It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

Blog Posts: Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge, Poetry Friday, and Celebrate

Reading from the Past Week:

I just got back from an extended weekend in Chicago so didn't have much time to post this. I am fairly exhausted so will just say that I really enjoyed Naked!,  Manhunt, My Abuelita, and The Game of Let's Go though there were many that were fantastic.

The Coming Week:

These are the books that I am currently reading. I will be reading some of the Printz books and some of the Pura Belpré books too. I just got Sarah Kay's new book No Matter the Wreckage last night when we went to hear her and will likely read that. Since it's poetry I will likely take my time and savor it. Have a great week of reading!

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day. Here are some of my celebrations from the week in no particular order.

One of my finger paintings

* A friend and I had a "play date" this week. We used finger paints and watercolors to make some fun art together. We had candles lit near our working spaces and it was super relaxing.

* I got the garage and the refrigerator cleaned out. These were rather huge chores because I took things apart and got really picky about it all. I love to do a thorough cleaning periodically. Afterwards, opening the doors and looking at the shininess and organization gives me a burst of happiness.

* I have also spent many hours outside pulling weeds and taking care of plants. All of the cleaning and taking care of things is difficult at the time, but is so satisfying once it is accomplished. I have enjoyed checking things off of my "to do" list.

* My daughter sent some pictures of her trip to Japan. It looks like she is having a wonderful time. I worry about her while she is there, but it's also very exciting to realize all that she is getting to experience and it will be so wonderful to hear about her trip when she returns in a few weeks.

* I don't usually watch sports on tv, but have had a great time watching World Cup games with friends and family.

I hope that you also have found many things to celebrate this week. Have a great weekend.

Poetry Friday

This weekend I am planning to go see Sarah Kay in Chicago. I love her spoken word poetry. Here is one of the poems from her recent book No Matter the Wreckage.

Here is the first poem I ever heard from Sarah Kay. In this one, she is doing what I would call a poetry duet with Phil Kaye.

At some point in the past, Sarah created a Youtube playlist that highlights some of the spoken word poets who have influenced her own work. It's pretty cool. 

Finally, I also found a helpful book this week, Picture Yourself Writing Poetry.

It has some fantastic writing prompts that are tied to the photographs in the book. Laura Purdie Salas also offers some sample poems and many excellent suggestions for writing poetry inspired by photos. 

Here is a photo that I took a while back as a train passed by me. I am attempting to use it as a prompt. I've started brainstorming words, but don't have a poem yet. Wish me luck.

Nonfiction Picturebook Challenge

Alyson Beecher over at Kid Lit Frenzy hosts a Non-fiction Picture Book Challenge and has a roundup every Wednesday.

I've started to work on reading all of the Pura Belpré Award winner and honor books. All of the following except the Dolores Huerta biography have received a Pura Belpré award or honor. The cover images are from IndieBound.

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Yuyi Morales won the award for illustration in 2004. The text tells a bit about the childhood of Chavez, but mostly focuses on his activism and non-violent fight for the rights of farmworkers. This would be a great book to pair with Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers by Sarah Warren. I had heard of Chavez, but until recently didn't even know that Dolores Huerta existed. That may be partly because as in Harvesting Hope, she was not mentioned, yet she worked closely with Chavez and was also instrumental in improving conditions for migrant workers.

Both books would be great in a biography or civil rights unit. Yuyi Morales provides a fantastic teacher's guide to go along with Harvesting Hope. I would be remiss though if I didn't also include a mention of César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can! by Carmen T. Bernier Grand.

It is an amazing book of biographical poetry that would also pair well with Harvesting Hope.

George Ancona is an expert at photo essays. The photographs are always full of life and brilliant color and ¡Ole! flamenco was no exception. I was surprised to learn that flamenco is actually not only Spanish. I knew it was from Spain, but didn't know that the Roma people were part of the creation of flamenco. Ancona provides background on the Roma. I haven't really ever seen that history provided in children's lit in the past. He mentions them as Roma initially, but then tends to use the term Gypsies more frequently throughout. That was a bit of a disappointment for me as I would rather stick with Roma, but he wrote respectfully. 

