Free Fridays: “Scaredy Squirrel” by Mélanie Watt

Foreshadowing COVID-19 and Other Frightening Uncertainties

First and foremost, it is important to understand that this children’s book was published in 2006. As I reviewed each page’s illustrations and text, I caught myself rechecking this critical fact multiple times. I could not believe my eyes. I was reading a fourteen-year-old book that outlined a squirrel’s need to isolate to protect himself from germs and bacteria in addition to the many other frightening uncertainties of the world. I studied illustrations of Scaredy Squirrel wearing a face mask when he left his home and repeatedly checking his surroundings in fear of his physical safety. Surely this must be one writer’s clever attempt to address the novel coronavirus and a world riddled with racially-motivated violence, I thought. But each time I flipped back to the inside front cover and saw “© 2006,” once again proving myself wrong, I started to realize Mélanie Watt may be even wiser than I initially thought.

I cannot speak to the book’s popularity when it was first released, but I think it most certainly deserves a spot in the classroom libraries of today’s elementary teachers. Scaredy Squirrel, after living in a prolonged state of anxiety from the uncertainties of the outside world, accidentally falls out of his tree, which forces him to face his fears head-on. He inadvertently discovers something new about his identity as he navigates unfamiliar territory, eventually realizing that he prefers a balance of time at home, where things are predictable, and time in the outside world, where opportunities to explore new things are endless. This book is the first in a series of many, so those who enjoy it are encouraged to join Scaredy Squirrel on his other exciting adventures!

In addition to its inspiring theme and reflection on modern times, Scaredy Squirrel makes an excellent teaching tool given the numerous writing styles it includes. There are several pages where the text is written in a narrative format, as the book is, after all, a work of fiction. Nevertheless, Watt presents some of the text as bulleted lists, charts, diagrams, and infographics, representing text features that are more consistent with nonfiction. Therefore, in addition to using this book as a mirror for students with significant anxiety disorders and other phobias, thereby providing them with a voice that validates their sense of self, teachers might consider using this book as a mentor text when having students construct lists and other graphical representations of information.

—David Banker

[Watt, M. (2006). Scaredy Squirrel (M. Watt, Illus.). Kids Can Press.]

Traditional Thursdays – The Lotus Seed

Returning to a story about Vietnam during the twentieth century from the twentieth century, The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland, illustrated by Tatsuko Kiuchi, beautifully illustrates a shift from more traditional times to the modern age we live in now, a fitting choice for our Traditional Thursdays. Though Garland wrote this story in 1993, the reflection on the importance of family and shared stories remains important today.

Told from a granddaughter’s perspective, this picture book begins with the fall of the Vietnamese emperor. The grandmother, Ba, sees him cry when he loses his throne and picks a lotus seed from a flower to have a reminder of the notable moment.

 The lotus seed stays with her as her life dramatically changes in the coming years. From marriage to leaving Vietnam in the wake of bombs and a civil war, the lotus seed remains her prized possession. Through this story about a beloved lotus seed, Sherry Garland beautifully emphasizes the importance of family and treasured items through difficult experiences.

This story is a beautiful example of the importance of family and treasured items because of the memories they contain and the lessons that can be learned from them. It also provides a first-hand perspective into the tragedies of war, the unsurity on moving to a new place, the difficulties of learning new languages, and the importance of family.

After many years, the narrator’s brother plants the seed. For a short time, Grandmother Ba is devestated, but soon the lotus flower blooms, and each of the grandchildren are able to take a lotus seed for themselves. The young girl treasures her seed in a way that is very similar to her grandmother. She sees the seed as a reminder of the day the emperor cried when he lost his throne, as a reminder of her culture, and as a reminder of her family. She keeps her seed safe to give to her children so they can learn more about the past and her connection to it.

