A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN by Betty Smith, 1943

Years ago, one of the teachers in the building asked me if I had read A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. When I told her no, she gasped and told me I must. I had forgotten about it but something led me to buy it on Audible so I could listen to it. (The audio was fantastic and I would highly recommend it.)

It wasn't anything like what I had expected. First, for some reason, I thought it was a book for young adults. It is not. I think every person should read this book at some point in their life but I wouldn't suggest this to students until high school.

Then every time, and I mean EVERY time, I mentioned to someone who had read it themselves, they would gasp and get that look on their face of pure love.  Many of them put their hands to their heart while talking. It's THAT kind of book.

I had no idea that it is a classic right up there with my favorite book of all time, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee. TREE is now in my number two slot. 

It's the writing you notice first, it's just exquisite. I bought a paperback copy so that at some point, I can go back and read it again, highlighting my favorite passages.  A little hard to do when you're listening in the car.

The book starts in 1912, in the tenements of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. It is about the Nolan family, a poor Irish-American family just trying to survive. The young daughter, Francie Nolan, 11, is the main character. The details of everyday life are written in such great detail that you feel as if you are living this life with Francie and you root for her every step of the way.

As I started reading this book, I kept thinking, "Really? This book was written in 1943?" It is such a realistic look at how people lived their lives that I've been searching for information on whether it was ever banned. Betty Smith writes in excruciating detail how hard  life was for this family. She never omitted any of the realities. We get the truth, and sometimes truth is much harder than any fiction from someones imagination. You know in your heart that these incidents were real.

I learned a lot about our country through this book and it never felt "preachy". Horrible things that happened that eventually changed our country for the better. It is one of my favorite ways to learn history, through a great book.

I can now imagine that this had to be like how my mother lived in the coal camps of southern Colorado. Very poor, just squeaking by, but able to enjoy life despite everything. Desperate at times but because of the character of the people,  there was always hope and joy.

I was sad, and cried at times while reading this book but I truly don't think I felt depressed. And I believe that's the joy of this book. Hope.

I'M A SHARK by Bob Shea AWESOME book trailer

From MrSchuReads and Watch Connect Read

Awesome Book People

Being a librarian means I need to keep up with the best books in the business. One of the ways I do this is to go here first every morning:

Anita Silvey's Children's Book-A-Day Almanac

Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey.

Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics . . .

The new books on their way to becoming classics . . .

And events from the world of children’s books—and the world at large

Here is her impressive bio from her site:
 
Anita Silvey has been the editor of The Horn Book review journal and the publisher of children’s books at Houghton Mifflin. She estimates that she’s read about 125,000 kids books over the past 40 years. When she’s not reading, she teaches courses in children’s literature, writes nonfiction, and travels all over the country talking to parents, teachers, and librarians about the best books for kids.
 
She not only gives us book titles but amazing extra information about the books and authors. What she packs into this daily site is astounding without being overwhelming. I LOVE ANITA AND HER ALMANAC!
 

John at one of his many stops on his summer vacation. This one is in Colorado...sort of. =)

Being an elementary librarian also means that I have to promote books that kids will read. So the second place I go every morning is Watch Connect Read This blog is made by John Schumacher, elementary librarian extraordinaire! John gets more done in one day than I do in a month. He's amazing! He keeps winning awards and making the cover of library magazines because he is one of the finest and hardest-working teacher/librarians in the country. I don't think he sleeps much because he lives and breaths children's books and getting children excited about reading. And you will not meet a nicer young man on the planet. We've been featuring his book trailer videos from his website on our morning news at school. The kids LOVE them and the books go flying out of our library faster than Skippy Jon runs to his closet! I LOVE MRSCHUREADS AND HIS BLOG! 
 
The third place I go to every morning is Twitter. That is where I met these two people and all of the other people I follow. No matter what business you are in, if you want to learn, promote your business, or keep up with news at the second it happens, you MUST be on Twitter. If you haven't tried it for one reason or another, start with something you love and are passionate about and you won't be sorry. I get so many amazing ideas off of Twitter that sometimes it IS overwhelming. But I believe that it has made me a better librarian, teacher, and person. I LOVE TWITTER AND ALL THE PEOPLE THERE THAT HELP ME!

YAY BOOKS and KEEP READING!
 
 

Mad At Mommy by Komako Sakai

"Mommy, I - I - I AM SO MAD AT YOU!" begins this honest book full of high emotions and sweet pictures. Boy rabbit is really mad at his mommy. The story is short and simple and full of real love. A slice of an ordinary day in 32 pages. Sure to comfort little ones that it's okay to be mad at mommy, she will love you no matter what. 4Stars.

Komako Sakai's books have won numerous awards, including an ALA Notable Children's Book. In May of 2011 she illustrated In the Meadow by author Yukiko Kato. Her other books include The Snow Day and Emily's Balloon.


She lives in Japan.

Ice by Arthur Geisert

Ice is a wordless book. That's right, not ONE word, but amazing, fun, unique illustrations. On the back flap is a bit of infromation about the author. "Geisert has published just about a book a year for the last 30 years, and every one of his books has been illustrated with etchings. His work has appeared in The New York Times and the Horn Book Magazine, and he has been a recipient of The New York Times' Best Illustrated Award."

I'm ashamed and stunned and feel cheated that this if my first Geisert book that I've read. Each page has so much going on. You could spend a lot of time describing what's going on with these delightful pigs and that's exactly what my students and I are going to do. I think I will keep my opinion out of it and just urge my students to tell me what they see. I may even stop at a critical point and let them "tell" me what they think happened in the rest of the book. They can tell me verbally, write about it, draw about it, whatever strikes their mood.

We're going to have some kind of fun with this 4Star book, Ice.

Latest Books!

I've been grabbing new books from the library and again, almost made the bag so heavy that I couldn't carry it out.

Some of my favorites:

Socksquatch by Frank W. Dormer - This book made me laugh out loud just looking at the cover. It just hit me as hilarious and I loved the quirky drawings and story. Socksquatch can't find his other sock. He asks quite a few other goofy looking creatures in the process. I thought it was a lot of fun and the drawings are simple enough that my students could easily try to have fun drawing them. 4Stars.

ABC Kids by Simon Basher - The illustrations for this book are quite the opposite feel from the last book. They are beautiful, precise drawings, almost anime-looking. Children's names are used for the fun alliteration. "Arthur's angry ant ate apples." I found this book in a top 100 best books for kids list and am not surprised. It would be another great book for an activity with students. Using their own names, they could come up with their own drawings and sentences. They could try to copy this type of illustration, too. This could be used from pre-school on up for reading and creating their own ABC book! 4Stars

Dog and Bear: Two Friends - Three Stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

A "5 Stars Henry and Grandma book"! Great illustrations! So fun and colorful outlined in black! Henry is 2 1/2 and could understand this book easily. Dog and Bear lose something and Henry "walked" his fingers right to it. Grandma loved the book within a book idea. And even though it has three stories, they are just the right length.  Newborns to five year olds will LOVE this book! This grandma and grandson sure did. AND she has sequels! I will be getting this for the school library as well. Just look at the cover and see how easily we can talk about shapes and then draw Dog and Bear. Oh, how the kids are going to love it!