The Rough Patch by Brian Lies

As soon as I saw this book, I knew I would love it. I have an unreasonable delight in personified foxes. Plus, it vaguely reminded me of the Fern Hollow Books I read as a kid. Nostalgia. It is pretty hard to beat. 

Evan and his dog.

This won a Caldecott Honor this week. 

They were the best of friends

Doing everything together. 

But especially gardening. 

Evan and his dog spent a great deal of time in the garden.

And then.... the unthinkable happened. His dog died.

For days, Evan did nothing. Then, he destroyed his garden--that reminder of his dog and indicator of life moving on when Evan's world had ground to a halt. 

Weeds grew. And Evan took care of them because these weeds reflected his feelings better than pretty, tidy plants. 

Soon his garden was a desolate, soulless place, just how he wanted it. 

But when a green vine sneaks in, Evan decides to let it stay.

 See the hoe about to chop it out? Love that detail. 

That vine turns into a pumpkin....

...that turns into a trip to the fair. 

When his pumpkin places third, he has the choose of $10 or a puppy. He takes the $10 of course. 

But.....

....somehow, the puppy heads home with him anyway. 

A story of hope and love. Of death and life going on. 

AND of the importance of gardening in living a happy life and healing. 

Gardens and dogs are important. 

Red vintage pickups don't hurt either.

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

So this just won the Newbery. WOAH. 

For once, I have actually read both the winner of the Newbery and the winner of the Caldecott. To be honest, I was quite surprised that Hello, Lighthouse won. I was expecting Dreamers or Drawn together. But they didn't even get honors. Which just goes to show you how much I know about judging the Caldecott. But I LOVE Hello, Lighthouse and I LOVE Merci Suárez. And Dreamers and Drawn Together both won in different categories, so they will not be medal-less. 

All is well in my world. 

So Merci. Merci is a great heroine. There is a time and place for the weak main character that finds their strength after a series of plot points, but in a refreshing difference, Merci is strong from the beginning. That doesn't mean she always gets the better of the mean, popular girl who decides to hate Merci for no real reason, but it means she doesn't cower in a corner for three quarters of the book.  

Merci's strength is partly due to being a scholarship student at a private school in Florida. Living next door to her boisterous extended Hispanic family, helping out with her father's painting company, and babysitting her little cousin is in stark contrast to her classmate's luxurious lives. Being different can either make you bitter and fearful or independent minded and strong. Fortunately for us, Merci chose the latter option. Being different is always there as a part of her, but she is not ashamed of her life necessarily. She adores soccer and loves her extended family and brilliant brother. Her life has a rhythm that makes sense to her and gives her life parameters. 

Merci's rhythmic life is interrupted when her beloved grandfather starts acting differently and the popular girl at school decides to make Merci's life miserable because Merci is a Sunshine Buddy to the new, cute guy. 

As Merci deals with meanness at school, disappointment in soccer, and the change in her home life, she begins to resent all this upheaval in her life. But Merci soon finds herself up to the challenge. Because what else can you do when life changes but improvise right along with it?

I love Merci and her love for her family and her confusion about growing up. Her situations and worries and concerns will be as recognizable and relatable to middle graders as her eventual triumph.

Life is never perfect, but Merci finds a way to make it okay.  

Hidden by Loic Dauviller, Greg Salsedo & Illus by Marc Lizano

Did you know yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day? I didn't know either, but I saw it somewhere. 

I tend to think of graphic novels as a less than serious medium, but it works. I have to say that graphic novels are still not my preferred format. I really love words and the graphic novel format doesn't give authors the opportunity to really wallow in words. 

But as someone who learned to read with Donald Duck and perfected the art with Tintin, I really can't discourage students from checking them out non-stop. 

And this book is a great example of how powerful graphic novels can be. 

This is a backwards looking book--it begins with a little girl cuddling into her grandmother during the night. 

And grandmother, Dounia, starts to tell her her story. 

