Pura Belpre Award

The Pura Belpre Award is awarded annually to a Latino writer and illustrator whose children's books portray, affirm and celebrate the Latin culture.  The award is named of Pura Belpre who was the first Latina librarian in the New York Public Library system.  She dedicated her life to providing access to books for Latino families. She instituted a bilingual story hour and increased access to bilingual books.  She was also known for bringing Puerto Rican folklore to America.  The award was first given out in 1996 every two years and then annually in 2009.

The 2016 Pura Belpre Illustrator Award goes to Rafael Lopez for Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle.  Drum Dream Girl is a poem about a real girl named Milo who wants to play the drums, but isn't allowed because playing drums is only for boys.  She continues to practice and work hard until she is allowed to play the drums at an outdoor cafe.  Lopez does a great job of adding to the story with his illustrations.  He uses folksy artwork with bold colors to tell the little girl's story through pictures.  You are transported to Cuba with the birds and colorful settings. Lopez uses warm colors to show the opposition she met when trying to play drums.  He often portrays Milo flying or in the sky to show how she never stopped dream or drumming.  My favorite picture is of Milo's father pulling her down from the sky.  The text with this picture tells us that Milo's father finally agreed to find a music teacher to listen to her play.  Him pulling her down from the sky symbolizes that playing the drums is no longer a dream for Milo, but a reality.

Drum Dream Girl is a great book for kids, not only because of the Latin influences can help children understand a culture different from their own, but because Milo never gave up on her dream.  Her grit and persistence paid off and she played the drums for all to hear!

Happy Reading!
Laura

Pura Belpre Illustrator Award Honors

My Tata's Remedies illustrated by Antonio Castro L.
Mango, Abuela and Me illustrated by Angela Dominguez
Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Cavalaeras

Schneider Family Book Award

The Schneider Family Book Award is a newer award that has been awarded annually since 2004.  The award goes to authors and illustrators who create an artistic expression of the disability experience.  We all know children and people who struggle with disabilities, whether they are mental, physical or emotional.  Including books in our home and classrooms about people with disabilities creates a more open and accepting culture.  Check out past winners of the Schneider award for other great books that speak about disabilities.

The award is given out to several books, usually they are broken up into age groups.  I am going to share the winner of the 0-10 age range.  I will list the other winners and hopefully at another time I will be able to share more about those with you.

Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Anne Thompson and illustrated by Sean Qualls is the true story of a boy born with only one leg in Ghana, West Africa. In West Africa, if you are born with a disability (physical or mental) you are shunned and thought to be useless.  Emmanuel's mother refused to believe that.  She always told Emmanuel that he could have anything he wanted, he only had to get it for himself.  So that is what Emmanuel did.  He learned to crawl and then hop.  He shined shoes to earn money.  When he became too heavy for his mother to carry, he hopped to school on one leg- 2 miles there and back. He played soccer and rode a bike- he did not let having only one leg stop him from doing anything!  He constantly met people telling him he could not do it, which only made him work harder.  When he was only 15, as his mother was dying, she told him to never give up.  That is when Emmanuel really began dreaming.  His new dream was to tell everyone that being disabled does not mean unable.  He made a plan to ride his bike across Ghana and back, with a shirt that said The Pozo or the disabled person.  His boldness, determination and grit encouraged others with disabilities to come out of their homes, some for the first time.  He proved to everyone that being disabled definitely does not mean unable.

What an inspirational story that everyone needs to hear.  Emmanuel has received many awards since his ride across Ghana (in 2001).  Oprah created a documentary about his life called Emmanuel's Gift (which he starred in) and most importantly the government of Ghana passed the Persons with Disability Act- which gives equal rights to people with disabilities in Ghana. I added two short clips to this post, one is when he received the EPSY award in 2005 and another that is an update on what Emmanuel is up to now.

Other 2016 Schneider Family Book Awards

Fish in a Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Tessa Toten

Happy Reading!

Laura

2016 Caldecott Award Winner

The Caldecott Award is given annual to the most distinguished artist of a picture book for children.  A distinguished artist will create pictures that add to the story and help to move the story along, they can't just be good pictures.

The Caldecott Award is named after 19th century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott who began illustrating different Mother Goose Rhymes.  His work and creativity have inspired illustrators from generation to generation.

