No Reading Allowed: The WORST Read-Aloud Book Ever by Raj Haldar & Chris Carpenter illustrated by Bryce Gladfelter

No Reading Allowed: The WORST Read-Aloud Book Ever by Raj Haldar & Chris Carpenter illustrated by Bryce Gladfelter

Published November 2020  Sourcebooks eXplore

Blurb:

In the vein of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, this delightful new book places pairs of similar-sounding sentences together and illustrates them in two hilariously different ways. These illustrations gone awry highlight how absurd the English language can be. But, have no fear! The illustrations will give you all the clues you need to decipher the true meanings behind these wily words. You won't be tricked by phrases like 'C Major, it's a beautiful key! / See Major, it's a beautiful quay!' Context clues, bright illustrations, and rhyming words will help readers navigate the ridiculous text with ease.

I love a book that shows us how absurd the English language can be.  

This is a book of homophones. Homophones being pairs of words that sound the same, but have very different meanings and different spellings.  

This book relies heavily on the illustrations for the humour, because the nature of a homophone is that each sentence will sound the same, it’s the spelling of the word that will change the meaning.  So reading this book out loud, without showing the illustrations might actually make it the ‘worst read-aloud’ book ever, as it states on the cover.  

It does however, make a great book for sharing and discussion, and an excellent choice to liven up an English lesson in the classroom.

This book is American, so for readers in Australia there may be some additional explanation of the words to ‘get’ the humour, as we pronounce some words differently, or we don’t use some of the words featured in the book. 

For example:

We saw the queen’s burrow thanks to our ant hill.

We saw the Queensboro, thanks to our Aunt Hill   

We don’t pronounce Aunt as Ant in Australia, so the sentences won’t sound the same.

Similarly, 

The pitcher held the batter –We don’t use the word pitcher, here we call it a jug, and baseball is not a commonly played sport.

That’s nothing against the book.  I don’t think those ‘Americanisms’ will take away from the enjoyment of the book at all, and it gives parents/educators additional discussion points in regard to the English language.  Even though Americans and Australians speak English, there are still plenty of differences.

There is also a glossary at the back of the book, so if the reader is in any doubt as to the meaning of a word, they will find the answer there (although ‘pitcher’ is not on that list)

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the review copy  #netgalley

One Word From Sophia by Jim Averbeck illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail

One Word From Sophia by Jim Averbeck illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail
August 2015 Simon & Schuster

Blurb:

Sophia tries varied techniques to get the giraffe she wants more than anything in this playfully illustrated story about the nuances of negotiation. 

Sophia has one true desire for her birthday. But she has Four Big Problems in the way: Mom, Dad, Uncle Conrad...and Grand-mama. 

Will her presentations, proposals, and pie charts convince them otherwise? Turns out, all it takes is one word.

When this book came in last year, I thought it was new. It isn't,  it came out on 2015.  Once again, proving that I don't know everything, and I don't know every book on our shelves.

Anyway, I loved the cover, and that's what drew me to read it...a girl in a tutu standing on a giraffe's head.  It becomes clear in the first two pages why there's a giraffe on the cover.  You see, Sophia has One True Desire, and that is to get a pet giraffe for her birthday.

In order to achieve this one true desire, Sophia has to convince four people:

Mother, who was a judge,
Father , who was a businessman,
Uncle Conrad, who was a politician, 
and Grand-mama who was very strict.

And so begins Sophia's quest to convince the four.  There are long-winded reasons, diagrams, charts slideshows and graphs, and after each presentation she's given the brush off, being told her presentation was verbose, effusive and loquacious...

I love the language used in this book, so many words that mean 'using too many words'!...and then there's Activist, Quadruped, Respondents, Revise and Warehousing...all of which are explained in the glossary at the back of the book.  

All of this rich language wrapped up in a book that will appeal to every child who has wished for something big....and the power of one little word...

The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenburg

The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenburg
Published November 2019
Penguin

Blurb:

Hugh van Cuylenburg was a primary school teacher volunteering in northern India when he had a life-changing realisation: despite the underprivileged community the children were from, they were remarkably positive. By contrast, back in Australia Hugh knew that all too many children struggled with depression, social anxieties and mental illness. His own little sister had been ravaged by anorexia nervosa. How was it that young people he knew at home, who had food, shelter, friends and a loving family, struggled with their mental health, while these kids seemed so contented and resilient? He set about finding the answer and in time came to recognise the key traits and behaviours these children possessed were gratitude, empathy and mindfulness. In the ensuing years Hugh worked tirelessly to study and share this revelation with the world. He launched The Resilience Project, which has become part of the curriculum in many schools and he tours Australia talking to parents, educators, corporations, CEOs and sporting elite. Now, with the same blend of humour, poignancy and clear-eyed insight that The Resilience Project has become renowned for, Hugh explains how we can all get the necessary tools to live a happier, more contented and fulfilling life.

