Planting Stories: Perfect Picture Book Friday

It's National Hispanic Heritage Month! What a wonderful opportunity to highlight Pura Belpre!

Title: Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre
Author: Anika Aldamuy Denise
Illustrator: Paola Escobar
Publisher: Harper. 2019

Themes: Librarians, Biography, stories, Diversity, Puerto Rico

First Lines: It is 1921. Pura Teresa Belpre leaves her home in San Juan for a visit to Nueva York. Words travel with her: stories her abuela taught her. Cuentos folkloricos Pura retold in the shade of a tamarind tree., in Puerto Rico.

Why I love this book: 
It's about a librarian! Even better a librarian from Puerto Rico. She loved children, told stories and wrote stories which were published.

As I read her story, I think about storytimes in the library and the sense of simple pleasure they provided. "In the children's room, she lights the story hour candle . . . and begins:
To me there is still nothing as lovely as sharing stories with a group of children.

Pura crafted her own puppets to bring her stories to life. Folktales were shared en ingles y espanol. taking us back in time to a special place that lives on to this day.

There is a joyful gentleness in the illustrations. Many colors, but they are all a little bit muted, soft and feel like we are being taken back in time to the world of Pura Belpre.

Activities and Resources:
Learn more about the Pura Belpre medal
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal

Learn more about National Hispanic Heritage Month
https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/about/

Visit your public library. Get a library card. Attend a storytime or other program. Check out some folktales from around the world.

Make a puppet. I love sock puppets. Here's a how to link.

Write a story and act it out with your new puppet.

Be sure to check out Susanna Hill's Blog where you can look for reviews by book, title, and by themes. And you can check out her weekly #PPBF post along with links to many more wonderful posts here.

I would love to hear your thoughts about the books I share. Have you read them? Were they available at your library? Did you ask the library to purchase them? How did you use them in your classroom or library? Feel free to share the posts with family and friends. Reading is wonderful and sharing about books you love, helps authors, illustrators and publishers.

My apologies for missing accents on words. I have looked up how to get them to work on my laptop, but my laptop doesn't want to play the way other laptops do. I will get it figured out and will edit this post once I do. If only it were as easy as it is on my phone and tablet. (That might be the solution, but I would like one that allows me to do all the work in one place.)

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

The easiest way to get me to pick up a book is to tell me it is about nature and animals. The school year is over, and I have more time to dedicate to reading, thinking, and recommending. My first out-of-school book was Wishtree by Katherine Applegate.

Wishtree is written from the point of view of a Red Oak named Red who is 216 rings old. Red is proud of its heritage. Proud to be a home to so many animals. Red has a friend, a crow named Bongo. The tree looks out at two homes. Two families. One new family. One girl who has a wish to find a friend. It's not so easy. Not everyone wants this new family in town. Red has been the wishtree in the neighborhood for many human generations. Throughout, Red remained quiet, but now. . . .

After finishing this book, my first thought was that this would be a great book for teachers to read to their classes at the beginning of the school year. Then, I thought kids shouldn't wait. Parents should read this book with their kids and they should talk about it, and in the fall the kids should read it to their teachers and they should all take action.

While I was writing this review, an article shared among my writing groups about discussing the need for books to have lessons for a child to absorb and learn from. This really got me thinking about what I was writing about this book. It was sounding like a lesson plan for teachers and parents. Yikes!

One of the main reasons I became a librarian was to make reading fun, not lesson-filled and curriculum based. In this past year as a school librarian, I enjoyed sharing small lessons, but mostly, they were lessons encouraging curiosity and imagination  I tried not to even talk about that unless it came up in conversation with the kids.

Wishtree is a book filled with lesson opportunities:
Caring for Nature
Caring for others (Empathy)
Strength in numbers
Tolerance
Kindness
Friendship
and religious freedom all come to mind.

The thing is that when we try to push our agenda and lessons on kids, I believe that they are more likely to push back and test out the opposite. We can also ruin a perfectly lovely story because it is no longer about the story, it's about the lesson.

