40. A Chance Inheritance by Carolyn Brown

listened on Audible Original

narrated by Brittany Pressley

Unabridged audio (1:51)
2021
100 pgs. (guessing, only on audio)
Adult romance - clean, if I remember correctly...
Finished 4/16/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.50 - 317 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Pleasant River fishing area, Texas

My comments: A very sweet story about three female cousins and the recently deceased grandmother they all adored.  She had left them equal shares in her baitshop/general store on Pleasant River in Texas.  This story tells about how they gather together after Lizzie's death and decided, together, how to go on while grievine her death together.  There was a fourth major character, a love interest for the eldest cousing named CHRIS ADAMS!!!!

Goodreads synopsis:  What do a runaway bride, a free spirit, and a corporate exec have in common? Besides all being down on their luck, Lainie, Jodi, and Becky are Lizzie Cornell's granddaughters. Upon inheriting their grandmother's home and family bait shop, the three cousins return to Catfish, Texas, grieving Lizzie's passing and hoping to find the fresh start they all need.
          Turns out cohabitating together and running the Catfish Fisherman's Hut isn't at all like the idyllic summers they spent as children on the banks of the Red River. The days are long and hot, the tourists demanding and rude. And then there's Chris, a local river guide who seems to have eyes only for Becky.
          But Lizzie's death has set in motion a chain of events that will cause a new generation of Cornell women to come together. And thanks to this chance inheritance, some local fishermen, and the love of their Granny Lizzie, the Cornell cousins discover that sometimes an ending is really the beginning of a brand-new happily ever after.

Rows of Gray Hexie Quilt

Tried this out to see how I liked it, so that I could use up random orphan hexies:

This is 20 rows  and measures 25 inches (wide) by 30 inches (long). 
This took just a bit less than one yard of gray fabric. 
There are 200 gray hexies and 90 orphans in this size.

8/20/2024

Well, I pulled this out again, looked for the extra gray fabric I bought, and started sewing more together while I was at Dede's at the beginning of the month.  As of today I have:

15.5 rows of 28 hexies sewn together (504 hexies total)

     NOT TOO BAD, but so many more to go.

I plan to iron it and take a new photo for the next update.

I also, at this time, have 68 triplet sets sewn together, 21 doubles, and 16 singles, totaling 262 hexies waiting to be added.   Grand total of 766 hexies prepped or already in quilt.

Picture Book - Encyclopedia of Grannies by Eric Veille

Translated by Daniel Hahn (translated from French?)

2019, Gecko Press, New Zealand

HC. $17.99

28 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.46 - 24 ratings

My rating:  3
Thick cardboard covers, thick pages with rounded corners.

1^st line/s:  "The world's first encyclopedia devoted entirely to grannies."

My comments:  2/3 of the book seemed intended for the entertainment of grandmothers, if they're not easily offended.  Not actually sure who the intended audience of this book actually is....but I enjoyed most of it with a wry smile throughout....

Goodreads:  Why do grannies always tell us to speak up? Why do they have creases on their faces? Are grannies flexible? How do you cheer up a sad granny? How old are grannies, actually?
          Eric Veill� explains it all in this offbeat book for the extended family to chuckle over--no matter what kind of grandma you have, are, or would like to be. From the author of My Pictures after the Storm, which received three starred reviews and which School Library Journal proclaimed "may be the funniest book of the year."

Picture Book - Time to Pray by Maha Addasi

Illustrated by Ned Gannon

2010, Boyds Mill Press, Honesdale, PA

HC $17/95

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  .10 - 122 ratings

My rating:  4.5

1^st line/s:  "In the darkness, green lights winked at me from the minaret of the nearby mosque.  I heard the voice of the muezzin calling, 'Come to pray, come to pray.'  It was my first night at Grandma's house."

My comments:  Young Yasmin goes to visit her grandmother in a Middle eastern country (doesn't say which one). It looks like she goes all by herself!   Impressive....  She hears the call to prayer five times a day, and her grandmother teaches her all about the different prayers and rituals surrounding them, makes her a "proper" outfit for praying, and takes her to the mosque.  Each double-page spread includes a page of English text and the Arabic translation.  When she returns home (to America, I'm guessing - or maybe Canada), she shares her new knowledge with her parents and feels continually connected to her grandmother when she looks at the miniature mosque that Teta sent home with her.  There's an explanation of the five praryer times at the end of the book.  The illustrations are gorgeous - no white at all.  One of our  visiting Muslim families, when returning the book, told me they've taken this book out several times for their 4 and 6-year-old kids and really enjoy it.

