VBPL Recommends

The Bell Rang

2019-11-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

As we learn more about slavery and the stories of people who suffered, the families who were broken, the lives who were lost, there are some stories not often told. James E. Ransome, illustrator of more than 60 picture books, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator award, and many others, has written and illustrated a leave taking in one family, the story when one member runs away to freedom.
The Bell Rang ( 2019) features an enslaved family whose day begins, through the eyes of a young girl, with the rhythmic words " The bell rings. Daddy gathers wood. Mama cooks. We eat." But one day, her older brother Ben hugs her with a " Goodbye", gives her a home made doll, and the next day, Ben is gone. Oh, the family worries for Ben to be safe, but the Overseer comes to the family's cabin and hits the mother and father. Day by day, we walk with this family and the other people, wondering about Ben and his future. Will our main character, Ben's little sister, go free one day?
The Bell Rang is over and above one of the most beautiful picture books whose lush paintings tell a deeply moving story- the truth in a fictional setting. It is one of those books that can open conversations and hearts. I want to read this book to children as old as the main character, young school age children, and talk about what they see in Ransome's pages. I think we never have to wait for a particular month or time of year to read these books, which can rock our foundations, and teach us to understand, ever more deeply, what happened to people in those horrible days.
Other picture books which deal with similar subjects are:Freedom Song: The Story of Henry "Box" Brown (2012) by Sally Walker and Sean Qualls, illustrator, and Hope's Gift (2012) by Kelly Starling Lyons and Don Tate, about a runaway slave who joins the Union Army.

The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac

2019-11-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Do you believe in Bigfoot? If the answer is yes, and you've been following podcasts and reading everything you can to support your position, consider a novel that makes the Sasquatch a real character. Sharma Shields, a literary award winner from Spokane, Washington, has written a completely entertaining saga of one family who has had interactions with a hominid bearing a name, Mr. Krantz. (after the famous anthropologist, Grover Krantz, from Washington State University) This Bigfoot has a life, and at least two wives who love him.
The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac is set from the 1940's to 2006 in the Northwest USA, A young boy, Eli Roebuck, is distressed when his mother goes off into the woods with a strange, very tall, very hairy human-like thing. He spends the rest of his life obsessed by him, leaves his podiatry practice behind and eventually plans to trap and kill Mr. Krantz. In the meantime, Eli marries ( twice), has children ( two daughters), grows older and continues his quest.
There's a certain amount of strange humor in all of this, and a great deal of the very human emotional wreckage caused by marriages that are destroyed, children who are not convinced they are loved, and even the appearance of a unicorn later in the book. I really enjoyed feeling trapped in the narrative, especially as Eli ages, as does his mother, Agnes, who has to move over and make room for her husband's younger, glamorous new partner. Apparently. Bigfoot has quite the libido, according to this writer. There are tragic female figures, and the ever hopeful Eli, who also makes an appearance after death.
To be honest, I love the quest for Bigfoot. I think it's totally possible for there to be something out there in the woods of the Northwest, or in Canada, in the deep recesses of the underpopulated great wild places even though we just can't get enough physical evidence to convince the unbelievers. If you want to read more about the phenomenon, check out Monster Trek: the obsessive search for Bigfoot (2016) by Joe Gisondi, or Bigfoot (2017)by Erin Peabody and Victor Revas, in our Youth Non-fiction collection.

Because

2019-11-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

We took our four year old grandson to a San Francisco Symphony Orchestra rehearsal a few weeks ago, not because we wanted to force him to love classical music, but because he asked me at Christmas:
" Nana, have you ever heard of a symphony orchestra?"
I said I did, and I would take him to see and hear one when his mom and dad said I could. He was three and a half at the time.
But in the weeks before we went to California I discovered I could take a child to a rehearsal and of course, I looked for a book to help prepare him. I found a beautiful book by Mo Willems, the writer and illustrator of the Elephant and Piggy and Knuffle Bunny books, illustrated by another artist, Amber Ren.
Because is the story of a girl who gets invited to attend a symphony concert instead of her uncle who has a ticket, because he has a cold and cannot attend. It is about what the music does to her, and for her, and about how her life comes alive with playing instruments, writing music, and conducting the piece she wrote, called " The Cold", in honor of her uncle. This is a picture book that charms the reader with images of conductors and musicians of diverse backgrounds, and uses a device to engage us; swerving golden, green and yellow swaths of notes, moving through the illustrations as if we are listening to a soundtrack with our eyes.
The book is especially meaningful to me, as the grandmother of a child with low vision, While reading, our grandboy got close to the pages and really studied the details: the little girl seemingly flying through the lobby after the concert, her boots off the ground, the open spread of purple gold and yellow with no text, as the orchestra plays all together with a leader- the conductor, holding a small stick. It thrilled me to see these images by Amber Ren, who came from China with her family and learned to love art because she went to the Huntingdon Library in Los Angeles and saw a painting by John Singer Sargent.
One thing that books can do is to open new windows for children, Because is one of those books.
If you want to stimulate music appreciation at home,try Music is for Everyone, (2014), by Jill Barber and Sydney Smith, and for some truth in how music can change the world Bessie Smith and the Night Riders (2006) about how the famous blues singer scared off some KKK members- a book for school age readers.