I watched 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders play tag football all school year. On occasion, a disagreement that was leading toward a fight would break out. I had to step in. We talked and I allowed them to find resolution to the problem. They had the skills. I didn't have to teach them anything except at the moment calming down enough to begin thinking again. There were also times one of those same kids would get hurt during the game. The other kids stopped playing and wanted to take care of their friend. They know empathy. I believe they learned this through their life experiences more than through the lessons that have been imparted upon them ad nauseam. When they are hurt, they want to be cared for, they can turn that around and know that they need to also care for others.

What I guess I am trying to say is that books may have lessons. I think they help to make these emotions and feelings more concrete, but we don't always need to hit everyone over the head and make them list the lessons they are learning.

I loved the Wishtree. It is a beautifully written story. I wanted to sit under red at night and watch the animals who lived there. I trust that the lessons within the book will shine for kids. It will come out in small ways, like when they stop a game to help someone who is hurt, they see worms in a new light, they take a moment to hug a tree, or befriend a person who is not just like them.

Letting lessons and learning happen organically, is so much more fun for everyone. After reading the book, if a child talks about nature and wants to know more, then offer up the idea of starting a nature journal. If a child wants to understand about a different religion run to the library and get books on the topic and have conversations. Don't be afraid if you don't have all the answers. Use your lack of knowledge as an opportunity to learn something new together. Learning new things because you are interested will take you down rabbit holes, up into the trees, and across the universe while at the same time you will build positive relationships with children.

Birds, Birds, Birds, Nature, and Books

We have a robin's nest on our deck. It is such fun to sit and watch mom and dad feed the babies. And the babies. Wobbly little heads with huge open mouths. Can you see the little bit of fuzz on the babies head?

Robin Redbreast

 I always feel special when a bird decides to nest in my yard. I believe it is because I make it a safe and happy place to raise young. I enjoy watching the birds at the feeders and this spring, we have had many migrating visitors that I have never noticed before. The more I know about birds, the easier it is to spot new ones and begin to figure out what type of bird they are.

Available at Anderson Bookshop

A really cool book I just learned about is called, Look up! Bird Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette LeBlanc Cate. In a mere 51 pages, she provides so much information on ways to bird watch and understand birds. She breaks things down by shape, color, habits, sound, and more. Most people don't get excited about robins as they are around quite a bit, but I love to watch them.  The way they cock their head before they peck in the grass bringing up food amazes me. Annette even wrote a little song about the robins. It reminds us, that there is more to bird watching than just seeing the bird and knowing what kind it is. You learn about their behaviors and lifestyles too. This is a great book to get you started bird watching and nature journaling.

Available at Anderson Bookshop

A new release this year is How the Finch Got His Colors by Annemarie Riley Guertin. The illustrations are by Helena Perez Garcia. So lovely and full of joy. This folktale is the story of how the animals got their colors. A long time ago they were all the colors of dirt, clay, and stone. You'll have to read this tale to find out what happens and where the beautiful colors come from especially for the Gouldian Finch.

Scarlet Tanager at Colored Sands Forest Preserve in Rockton, IL

Available at 57th Street Books

Follow the seasons and animals in the lovely book,  Drawn From Nature by Helen Ahpornsiri. Each page is filled with pressed flower illustrations. Details and interesting information on birds, mammals, plants, and insects abound. This is a book that you will want to look at over and over again.

The bunnies in my backyard

You can check these books out from your local public library or purchase them for your own collection. I have included links to two great independent bookstores. While it's easy to order online, the experience of time spent in independent bookstores and libraries, surrounds you in books, curiosity, and dreams.

Kerry James Marshall Exhibit

I needed a day away; a distraction from my own life. My friend Stacy told me about the Kerry James Marshall Mastry exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.  I realized this would take me out of my own personal thoughts and open my mind to something new. I have never been to the MCA before and Kerry James Marshall was a new artist to me. If you click on the link to the museum above, you will get more information about Marshall and this exhibit. 

I took the train into the City and then on the recommendation of the train Carmen I took the water taxi from Ogilvie Station down to Michigan Avenue. For $8 during the week and $10 on the weekend, you can have unlimited rides on the up and down the river. 

If you haven't spent much time on the Chicago River recently, you will be amazed at the changes. There are now many outdoor "rooms" with restaurants, bars and lots of places to sit and watch the people go by.