Goodreads:  Yasmin is visiting her grandmother, who lives in a country somewhere in the Middle East. On her first night, she's wakened by the muezzin at the nearby mosque calling the faithful to prayer, and Yasmin watches from her bed as her grandmother prepares to pray. A visit with Grandmother is always special, but this time it is even more so. Her grandmother makes Yasmin prayer clothes, buys her a prayer rug, and teaches her the five prayers that Muslims perform over the course of a day. When it's time for Yasmin to board a plane and return home, her grandmother gives her a present that her granddaughter opens when she arrives: a prayer clock in the shape of a mosque, with an alarm that sounds like a muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. Maha Addasi's warm and endearing story is richly illustrated by Ned Gannon. Features a text in English and Arabic, and includes an author's note and glossary.

PICTURE BOOK - Ruby's Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee

Illustrated by Joey Chou

2018, Henry Holt

HC $17.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.35 - 36 ratings

My rating:  4  (why not a 5?  Some of the pages are a little wildly busy for me)

Endpapers:  Bright yellow-orange

1^st line/s:  "Every year Ruby's grandmother came to visit for Chinese New Year."

My comments:   What a nice way to introduce the twelve Chinese Zodiac animals to kids.  Illustrations are extremely bright and go from edge-of-page to edge-of-page without white borders, which I love.  A nice real aloud for Chinese New Year.  With repetition, which is always fun.

Goodreads:   In this picture book celebrating Chinese New Year, animals from the Chinese zodiac help a little girl deliver a gift to her grandmother.
           Ruby has a special card to give to her grandmother for Chinese New Year. But who will help her get to grandmother’s house to deliver it? Will it be clever Rat, strong Ox, or cautious Rabbit? Ruby meets each of the twelve zodiac animals on her journey. This picture book includes back matter with a focus on the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

PICTURE BOOK - Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II by Marisabina Russo

Illustrated by the author, I assume

2005 Atheneum Books for Young Readers

HC $19.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.09 - 112 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  A collage of the actual photographs of the people depicted in the story.

1^st line/s:  "Sunday is the most important day of the week in my family, the day we gather for dinner at my Oma's."

My comments:  When should you start sharing information about the Holocaust with kids?  That's a big, tough question.  This picture book is a great way to begin, and is written for mid-elementary school kids.  It's based on a true story of a real family, has lovely illustrations, more-than-usual text (but not too much) and real photographs of the real people.  It's a treasure, and would be wonderful paired with Number the Stars for a fourth grade reading unit.

Goodreads:  Rachel's Oma (her grandmother) has two picture albums. In one the photographs show only happy times -- from after World War II, when she and her daughters had come to America. But the other album includes much sadder times from before -- when their life in Germany was destroyed by the Nazis' rise to power. 
For as long as Rachel can remember, Oma has closed the other album when she's gotten to the sad part. But today Oma will share it all. Today Rachel will hear about what her grandmother, her mother, and her aunts endured. And she'll see how the power of this Jewish family's love for one another gave them the strength to survive. 
Marisabina Russo illuminates a difficult subject for young readers with great sensitivity. Based on the author's own family history, Always Remember Me is a heartbreaking -- and inspiring -- book sure to touch anyone who reads it.

PICTURE BOOK - Luka's Quilt by Georgia Guback

Illustrated by the author

1994, Greenwillow Books

HC $16.99 - looks like it's still in print

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.35 - 49 ratings

My rating: 3.5

Endpapers: solid green, the color of the background of the quilt Tutu made for Luka

Illustrations are cut paper Collage!  Gorgeous

1^st line/s:  "My tutu lives with us.  Tutu.  That's Hawaiian for grandmother.  Tutu takes care of me while Mom and Dad work.  We do lots of things together.  I like that, and so does Tutu.  But all that changed when the quilt came along."

My comments:  I loved the cut paper collage illustrations (gorgeous!) and the beautiful quilt that Tutu made for Luka.  I love all the information about Hawaii.  But I don't love that Luka's pretty much a spoiled little brat.  Nothing I can change about that, it's part of the story, and the story about making the quilt, and the leis, is super. Just don't like the kid.  At all.

