Home (Picture Book)

 

Stars: 4 This picture book is both beautiful, buyable and easily used in the middle school classroom as a mentor text.

My Thoughts: 

This is an extended metaphor poem by one of my favorite YA authors, Matt De La Peña, on the different manifestations of home. Of course it is not a place. Of course it includes vital people and times and memories. However, what I also loved is that it also includes school and a teacher at the door of a classroom as home. I have met many students over my years who feel like school is their safe place and their home. I continue to remind my teacher candidates that this is a fact, not something made up to explain why it is so important to create a safe, loving space for learning and healing within the classroom, even in secondary. Even in college.  The author and illustrator do a superb job of bringing that home for readers.

In the middle school classroom, use this as a mentor text for an extended metaphor writing assignment. Better yet, use this as a skills lesson for essays to show how to continue to roll out an argument.

From the Publishers:

Home is a tired lullaby
and a late-night traffic that mumbles in
through a crack in your curtains.

Home is the faint trumpet of a distant barge
as your grandfather casts his line
from the edge of his houseboat.

With lyrical text and expressive artwork, Matt de la Peña and Loren Long celebrate the beauty and love found in every home, no matter its size. They show how a home is more than just a place . . . People can be a kind of home—a family and a community that cares for one another. And the natural world is another kind of home, a refuge we share with every living thing on Earth.

This deeply moving ode to the universal pull of home, whatever its form, is destined to become a new classic that will be cherished by readers of every age.

Publication Information:

Author: Matt De La Peña

Illustrator: Loren Long

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers (March 11, 2025)

Hardcover: 48 pages

The Blue Bowl Picturebook

 

Synopsis from the Publisher:

A young boy realizes, thanks to his family, that he can enjoy both his Chinese and North American cultures through his favourite dishes

Max loves his family’s Cantonese meals, like steamed rice and gai lan greens with oyster sauce, homemade dumplings, and scallion bread. But sometimes he can’t help thinking about French fries, tacos, and ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.

For his birthday dinner, Max is really hoping for spaghetti and meatballs, but instead he and his family are headed to Maa Maa and Ye Ye’s house for a celebration dinner—and Max is pretty sure that spaghetti won’t be served in the familiar blue bowls that came all the way from Hong Kong with his grandparents. But Max is delighted to discover that his understanding family has discovered a way to bring two cultures together with delicious dishes that are a combination of all the foods he loves.

Based on the author’s own experiences growing up, The Blue Bowl will speak to many children and adults alike with similar experiences and bring a new perspective to those who do not share in this experience. With deliciously eye-catching illustrations and descriptive, inviting text, readers will be reminded of all their favourite foods as they follow along with Max’s story.

My Thoughts:

 As a mixed race kid of mixed race parents, raising mixed race sons and now mixed race grandchildren, this book, The Blue Bowl, is a perfect love letter to families like mine. As I look in my kitchen cabinet and bring out some of the chawan (rice bowls) that I inherited from family members that have since passed, it really is about the food memories from their kitchen, and then how I am able to fuse those memories with the local fusion food I served to my own family. When my adult kids now ask for some of the dishware I have for their own homes, I am glad to give it because I know that the food connections that Max has with the blue bowl will be continued in my own family memories. I donʻt have the Cantonese blue bowls in my house, but my oldest son took all of my blue and white saimin bowls and he eats all of his meals, no matter what it is in those saimin bowls.

Another reason why I will definitely buy this book for my grandchildren is that Leung's poetry/text is so ʻono (delicious) and poignant. Some of the pointing images I found:

superhero cup. . .sparkly purple spoon. . .sesame-scented.  . .sweet-sour as well as the longer metaphoric description of ʻblue bowl mean. . .ʻ 

As we enter AAPI heritage month and as we enter the end of the school year and the beginning of summer, add this to the summer picturebook a day challenge. Picture books should be enjoyed just for the joy of reading rather than creating curriculum.  However, as a long time secondary English teacher who believes that picture books (and poetry) play a large part in secondary curriculum (not as a stand alone unit, but woven through every unit), I would be remiss to not put some thought to suggestions for curriculum using this book.