I appreciate this story because of its honesty, its diversity, and its feeling of peace. The illustrations of this picture book illude a warm tone, framing the story as a memory being shared. Family is important to me, and I believe this representation of family history is relatable to many students today. In my future classroom, I would introduce the vocabulary term “heirloom,” and I would ask the students if their families have any important heirlooms that are passed down through the generations. I would introduce what a lotus flower is and explain how the lotus seed in this story is a type of family heirloom. I would ask the students, “Try to find out why this heirloom is important to this family. By doing this we are making text-to-self connections, which helps us to understand the story and the characters better.” Overall, this text leaves us, as readers, able to empathize with the struggles of war, moving to a new home, learning a new language, and reflecting on the past through traditional family objects, like the lotus seed. It shows how one action can grow to be significant as time passes. With these strengths, this book can be used as a historical lesson in Social Studies, a SEL lesson about the multiple changes in life represented in this story, or a writing lesson—where the students can compare an object in their lives to the lotus seed from the Imperial Gardens.

-Lauren Shepherd

Winner’s Wednesday: Flotsam by David Wiesner

Today for Winner’s Wednesday I wanted to highlight this 2007 Caldecott Medal Winner due to its amazing artistry! Flotsam is a wordless, children’s picture book that tells the story of a boy who finds a camera that washes ashore at the beach.

Upon discovering the camera, the boy goes to get the film developed where he then uncovers a vast collection of curious undersea pictures taken on the camera’s journey. There are robotic fish, octopi sitting in a living room, turtles with cities growing out of their backs, starfish islands, mermaids, and aliens!

Among the astonishing “wildlife” photos, is a picture of a girl holing a picture of another boy, who’s holding another picture of a boy, and so on until the 70^th zoom where you find a boy posing at the beach for this lost camera. The story’s main character then poses for his photo holding the many previous finders of the camera and sends the camera out into the sea for its next journey where a girl will later find it on her shore.

This is an amazing “read” to include into your library for its remarkable, imaginative illustrations that tell a story all on their own. It allows children to follow along and create words in their mind to accompany the pictures of the lost camera as you “flip” through it’s adventures at sea.

By Morgan Gainey

Marvelous New Picture Book Monday: Leif and the Fall

Leif and the Fall by Allison Sweet Grant and Adam Grant, illustrated by Merrilee Liddiard

This marvelous new picture book is a very timely story for our socially and emotionally charged world. This book provides an excellent entrée into social emotional learning surrounding worry, anxiety, bravery, and friendship. Leif and the Fall follows its main character’s, Leif, thoughts of worry and stress surrounding the big event that happens every autumn: the falling leaves.

Everyone experiences worry at some point in their life, so having conversations with your children, or your students, is immensely important. Talking through the strategies for calming your thoughts and quieting your fears gives kids the tools they need to be in charge of their own emotions- instead of letting their emotions take charge of them. Throughout this book, Leif comes up with lots of inventive ways to avoid his fears of falling. Strategizing can be a great way to move through anxiety, but just as this story shows– it’s not always the best way. Sometimes, you need friends to help you get along.

This marvelous new picture book shows how Leif really relies on his friend Laurel to help get him through a rough time plagued with worry- which highlights the importance of friendship and reaching out when you feel overwhelmed. Of all the important and wonderful lessons this book portrays, this one is currently the most important. We are living through a pandemic, where we are all supposed to be staying at home as much as possible. Human touch isn’t allowed, and a lot of the activities that we, as humans use to connect with one another are full of worry because of the spreading pandemic. This book does a fantastic job of showing just how helpful, supportive, and necessary good friends are. (Which is honestly a message a lot of adults need too!)

It also showcases how important it is to have a receptive and supportive community of people, always there to catch you when you fall. 🙂

The pictures throughout this book are playful and frankly, adorable. They really add a lot of emotion to the text and the book would not be nearly as affective without them. Another appreciable aspect of this book is the creativity that Leif comes up with in an attempt to solve his problem. His persistence is admirable and although worry is the main topic, and driving force, for his actions, his persistence shouldn’t be overlooked. This is very often something that is hard to teach young children, or even adults. After all, not getting it right the first time can be really frustrating for anyone. The opportunity for readers to see persistence in action is indispensable and although this book could simply be read, it really is a wonderful tool for talking about many important emotional topics.