Goodreads:  Luka and her grandmother Tutu are best friends until Luka shows her disappointment at the traditional Hawaiian quilt that Tutu makes for her. Tutu is hurt, Luka is upset, and things just aren't the same anymore. But when Lei Day comes, the two set aside there differences to enjoy the holiday.
          "Guback's storytelling proves as affable as her bright, intricate cut-paper collages." -- Publishers Weekly.

PICTURE BOOK - Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner

Illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

2015, Chronicle Books (SF)

48 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.1 - 794 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers: Beige with brown line drawings of plants and garden tools

Illustrations:  No white border, actually no white: all beige, edge of page to edge of page...

1^st line/s:  "Up in the garden, I stand and plan ---
my hands full of seeds and my head full of dreams."

My comments:  Great information about gardens, soil, planting, and seasons, this reads as a fiction book but is full of information for little ones.  It also has beautiful language, lots of alliteration, and great rhythm.  I read it aloud to eight preschoolers, holding all their attention, and will use it with my STEM "Down and Dirty" (soils) summer camp at the library.  

Goodreads:  In this exuberant and lyrical follow-up to the award-winning Over and Under the Snow, discover the wonders that lie hidden between stalks, under the shade of leaves . . . and down in the dirt. Explore the hidden world and many lives of a garden through the course of a year! Up in the garden, the world is full of green—leaves and sprouts, growing vegetables, ripening fruit. But down in the dirt exists a busy world—earthworms dig, snakes hunt, skunks burrow—populated by all the animals that make a garden their home.

PICTURE BOOK - Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

Illustrated by the Author

1990 Philomel Books

32 pgs.. - 4830 ratings

Goodreads rating:  4.35

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  Dark Red

1^st line/s:  "On sultry summer days at my grandma's farm in Michigan, the air gets damp and heavy."

My comments:  I see absolutely no reason not to give this book a "5" rating.  It's wonderful.  Sometimes Polacco's books are really heavily texted, this one is not quite so.  And there are, of course, her wonderful illustrations.  A special grandmother-granddaughter relationship (I love that!), and a cool way to help the child be not so afraid of thunder as well as helping her realize that not everything is quite as scary as it seems.  Lots of great things in one beautiful picture book - plus a recipe that looks like a lot of fun to make, which adds some tomato the the chocolate flavoring....magic....

Goodreads:  Grandma consoles her frightened granddaughter by telling her that the dark clouds of the impending storm are nothing more than the ingredients for a Thunder Cake

MOVIE - Grandma

R (1:22)

Limited release 8/21/15

Viewed Friday 1/22/16 at Kolb cheapie theater

RT Critic:  92  Audience:  71
Critic's Consensus:  Boasting a stellar performance from Lily Tomlin and some powerfully empathetic work from writer-director Paul Weitz, Grandma is a dramedy that shouldn't have to ask you to visit.

Cag:  4 - Liked it a lot

Directed by Paul Weitz

Sony Pictures Classics
will be on DVD 2/9/16

Lily Tomlin, Marcia Gay Harden, Sam Elliot

My comments: Lily Tomlin was great, though I must say some of her "antics" were a little too over-the-top.  Many were right-on of course.  Grief, loss, love, disagreements, family sticky stuff were all examined, with a pretty decent resolution.  I totally enjoyed it, and the thinking that was provoked during and after.

RT Summary:  Lily Tomlin stars as Elle who has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when Elle's granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing $600 bucks before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets

MOVIE - Tammy

R (1:36)

Wide Release 7/2/2014

Viewed

RT Critic: 24  Audience: 39

Cag:  4/Liked it a lot - and I didn't intend to!

Directed by Ben Falcone (I think he's Melissa McCarthy's husband)

Warner Brothers Pictures

Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates - and more great actors in smaller parts

My comments: I thought this movie was going to be crass and stupid, but I went to it anyway, simply anticipating a great cast.  And I greatly enjoyed it!  Yes, touches of stupid AND crass, but only touches.  There was lots of "being human" here, too. A 3-generation story.   Melissa McCarthy is SOOO cleverly funny!  And the music was terrific - wouldn't mind the soundtrack.

Reviews: Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is having a bad day. She's totaled her clunker car, gotten fired from her thankless job at a greasy burger joint and, instead of finding comfort at home, finds her husband getting comfortable with the neighbor in her own house. It's time to take her boom box and book it. The bad news is she's broke and without wheels. The worse news is her grandma, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), is her only option-with a car, cash, and an itch to see Niagara Falls. Not exactly the escape Tammy had in mind. But on the road, with grandma riding shot gun, it may be just what Tammy needs.

