwise "Africa" is the only reference) alone, with only a volunteer named Dave to guide him. He has learned a tiny bit of English in the refugee camp, but everyone talks too quickly and uses too many idioms for him to understand. He misses his family, the sunshine and heat, and his father's cows. His father and brother have been killed and his mother is missing. He goes to live with his aunt and older cousin, also fairly new to the U.S.

It's fascinating to hear the things people say and the way that Kek processess them. I listened to this in the car, and the reader did a superb job making it feel like you were in Kek's head. Imagine being in the fifth grade, totally displaced from your home and family....and even the language is different. I can't. No way. But this happens to thousands and thousands of regugees coming to our country all the time. This is a wonderful book that allows kids (and adulst!) to put themselves into those shoes.

Kek makes friends, has caring teachers, and is a survivor. After reading Katherine Paterson's book about refugess from Kosovo and the few picture books I've read recently about African refugees, it certainly makes me think about lending a hand in some way.

Even though some websites say this book is for 12+, I will certainly not hesitate to have my fourth graders read this. It talks about shooting and killing in a bit of an abstract way, and Kek's cousin has had his hand cut off. However, unless a fourth grader is ultra-protected and never watches any tv (including the news) and with the guidance of a teacher or parent, there's no reason I can think of to worry. And listening to this reader would be a great plus!

Galimoto - Karen Lynn Williams

Illustrated by Catherine Stock
Harper Collins, 1990
32 pages
Endpapers: Dusty rose

I know, I know....this book is 20 years old and usually it's newer books that are blogged. But I've been researching books that can be used in the study of Africa and this one is a primo selection. I remember reading it years ago when it first came out, in the old Northeast Harbor Library children's room - which I miss greatly. Oh well, that's another story. I'll stick with this one...

"Galimoto means 'car' in Chichewa, the national language of Malawi, Africa. it is also the name for a type of push toy made by children. Old wires -- or sticks, cornstalks, and pieces of yam -- are shaped into cars, trucks, bicycles, trains, and helicopters. All of these intricate toys are known as galimoto (GAL-lee-moe-toe)."

One day Kondi starts looking everywhere for wire so that he can build a galimoto. He starts in the shoebox in which he keeps his treasured possessions. From there he goes to places around his village where he thinks he might be able to obtain more. During this day we learn about his village and his people's way of life. The illustrations that Catherine Stock drew - she notes that she traveled there to capture everything correctly - really help to realize the setting.

When I share this with my fourth graders - and I will - we are going to create galimotos. This will be right up their alley!

Good story. Great illustrations.

The Village That Vanished - Ann Grifalconi

Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2002
$16.99/paper $6.99
a tale told in the tradition of African storytelling
40 pages
Endpapers: Rust

Abikanile (ah-bee-ka-NEE-lah) and her mother Njemile (n-jeh-MEE-leh) courageously lead the people of their Yao village to safety from the slave traders. Slave traders would attack the surroundings of a village, kidnapping the men and boys working there. This would leave the village attended by women, children, and elders, with no one to protect it so they could swoop in and easily kidnap the rest. HOW ON EARTH COULD PEOPLE DO THIS TO EACH OTHER? Anywasy, this is the story of how the mother figured out how to make it look like there had never been a village, and the daughter figured out how to get across the raging river without a boat when none of them could swim.

A fine tale, an introduction or addition to the concept of the slave trade in Africa.

I did a little research about where the setting of this book might be. Yao or waYao is a major ethnic and linguistic group found at the southern end of Lake Malawi on the eastern coast of Africa. The territory covers parts of modern-day northern Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania. They speak a Bantu language. There are currently about two million Yao, most of whom are Islamic.

