Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña

 

De la Peña, Matt. Last Stop on Market Street. Illus. by Christian Robinson. New York: Penguin, 2015. Print.

The rain is coming down, and Nana and CJ are on foot. As CJ complains about getting wet, and not having a car like his friend, Nana responds with positivity, and takes him on the No. 5 Bus for a special trip. Nana greets fellow bus passengers warmly (including a blind man tuning a guitar, a woman with a jar of butterflies, and two teens listening to music), and in her interactions, models kindness and empathy. As the blind man plays a tune, CJ is moved by the music, and his mind swirls with visions of butterflies, hawks and freedom. Their trip ends with a walk down a run-down neighborhood, and the final destination is revealed: a soup kitchen where Nana and CJ serve meals together. As CJ takes this journey with Nana, he sees that with the right outlook, beauty can be found in any place.

I first read this book in January, 2015. Of course, it won the Newbery Medal for 2016, and when the award was announced in Boston at ALA MidWinter, I was fortunate enough to be there to hear it. As I sat in my seat beforehand, chatting with fellow librarians, someone from the press asked the whole row if we had any predictions. I remember my reply was "Last Stop on Market Street: Caldecott". Of course I was partially right about this, as it did win a Caldecott Honor Medal as well as a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award.

It is now February, and our Scholastic Book Fair Week is upon us. One of the featured books is indeed Last Stop on Market Street. As I visited some classes to talk about the book fair, I brought this book along with me, and read it aloud. I could tell that our readers were enjoying the story, but I also re-discovered several gems about this book which I shall share:

• First, the stained-glass windows on the church (opening of the book) are lovely. The alternating triangles remind me of work by illustrator Molly Bang. 

• Two people in the street outside the church are holding umbrellas -- a signal of what is to come.  Nana has brought her umbrella as well, showing us that no matter the weather, she will go to the soup kitchen to help. 

• See the location of the gutter on the double-page spread where Nana and CJ first encounter rain. The trunk really does resemble a straw, just as Nana says. 

• Mr. Dennis, the bus driver, gives CJ a coin by pulling it out of his ear. (The coin is mentioned later in the book.) There are people around us who enjoy their work, and do little acts of kindness like this every day. This is part of the beauty that Nana wants us to notice. 

• The woman with the butterflies in the jar intrigues me. Where does one go with butterflies in a jar? (This character has found beauty for herself.) This line always causes wonder when I read it aloud to classes. 

• Nana's hand offers comfort/empathy/agreement to those around her: the blind man on the bus, and to CJ when they get off the bus. 

• The double-page spread where CJ closes his eyes to listen to the music is a stopping point. You do pause here because you know CJ is changing in some way. The music, Nana's words, and the passengers on the bus have all had an effect on CJ. And from then on, when he asks a question, he is asking for a different reason -- not because he is complaining any more, but because he is truly wondering. 

I still think about CJ's story, even though it has been on my shelves for over a year, and I have read it several times. I find it comforting to know that no matter how many times I  turn to this book, I find something that will make me wonder or pause (just like CJ), proving once again that picture books are meant to be enjoyed repeatedly. One quick read of a picture book is never sufficient to appreciate its full meaning.

PAX by Sara Pennypacker

I think I've purchased every book written and/or illustrated by Jon Klassen. Or if not, almost all of them. Of course, this purchasing all started with I Want My Hat Back (Candlewick, 2011). 

I guess if I tried to describe Klassen books, I would begin by saying that with each, a certain promise is attached.  A promise of something magical. A promise of a story that is unlike any other. A promise that is always kept. Unfailingly.

Pax (Harper Children's, 2016), also makes -- and delivers -- this promise. 

Sara Pennypacker (Clementine series, Summer of the Gypsy Moths, Meet the Dullards) is the author of Pax, and Klassen illustrates it. This pairing works: Pennypacker's storyline is gloriously unpredictable, and Klassen's depictions make it all believable. 

