Can we read? No. 27

(Plus: introducing Ten Titles on Tuesday)

Good morning! Yesterday afternoon I tunneled around our yard in thigh-deep snow so the children could actually move instead of just falling and lying there like Randy in his tick-like snowsuit in The Christmas Story, so we’re in the thick of it here. But the sun is shining and everything is sparkling, even the eight-foot pile of snowplow leftovers at the end of my driveway, and honestly I am hard pressed to find anything more beautiful. (I’m a winter person. I know it’s a bit unnatural.) Whatever it’s like where you are, thanks for being here with me today.

You know how I am always rattling on about the importance of poetry? Amanda Gorman proved my point ten thousand times over last week when she absolutely stole the inauguration show. Brava to her. I’ve already pre-ordered her children’s book, which will be published in September.

ICYMI: I sent out a special edition on Valentine’s Day last week. Lots of good books about love and caring out there, so don’t miss it!

And, a news item🗞 : starting next week you’ll be receiving regular mini-issues of this newsletter from me on Tuesdays, called Ten Titles on Tuesday 😊 I don’t plan to take up a lot of your time with these — they are meant to be tiny — I’ll merely share ten titles that have my attention each week (in most cases I’ll not have read any of them, but am interested for some reason or another). People often ask me how I discover so many different books and the answer is that whatever I have on hold at the library, on my bookstore wishlists, or in my hands is wildly different on any given day and drawn from a mash-up of praise that I’ve read or heard, industry newsletters, Instagram posts, my children’s interests, my own interests, what we’re studying for homeschool, and other random input. Ten Titles on Tuesday isn’t meant to be an endorsement of the books listed (I may or may not end up doing full reviews of some of them in future issues), just an effort to expose you to more options, to be explored on your own — to give you a bigger pool in which to dip your bookish toes. (Why is there no pool OR toe emoji? 🤔 )

As you can see, I’m experimenting more and more with what I offer to you through this newsletter. If you have feedback about Ten Titles on Tuesday — or anything else — please hit reply and let me know.

Okay, let do this.

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Someone Is Eating The Sun by Ruth A. Sonneborn, illustrated by Eric Gurney (1974)

“One day Hen was pecking around picking up corn when it began to grow darker. ‘That’s strange,’ said Hen. ‘There’s not a cloud in the sky. Why is it getting darker?’ When she looked up she saw something stranger still. A bite-sized piece of the sun was missing.” Thus begins the wild barnyard story of an eclipse, an unknown and unknowable event to the animals that live there, who believe that someone is taking a bite of — and then fully eating — the sun. Hen warns Rooster, together they warn Duck, together they warn Pig and Goat in turn, their panic increasing along with the energy and suspense of this cumulative tale until finally, finally Turtle in his wisdom says, “Why don’t you keep quiet and watch the eclipse?” We’ve read this title repeatedly lately as part of studying space and the stars this month, and besides being an engaging story in and of itself — Gurney’s bright and lively illustrations make this doubly so — it’s a surprisingly accurate and accessible explanation of what happens during an eclipse, what an eclipse is. Not bad for a book that’s nearly 50 years old.

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All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir by Bill Staines, illustrated by Margot Zemach (1989)

All God’s Critters by Bill Staines, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (2009)

It’s a bit out of the ordinary that I’d review two different versions of the same title — I’ve only done it once before, in issue No. 4 — but I love this song, and thus these books, so very much, and after months of debating I decided I can’t pick one I like more, so here we are discussing both. Before I had any idea this was a song, much less a book, a colleague used this phrase in a meeting — “All God’s critters got a place in the choir” — and it just tickled me. I am not a religious person in any sense of the word, but this really isn’t a religious song — it’s kid’s music at its bluegrass best, and both Margot Zemach (one of my favorites, as I’ve mentioned — I wrote about her in issue No. 8 and No. 20) and Kadir Nelson (I reviewed another excellent title of his in issue No. 5) have taken Bill Staines’ lyrics and made fantastic books. I’ve never actually tried to read these titles without singing; I taught myself the melody thanks to YouTube and we’ve been singing it ever since — and that’s much of the fun, though the story of all the animals as they live in harmony, coupled with Zemach’s and Nelson’s entertaining and amusing illustrations in each respective title is truly what makes these good (the way Nelson paints hippopotamus skin is mind-blowing). We’ve enjoyed reading both and comparing the two. If you can get your hands on either or both, do.

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Fiesta Babies by Carmen Tafolla, illustrated by Amy Córdova (2010)

There’s not a whole heck of a lot to say about this book that isn’t conveyed by looking at the cover — “Fiesta Babies out on the town, right-side up and upside down!” It’s a rollicking, rhyming party of a book for babies and toddlers, full of bright colors and Spanish words peppered throughout the text, both of which lend a party atmosphere to every page. When I first shared this with my littlest littles years ago, they were fascinated by Córdova’s illustrations, wanting to linger on every page (my favorite is the one of all the babies taking post-fiesta siestas. I myself love a good post-fiesta siesta). If you are primarily reading your 1yos and 2yos books about anthropomorphized animals, vehicles, etc., and/or white people (both of which absolutely dominate the market*), this title is a (singing, dancing, hugging, kissing) welcome change.

*If digging into diversity statistics and resources is your jam, there is no better place to start than the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, part of the School of Education at UW-Madison. Their website is stuffed with extremely helpful information.

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Chance: Escape from the Holocaust by Uri Shulevitz (2020)

In the last half of 2020 I went on an inadvertent WWII reading kick, so when one day I was looking up Uri Shulevitz in the library catalog and saw he had a new book — a middle-grade memoir about his childhood experience as a Jewish boy in occupied Poland no less — I put it on hold and read it immediately upon arrival. I was not disappointed. Though it does need to be said that Shulevitz is a more talented artist/illustrator than writer, his straightforward, nearly emotionless prose fit the narrative (and made me wonder if it was the only way he was able to tell his story — it has the tone and feel of someone sharing the facts and just the facts of their trauma). I won’t ruin the journey nor any of the details, as those are much of the meat here, but will offer that it was interesting to read a Holocaust story from the perspective of someone who, though persecuted by the Germans, lived out the entire war in the Soviet Union, enduring hardship and privation on many levels but ultimately “safe” in the sense that he and his family avoided the concentration camps and other atrocities their extended family and fellow Jewish compatriots did not. This is a middle-grade book and a well-done one at that, but should only be read by kids ready for the mature content. Shulevitz has added to the canon of WWII literature in a moving and creative way, and I’m so glad he did.

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That’s all I’ve got, folks. I hope you’re able to find some of the sparkle in the world in this week. Until next time! ✌️