24. The Summer I Saved the World in 65 Days - Michele Weber Hurwitz

2014, Wendy Lamb Books: Random House

266 pgs.

Written for middle grades/YA

Finished 5/6/2014

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 4.26

My Rating: 4-Liked it a lot, great story

TPPL

Setting: contemporary anytown, USA

1^st sentence/s:  "It starts with Mrs. Chung.  And flowers.  Marigolds."

My comments:  The summer after 8th grade. I liked this book very much, with only one drawback.  The protagonist, Nina, was a sweetheart - much like many of the girls of that age I've had the pleasure to know.  Her closest friends, Eli and Jorie, live in her cul de sac.  But she has no other friends?  This is impossible to wrap my mind around, which kept me outside the book a little, wondering why the author decided to do this..... Other than that, I enjoyed the story very, very much.

Becky's review from Becky's Book Reviews

Goodreads Review:  It's summertime, and thirteen-year-old Nina Ross is feeling kind of lost. Her beloved grandma died last year; her parents work all the time; her brother's busy; and her best friend is into clothes, makeup, and boys. While Nina doesn't know what "her thing" is yet, it's definitely not shopping and makeup. And it's not boys, either. Though . . . has Eli, the boy next door, always been so cute?
             This summer, Nina decides to change things. She hatches a plan. There are sixty-five days of summer. Every day, she'll anonymously do one small but remarkable good thing for someone in her neighborhood, and find out: does doing good actually make a difference? Along the way, she discovers that her neighborhood, and her family, are full of surprises and secrets.
             In this bighearted, sweetly romantic novel, things may not turn out exactly as Nina expects. They might be better.

I Call My Grandma Nana – Ashley Wolff

Illustrated by the author

2009, Tricycle Press

24 pages

HC $15.99

Rating:  Well, I have to say I love it!

Endpapers:  front, brown “bag” paper, with a large name tag that says underneath:  I call my Grandma ________________ and everyone can see/ that I love spending time with her/ and she loves being with me.

Back cover:  a list of grandmother names from around the world (again, on the brownish paper bag-looking background)

First line/s:

“My grandmother from China

Is visiting today.

Class, please welcome Nai-Nai,”

Said Miss Alexandra May.

The story, in lovely rhyme and rhythm, goes on to have each of many kids introduce their grandmothers and tell what they call them:

“Abuelita is my Grandma.

She’s teaching me to sew.

The doll we’re making

    Looks like me---

Blue dress, black braid,

     White bow!”

or

“My Mamie likes the hummingbirds.

I always look for jays.

I carry her binoculars

On our bird-watching days.”

                (I love this one, my kids called their paternal grandmother, my mother-in-law, Mamie…)

In all, fourteen children tell about their grandmother in a four-lined quatrain.  What a great model for a writing lesson!

This is the second Ashley Wolff book I’ve read in as many days.  It’s time to check her out a little more thoroughly.  I know I’ve read her books before, but it’s time to really examine her retinue!  Ashley Wolff lives in San Francisco, California.

Let's Go See Papa! - Lawrence Schimel

Illustrated by Alba Marina Rivera
Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, 2009
$18.95
40 pages
Rating:  Liked it a lot
Endpapers: Light Blue
Title page:  Beige with illustration of the house where the little girl lives
Illustrations:  Full page on beige, some go over onto the facing page.  I like the illustrations a lot, looking closely I think they're done with colored pencils.
1st line/s:  "On Sundays I wake up early even though I don't have to go to school./Papa's going to call us.  He phones every Sunday because it's cheaper.  Sunday is my favorite day.
Setting:  A Spanish-speaking country, contemporary.
OSS:  A little girl misses her father who has been working for over a year in the United States while she and her mom live with her abuela and wait for him to come home or send for them.

This is a lovely story, of family, of missing a parent, or how life goes on while waiting for change to come when you know it's coming.  The little girl in the story, who lives in an unnamed country, waits for Sunday to talk briefly with her papa on the phone. She keeps a journal for him, telling him what's happening in their life each day while he's gone. He's in America, and this Sunday, after almost two years, he's telling her she and her mom are going to fly there to live with him.  She has, of course, mixed feelings...she'll be leaving her best friend, her grandmother, and her dog, but she misses her father so badly that she's still happy to go.  The book ends as the mother and daughter are flying away on an airplane over the ocean.

