Small Reads for Brighters Days
? My Blue Is Happy by Jessica Young ill by Catia Chien Candlewick Press, 2013 I’m drawn to this book because my blue is happy, too! I always think of blue as a happy, calm, beautiful color. It starts out with, ?My sister says that blue is sad / Like a lonely song.? […]
How To Cross a Pond by Marilyn Singer ill by Meilo So [Knopf, 2003] I shared a beautiful poem called ?Rain Forest? by Marilyn Singer on Friday, and here are a few of my thoughts while reading it. All her beautiful language really gets me. The ground as a sponge that drinks in clouds?how amazing […]
The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli Disney/Hyperion, 2013 [Read part 1.] He looks very alarmed about this, and I find out why?he thinks it’s going to grow a watermelon inside of him. He imagines all sorts of horrible things. I love how he gives a big burp and the seed flies out. ?Oh. Here’s the […]
Quick note: My super editor at Millbrook, Carol Hinz, was featured on Keri Recommends for Poetry Friday. Hope you’ll check it out if you didn’t see it already! A Secret Keeps by?Marsha Wilson Chall illus by Heather Solomon Carolrhoda Books, 2012 [Find Part 1 here?and Part 2 here.] Later, when they call the cows home, […]
A Secret Keeps by?Marsha Wilson Chall illus by Heather Solomon Carolrhoda Books, 2012 [Read Part 1 here.] And now the book is starting to have rhyme. “I’ll be there in two sleeps where A SECRET KEEPS.” I love rhyme. [CCRA.R.4] And it’s interesting that that special font for “a secret keeps” draws so much extra […]
A Secret Keeps by?Marsha Wilson Chall illus by Heather Solomon Carolrhoda Books, 2012 I love mysteries, so the title alone, A Secret Keeps,?makes me want to read this book. What is the secret? I’m going to read the book and find out. [CCRA.R.4] As soon as I start reading this book, I know it is […]
Forest Has a Song by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, illus by Robbin Gourley Clarion, 2013 I shared a poem from this book for Poetry Friday?in celebration of its Cybils win in Poetry. (YAY!)?The words themselves are so simple, but there’s a lot going on. Here are a few things I notice about this poem, “Dusk.” First, […]
Words with Wings by?Nikki Grimes Wordsong/Boyds Mills, 2013 I shared a poem from this book for Poetry Friday.? I love that this poem is all about the power of words. In the very first line, poet Nikki Grimes says “Say the word…” [boldface added]. It’s not the actual snowflake itself that makes the narrator experience […]
A Meal of the Stars: poems up and down by Dana Jensen, ill by Tricia Tusa Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012 Thinking About a Poem On Friday, I shared a poem from this book for Poetry Friday. That kite poem is one of my favorites from?A Meal of the Stars. It’s not a rhyming poem, but […]