Suggestions for Curriculum & Classroom Use: 

I am stealing this formatting from ALAN (assembly on literature for adolescents of NCTE) reviews

Thematic Analysis: I talked about some of the themes in my thoughts, and I will list a few more below. However, keeping true to Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory, keep in mind that the reader and the text play important roles in the formation of meaning. Meaning, then for your students, as well as you as a reader is negotiated or created based on the relationship between the potential of the text and the reader's "experiential reservoir." This is why my meaning making around this book really has to do with my own dishware and family memories around food. Yours and your studentsʻ may be different and as we present a read aloud to middle school students, themes you did not think about may bubble up.

• Family
• Heritage
• Culture
• Identity
• Self-Worth (there is a small nod to the idea of Asian kids bringing their home foods for lunch and classmates saying something about it - like it stinks. There are other picture books that talk about that if but this one shows Max being self-assured and not caring about those remarks)

Essential Questions

• What are the foods your family cooks or eats for special days?
• What is your ideal birthday meal?
• What do special foods, dishes, items in the house represent for you?

Teaching Strategies

• Free writing for fluency
• Poetry writing
• Craft lessons on things like alliteration, extended metaphor, writing through inanimate objects (like Ted Kooserʻs Abandoned Farmhouse)
• As a counterpoint to another picture book, Thao by Thao Lam

Book Details:

Author and Illustrator: Flo Leung

Publisher: Owlkids (March 12, 2024)

Hardcover: 32 pages

ISBN #: 978-1771474634

Genre: Picture book 

Beautiful You, Beautiful Me (Picture Book)

From the Publisher:

A child who looks different from her mother finds beauty and belonging in this new book from the creator of New York Times bestseller I Sang You Down from the Stars

Izzy’s favorite place to be is in Mama’s arms—skin to skin, safe and warm. One night, cuddled up on Mama’s lap, Izzy notices something she’s never noticed before: her skin is the color of chocolate, but Mama’s skin is the color of sand.

When Izzy realizes she’s different from Mama in other ways, too, she feels sad and confused. She wants to be beautiful like Mama! But Mama addresses Izzy’s disappointment with a gentle, loving refrain: You’re part of me, and I’m part of you. I’m beautiful like me, and you’re beautiful like you. Finding lessons from nature and repeating her affirming message, Mama encourages Izzy to see her own unique beauty.

This story about a multiracial child navigating identity and belonging draws from author Tasha Spillett-Sumner’s own experience growing up as an Afro-Indigenous girl. Lyrical text and warm, lively illustrations show Izzy’s journey as she learns to celebrate the differences that make her uniquely beautiful, and the connection to her mother that transcends physical traits.  

My Thoughts:

I visited my father in Minneapolis last week and he shared a story about picking up his granddaughter from school, Charlie Kai. My dad is half Japanese and half native Hawaiian. My stepmother is Norwegian, so Charlie Kai's mom, my sister is half Norwegian, 1/4 Hawaiian and 1/4 Japanese. Charlie Kai's dad is a mixture of ethnicities, but all of them Caucasian/white. Charlie Kai, then looks white. So when my dad, her grandfather stopped at the school to pick up Charlie, the educational aide looked at all the little preschoolers waiting to go home and just could not find any Asian or part Asian kids. He had to call her by name and she came running but I wonder if the educational aid had to make a quick decision to believe a 4-year old that this was indeed her Papa because nothing in Charlie looks like she belongs to my dad (eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, coloring. . .)

This book is for the multitude of mixed race children who do not always look like their families. It talks about love beyond looks. 

Ways to use this in the middle school classroom: 

• mentor text about identity
• discussion text about family
• starter text for a YA novel about unique families

Publication Information:

Author: Tasha Spillett-Sumner

Illustrator: Salini Perera

Publisher: Owlkids 

Publication date: October 18, 2022

The Tunnel (Picture Book)

 

My Thoughts:

If you think of picture books as spoken work poems with the graphics supplying the mood and harmonies, then this book The Tunnel by Sarah Howden is a short riff of the blues in a late night club. 

A boy in his room sits alone and holds his sadness in his body and a shovel in his hand. Despite loving women that try to talk to him, he needs to dig and dig and dig. Which he does. 

This is a story about patience by adults to give children safe space to self heal. 

Publication date:March 15, 2022 by Owlkids Books

From the Publisher:

A spare, powerful story about taking space to process difficult feelings 

After something bad happens, a boy feels sad and gray. Mom and Aunt Cheryl try to talk about it, but he feels like running away. So he picks up a shovel and starts digging a tunnel from his room, deep down and into the backyard. Out there, far from the lights of the house, it’s dark enough that he could disappear. But the quiet distance also gives him the space he needs to see his family’s love and start returning home.

