"I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

Oh my -- my, my, my.  We often talk about books with food adjectives.  One book might be "popcorn", another, an "appetizer".  This one is a veritable feast.  My first adult book in a while, it is right up there with "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" as an all-time favorite.  A flowing, lyrical novel which pushes prose to the very edge of poetry, it is the tale of family, loss, love, art, madness, mysticism, death, creation, and more.  A set of twins tell the story in alternating chapters.  There is the boy, Noah, who begins his narrative at 13, while his sister, Jude, speaks from age 16.  The sometimes dizzying threads interwoven between the them create a rich, deep kaleidoscope of pain and redemption in many shades of grey.  This is not a novel that has clear black and white delineations.  It was a long story, and one I really had to focus on, but it was a book I could barely put down.  I laughed, I cried, and I was drawn in.  A good background in artists and their respective styles will help, as the references are plentiful.  The lessons are frequent, and each carries a bit of poignancy (there is a good deal of fan art online highlighting the great number of memorable quotes).  Already in my "top 20 of all time", it is easy to see the appeal for teens, not to mention the New York Times Bestseller ranking and numerous awards.  Make time for this one.  It transports and transforms the reader.  Brava, Ms. Nelson.

"Shh! We Have a Plan" by Chris Haughton

Reading like a Marx Brothers comedy, some will find the ineptitude of these characters hysterical, while others may raise an eyebrow.  Told primarily in blue tones, the book chronicles the efforts of four (seeming?) hunters as they try to catch a bright pink bird in the forest.  Each plan results in slapstick failure.  With limited text, readers are primarily left to determine plotlines for themselves, including a great moment when the page fills with birds.  It's a subtle message younger readers might not get, but librarians and teachers can use the book as a prompt for questions and digging deeper.

"Found" by Salina Yoon

This adorable board book which is part of this year's Virginia Readers' Choice selections will make a fun read for the very youngest.  With large, simple drawings and a theme which all children will recognize, it pulls at the heartstrings.  Told with the kind of repetition used in many books for primary children, there is a rhythm to the book, if not rhyme.  The lesson is gentle and sweet, and one that kids will identify with.  Adults need not fear boredom, either.  A close reading of the end pages will result in a giggle or two which only those over a certain age will get.  Nice, solid little book, one which children will likely request over and over.

"The Seventh Wish" by Kate Messner

Typically, I pick up books without knowing much about them.  I saw Ms. Messner speak, earlier this year, about this novel, so I knew what I was in for.  There have been concerns voiced about the cover, which seems to indicate something light and juvenile.  There are dark threads in this tale, but the cover isn't that off.  The story, of young Charlie, a girl who wants more than anything to be a really awesome Irish dancer, is both simple and complex.  What works in this book is the sense of everyday life.  Charlie has a life filled with dance, school, friends, family and fears.  She is learning to ice fish, in the hope of earning enough money for a new Irish dance dress, and she has an older sister at college who is suddenly not the academic superstar she was previously. 


***Spoiler Alert***  What isn't obvious about this book is that Charlie's sister has become hooked on heroin, and that begins to color everything around Charlie's life.  There is confusion, anger and more.  Priorities shift, and Charlie has some of those "moments" when she grows up a lot and understands the world better.  Not to be overlooked, the fish on the cover is a magic fish who grants wishes (drawing from the fable about "The Fisherman and His Wife").  Ms. Messner could have easily left it at that, and made this whole thing a magical realism parable, but instead she lets our protagonist reflect and learn from the outcomes of her wishes.  My one and only complaint is that for all the research Ms. Messner did (ice fishing, addiction and recovery, Irish dance), she missed one important thing -- Science Fair Projects are experiments, not "report style presentations" as shown in the book.  It is a minor quibble.  Some may see the book as pat -- it is not particularly lyric and doesn't have an abundance of flow -- but I like the normality of the day-to-day intermixed with a struggle which has become a national epidemic.  It puts in perspective, in a very age-appropriate way, the issues which arise in families when addiction takes hold.  Charlie and her life are multi-dimensional, and, in the end, things come to a resolution with a clear understanding that the path ahead is unknown.  I think, if you were to write a book for kids of this age about this topic, this is the perfect book to do it.

"The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore" by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie and "Freedom in Congo Square" by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

I had the honor of reading these two books for an African American Read-In Day.  Both are illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, and both taught me things I did not know. 


In "The Book Itch" a young boy enjoys the active social center which is his father's bookstore in Harlem in the 1960s.  The historical significance of this store was new to me.  Beyond this, the picture book is strong on a number of fronts.  It doesn't shy away from the police presence at rallies, and there is real heart in the boy's love and admiration for his father.  The book talks in detail about Malcolm X, which I also think is important.  We focus so heavily on Martin Luther King, Jr., but forget that there were other leaders in the Black Rights movement.  I have become concerned about a PC philosophy which sometimes ignores the more vocal parts of our civil rights struggles.  Yes, MLK preached the lessons of Gandhi, but much of the struggle had violence and darkness.  We should, when looking at our history, see it all.


"Freedom in Congo Square" is an extremely short picture book, told in rhymed couplets, about slave life in New Orleans.  Again, I did not know that slaves of the area were given time to congregate on their own one day of the week -- on Sundays, in a place called Congo Square.  This spot became the beginning of the New Orleans music culture and helped build up Jazz from the myriad of musical styles that blended there.  One student, while I was reading the book, was surprised the slaves didn't use this opportunity to run away.  While some did (the book acknowledges) I said that many may have been too afraid.  Capture would mean death in many cases, so slavery, while horrific, may have felt like their only option.  Again, the book doesn't shy away from the more difficult parts of our history, with a couplet talking about "using the lash" (also depicted).

Mr. Christie's artwork adds substantially to both books.  In "Freedom in Congo Square" the work is primitive, with the slaves symbolically depersonalized into stick figures.  One of the most powerful images is the page showing cabins with figures stacked on figures, representing the packed slave quarters.  Also striking are the final pages, with dancers leaping and twisting to music, their bodies filling the space, legs and arms stretching up towards the sky with a powerful sense of celebration and release.  In "The Book Itch" Mr. Christie's work becomes more impressionistic, watercolors bringing subtle variety to the people and events.  A kind of block typeface is used for the father's quotes, and pamphlets/quotes are interspersed throughout which help to set tone, place and message.


Both books were great reads for upper elementary, and there is enough complexity in them to feed into a good class discussion or two.  Most of the information in "Freedom in Congo Square" was in the foreword and afterword.  I chose to show videos of African Music and Jazz to help set context, but in a full lesson, more scaffolding would be helpful.  Great to move from the expected to the thoughtful for this annual celebration of Black History.