I liked thinking about the immigrants that I see here in Tucson and the family they may have left behind, missing them, working hard to make life easier for them, how often do I think about that?  All most parents want for their kids is a good life!

"When Grandma Comes" - Eileen Spinelli

I was flipping through the September, 2010 issue of Highlights when I came across this poem.  The illustrations by Debbie Palen are great, but I still haven't figured out how to scan and transfer to the computer.  So I surfed for awhile, and came across the Highlights page, complete with illustrations AND a young lady reading the poem!  So cool!    Palen has illustrated some books:  The Period Book by Karen Gravelle, and the Andrew Lost series by J. C. Greenburg, among others.  Here's the link.  You can hear it read AND see the illustrations!

When Grandma Comes

When Grandma comes, she likes to bring
a little bit of everything—
a puppy toy, some yellow thread,
a tasty square of gingerbread,
thick homemade soup, a knitted hat,
a can of tuna for the cat,
a couple pairs of woolen socks,
chocolate cherries in a box,
a picture book, a string of beads,
a bag of crunchy pumpkin seeds.

When Grandma comes, she likes to sing
And push me on the backyard swing.
And rock me in the rocking chair.
And read to me. And brush my hair.
She likes to dance me round the floor.
And walk me to the candy store.
And feed me soup by candlelight.
And tuck me into bed at night.

When Grandma comes, my parents grin.
The puppy barks. I laugh and spin.
The cat meows. The whole house hums.
On Saturday, when Grandma comes.

2. Ninth Ward - Jewell Parker Rhodes

Little, Brown & Co., 2010
HC $15.99
218 pages
For: Middle grades
Rating: 3

I ran to the library to find this book, because the ACPL Mock Newbery had voted it their winner for 2011. The library actually had it, which was a pleasant surprise. It’s about a 12-year old girl, Lanesha, who has been raised by Mama Ya-Ya, the midwife who birthed her. Lanesha’s mother died during childbirth, and her “uptown” family has completely ignored the child because her 17-year old mother had taken up with someone they didn't approve of. Lanesha does not know who her father is.

So we see Lanesha at home, in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a particularly poor neighborhood. She and Mama Ya-Ya have an incredible relationship, filled with love. Although they have very little, every tiny aspect of life is made special. Mama Ya-Ya is a good woman. Lanesha is a great kid. We meet Lanesha’s math teacher, who sees promise in her and encourages her to be an engineer, a bridge builder. We meet the kids who bully and taunt her because of Mama Ya-Ya’s “sight.” We meet the boy who lives down the street from her. TaShon is tiny, also bullied, almost-silent, and has never really spoken to her before. And then there’s Spot, the stray dog that Lanesha takes home for TaShon, who has a personality of his own.

All this takes place on the eve of Katrina. Mama Ya-Ya starts to have strange dreams, dreams that take hold of her and make it difficult for her to focus on the everyday. So it’s up to Lanesha to plan and prepare for what the news says is going to be “unfathomable.” She watches the neighborhood prepare. She watches them leave, some to escape New Orleans, some to stay at the Super Dome.

And then Katrina strikes. And then the water starts to rise. And then Lanesha, who’s been joined by TaShon, must really use their wits to survive.

Hmmmm. There have been some excellent reviews of this book. Some of the writing is superb.

"I think the quiet before the storm means it isn't really quiet. Maybe it means only no you can hear birds flying, forming a V overhead. Or that the air has sound. That it whistles, low and deep, as a storm approaches. Quiet before a storm maybe means folks are done hammering wood across their windows and placing sand sacks beside their front doors. Or maybe it means there's loneliness. A weird loneliness that is, yet isn't, real."

But I had a few problems with it. It was repetitious. Much of the scenes from the rooftop were unbelievable . Come on, if they’d really been doing what they did on the roof, one or both of them would have drowned. And, they hey just happened to have a neighbor with a rowboat? A dog like Spot was afraid to jump across…or into…water?

My biggest hangup with the book, however, was Lanesha’s ability to see ghosts. I’ve pondered upon why Rhodes would have added this not-so-believable-for-me ingredient to the story. I suppose to show the superstitions and beliefs of many of the people of New Orleans. Well, she covered that with Mama Ya.-Ya’s “sight.” Perhaps because when Mama died at the end, she wouldn’t feel too much sadness because she knew she’s always be able to “see” her? So that her dead mother could save her when she was drowning? This touch of fantasy was a big weakness for me.