The photographs of dancers, singers, and musicians, had music rolling through my head and my feet itching to dance. I can just see students wanting to try it out with some music. That reminds me that I have a friend who studied flamenco. Perhaps she could visit and teach us a few moves. We will have to at least watch a video like this one:

The author did an interview over at Lee and Low if you want to know more about this beautiful book.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

My blog posts this week were: Franklin School Friends Review, Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge, Celebrate and Let's Salsa/Bailemos Salsa Review

Review

Previous Week:

It's a brief recap today. The ones I really, really liked: Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story, Grandfather's Journey, Baby Flo, and Tea with Milk. My Heartbeat and The Red Pencil were also quite good. A Rule is to Break was quite funny though I had mixed feelings about it. Many of the others were okay too, but didn't quite zing as much. 

I did enjoy several of the poems from Indivisible: Poems for Social Justice. Here is one of them.

The Coming Week:

Currently Reading

I will probably read The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano after those and a few Printz books. I had started working on the Caldecotts again, but may focus on the Pura Belpre books instead since they would go toward my Diversity on the Shelf Challenge and the Latin@s in Kid Lit Challenge also. Besides, I only have about 60 more to read for that unlike the 150+ for the Caldecotts. I love that summer offers so many opportunities for reading. What are you reading this week?

Review: Let's Salsa/Bailemos Salsa

Title: Let's Salsa/Bailemos Salsa
Author: Lupe Ruiz-Flores
Illustrator: Robert Casilla
Publisher: Arte Publico Press
Pages: 32
Review Copy: Supplied by Publisher
Availability: On Shelves Now

Summary: Estela can’t help but giggle when she sees her neighbors, Doña Rosa and Doña Maria, shaking their hips while dancing and sweating at an exercise class at the community recreation center. A few days later, when her mother complains about gaining weight, Estella encourages her to join the class.

Every day after school, Estela enjoys watching the women dance to the rhythmic music. And she’s especially thrilled when the instructor invites her to join them in dancing salsa. “Salsa? That’s what it’s called? I thought salsa was to eat with chips!”

But one day, kids are banned from the class, and Estella is forced to go to a boring crafts class instead. She’d much rather be dancing! So when Estella learns that women had to fight to gain the right to vote, she decides she’ll petition for kids’ rights to enjoy salsa dance classes at the community center!

In this bilingual picture book for children ages 5-9, a young girl learns that dancing is good for fun and fitness, and that even kids can change the way things are done. -- Cover image and summary via Arte Publico Press website

Review: The title of this book caught my attention since I attend dance classes every week and part of that time we are salsa dancing. In the story, Estela hears the music and sees how much fun the dancers are having and she convinces her mother to get involved. Of course Estela wants to try it too.

What I really liked about the book is that when Estela is faced with a challenge, she uses what she has learned from school about activism and goes after what she wants. Several grades in our school focus on how people can make a difference. Teachers have asked me many times for books about young people making a difference in the world so this will be another I can hand them.

Strangely enough, just last Wednesday at my adult dance class, one of my fourth grade students from school was hanging out at the door watching our class. The instructor invited her in and she had a blast. I know that it is part of the adult programming so I am curious to see if we will end up with a similar situation as that in the book if she continues to dance with us. This is a very realistic type of issue.

I look forward to sharing this book with teachers and students. It's definitely a book that has a distinct message about healthy habits and making a difference, but it is also fun. I plan to share salsa music and teach some steps to my students when I read this one aloud and I am sure we will have a fantastic time.

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day. Here are some of my celebrations from the week in no particular order.

Dad and Daughter at airport before flight

* My sixteen year old daughter safely got herself to Japan and met up with her exchange family. Obviously, this was also a source of some stress, but I was proud of her for making her connecting flight and navigating customs alone. It's difficult to send our child that far away on her own, but she is living a dream that she's had for many years and I'm so happy for her. We get her back in about a month and she will bring her exchange sister here. It's all pretty exciting.

* Since school is out, I finally had time to take the dog to the groomer. He looks so much cooler now with a super short summer cut. While he was being groomed, I got to sit on a bench facing the Mississippi and read a book - very relaxing.

* I had our first summer checkout. Children used iPads, played checkers, read books, and checked out many books. It was a fun time.

* I also spent some time in the library doing some weeding. I've gotten to the letter N in the picture book section. Whew! I had some nice music playing and yes, once in a while I have to read a book to see if I want to keep it or not. That makes perfect sense right? :)

* We've had some amazingly loud and windy storms during the nights this week which freaks out my dog, but we've also had beautiful days. Eating breakfast on the back porch has been a treat. I get to listen to so many birds and watch them at the feeder. The sun has been warmly shining on me, but there is always a cool gentle breeze too.

I hope you are having many moments to celebrate.