Walking to the museum, the rain had stopped, but the puddles were still reflecting the world as it went by.

The museum is pretty nondescript from the outside and as usual, most of the people hanging out were focused on their phones rather than the world around them. The entry fee is a suggested donation of $12. (It is free to the public on Tuesday's.) I happily paid the suggested donation as I love to support the arts in any way that I can.

Inside, even the stairways are artistic. 

Before you reach Marshall's exhibit on the top floor, (take the stairs if you are able or stop at each floor if you need to take the elevator) there is another exhibit by Andrew Yang called Matter Matters. The photograph above is a capture of part of a larger piece. It spoke to me that it was meant to be here in this museum at the same time as Marshall's exhibit (Well played MCA). In a video at the beginning of the Mastry exhibit, Kerry James Marshall talks about how he needed to find his way in the art world that historically was a predominantly white field. He talks about how Art education is systematized and teaches a prescribed way of doing things. He discussies his "Paint by Numbers works and shows that the painter in the painting is "Taking liberties with the outlined and defined image, even of ones self."  Part of his goal is to normalize seeing black content figures in the museums and on display. He makes much more sense in his video than I am. Click the link below to watch it. This exhibit is a retrospective, it is not just about one thing it shows how his ideas and ideals have changed over his artistic life. 

https://mcachicago.org/Stories/Video/Kerry-James-Marshall-Mastry

School of Beauty, School of Culture, 2012

Detail from the Barber Shop painting Growing Up in Watts, LA

This is one room of the exhibit. You can see that the work is large, vibrant and full of life. What stood out to me as I walked through the exhibit was that most of the visitors were white. I was excited to learn from my friend that through a grant, there was a group a young African American students who were brought to see the exhibit on a field trip. This pleased me immensely as I believe it is a big part of the purpose of Marshall's work to show children of color that they too can be successful artists if they choose that path and that black people do appear in artwork. This exhibit shows that you can be anything that you want to be if you have the desire to become it and you make the effort and energy to make it happen.

When I took a job at the Chicago Public Library several years ago, my first branch was the Roosevelt Branch which was surrounded by University of Illinois Chicago campus and a low-income high-rise. As the Children's Librarian, I worked with the kids who came in to get out of the summer heat or just to have a place to go. Most of those kids were black and came on their own. Many of them were just in their first years of school. The summer reading theme was about art from the Art Institute. We offered programs for kids to create their own artwork and explore the world of art. What really sticks out to me wasn't the art or the activities, but the young girls asking me if they could touch my hair. It was red and so different from theirs. Today that is such a no no, but when it happened, all I could think was that they need to understand the world around them and if they are going to make any connection with me they need to see the ways that we are different and the same. I wish now, that I would have been to be able to take them to see Marshall's exhibit and then to talk with them about what they saw and how they felt about the experience. We could have talked about the ways that we are the same and different, we could have broken out of the systematized way that we are supposed to understand the world and taken liberties with the way we define ourselves.

The exhibit is only in Chicago through this weekend and then it will be moving to New York so if you have a couple of hours in Chicago this week, I recommend you stop in to see this great exhibit and if at all possible share it with someone who might not otherwise be able to go.

Here is another great article about his work.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-how-kerry-james-marshall-became-a-superhero-for-chicago-s-housing-projects

Looking down from the top of the staircase at MCA.

What Does it Mean?

I decided to start a new blog for my trip to France. I was originally going to call it something tres French. As I thought about a name, I realized that if I did that, the blog would start and end with the trip to France and maybe I could think a little broader and create a blog that could be bigger than that. And that is how, 1. Librarian, 2. Cameras, 3. Go came to be.

1. Librarian. I am a librarian, there is one of me. The Librarian part of me informs the way I go about traveling and going.

2. Cameras. I love photography and even if it is just using my cell phone to capture photos, I am more likely than not to capture moments along the way. I tend to remember things visually and see the world as a movie in which I am one of the characters. Sometimes I play the starring role and others, I am one in the crowd. And, I happen to have two cameras which allow me to either be prepared with two different lenses or have a little back up plan in case anything happens with one of the cameras.

And 3. Go. For me Go can mean a walk through the field behind our house or something bigger like a 20 day trip to France on my own.