Picture Book - Watercress by Andrea Wang

Illustrated by Jason Chin

Endpapers:  Dark Aqua
found at Bosler

2021 Neal Porter Books, Holiday House

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:   4.61 - 1131 ratings

My rating:  4.5

1^st line/s:  "We are all in the old Pontiac, the red paint faded by years of glinting Ohio sun, pelting rain, and biting snow."

My comments:  Being a child of immigrants, and poor, the little girl protagonist of this story  doesn't want to stop by the side of the road to forage in the muck for watercress that remind her parents of their growing up in China.  And later she doesn't want to eat it.  But in a simple though perfectly worded story, Andrea Wang, shows the little girl a huge amount of history, memories, and sorrow from the mom's life in China.  A gentle story with a whopping take-away.

Goodreads:  Gathering watercress by the side of the road brings a girl closer to her family's Chinese Heritage.

          Driving through Ohio in an old Pontiac, a young girl's parents stop suddenly when they spot watercress growing wild in a ditch by the side of the road. Grabbing an old paper bag and some rusty scissors, the whole family wades into the muck to collect as much of the muddy, snail covered watercress as they can.
          At first, she's embarrassed. Why can't her family get food from the grocery store? But when her mother shares a story of her family's time in China, the girl learns to appreciate the fresh food they foraged. Together, they make a new memory of watercress.
          Andrea Wang tells a moving autobiographical story of a child of immigrants discovering and connecting with her heritage, illustrated by award winning author and artist Jason Chin, working in an entirely new style, inspired by Chinese painting techniques. An author's note in the back shares Andrea's childhood experience with her parents.

POEM - A Poem for the Reader by Mary Ann Hoberman

A Poem for the Reader

You're on an adventure
About to start,
You're going to learn
Some poems by heart!
Short ones and long ones,
Old ones and new,
Happy ones, sad ones,
Some silly ones, too.
You'll pick out your favorites
From those that you've read
And invite them to live in
The house in your head.
This house is called Memory,
Everyone knows,
And the more you put in it,
The larger it grows.
The more that you give it,
The more it will give,
And your poems will live with you
As long as you live.

           ``Mary Ann Hoberman
              from Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart

The Matchbox Diary - Paul Fleischman

illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
2013, Candlewick

HC (no DC on this library copy?) $16.99 TPPL

40 lovely, thick pages

Goodreads rating: 4.20

My rating: 4

Endpapers: blue - denim-y - streaked with rainwater?

Illustrations:  acrylic gouache: current day in sepia and color; memories from the past in sepia tones only.  The memory illustrations are within an almost-full-page block, while the contemporary scenes go to the page edges - subtly different 

This is a truly beautiful book.  I love Paul Fleischman's words - though there are two places in the story that I felt like he needed to say just a bit more, I pulled at the pages to see if I'd missed any.  He is definitely one of my all-time favorite authors.  The illustrations are particularly lovely.  This book is about how we record memories when we can't read or write.  Great premise.  Good storytelling.  Super book.

Goodreads review:  "Pick whatever you like most. Then I’ll tell you its story." 

When a little girl visits her great-grandfather at his curio-filled home, she chooses an unusual object to learn about: an old cigar box. What she finds inside surprises her: a collection of matchboxes making up her great-grandfather’s diary, harboring objects she can hold in her hand, each one evoking a memory. Together they tell of his journey from Italy to a new country, before he could read and write — the olive pit his mother gave him to suck on when there wasn’t enough food; a bottle cap he saw on his way to the boat; a ticket still retaining the thrill of his first baseball game. With a narrative entirely in dialogue, Paul Fleischman makes immediate the two characters’ foray into the past. With warmth and an uncanny eye for detail, Bagram Ibatoulline gives expressive life to their journey through time — and toward each other.

All the Places to Love - Patricia MacLachlan

Illustrated by Mike Wimmer, with paintings
Harper Collins, 1994
32 pgs.
Rating: 4.5

"Dedicated to my grandparents....for their sity-four years of marriage which serve as the mortar that binds my family togther." M.W.

From the beginning "On the day I was born
My grandmother wrapped me in a blanket
made from the wool of her sheep."

to the end:

"All the places to love are here, I'll tell her,
no matter where you may live.
Where else, I will say: does an old turtle crossing the path
Make all the difference in the world?"

This book is a description of place using the senses and beautiful language, including similes galore. It tells of each family member's favorite place, and is a gorgeous model and touchstone for teaching kids how to write about place.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

"My grandmother loved the river best
of all the places to love.
That sound, like a whisper, she said;
Gathering in pools
Where trout flashed like jewels in the sunlight.
Grandmother sailed little bark boats downriver to me
with messages.
I Love You Eli, one said."

Aunt Mary's Rose - Douglas Wood

Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Candlewick, 2010
$16.99
24 large pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: large blossoming pink roses on a huge bush cover the pages

This memoir, told from a young boy's point-of-view in the 1950's (or so) is about family and tradition. Using a rosebush as a metaphor - and to illustrate real events - Auunt Mary raised this boy's father and uncle when their parents died. She goes even farther back to recount how her father had originally planted the bush on their farm. Events from the Depression and WWII are recalled, and the reader is asked to ponder family ties as each generation has a part in caring for the bush.

The illustrations are realistic and lovely, helping depict the historical feel.

Using this picture book in the classroom will open up discussion on a myriad of topics - U.S. history, gardening, family, perhaps even genealogy! Also a good model for dialogue.

Chester Raccoon and the Acorn Full of Memories - Audrey Penn

Illustrated by Barbara L. Gibson
Tanglewood Publishing, 2009
$16.95
32 pages
Endpapers: Purple

I picked this book up just to glance through it, to read it quickly, but with no intentions of blogging about it. However, I really enjoyed it. I liked the illustrations. I liked the story. I liked that it talked about making memories, but avoided spirituality. There's certainly a place for books like this.

When Chester Raccoon discovers that his friend Skiddil Squirrel has died, his mother helps him understand what that means, and helps him relieve memories of their time together, creating a happy spot in his mind about his friend. And when they travel to the place where Chester and Skiddil always played, they are accompanied by others who knew the squirrel. There's even a cool, happy ending that really cements the idea of memories and how important they are: Skiddil had collected a cache of acorns and buried them. However, when it came to finding them again, even with his friends helping, they could not be found. But Chester and his mom find a stand of new oak trees, and know this was the hiding place.

The illustrations cover the entire page, are very detailed and colorful and....happy.

Okay, I really like this book.