The 2016 Caldecott Award goes to Sophie Blackall for her illustration in Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear  by Lindsay Mattick. Check out the book trailer for a good synopsis of the book

In the story Blackall creates beautiful detailed pictures that dominate the page.  In essence her illustrations are the backdrop to the story.  The books starts with a picture of a mother and her son lying in bed, telling a bedtime story.  Then the pictures begin to tell the story of veterinarian Harry Colebourn, but on each page there is a small snippet of a picture of the mother and son still lying in bed.  The pictures of Harry's story are beautiful and telling.  They perfectly depict the time period and the emotions of Harry.  You can see the anger on the Colonel's face and the shock on the other soldier's faces when Harry brings Winnie the bear with him.  You can see just how close Winne and Harry are when you see them sleeping together in Harry's tent.  When it is time for Winnie and Harry to part ways Blackall sweetly shows the sadness in their face with a picture of Harry and Winnie's foreheads touching.  My three year old loved this book, not just for the story, but I think more for the pictures.  The entire time we were reading he was pointing things out in the pictures, which helped him to understand the story better (because we know young children understand the pictures better first!)

The end of the book is filled with photographs of Harry's journal pages and pictures of Harry and Winnie.

Happy Reading!
Laura

2016 Caldecott Award Honors

Trombone Shorty illustrated by Bryan Collier
Waiting illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Voice of Freedom illustrated by Ekua Holmes
Last Stop on Market Street illustrated by Christian Robinson

Newbery Award Winner

The Newbery Award is given out each year to the most distinguished book in children's literature.  The Newbery Award has been given annually since 1922.  This year, however the winner of the Newbery Award made history for two reasons. This year's winner was the first picture book to be awarded the honor and the first Hispanic author to win.

Matt De La Pena's book Last Stop on Market Street is well deserving of the honors it has won.  De La Pena tells the story of a young boy, CJ, who is leaving church with his nana.  We quickly learn that this little boy might come from less money than some of his friends because he is waiting for the bus in the rain while his friends are driving away in cars.  The entire bus ride down Market Street CJ learns small life lessons from his nana like how the blind man may not see with his eyes but he can see the world with his ears and nose.  He sees two boys get on the bus with iPods and is envious, but Nana reminds him that real live music is better.  The bus finally made it to CJ and Nana's stop and CJ complained about the dirt.  Nana once again imparted wisdom on his telling him, "Sometimes when you're surrounded by dirt, CJ, you're a better witness for what is beautiful." Then CJ and Nana walk into the soup kitchen to serve lunch to all the people.  A great story with a theme that tells us to find the beauty in our surroundings and circumstances.

Happy Reading!
Laura

More books to check out by Matt De La Pena:

The Book Itch

We all know about Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali.  The fact is that there were and are countless of everyday Black Americans that have made huge differences by doing small things.  These people may not have become famous like the names mentioned above, but they surely had an impact.

The Book Itch by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson tells the story of Lewis Michaux Sr., owner of the The National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem.  Books were his dream and he wanted to share that dream with others.  He knew that books and reading were the key to success, so Lewis began walking his cart of books up and down the street to sell.  He caught people's attention by using catchy rhymes like, "Knowledge is power.  You need it every hour.  Read a book!" or "If you don't and you ain't got no dough, then you can't go, that's for who."  

The story of Lewis Michaux is the same story of many African Americans during the early 1900's- struggle, rejection and persistence.  Michaux wanted everyone to have the right to read but when he went to the bank for a loan to open his bookstore he was denied and told that black people don't read.  He didn't let that stop him.  He worked hard saving his money until he was able to open his bookstore- and guess what people read!  From that point on his bookstore became a beacon for the Harlem community.  It was where people came for more than just books but for conversation, ideas and acceptance.  Michaux's bookstore was even visited by some of the people I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  

Michaux's story is one that all of us can be inspired by.  He got the "itch" and did everything he could to scratch it- which meant sharing books, knowledge and conversation with his community. Share The Book Itch with the kids in your life in hopes of spreading the "itch" for books!

Happy Reading!

