Picture Book - Kamala and Maya's Big Idea by Meena Harris

Illustrated by Ana Ramirez Gonzalez

found at Ellsworth Public Library

read on 7/14/2021

2020, Balzer & Bray

32 pgs.

Endpapers:  solid royal blue

illustrations:  bold colors, edge to edge, not too much text

Goodreads rating:   4.03 - 1011 ratings

My rating:  4

Afterward/explanation with photos

1^st line/s:  " 'You know what should be out there?' Kamala asked her sister, Maya."

My comments:  Two sisters (Kamala Harris and her sister Maya) create, plan and organize a way to make a playground in the empty apartment courtyard where they live, even after gettin several "no"s .  Working together, almost anything can be accomplished. 

Goodreads:  One day, Kamala and Maya had an idea. A big idea: they would turn their empty apartment courtyard into a playground!

          This is the uplifting tale of how the author’s aunt and mother first learned to persevere in the face of disappointment and turned a dream into reality. This is a story of children’s ability to make a difference and of a community coming together to transform their neighborhood.

PICTURE BOOK - Two of Everything retold and illustrated by Lily Toy Hong

A Chinese Folktale
1993, Albert Whitman & Co.

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.16 - 698 ratings

My rating:  4

Illustrations:  Illustrations have thin, light-colored lines around each of the drawings that remind me, a little, of Paul Gole's illustrations.  I wish I knew how she created these lovely, soft and gentle drawings.

1^st line/s:  "Once long ago, in a humble little hut, lived Mr. Haktak and his wife, rs. Haktak.  They were old and very poor.  What little they ate came from their tiny garden."

My comments:  The story, a retelling of a Chinese folktale, is fun and funny.  Gentle, soft illustrations frame the story beautifully.  This is an excellent read aloud to include when you want a simple Chinese folktale to enhance teaching/learning about China.

Goodreads:  Mr. Haktak digs up a curious brass pot in his garden and decides to carry his coin purse in it. When Mrs. Haktak's hairpin slips into the pot, she reaches in and pulls out two coin purses and two hairpins--this is a magic pot!

26. Princess Cora and the Crocodile by Laura Amy Schlitz

Illustrated by Brian Floca
Listened on Audible AND read the BOOK
2017 Candlewick Press
74 pgs.
Mid Grades Fairy Tale
Finished  3/21/18
Goodreads rating:  4.01 - 1029 ratings
My rating:  4

First line/s: When Princess Cora was born, her mother and father thought she was as perfect as a snowflake."

My comments:  I purchased this book through Audible for a ridiculously low price - can't remember how low, but like maybe 99-cents.  Because I've loved everything I've read by Laura Amy Schitz previously, I couldn't pass it up.  Oh, does Davina Porter read this beautifully!  She has the easiest-to-understand British accent and is just a joy to spend time with.  The story is adorable, but I really think that I need to see the illustrations - that's the only problem with an audio book that has illustrations.  So I won't make an actual review of this until I have sat down with the book itself and take in the pictures.  5/5 I have done that now.  They've really fun.

Goodreads synopsis: A Newbery Medalist and a Caldecott Medalist join forces to give an overscheduled princess a day off and a wicked crocodile a day "on." 
Princess Cora is sick of boring lessons. She's sick of running in circles around the dungeon gym. She's sick, sick, sick of taking three baths a day. And her parents won't let her have a dog. But when she writes to her fairy godmother for help, she doesn't expect help to come in the form of a crocodile, a crocodile who does not behave properly.

The Odious Ogre - Norton Juster

Illustrated by Jules Feiffer
Michael DiCapua Bks/Scholastic, 2010
$17.95
32 pages
Rating: 4
for older kids
Endpapers: Easter yellow

Lots and lots.....and lots......of high-level , fancy, wonderful words. There once was a horrendous ogre. "He was, it was widely believed, extraordinarily large, exceedingly ugly, unusually angry, constantly hungry, and absolutely merciless." He terrified one and all - until he met his match in a friendly, happy, positive-thinking young lady.

Talk with kids about the ending: "She also understood that the terrible things that can happen when you come face to face with an Ogre can sometimes happen to the Ogre and not to you."

I'm not usually a Jules Feiffer fan - but these watercolor illustrations, framed with a thicker line of paint, work perfectly.

Ling Cho and His Three Friends - V. J. Pacilio

Illustrated by Scott Cook
Farrar Straus Giroux, 2000
Looks like it's out-of-print
Library: picture book section
32 pages
Rating: 3.5
Endpapers: 4

This is a longish story told in couplets. The couplets are wonderfully rhythmic, use great words (fertile, entrusted, summon, reap, grueling, resolution, poverty, annual, depart, meager, transport, envision, destined, ...) and is full of alliteration. It's a tale of friendship and honesty. The illustrations are great at close examination, but would look blurry and washed out if read aloud and a listener was even a short distance away.

This would make a great reader's theater or choral reading for an older class.

Note: I took it from the library to read because i thought it might apply to my unit on China. And although the illustrations are about Chinese people, it could apply to any group of farmers that celebrate the harvest.

"In the wondrous land of China, many years ago,
There lived a wise and kindly man, a farmer names Ling Cho.
Together with his wife and sons, in fertile fields he'd toil;
Their lives entrusted to the land, true servants of the soil."