I have just ‘read’ (listened to) the book The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenberg. In the book he is described by someone as being a cult leader, and the Resilience Project as a cult. The funny thing is, while I don’t think that at all, I do get it. Because after I read this book, I couldn’t stop talking about it and wanted to make sure everyone I knew read it. I even joined up a ‘non library using’ friend (I know!) to the library online, so they could listed to the audiobook themselves. 

I read it because someone mentioned it, but only in passing, saying her daughter had read it and couldn’t stop talking about it. That’s the kind of book it is. It’s not a long read, only 4 hours 40 listening time with the audiobook, and 288 pages in the physical book. It’s really a collection of stories, shared by Hugh about his journey to what has become the Resilience Project. And while I could go on and re-tell Hugh’s own stories, I won’t, because you will read all about them when you read the book 😉. 

What I will tell you, is that the idea of the Resilience Project is all about how we can implement more gratitude, empathy and mindfulness into our lives, and how that will, in turn, make us happier. I highly recommend the audiobook version of this, because the book lends itself so well to the stories being 'told', and Hugh narrates the audio version, so it's the next best thing to being able to see him in person.

Bringing all of these ideas around to my world of children’s literature, there was one book I kept thinking of the whole time I was listening to this, and that’s the book Pookie Aleera Is Not My Boyfriend by Steven Herrick. So many of Herrick’s books have an underlying theme of kindness, but this is the one that stands out to me, and is one of my all-time favourites, a book that will make your heart swell, and make you laugh out loud!

There’s a particular scene in the book, that really shows how making someone happy, can affect our own happiness, and I think about it all of the time: 

Home Sweet Home by Moira Butterfield and Clair Rozzite

Home Sweet Home by Moira Butterfield and Clair Rozzite
September 2019 Egmont

Blurb:

What makes a house a home? How is your house similar or different to others around the world? 

From tents and huts to bobbing boats and apartments high up in the sky – they are all wonderfully varied, but there is something that makes them all special . . . 

Meet a variety of families throughout the book in this wonderful celebration of different cultures. Discover gers in Mongolia, tree houses in Japan, apartments in Italy, eco houses, canal boats and much, much more.

I am always looking for new books that fit in with the curriculum in some way, and this book is perfect for Foundation HASS, Geography: 

Inquiry Questions

• What are places like?
• What makes a place special?
• How can we look after the places we live in?

The places people live in and belong to, their familiar features and why they are important to people 

Apart from the obvious link to the curriculum, this is an interesting and engaging book in it's own right.  It has a feature that I Hadn't thought about before, but I love it, and will be sure that I point it out when showing this one to schools.

I just assume that when teachers use a book in the classroom, especially with a particular lesson in mind, they will stop and ask questions relating to what they can see in the illustrations, to connect and engage with the students.  You should never assume though, because this might not come naturally to some.  So that's what I like about this book. There is a question prompt for every page.  You can see some what I mean by looking at some of the internal page images below.

For example, the first image below, looking at roofs.  It asks the questions: What does your roof look like? Do you know one that looks different to yours?

Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart

Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart
October 2019 Simon & Schuster

Blurb:

Everyone has scars. Some are just easier to see ... 16-year-old Ava Gardener is heading back to school one year after a house fire left her severely disfigured. She's used to the names, the stares, the discomfort, but there's one name she hates most of all: Survivor. 

What do you call someone who didn't mean to survive? Who sometimes wishes she hadn't? When she meets a fellow survivor named Piper at therapy, Ava begins to feel like she's not facing the nightmare alone. Piper helps Ava reclaim the pieces of Ava Before the Fire, a normal girl who kissed boys and sang on stage. But Piper is fighting her own battle for survival, and when Ava almost loses her best friend, she must decide if the new normal she's chasing has more to do with the girl in the glass-or the people by her side. 

The beautiful, life-affirming debut from Erin Stewart that's being called the YA answer to Wonder. Perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson, Nicola Yoon and John Green.

When a book is described as the 'YA answer to Wonder'...you just have to read it and see for yourself. 

Life is hard enough for any 16 year old in high school, so imagine if you had to deal with all of the normal high school drama,  while being severely disfigured due to burns sustained from a house fire.  That's only the start of it.  The house fire that was the cause of the burns also took the lives of Ava's parents and her cousin.  So now Ava lives with her Aunt and Uncle...in the room of her now dead cousin.

Like Wonder, this book makes you think about the kind of person you are.  We all like to think that we are good and kind people, but what would it be like when a new girl comes to school, with a melted face, no ear and a toe where her thumb should be?  Would you find it easy to look her in the eye and have a conversation? How would you feel about holding her hand?  Those of who have not been in that circumstance can't answer that, not really...but we all hope we would be able to see past the outside to the person underneath the scars.