You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P

2019-11-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

How does an author handle these topics in one book: deafness, racism, police shootings of innocent black teens, stereotypes, same sex marriage and middle school book fandom? In Alex Gino's new book, gently, respectfully and firmly. This is a profoundly moving book for youth readers, and really, for all readers.
You may remember Alex Gino from their wonderful book George, a 2015 youth fiction book about a boy who longs to play the part of Charlotte in a school play version of the book Charlotte's Web. In that book, the main character explores gender identity, supported by a wonderful friend who is a girl. Now the author expands in a novel including other diverse aspects of life.
Jilly is a middle school girl living in the Bay Area, California in a family with a newborn baby girl who is Deaf. This causes challenges for her parents, but it also makes it possible for Jilly to begin to wonder about the life of a black Deaf boy in an online chat group dedicated to the Magically Mysterious Vidalia book trilogy. Jilly realizes that she wants to participate in the life of her baby sister, and begins to learn American Sign Language. Through her chat with Derek, AKA profoundinoaktown online, she begins to understand how much she doesn't know about Deaf culture, including the significance of a uniquely signed name gifted by one Deaf person to another, like a nickname, only more special. Over the course of the book, Jilly is able to make a real life connection to Derek, and she admits to herself that she does have a crush on him, which has been suggested by her best friend, Macy, a larger than life character who uses plenty of acronyms in her speech.
Jilly experiences an awakening in another area of her family life. She has two aunts married to each other , and they are parents of two children of color. Her family of origin, including a racist uncle,are not respectful to Aunt Alicia, who is African American. One Thanksgiving dinner reveals her family's inability to be completely welcoming. Meanwhile, the shooting of several black teens in the area bring a stark awareness of the unfairness of police regarding these young people, one of whom was a deaf runner who did not hear police asking her to stop, and was shot and killed. These situations make Jilly more understanding of the concept and reality of Black Lives Matter.
What I love about this book is the fact that Alex Gino handles everything through the eyes of a white girl character coming to a fuller sense of respect and understanding. They also include a list of Macy's acronyms which are called "initialisms" ( such as I.T.Y.R.G - I Think You are Great) and an author's note, revealing that Gino's grandparents were deaf. If you have one book to read about contemporary life for middle school kids, I heartily recommend this one. I see potential for all kinds of awards for Alex Gino for You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P!
You may want to look into Teen Deaf culture with You're Welcome, Universe ( 2017) by Whitney Gardner, or consider a book about white privilege, and the response to shootings of people of color : Not my idea: a book about whiteness ( 2018) by Anastasia Higginbotham.

Brave Red, Smart Frog: A New Book of Old Tales

2019-11-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

Fairy tales never grow old, in my opinion. I was talking to a colleague today and we got into a discussion about the various international versions of Cinderella. The essence of these often told stories really connect us, no matter when or where we heard them, or which version we learn.

Emily Jenkins, author of the Toys series in middle grade fiction, and the picture book, Tiger and Badger (2016), takes a set of classic fairy tales from Grimm and Charles Perrault and tells them in a curvy way. We recognize Red Riding Hood, and the Frog Prince, and Snow White, but Jenkins gives them new names, and her prose is practically audible- you can hear a voice telling the tale. Even the title, Brave Red, Smart Frog, gives the reader a peek into the brevity and direct style Jenkins employs in re-telling these stories. She also repeats phrases from one story to another, without really linking them. For example, in The Frog Prince, a kiss breaks an enchantment, while in Snow White a kiss begins one, a spell of perfect love.

Though I've read many versions of fairy tales, I am always moved by different writers and how they shape that familiar nugget into a newly polished stone. What is clear in this book is the faithfulness to the harsh qualities of early European tales; the wolf does eat the Grandmother and Red, Hansel is fattened up for the witch to eat, and Snow White does die after eating a poisoned apple. This is a heads up because many of the old tales used violence and evil in ways that parents of young children may choose not to share. But for those of us familiar with the tales, it's not a problem.

One more bonus feature of this Youth book- the illustrations, not only on the cover and inside pages, but at the start of every story. These are created by Rohan Daniel Eason, who also illustrated The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1987). They have a classy, old style feel and give each story a lovely image for the reader to imagine the story's setting.

If you would like to read folk tales from other cultures, you might try Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales (2002), Mangoes, Mischief and tales of friendship: stories of India (2019) or Stories from the Silk Road (2005), set in countries along the ancient travel routes. Reading tales from other cultures with delightful names and places broadens us as readers, and as humans on the planet. Of course, some people credit reading fairy tales with an increase in brain power, such as Einstein who is quoted as saying " If you want your child to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."