The Year We Learned to Fly (Picture Book)

 

Publication date: January 4, 2022

My Thoughts:

I woke up at 3:30 this morning to participate in the School Library Journal's Day of Dialog virtual event #SLJDOD and was able to read this sampler courtesy of Penguin Young Readers.

First, the text is by Jacqueline Woodson who is a beloved middle grades author whose prose is lyrical, her wordplay - hip hop. There is one phrase I love, love, love, extra love.

leaving all of our mad far behind us.

Second, the illustrations by Rafael López are bright and beautiful. His use of white space and juxtaposition and symbolism tell stories just as much as the text. 

Pre-order this book and then figure out how to use it. 

From the Publisher:

On a dreary, stuck-inside kind of day, a brother and sister heed their grandmother’s advice: “Use those beautiful and brilliant minds of yours. Lift your arms, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and believe in a thing. Somebody somewhere at some point was just as bored you are now.” And before they know it, their imaginations lift them up and out of their boredom. Then, on a day full of quarrels, it’s time for a trip outside their minds again, and they are able to leave their anger behind. This precious skill, their grandmother tells them, harkens back to the days long before they were born, when their ancestors showed the world the strength and resilience of their beautiful and brilliant minds. Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical text and Rafael Lopez’s dazzling art celebrate the extraordinary ability to lift ourselves up and imagine a better world

 

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes (Picture Book)

 

Publication date: October 12, 2021

Author Mary Lee Donovan

Illustrator Lian Cho

Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

My Thoughts:

This is a beautiful book about diverse communities around the world and the call to welcome the stranger in their own language, as well as to offer peace and refuge, especially with food and drink. The final blessing for the reader is just beautiful:

May you never know hunger. May peace fill your nights. May your children's children grow strong in the light. May the road rise to meet you, and the walls fall away. A hundred thousand welcomes I sing, I sign, I pray.

The back material of this book identifies the language origins, a note about pronunciation and notes from the author and the artist. I love how even picture book authors are punching back in their own way and I am honored to be able to read these.

From Mary Lee Donovan:

I am not a marcher. I am not a rally-er. I am not a fist shaker. I am not a knitter of hats or a waver of signs. My rage boils down, instead, to ink. This particular river of ink is my love song to our shared humanity and it is my protest against intolerance, injustice, and inhumanity. 

Me too! Thank you  Ms. Donovan. 

To add to the connections of welcome around the world, I wanted to share an ʻōlelo noʻeau or wise saying from my own native Hawaiian community:

He ʻai leo ʻole, he ʻīpuka hāmama. Food unaccompanied by a voice; a door always open. Said about the home of a hospitable person. The food can be eaten without earing a complaint from the owners, and the door is never closed to any visitor.

From the Publisher:

Welcome, friend. Welcome.

There are almost as many ways of making someone feel welcome as there are people on our planet. To welcome another is to give that person and yourself a chance at a new connection, a new friendship, and maybe even new eyes through which to view the world.

Journey around the globe as A Hundred Thousand Welcomes introduces the word for “welcome” in fourteen languages to illuminate a universal message of hope and acceptance. Mary Lee Donovan’s spare text is brought to life by Lian Cho’s boisterous, richly detailed illustrations.