My Name is Sangoel - Karen Lynn Williams & Khadra Mohammed

Illustrated by Catherine Stock
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2009
$17.00
32 pages
Tells of the pride of heritage and the heartbreak of leaving your homeland
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Rust

Sangoel leaves the refugee camp for American with the words of the village wiseman ringing in his ears - to be proud of his Dinka name, which has been passed down through many generations. However, that name is not pronounced as it is written and when he arrives in America no one pronounces it correctly. He comes up with a rebus-like way to pronounce it correctly (SUN-GOAL).

Sangoel seems lucky...he is only teased a little and his new home seems accepting and friendly. He already speaks English, since he is the one translating for his mother. The illustrations by Catherine Stock are wonderful - they seem to beautifully depict Africa as well as America.

Good book.

The Color of Home - Mary Hoffman

Illustrated by Karin Littlewood
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2002
$17.99
24 pages
Lovely book, sad of course
Endpapers: Blotches of color as if painted, orange on teh left-page and aqua on the right

Hassan has traveled with his family from his much-loved home in Somalia to the grayness of the U.S. This book tells his story, but in an unusual way...through the picture he paints during his first day in an American school.

This book definitiely puts us in the shoes of an immigrant forced from his country because of war.

Gugu's House - Catherine Stock

Clarion Books, 2001
$14.00 (probably more, now)
32 pages
For: kids, cool book
Endpapers: Black and white African designs covering the entire pages

Set in Zimbabwe, Catherine Stock tells the story of a real-life woman that she has known for many years, Mrs. Kosa. She changes the story, now told from the point-of-view of a granddaughter visiting her grandmother.

We first encounter beautifully-designed endpapaers, elegant black/gray and white designs. The two-page title shows a bus traveling through the Zimbabwe landscape, brown scrub with mountains on the horizon. The next two-page spread begins the story, of Kukamba folliwing Gugu home, suitcases on their heads. And then we see Gugu's home - a rambling house/compound decorated with brightly-painted mud and dung sculpted animals, walls painted black and blue and green with amazing African designs. We spend time with the two of them, learning how to create the paints, shape new animals, paint designs wherever they please. But at night when the men come home from their undernourished cattle and the women come home from thei wilting crops, spirits are low. Gugu tells stories to cheer everyone up.

And then the rains come. They pour down for days, finally nourishing the fields and animals. However, Gugu's home has become a muddy brown mess, all the colors and sculptures washed away. Gugu takes Kukamba out to see the wildflowers and growth that have appeared because of the rain. And they are able to begin again decorating Gugu's house in any way they desire.

This has messages for kids and messages for people like me. Live in your home the way you desire. Decorate for yourself, not for others. Create beauty around you that is YOUR kind of beautfy. Don't be afraid. Go for it. Although I wish I could build mud and dung walls around my property wherever I wanted! Don't think that'd be possible here....not to many dung piles handy.....

This is a great introduction to African designs. Time to discover more of Catherine Stock.....

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!

My Brother Charlie - Holly Robinson Peete & Ryan Elizabeth Peete

Illustrated by Jane W. Evans
Scholastic, 2010
$16.99
32 pgs.
Endpapers: Blue sky with puffy clouds, the corner has the head of the family dog with a robin sitting on his nose.

Based on the true story of twins Ryan and RJ Peete, Callie tells the story of her twin brother Charlie. Charlie has autism. She tells the differences between them, how they felt when the doctors told them he had this neurological mis-wiring, what she does to understand his quietness and differences, and how he relates to people. The story is heartfelt and brave, and the illustrations are perfect. No white, yellow background instead. Big bold characters. You can faintly see brush strokes on canvas. Eyes that show such expression!

This book discusses how to try to understand kids that are different. It tells a bit about autism, that so many of us know so little about, but which we are hearing about more and more. But it's a great book to share to begin a discussion about treating ALL kids with respect, looking for the attributes they have deep inside, not just the differences we see outwardly.

Barnes and Noble has a three-minute interview with the authors that's informative and interesting (it's always nice to peek at an author, and this is with both the authors).

I hope this book gets read by as many people as possible.