As he heads back, the journey upward is different. He notices familiar details and tunes into his senses. The tunnel isn’t so scary this time. The boy emerges into his room just as Mom peeks in. When she notices a twig in his hair, he is ready to talk about the tunnel and finds warmth in her gentle acknowledgment: “You came back.”

Quiet, emotionally resonant text is paired with grayscale drawings accented with red in this thoughtfully layered exploration of coping with tough emotions, and taking time and space to heal.

The Traveling Camera: Lewis Hine and the Flight to End Child Labor

 

My Thoughts:

Using the words of photographer Lewis Hines (1874-1940), this picture book gives voice to the copious notes that Hines took over his long career documenting America through his photos. Hines influenced many policies around child labor law because he not only shared his hundreds of photos, but as an investigative photographer, he also takes detailed notes about each child he meets. In 1916-17, he travels more than fifty thousand miles, and from 1908-17, Lewis' pictures helped gain nationwide support for child labor reform. 

For the teacher:

As a teacher educator, I am in the middle and secondary schools to observe at least 20 lessons every semester. For one of my social studies candidates, his lesson was to do a one lesson loo at the industrial revolution . It was a lot of information in 90 minutes, however, what his 9th graders keyed in on were the photographs of children working in factories (perhaps photographed by Lewis Hines). Giving this picture book to my student teacher would allow the learning to continue for those students that are already engaged in the subject so that they could learn more. The back material for this picture book, including more photos and source material is the perfect resource for an i-search project.

From the Publishers:

Stunning visuals and poetic text combine to tell the inspiring story of Lewis Hine (1874–1940), a teacher and photographer who employed his art as a tool for social reform. Working for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Hine traveled the country, taking pictures of children as young as five toiling under dangerous conditions in cotton mills, seafood canneries, farms, and coal mines. He often wore disguises to sneak into factories, impersonating a machinery inspector or traveling salesman. He said, “If I could tell this story in words, I wouldn't need to lug a camera.” His poignant pictures attracted national attention and were instrumental in the passage of child labor laws. The Traveling Camera includes extensive back matter with timelines, original photographs, and a bibliography.

Kunoichi Bunny: Wordless Children's Book

 

Publication date: March 15, 2022

My Thoughts:

I am releasing these posts a little earlier than the one month prior that I usually set for pre-released books, however, November is picture book month so I wanted to share early.

This wordless picture book is about a young child, Saya, out on a mini adventure with her dad and her Kunoichi bunny. This can be used for writing workshop craft lessons on inference. What is happening? how do you know? Saya seems to save many people along their adventure. Does her father know what she has done? How do you know? What do you think about the last panel? How does that strengthen/weaken your original prediction about what the father understands about the bunny?

Illustrator Braydon Sato is a Japanese Canadian illustrator who counts Japanese television shows and manga as his art inspiration style. It explains why I thought this was a Japanese book because of its aesthetic styling. I appreciate that Orca books have that international vibe.

Thank you to Orca Books for access to these digital advanced reader copies.

From the Publisher:

The sun is out and the birds are chirping. It’s a beautiful day for Saya, her dad and her well-loved stuffed bunny, Kunoichi, to go to the park.

On their way, Saya stealthily stops a fight by flinging her floppy four-legged ninja-bunny between two snarling cats. Later on, on the bus, Saya throws Kunoichi under the wheels of a child’s stroller, halting its dangerous roll toward the stairs. Dad doesn't notice as Saya uses Kunoichi to save the day time and time again on their outing and on the bus home, proving small actions can have a great impact.

This wordless picture book in graphic novel format by award-winning author Sara Cassidy and illustrator Brayden Sato will bring joy to every reader who believes in the magic of stuffed animals.

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, Picture Book

 

Update:

Jan. 25, 2022: This book got a lot of press and a lot of love at NCTE in November. NCTE is the national council for teachers of English. I wanted to include some teacher resources that are too good not to share.  The 1619 K-12 Curriculum Guide is created by Penguin Random House and is comprehensive and rich. 

Publication Date:

November 16, 2021

Authors: Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Illustrator: Nikkolas Smith

From the Publisher:

A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.