So, yuh, this book had many flaws for me. They can’t all be winners, right? It’ll probably win awards, because it seems I never agree with them, anyways!

Grandma's Gloves - Cecil Castellucci

Illustrated by Julia Denos
Candlewick, 2010
$15.99, 24 pages
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: a sponged-looking orangy rust

I was so drawn by the cover and title of this book. And as I began reading it I was particularly tickled - I love books with smart, savvy grandmothrs that have great relationships with their grandchildren.
Then, five pages in, "Sometimes she repeats things. But I am very patient with her." Uh Oh.

Grandma hits the downward spiral fast - hospital, does not know her daughter or granddaughter, then dies. Needless to say, I was quite perplexed. And very sad.

The second half of the book deals with keepsakes and memories, what we share and what we savor about a loved one. It was a beautifully crafted message to us all. And once I stopped thinking of myself as a (very young, vital, with-it) grandmother I moved on to memories of my own grandmother, who helped raise me. I remember her gardening gloves, too, her always-blooming African violets, her rose bushes in the yard.

So, mixed personal feelings for me about this book. I guess the decline and loss of the grandmother simply took me by surprise.

It's really a wonderful book. But sad. Kids, particularly sensitive kids, should be prepared for what's going to happen.

The illustrations seems to be pencil and watercolor, and they're pretty darn wonderful. There are a couple that I really like - the two of them sitting at the kitchen table together and later, the full-page illustration of the girl sadly watering her grandmother's plants, in particular.

(NOTE: I went to Lowe's and purchased a pink African Violet this afternoon. Let's see if I can keep it alive, at least for a little while....)

Cecil Castellucci writes about how she came to write this book, her first picture book here.
Here's an intersting blog review by Book Reviews and More and another by Jean Little Library.

Cecil Castellucci's blog.
Julia Denos' blog.

Don't you love it that you can get to know authors and illustrators "up close and personal" by reading a blog they've written?

Ghost Wings - Barbara M. Joosse

Illustrated by Giselle Potter
Chronicle Books, 2001
$15.95
32 pages
Rating: 4.5*
Endpapers: pale yellow with 1 " to 3" monarch butterflies

Written in the first person by a young girl, she tells of her grandmother, who is also her best friend, the tortillas they make together, the Magic Circle they visit (where millions of monarch butterflies arrive and gather every fall), her grandmother's death, and the Day of the Dead celebration that helps keep her grandmother's memory alive.

Illustrations cover the whole page and accentuate the text without overwhelming. They would be what one of my students describe as "cartoonish." *And although I really like them, that is why I didn't give the book a 5 rating. I guess I would have preferred - for this book - more realism. The story is appears deceivingly simple, but is actually quite complex and multi-layered.

Four pages of "afterword" give more information on monarchs, Day of the Dead, and questions about the book along with activities related to the book. I love the idea ofd decorating frames to hold pictures of loved ones. I'm off to JoAnnes and Michaels!

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.

The Wishing Tree - Roseanne Thong

Illustrated by Connie McLennan
Shen's Books, 2004
32 pages
Rating: 5
Endpapers: Gold & beige decorated Chinese designs

I spent an hour browsing and reading in the Martha Cooper Library on Catalina - a small public library I rarely get to visit. The local neighborhood holds many cultures, and there are many kids' books in different languages here. In other words, a great multicultural find.

There's a huge banyan tree in Ming's hometown where his grandmother would always take him to make a wish for the lunar new year. She would purchase a Ng Bo Dip (Five Treasures Pile), a stack of decorated red and yellow papers. After writing a wish, the papers were rolled into a scroll, secured with string, and attached to a large mandarin orange. When ready, this was flung high into the banyan wishing tree.

For many years Ming and his grandmother enjoyed this yearly custom, until, when Ming was nine, his wish was not fulfilled and his grndmother's sickness does not get better. She dies. The rest of the story deals with grief resolution in a positive, helpful way.

Each two page spread is beautiful with an edge-to-edge illustration on one side and the text is usually within a pale-colored box that looks like paper. The same one inch Chinese patterns found on the endpapers are "seals" at the bottom of the page.

Fantastic explanation in the Author's Note at the end of the book.

Included are directions for making your own Ng Bo Dip and a black and white WISHING PAPER page to photocopy and use as the five pages.

Perfect addition to my 4th grade China study!