Unlike Wonder I found myself putting myself in Ava's shoes.  I don't remember wondering what it would be like for Auggie?  Maybe because he was younger?  Maybe because he, for the most part, had such a positive outlook on life.   But I did wonder how I would feel if I was Ava, maybe because I have been a 16 year old girl.  Would I be brave enough to face the world looking so different?  Would I be able to look people in the eye when they spoke to me, knowing what they see when they look at my face?  Again, we can never know, but I would like to think that I could be even half as brave as Ava. 

I know it's only a story, and Ava is not a real person, but reading a book like this makes me want to be a braver person, just in everyday life. Take more risks, do the things you love without worrying what other people will think of you, and find the people that bring out the best in you.

Greta and the Giants: Inspired by Greta Thunberg's stand to save the world by Zoe Tucker illustrated by Zoe Persico

Greta and the Giants: Inspired by Greta Thunberg's stand to save the world by Zoe Tucker illustrated by Zoe Persico

Published December 2019 Quarto UK

Blurb:

This inspiring picture book retells the story of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg - the Swedish teenager who has led a global movement to raise awareness about the world's climate crisis - using allegory to make this important topic accessible to young children.

Greta is a little girl who lives in a beautiful forest threatened by Giants. When the Giants first came to the forest, they chopped down trees to make houses. Then they chopped down more trees and made even bigger homes. The houses grew into towns and the towns grew into cities, until now there is hardly any forest left. Greta knows she has to help the animals who live in the forest, but how? Luckily, Greta has an idea... A section at the back explains that, in reality, the fight against the 'giants' isn't over and explains how you can help Greta in her fight.

When I started reading this I was surprised, as I expected it to be a picture book depicting the life of Greta Thunberg.  I have read a number of books about Greta recently for middle grade and older readers, so I thought a picture book would be a great addition to this collection.

That is not what this picture book is though.  As the blurb states (which I obviously didn't read properly), this is an allegory (a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.).  Once I got my head around the fact that this wasn't a narrative non fiction title about Greta, I was most impressed.  It's the perfect starting point to talk about this amazing young activist with young readers.

Greta and the Giants is a story about a girl standing up to the giants that come into her forest and start chopping down the trees, and destroying the habitats of all who live there.  This is a young children's picture book, and as such it has a positive and happy ending...not necessary a reflection on what is happening in the real world, but for this age group, a satisfying conclusion.  It emphasises the importance of speaking up, and how one voice can become many.

There are notes in the back of the book about the real life Greta, as well as notes on what we can do to help battle climate change.

I think Greta's words, "No one is too small to make a difference" will inspire a younger generation to use their voice and start to make a difference.

~ Thanks to NetGalley for the reading copy

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett
November 2019 Penguin

Blurb:

Simone is HIV-positive - and positive HIV won't define her. She also knows that celibacy is the best way to stay safe. 

Enter Miles Austin- intelligent, funny and way too sexy for Simone to resist. 

But her classmates don't know that she's HIV-positive - and what is the truth worth in the hands of the wrong person?

The peak of the AIDS epidemic was in 1987, I was 15.  I remember that HIV and AIDS held the biggest fear as far as STDs went.  There was the terrifying Grim Reaper advertisement that aired on televisions all across the country, putting the fear of god into everyone

Now in 2019, it's not something I really think about.  I know now that HIV is not a death sentence, and that HIV rates across Australia are declining....but not in all parts of Australia.. I have just learned  that Australia's worst HIV epidemic since the AIDS crisis is happening right now, in 2019 in the Northern Territory, so maybe this is the perfect time for a YA novel about HIV to be released.

Simone is HIV positive, she has had the virus from birth, contracted from her mother.  Simone was adopted by her two Dads and she has always known what it means to be HIV Positive, and knows how to look after herself.  She also know that she's not supposed to tell people about it, because most people just won't understand.  In fact Simone has recently started new school due the fallout that occurred at her previous school when she told people she thought she trusted.

HIV has never been an issue...but then Simone has never been a 17 year old girl before and with being a 17 year old girl comes hormones, cute boys and the desire to go further than just holding hands.

I seem to be reading a lot of YA at the moment where a character is different in some way, burn victims, amputees, ....  
Each of these characters have overcome their obstacle in different ways, but there are some seemingly universal factors that helped them along the way.  
One, having good friends. Having the right people around you can make all of the difference.  
Two, accepting what your (new) life is like and making the most of it.

With or without a disability/medical condition/disfigurement High School can be hard, and one of he most important things you can do is 'Find Your Tribe'.  Find the people who make you feel good about yourself, make you laugh, and make you want to be the best version of yourself.  That sounds like whole lot of 'inspirational quote' mumbo jumbo when I write it down, but honestly, I don't think I did that in High School.  I spent way too much time trying to be like other people and worrying what other people thought of me...maybe there's no way of getting away with that, but don't make it a full time thing.