-posted by Isabella Brenington

Free Friday: A Liberian Folktale

To close out the week on folklore, I am including a review of a Liberian folktale Two Ways to Count to Ten as retold by Ruby Dee and illustrated by Susan Meddaugh.  The author has many lessons to teach in this story about King Leopard and his decision to pick a successor who will rule after him and who shall marry his daughter.  Among these lessons are reminders that there can be more than one way to approach a problem and that everyone should be given a fair chance.

To prove these points, the King invites the entire kingdom to a three-day feast and at the end sets up a spear throwing contest to see who will be wise enough to pass his test.  Whoever can throw the spear toward the sky and send it high enough so that he can count to ten before it comes down again will win.  Several animals try and fail.  Finally, the antelope tries. He is made fun of for being seen as weak and puny, but he wins the contest by counting to ten by twos.  The lesson is convincing because the assumption is that the king intended the contestants to count by ones and that he wanted his successor to have great physical strength. 

The book serves as a clever and original way to introduce children to skip counting.  I am unfamiliar with other tales that share a similar focus.  Ruby Dee was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, activist, poet and journalist, also known for her civic work with husband Ossie Davis.  Susan Meddaugh is an award-winning illustrator and creator of children’s books. 

Judge this book by its ability to captivate the interest of children. 

Posted by Pamela Seward

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Trendy Tuesday: Big Boys Cry by Jonty Howley

Big Boys Cry book is a fantastic book to read in the beginning of the year and is appropriate for kindergarten through second grade. It follows a young boy on his first day of school, and begins with his father not knowing what to say so he just says, “Big boys don’t cry.” Throughout the book the boy finds examples for celebration of grown men crying for a variety of reasons which cause the boy to think critically about what his father has said. This book would be a great entrée into conversations on gender norms and how silly it is that a person should hold back feelings simply because of a pronoun. My only critique of this book is that it isn’t very diverse. I do like that the crying men portrayed seem to be of varying professions and many of them portrayed “typical manly traits” (i.e. large in stature, beards, large muscles). The pictures in Big Boys Cry are also vibrant and expressive and really add a lot to the text. This would also be a great book to use as a picture walk where you ask the students to infer what might be happening in the book.

Posted by Isabella Brenington

Marvelous New Picture Book Monday – Avocado Asks

Released in April 2020, Avocado Asks by Momoko Abe tells the tale of a grocery store avocado trying to find out who he is. Abe is a Japanese illustrator currently living in the UK, and this is her debut book as an author.

After a customer in the store asks her mom about the avocado being placed with the vegetables, the avocado begins to question where he is supposed to fit in. He decides to venture around the store to ask the other foods where he belongs.

At each location, however, he is rejected. He doesn’t seem to belong to any of the food groups! He feels disheartened until he runs into a tomato. The tomato shares his story and tells the avocado to believe in himself and to not worry about what the other foods say about him.

A story about self-discovery and confidence, Abe reminds the reader that there are not defined groups that everyone fits into. Just like the foods are all a little bit different and unique, so are we. This is also a story about having confidence in yourself. Coming to know who you are as a person can be difficult at any age. The tomato reminds us to stay true to ourselves and to not care about what other people label us as.

This book would be a fantaistic opportunity to teach young children about friendship, about self-esteem, and about having confidence in who you are. This could be applied to a lesson about diversity, as the avocado and the tomato learn that it doesn’t matter what you look like or what group people put you in—what matters is being confident in who you are and standing up for the beliefs you have in yourself. If I were to use this book in my own classroom, I may introduce the story by bringing different types of food into the classroom and asking the students to place the foods into different groups. When they would inevitably start having difficulty classifying some foods such as the tomato and avocado, I would introduce this story. This approach would engage the students with the text as they await answers for their sorting. Afterwards, I would have a discussion about the themes of this story in relation to their food groups, emphasizing how confidence and knowing who you are is more important than anything others may say about you.