Peter's mother has died, and his father is going off to war. So, Peter is being sent to live miles away with his grandfather. And with this change, Peter must also give up Pax, his beloved pet fox whom he has had since he was a kit. The separation between boy and his pet sets off an immediate need to be reunited. The story switches from Peter's point of view to Pax's, and Klassen's chapter markers tell us so: silhouettes of Peter and Pax. In search of one another, Peter and Pax each encounter mysterious characters, and moments of heart-stopping adventure. As the journey progresses, readers are taken into Peter's heart and memory with a masterful narrative that makes readers long for Pax right along with Peter, and vice versa. Pennypacker builds the story page by page, using suspense and weaving in  themes of family and belonging. Is home a place? Can home be found in those you love?

This is not a sweet boy-finds-cuddly pet story. Pax will evoke powerful emotions. This story will not be what you expect. 

Klassen's illustrations are placed at perfect spots in the book, bringing to life moments in the plot and setting. But it is the cover of the book that will draw readers in and set the tone: Pax looking over fields, surrounded by trees, searching for Peter. When you see the cover, you know it is Klassen. This is comforting. 

Though I purchased a final copy of Pax for my home library, I initially read the ARC, which came packaged beautifully in a diorama kit. Before I even read the book, I built the diorama, slowly and carefully (because I didn't want to tear anything) - from easy-to-follow instructions: 

Building the diorama had an effect on me: prior to reading Pax's story, I had already been brought into his world. And I had crafted it carefully, with a kind of solemnity, knowing the story would be memorable, and enriching. 

I wasn't wrong. The promise was indeed made and kept. 

Poetry in February

One of the very best parts of my week was sharing poetry with 2nd grade. These young readers know my love of books, but I also wanted them to know that poetry is one of my most favorite genres of all.  I knew their teachers were focusing on poetry in language arts, so I decided to supplement/support their instruction with a mini-lesson during their library time.

My inspiration for this lesson came from the two books pictured below. I consider both to be must-haves for anyone using poetry in their classrooms or libraries.  (I will forever be grateful to Georgia Heard, Dr. Sylvia Vardell, and Janet Wong for their work.)

I had several goals (besides their language arts standards, of course). One was to establish the library as a place where poetry could be celebrated. My message: "We have poetry books and this is a place where you can read poems aloud and share them!" I also wanted to read poetry to them and help them hear the lovely music a poem can play. And, I wanted them to "discover" poetry that they liked on their own.

I had a lot of goals! 

We sat around my storytime area. I told them how much I loved poetry and asked if I could share one of my favorite poems with them: "The Library" by Barbara A. Huff. It's a wonderful ode to libraries! Then, because it was Super Bowl weekend, I shared "Super Bowl Sunday" by Jane Rush MacCulloch from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books, 2015). I had fun acting out the eating in the poem and we all joined in on the last word: "Touchdown!" 

I shared "Poem Like the Sea" by Patricia Hubbell next. They thought it was very funny that I was sharing a poem about a poem! I read it once aloud, then showed it to them. "Tell me what you think," I said to the class.  Slowly, hands went up with noticings about rhyme, repetition, line arrangement, and verses. During this discussion, I used teachable opportunities to tag on to their own learning. I celebrated their observations, asked questions for clarification, and connected one learner's answers to another. At just the right moment, I sent them off to our tables where I had placed poetry books -- hand-picked by me! I asked them to read poetry by themselves or with a partner. They immediately found poems about favorite topics like dinosaurs and chocolate and recess. And I noticed them walking over to each other to share what they'd found. I asked if anyone had found any poems they enjoyed. Hands went up immediately, and though I had not asked them to read the poems aloud, most wanted to do just that! And many did! And two boys came together in one class to read a 2-voice poem! With everyone that read aloud, I read right with along with them-- mainly, to provide support in case they came upon a word they didn't know, but also to celebrate with them.

After checkout, many came back to the poetry books to read more. Several brought me books from the tables and asked if they could check them out. I said "Of course!" with detectable joy in my voice. (Couldn't hide it.)