Laura

Love

Everyone has their own definition of love.  To some love is hugs and kisses.  To others love might be sharing dinner and stories with family.  Love is different to everyone.  Everyone feels love differently and shows love differently.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

The most famous definition of love comes from no other than the Bible.  Wendy Andreson Halperin takes the familiar verse about love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and adds illustrations.  In her book Love Is... Halperin finds a way to make the Bible verse heard at weddings everywhere even more beautiful.  You can spend hours pouring over her illustrations to find endless examples of love.  The book is illustrated on 2 page spreads.  The page on the left shows unloving situations like a house with a garbage can toppled over or two girls not sharing their toys.  Then on the left you see pictures that express love like two girls sharing their dolls and a mother bird feeding a worm to her baby birds.   There are so many examples of love in the pictures children are sure to get even more out of the book than if they were just hearing the words.

During this week leading up to Valentine's Day take the time to talk about love with your child and where they see love or what they love.

Here are a few images of love from my family!

Love is somebody to hold you tight.

Love is doing what makes you happy. 

Love is sharing your smile with others. 

What is love to you and your family?

Happy Reading!

Laura

Black History Month

I recently read the novel, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  The book had a quote in it that has really stuck with me, "You know the greatest lesson of history?  It's that history is whatever the victor says it is.  That's the lesson.  Whoever wins, that's who decides."  The particular quote referred to World War II and Nazi occupied France, but the quote holds true for more than just World War II.

When you look through our history books, you can see a very one-sided story.  The American Revolution is only told from the side of the colonist, the Civil War from the perspective of the North and so on and so on.  As teachers and parents we need to do a better job teaching history from all perspectives (Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Women, Native Americans etc.) and not just from the perspective of the so called "winner." We need to go beyond teaching Black History only in February during Black History Month and Women's History only in March.  The history of America's people, all of America's people needs to be taught day in and day out.

Luckily for us there are some great books out there that we can use to supplement our text books or other lessons so that our children can get a more complete and diverse view of history. One book in particular Heart and Soul: The Story of American and African Americans by Kadir Nelson is a must own in every classroom and home.  Nelson begins his book with the Declaration of Independence and ends with Civil Rights Movement and the March on Washington.  We are introduced to Pap, the narrator's grandfather who was captured in Africa and brought over on a slave ship.  His story is entwined with the story of America and other names we are familiar with like Lincoln, Fredrick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Joe Louis Barrow and Dr. Martin Luther King.  We learn about the the battles African Americans fought, the injustices they endured and the progress that was made.  He provides just enough detail and fact about each event, which is what makes this perfect for kids.

Nelson's story is paired with his beautiful illustrations. His illustrations alone can tell the story of the injustices history has imparted on African Americans.  The facial expressions convey every emotion and feeling: defeat, tiredness, anger, pride and determination- all words used to describe the history of  American and African Americans. Put all of it together and Nelson tells a story that needs to be heard by all American's because it is the

Here are a few:

Strikers

Brave Children, Little Rock, Arkansas

Southern Family Migrating North, circa 1940

So this February let's honor Black Americans for what they have contributed to our country but let's make sure to teach Black History (and Women History, Native American History, Hispanic History, Asian History and everything else) everyday of the year.

Happy Reading,
Laura

February and Hugs!

There is so much going on in February and so many books I want to share with you that I will be posting on Mondays and Wednesdays this month.  I want to give you some great Valentine's and love book recommendations and I also want to share with you some great books for Black History Month.

I am going to start out with a very simple book.  It's not your traditional Valentine's book or love book but it is a great book to share with those you love. 

Hug by Jez Alborough is a simple board book with one word... HUG!  Little monkey Bobo sees all the other animals giving each other a hug.  He is sad and wants his own hug.  He goes in search of a hug, not having any luck until he finds his mama!  His mama gives him a giant hug and Bobo is happy again.  The book ends with all the animals hugging one another. You can't help but want to hug anyone near you after reading this book, but especially those that you love! It's great to read with little ones because they will quickly catch on and start "reading" the one word text with you.  For bigger kids they will enjoy examining the pictures, that tell a little more of the story.  No matter what everyone can relate to Bobo and his need for a hug!

Start out this month by cuddling, reading with and hugging those you love!

Happy Reading!

Laura