-Lauren Shepherd

Free Fridays: Stumpkin

Revel in the autumnal spirit with Lucy Ruth Cummin’s Stumpkin. The 2018 story follows a stemless pumpkin, or Stumpkin, as it watches its fellow pumpkin friends (with stems) find their Halloween homes and become jack-o-lanterns.

Cummin’s words are quirky and almost poetic, following the emotions of the pumpkin as the shelves get thinner and thinner, and more of its friends get carved into their final holiday form. The illustrations position the pumpkins as the centerpiece of the page, their bright orange hues stand out among the monochromatic outlines beyond them. The images resemble a collage, with elements of urban life bustling about in the Halloween hustle.

Though the dialogue seems silly at times, the book explores feelings of loneliness and rejection as Stumpkin’s anguish grows over every other pumpkin getting picked. Many can resonate with his self-doubt and empathize with his struggle for a home. Yet, the book provides a lesson of confidence amid struggle: Stumpkin continues to console himself and the author points out how his uniqueness could be his strength.

Stumpkin proves to be a quirky Halloween read suitable for young readers and older readers alike. As you read, you can answer: will Stumpkin ever find a home? Whether the book is read as a supplement for the season or as a lesson in acceptance, the brightness of Stumpkin shines like a freshly-carved jack-o-lantern beaming from a household window.

-Written By Hedy Fay

Winner Wednesday: “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Peña, Illustrated by Christian Robinson

Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson focus on a young Black boy and his grandmother in addressing inner-city poverty. The boy, CJ, questions his Nana about why they don’t have a car and why their neighborhood (including the soup kitchen where they eat) is always so dirty. Rather than elaborating on their financial situation, Nana provides CJ with an alternative perspective that promotes positivity. For example, rather than explaining that the poorest neighborhoods are often the dirtiest, Nana explains that “when you’re surrounded by dirt…you’re a better witness for what’s beautiful.” Robinson’s illustrations instill warmth and comfort that upholds the refreshingly positive lens from which Nana views the world.

Poverty aside, CJ’s sense of wonder contributes to the gentle tone de la Peña employs. He wonders why it rains and what makes blind people unable to see, reminding readers of a time during childhood when the world was only a series of questions that needed answering.

Not surprisingly, “Last Stop on Market Street” earned three awards, including the 2016 Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Award, and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. It is an uplifting story that provides a powerful mirror for children of low socioeconomic status. Moreover, it exposes middle- and upper-class children to this sensitive issue that likely applies to at least some of their peers. Therefore, teachers should strongly consider adding this title to their classroom libraries. Its length makes it ideal for a read aloud, its topics are conducive to rich discussion, and its narrative writing style validates its status as a strong mentor text for creative writing workshops.

—David A. Banker

de la Peña, M. (2015). Last stop on Market Street (C. Robinson, Illus.). Penguin.

Trendy Tuesdays: Brown Baby Lullaby

Tameka Fryer Brown blends the mischief and cuteness of a toddler in a fresh new way with 2020’s Brown Baby Lullaby. The book portrays the day of a baby and their parents, delving into their adventures. Fryer Brown weaves in Spanish and English seamlessly, revealing the nature of a multilingual household, where coos float in and out of the two languages as the parent’s guide baby through multiple parts of the day.

AG Ford’s illustrations bring brightness to the sweet words: pages are bathed in sunny yellow and golden hues. The images radiate the love of the parents, even as baby slings food at dinner or gets cranky at the end of a long day.

Throughout the whole text, Fryer Brown highlights the life of young parents going through life with a new addition. Some things are stressful, some things are funny, yet every moment is cherished. Underneath all of this, readers are reminded of the power of radical love for a young baby, especially a young person of color. The parents work hard to make their child feel loved, special, and safe. This book would be suitable for any young child and is the perfect bedtime story to add to your library.

Post by: Hedy Fay