Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou by Bethany Hegedus & Illus by Tonya Engel

Maya Angelou--this woman was a rockstar! 

This book has colorful and swirling art. 

Maya and her brother going south to live with their grandma. 

Isn't this art amazing? 

Life was mostly good in Stamps, Arkansas. They were cared for and loved by their extended family. They also witnessed the cruelty of racial prejudice endemic in the south in the 1930s.

When their mother settled into a new relationship in Chicago, she sent for the children to visit. 

Of course, that relationship was fraught for Maya. I love how a children's book deals with such a heavy topic (childhood sexual abuse) in such a... well delicate but effective way. There are a lot of kids who feel this sort of fear in their own home and I can only imagine their relief at seeing that same experience reflected in a picture book. 

Still, I hesitate to read this to very young kids. I guess I feel like I need a little more training on how to handle student's comments and questions in a careful way. 

After she was assaulted, one of her uncles allegedly killed her attacker. As a young girl of seven, she felt her words had killed him, so stopped talking to anyone but her brother.  But she still loved words--the rhythm and cadence of words, the beauty and depth of words.

Outside, Maya is quiet. Inside, words make music. Maya memorizes the rhythm, sways to the exquisite dance, the twisting, turning, conga line of language. 

Poetic. 

Maya earned a scholarship to a San Francisco Labor College and studied dance and drama.  

As a young single mother, Maya struggled, but never gave up on her stage talents. Marrying a Greek sailor and aspiring musician at 24, she used a form of his last name for her stage name, Maya Angelou. She toured Europe with Porgy and Bess during the early 1950's. Eventually she went on to release an album of her own compositions and win Tony awards for her acting in multiple works. 

She was passionate about civil rights, working with Martin Luther King Jr, South African activist Vusumzi Make (who she fell in love with and moved to Cairo with), and then meeting and working with Malcolm X in Ghana. 

After MLK Jr.'s murder on her birthday, Maya was devastated, but her friend James Baldwin encouraged her to put that devastation to work and free herself by writing an autobiography. 

In 1970 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published and became an immediate success. 

She went on to win Grammy's for her spoken word albums of poetry, had great commercial success as an author, became the first black women to write a produced screenplay, and became a professor at Wake-Salem University. 

Maya Angelou was an incredible, incredible woman. Massive intellect, charm, From a somewhat troubled beginning (broken family, sexual abuse, young single motherhood, a failed marriage) she went onward and upward, teaching at universities in Ghana and the USA, mastering six languages, and being a life long advocate for civil rights.

In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for a life of achievement. 

She was a dynamo! 

My Own Room by Nancy Dingman Walsh & Illus by Erik Blegvad

My Own Room

Up in my bedroom

On a winter's night

               The fir tree ticks the window

         When I put out the light.

        The sky is black and cold

  The stars flash bright

              The moon and clouds roll by

             On the windy winter's night

I shiver as I watch 

 And I wish on a star

       The first or the brightest

           On the one that blinks afar

         And after I have wished 

I jump into bed      

                       And the fir tree ticks the window 

    All night by my head.

            But when a storm is raging 

  Or I hear an owl call 

           I like to know my brother 

     Is right down the hall.

You're All Kinds of Wonderful by Nancy Tillman

It is always lovely to start the new year off with a little encouragement. So here is Nancy Tillman's ode to the marvelousness of you. 

Side note--As the mother of a Down's boy-o, I can't even tell you how close my heart was to bursting when I saw a little girl with Down's Syndrome on the front cover here. SO CLOSE. 

My sister brought this to me because she knows how much I would love this. 

She is wise. 

We're not all the same. Thank goodness we're not. 

Life would be boring, and I mean--a lot.

And so, when we're born, we're supplied at the start

with our own bells and whistles to set us apart. 

Think of your bells as the things you do best.

Things tucked away in your own treasure chest. 

You'll try some things on

that simply don't fit. 

Don't be discouraged

That's all part of it. 

And sometimes a someone will give you the feeling 

that his bells and whistles are much more appealing.

Look this way! Talk this way! Be just like me! 

That's monkey business. Don't eat from that tree. 

THIS BOOK IS SO FABULOUS.

I think everyone would be better off if they read it each week or so. 

I am occasionally on the fence about Nancy Tillman's art work. Some of it is so realistic it looks photographic, and others are impressionistic--it occasionally feels disjointed. But oh! there is such joy and delight in these pictures!!

You REALLY need to read this book. So do yourself a favor and read it RIGHT NOW. 

A Small Thing...but Big by Tony Johnston & Illus by Hadley Hooper

This is an incredibly sweet little book about a little girl overcoming her fear of dogs. 

This book has been castigated in public opinion because this little girl walks around the park with an old man with a dog. Creeper, much? Yet when I reread this book through that lens, I think the mother knew exactly who the old man was and was keeping an eye on both of them the whole time. See her cheery wave to the old man? Perhaps they ran in the same social circle. 

I refuse to think that this book is about a creeper old man and a neglectful mother.

There is Lizzie, running around the edge of the fountain. And there is her mother, reading a book on the bench. 

And there, is the dog! 

Aren't they both adorable??

Cecile the dog was very kind to little children.

Lizzie patted her. 

It is a small thing to pat a dog, but a big thing if you are scared. 

The old man invited Lizzie to go for a stroll around the park with them. 