Of life before the Holocaust and how things changed after the "star" was forced on them. Her father told her she got to be a sheriff like in the American West, that is why she wore a star. Her mother was upset about the star, but 

But noone else thought her sheriff's star was fun.

And her teacher was mean to her for no reason. 

Finally another Jew told her it was not a sheriff's star, but an indicator of their less than social status. 

Love in uncertain times.

And then the Nazis came.

Dounia is carefully hid and after the Nazis have left, the downstairs neighbor comes to find her. 

Her star was cut off and thrown in the fire. Dounia became a temporary Gentile.

Her new "parents" tell her she has to leave the building. Dounia is convinced staying where her parents can find her is the only way to reconnect with her parents. But she doesn't have an option. 

A dramatic exit and a traitorous neighbor

And a new life as mother and daughter.

Life in the country eventually helps Dounia smile again.

Time passes on the farm

But always, they look for news of Dounia's parents.

And.... you will have to read the book to find out the rest. 

And at the end, you find that Dounia had never been able to talk to her own children about her experiences, so through telling her granddaughter about her experience, her son finally learns about those years in his mother's life. 

A sweet look at how life moves on after hardship and how healing it can be to have no secrets from your loved ones. 

Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora

A generous woman with a yummy pot of red stew discovers the joys to be had in giving in this sweet book. 

And just so you know, you pronounce Omu like Ah-moo. Omu means queen in Oge Mora's parent's Nigerian. Omu is what Mora called her grandmother--Queen. I love that!

The collage illustrations are vibrant and fun

Omu makes a lovely pot of red (calico) stew. She is quite sure this will be her best ever dinner.

While it cools, she sits down to read her book. I love her. 

While it cools, the delicious smell wafts out to the neighborhood. 

(You might not be able to see it, but her potholder is made out of a scrap of a map. Which I love)

Throughout the afternoon, she shares her best ever dinner with a boy, a police officer, a hot dog vendor and many others. 

Until finally, Omu has nothing left to share. Just when she is feeling a bit down about this situation, there comes a knocking on the door. 

And all the grateful recipients of Omu's generosity have returned bearing gifts of food for Omu's dinner. 

Generosity takes center stage here, but I love that a sense of community and the ten fold return on that generosity are also bit players. 

Through sharing, Omu has enriched the lives of her neighbors and that has enabled them to be generous as well. 

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

This book. 

I heard so much about this book in the lead up to the Caldecott awards. And being contrary and not particularly in love with the art in the past few Caldecott winners, I was pretty ambivalent about this one, assuming it wouldn't really be something I would love. 

BUT I DO. 

This gorgeous book is multilayered, detail oriented, and full of love for children and books. 

My heart! 

The illustrations are amazing. Just really, truly amazing. 

In this illustration, childhood drawings of the artist/author are overlaid with a perfectly adorable illustration of the artist as a child. 

These pictures are reminiscent of the intricate embroidery and flamboyant colors of Central American traditional clothing.

Everything in the illustrations is carefully thought out and meaningful. The pathway here is a photograph of the road in her hometown in Mexico. As she is moving across the border to be with the American father of her baby, she is followed by other famous Central American-American migrants: Monarch butterflies and swallows. 

This new land, with a new language was difficult to navigate and make sense of. 

But armed with a stroller and backpack, Yuyi and her baby explored their new world.

One day they stumbled upon a public library. 

They were told they could just take books home without paying. How could that be?! 

I ADORE that actual books are pictured here. 

Worlds and words began to open up to them through the books they brought home. 

Walking with loads of books. I feel like Yuyi and I are kindred spirits. 

When my first two kids were tiny and we were living near Lake Placid, I had a double stroller that I would push one mile to the public library and a nearby thrift store. The number of days I pushed that stroller uphill overflowing with books are hard to count. 

We are stories.

We are two languages.

We are lucha.

We are resilience.

We are hope.

We are dreamers, 

soñadores of the world. 

At the end of the book, Yuyi shares her and her son's story of coming to America. 

There is a list of books that were beloved by her and her son. 

I LOVE reading people's list of books that they love or care about.