Now, the poetry section is a bit of a mess, and it looks depleted but to a school librarian, this is a very good thing! It means the books are being read!

The next part of the poetry lessons will continue next week. But I have already learned so much.

Check the Biography Section

I am always looking for great picture book biographies for our readers. I know that curiosity will lead them to these books, and that they will, at some point, be conducting some sort of research in this area of the library. I display biographies continuously, and try to book talk at least one biography per week (mostly narrative nonfiction).

Recently, our third graders began a biography project. After working with teachers to learn about the project, and discuss the work, my awesome parent volunteers pulled the needed biography books. During library time, I talked about the biography section, went over how it is arranged, talked about the special spine labels and call numbers, and, more importantly, discussed how biographies can help our learning. We talked about where to find the books, and how to look them up on our online catalog.

After teachers introduced the project, and students explored the biography section by skimming books, I also showed our readers how our databases could help.

With all the reading and research our learners were about to do, I thought  a session on note-taking would be valuable - and our teachers agreed. So, I got to work -- and with each class, I read an article about Laura Ingalls Wilder from our Britannica School online database. Next, I modeled Trash-Treasure Note-taking as found in The Big 6 Goes Primary (Linworth Books, 2009).

Jansen, Barbara A. The Big 6 Goes Primary: Teaching Information & Communications Technology Skills in the K-3 Curriculum. Santa Barbara, CA: Linworth, 2009. Print. 

I read the article sentence by sentence, then added relevant facts to the chart as I went along. We discussed what was important from every sentence. I thought aloud and explained my process as I went. We also had a great discussion about Laura Ingalls Wilder as an author.  I also told the students about the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award given by the American Library Association. (The 2016 Winner is Jerry Pinkney.)

The classes are working on their project now, and I can't wait to see their final artifacts!

This was one way I could collaborate and support learning. Through continued conversation with our amazing teachers, I will help in any way I can! I hope that this project leads to lifelong reading of biographies!

By the way:

Two biographies I share often with young readers:

Tavares, Matt. Growing Up Pedro. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2015. Print. 

Bryant, Jen. Roget and His Thesaurus. Illus. by Melissa Sweet. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014. Print. 

My Name in a Book

When I first read Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library (Random House Kids, 2013), I remember enjoying all of its clues, puzzles and book titles! I also loved reading about Mr. Lemoncello's very high-tech, "dream" library. Truly, it's a fun book for anyone who loves books and libraries!

So I was really happy that at #txla14, I had the privilege of meeting Chris Grabenstein, the book's author. By this point, I'd read the book at least 2 times!

At the next TLA Conference in 2015,  I met up with Mr. Grabenstein again, and found out about  his next book, Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics. 

I received an advanced copy of Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics and saw that Mr. Grabenstein  had mentioned me in the book!! On page 48!! Mr. Grabenstein even signed my copy!

When the book was published in January, I could hardly wait to check page 48:

And there it was! My name in a book! Imagine my surprise and happiness! 

I am grateful to Chris for including me in Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics as the coach of the Southwest team! In the book, Mr. Lemoncello has organized the Library Olympics, and teams from all over the country have gathered to compete. But along the way,  there is a mystery that must be solved: books from Mr. Lemoncello's library are missing! Who is trying to keep readers from these books? Why? 

The book's display at the Random House Kids booth at ALA MidWinter 2016

I still really can't believe my name is in a book -- but all I have to do is check p. 48, and there it is! 

This proves to me once again that books bring joy and wonderful surprises! 

ALA MidWinter/Youth Media Awards 2016

ALA MidWinter was a time for celebration and learning.

The 2016 Newbery and Caldecott Award winners were announced, and I was a part of many wonderful conversations about children's literature. I met up with colleagues, talked to authors, and heard about the upcoming books for 2016. And my discussions about these books were the best book discussions I could have had. Plots, characters, theme -- all covered.