Lizzie was nervous. But a reassuring wave from her mother gave her the confidence to try it out. 

Promenading.

And then, wonder of wonder!! Lizzie is walking Cecile all by herself!!

She who was nervous around dogs was doing it by herself. 

It is a small thing to walk a dog, but big if  you happen to be a teensy bit scared of dogs. 

Note the mother following along at a distance--keeping an eye on what is going on, but not crowding Lizzie's bright moment of bravery either. 

Lizzie and Cecile walked around the park.

Hesitantly at first, then springingly, oh springingly. 

Oh the delight of suddenly finding yourself to be brave! And at the end of the book, we find that the old man came over a fear of his own. 

I guess I am just not that worried about the old man. I see plenty of evidence that the mother had her eye on Lizzie the whole time. That wave on the first page seems to indicate that the mother knew the old man in some social sense. And really truly, I love that the mother kept her distance and let Lizzie have this moment of independence and bravery all to herself. This pretty much encapsulates my parenting style.

So here is to all quasi-free range kids and parents.

One Amazon review begins with "Maybe there is a more dangerous book to read to a four year old, but I can't think of one off the top of my head..." 

And here is to parents, like me, who read their kids dangerous books.

Have a happy Monday! 

Sara Raccoon and the Secret Place by Margaret Burdick

This darling little book was on the shelf in my library. I was instantly smitten. Raccoons, secret places, bright colors, woods... yes please! 

(By the way, just for full disclosure, you are going to see a lot of flowers in my upcoming pictures. I have very little imagination about photo styling, so I make up for it by putting flowers in the picture. Flowers make everything better, right?!?)

Look at all those little animals in yellow rain slickers! I adore yellow rain slickers. And personified woodland animals.

It is a rainy day in Sara Raccoon's world. She is quietly sewing a dress for her sock monkey, Mimi, while her little brother and sister are wrecking havoc on the bottom bunk. 

This. So real. I remember sharing bunk beds with older siblings who never thought my shenanigans were as funny as I did. As well as having two younger brothers who intruded into everything my ten year old self thought was important and sacred. 

Not content with wrecking havoc below, the twins have to go to the top bunk to get Sara's attention. 

Their presence is not appreciated. 

But aren't these pictures adorable? All those primary colors!

Mother Raccoon's solution is to kick them all outside now that it has stopped raining. Sara asks to stay inside, but.... no go.

"Not now dear," said her mother. "i'd like to be alone for a little while. I need some peace and quiet by myself this afternoon. Why don't you play with Bobby Otter?"

I feel this mama's pain. And I like her ability to kick her kids out when they are bothering her. But poor Sara Raccoon who just wanted to sew quietly.

Alright, lets all look at the adorable store for a bit. Candy in jars, Lilies-of-the-valley in bunches on the windowsill, Robins perched on canned acorns or something, candycanes AND Easter baskets at the same time....

Pure delight!

Sara can't find ole Bobby anywhere, so she goes out to look for him. But... whoopsie! Rain again.

She runs to the first dry spot she could find, a hollow tree trunk.

While she watched the rain, she decided it made a lovely little secret place for her. A place where NO ONE else could bother her. Her very, very own! 

As a kid with seven siblings, I delight right along with her. A place of your own is so important. 

"The next week, Sara was very busy. She gathered clover, honeysuckle, and wild strawberries to trade at Mr. Badger's for scraps of calico." 

How many sweet little things can be crammed into one sentence?! Can you imagine armfuls of honeysuckle, clover, and wild strawberries? 

Swoon. 

When everything is ready and just so, she heads back to her secret place to put it all together. If she was anything like I was, she probably has such grandiose schemes for this secret place that it had taken on the proportions of a royal palace. It was freedom, independence, and solitude. And it was hers.

Except...there is someone sticking their big fat nose into her secret place!

The outrage! The shattering of the dream!

Sara Raccoon does not handle the situation well. Even though the intruder is Bobby Otter, her best friend. 

Words are exchanged. 

Sara's crushing disappointment comes out at Bobby and blames him for the ruination of all her plans.

He scuttles off with a few choice words of his own. 

Despite the calico she worked hard for and the setting up of her secret place, it is all ruined by the bad feeling she has about how she treated Bobby. 

And it starts to rain again. Life is hard. 

I so, so, so feel her. I remember fights with friends about similarly irrational disappointments and the bitter feeling you are left with that colors everything you do after until you make things right again. The arguing within yourself about how it wasn't entirely your fault, they shouldn't have.....!! but knowing all the while that it really is all your fault. 

After all the rain that has been happening, there is a teensy flood and Sara can't get home from the secret place. Who rescues her? Bobby of course. 

As good friends do, they sort it out with a good cry and talk. 

Bobby consoles--"Your place will be dry again soon. Meanwhile, we can go to my secret place."

Whaaaat? Bobby Otter has his own secret place. Oh bliss! They can share secret places! Friends are the very best.

Bobby's secret place is pretty nifty. 

And so was Sara's when it dried out again. 

I want to go visit their secret places. I sort of want a secret place of my own.... 

This would do.

Or this.

(Have to say I would be a little bit nervous about the strength of that rope for the first time or two...)

Maybe a land based one is better! 

Love!

Somehow grown up secret places are so much more complex than a hollow tree...

But aren't they lovely?!  Here is a whole page of these delightful spots!

I'll take them all.