In fact, several times during the conference, I would think of a book and talk to a friend about it. Or someone would ask me if I'd read a particular book. And with that, came my learning.

I'll share some of the conference here in pictures:

Candlewick hosted a fun event at Fenway in Boston. Here, I met author/illustrator Matt Tavares. His latest book  is GROWING UP PEDRO, a picture book about famous baseball player brothers Pedro and Ramon Martinez. 

Can't wait to see a final copy of FLORA AND PEACOCKS by Molly Idle! Love the green cover of this one! 

Thank you, Boyds Mills Press, for this galley of THE KNOWING BOOK (written by Rebecca Kai Doltich and illustrated by Matthew Cordell.)

THE WILD ROBOT is Peter Brown's next book and it's a middle grade novel! Thankful to Little Brown for the ARC of this one!

Hearing that the next Elephant & Piggie book will be the last = sad. :-( 

FINDING WINNIE wins the 2016 Caldecott Medal. I read this one aloud to 4th grade when I came back. (But that's another blog post). 

Attending my ALSC All-Committee meeting and reuniting with colleagues. Great discussions here. If you are an ALSC member, volunteer for a committee and join us! 

LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET wins the 2016 Newbery Medal, a 2016 Caldecott Honor, and a 2016 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award. So very happy for Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson! 

My great seat for the Youth Media Awards. Pretty perfect. I sat with my friend Lisa Morris-Wilkey. 

Lynda Mullaly Hunt's FISH IN A TREE wins the Schneider Award for Middle Grade. So. Happy. For. Her. And Nancy Paulsen. 

ECHO by Pam Muńoz Ryan wins a 2016 Newbery Honor Medal. I still remember the joy I felt when I read the ARC. Thank you, Lizette Serrano, for sharing a copy with me at the ALSC Institute!

And I also met author Lauren Wolk at a Penguin lunch. Lauren is the author of WOLF HOLLOW, an upcoming book from Penguin that I have read and can't stop thinking about. She was lovely and I enjoyed listening as she shared this book with us.

Annual comes next in Orlando! See you then! 

Waiting

Next Monday (Jan. 11th), the winners of the 2016 Youth Media Awards will be announced. The awards include the Newbery, Caldecott, Geisel, Coretta Scott King, and Pura Belpré winners -- among others. For a complete listing, click here.

(And if you'd like to watch the broadcast with these announcements, click here.)

As I wait with my fellow librarians for this day to arrive, I am thinking about the 2015 books I did - and did not -- read. (It will be a week of thinking, predicting, and guessing -- and, also, rereading.)

And I can't help but think about the following book. A book about ---  waiting.

Henkes, Kevin. Waiting. New York: HarperCollins, 2015. Print.

I think it is the perfect time to reread this picture book. In it, a pig, an owl, a bear, a puppy, and a rabbit all sit at a window pane, gazing out and waiting. All except the rabbit are waiting for something in particular. And for them, what they are waiting for makes sense. (Example: the bear waits for the wind because he has a kite!)

Henkes tells this story using a soft, candy-like palette of pink, cream, mint, and powder blue. Time passes by as they wait, and the weather changes -- this is shown to the reader through window scenes and panels: snow, fireworks, falling leaves, rain. Some pages are wordless, some have text layered like ladder steps, and some pages only include text. Some mimic a window's edge, and on a few pages, the world opens to us as the window opens, too.

It was a pleasure to reread this one -- again. As I wait.

This book will, indeed, make you think about the process of waiting. When we wait in line, wait for something to happen, or wait for someone to arrive, our scenery changes. Sometimes we wait alone. Sometimes we wait with others. Sometimes we are just waiting -- and not sure what we will get in return.

If we are fortunate, the waiting brings us what we seek. Or, something we do not expect. Something better. 

Sometimes the waiting is the story.

On Monday, Jan. 11th,  I will be waiting with my fellow librarians and other children's literature enthusiasts to hear who has won these prestigious awards. 

And I sure that whatever the result, the waiting will be worth it.