 
And the people planted dreams and hope,
willed themselves to keep
living, living.
 
And the people learned new words
for love
for friend
for family

for joy
for grow
for home.
 
With powerful verse and striking illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, Born on the Water provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.

My Thoughts:

I was watching Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the other night on the show Finding Your Roots. It is a genealogy show where they take celebrities and tell some things they found out about their ancestors based on historical records, news accounts, etc. If the white celebrities were in America before the European immigration, they many times had slave owners in their background. On the other hand, if they are African American, the stories usually stop at the point where their ancestor is sold. I don't think there is a way to trace back to Africa. 

This book in verse introduces a new to me term to describe those first babies that were born to slaves in America as the people who were born on the water. That phrase holds stories of survival and survivance. It is a powerful image.

**UPDATE 11/18/21 I am watching a session by the journalist and co-author Nikole Hannah-Jones and illustrator Nikkolas Smith at NCTE (national council for teachers of English) and they are talking about the extensive research put into this book, but also linking it to Ms. Hannah-Jones' larger 1619 Project: A new origin story. This book of essays, poems, and works of fiction highlights key moment of oppression, struggle and resistance. It demands of us as readers to look into how the 1619 act of bringing slaves to America continues to affect every part of contemporary American society. As a journalist, Ms. Hannah-Jones has done a lot of research to bring the factual truth out in order to locate the origins of the first African slaves, including their names as well as the fact that they were from Angola, they spoke Portuguese, they were literate, and most of them were already baptized as Catholics. 

What Ms. Hannah-Jones hopes to see in classrooms: Every American needs to know this origin story because it is an origin story for America not just an origin story for Black Americans. We can see each other in everyone's stories. There is growth when we read stories about other people and have empathy through those stories.

To educators:

I know this is a particularly challenging time to do an already challenging job. Educators saved my life. School is what saved me. This time calls for courage. There are people who don't want us to teach our children the truth. Our job as educators is to stand up in the face of people who want to keep us from teaching our children the things that they need to go out in this world as good citizens.  (Nikole Hannah-Jones) 

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

 

Chaiwala!

 

Publication date: October 15, 2021

From the Publisher:

When their train makes a 10-minute stop at the station in Jaipur, a young girl and her mother hurry to get in line for a cup of chai. While the girl waits for her mug of milky spiced tea, readers are treated to the sights, sounds, and smells of the Chaiwala’s cart. The aroma of ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon sticks swirls in the air. Tea leaves rustle, milk bubbles, and the hot drink is poured back and forth until―clink!―the cups are filled and placed on the stand. With a biscuit and a rusk added to their order, it’s time to find a spot to sit and enjoy!

Inspired by the author’s childhood visits to India, Chaiwala! celebrates the pleasures of taking time for food, family, and tradition―even for a brief moment. Illustrated in lively cut-paper collages and filled with scrumptious sensory details, this book is just like a cup of chai―warm, comforting, and good to the last drop.

My Thoughts:

This book is a gorgeous feast of sensory language. I have never had chai in India, but I know a little something about food at train stations in Japan so the text by Priti Birla Maheshwari just mixed in with my own memories of rushing in line or ordering food from the train as vendors went by with their boxes of yumminess.

I breathe in the scents of /crushed ginger and cardamom,/cloves and cinnamon sticks--/plus a dash of black pepper./Mmmm!

The cut paper collage illustrations just add to the magic of this book. I especially love the page where the Chaiwala is mixing the spices together with his mortar and pestle. The whole cloves and cinnamon, weave into the 3-D scent cloud of the spices and oils traveling into the air and teasing the young girl's nose. Beautiful!

 What to do with this in secondary:

This is a gem because as a writing workshop mentor text in secondary, this book can be used to model show don't tell sensory language as well as how for AAPI and BIPOC (Asian American, Pacific Islander; Black, Indigenous, and people of color) authors, food and writing about food is not just about the food, but also about identity, place, family, and culture. 

Other books to add to the resources for this exact "lesson,":

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal

Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore and Kristi Valiant

I will find more, but add this to the classic Patricia Polacco story Thunder Cake about her cake adventures with her Babushka. 

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.

 

 

 

Dumpling Day - Picture Book

 Publication date: September 17, 2021

Words by: Meera Siriam

Art by: Inés de Antuñano

Recipes by: Laurel Paula Jackson

My Thoughts:

In one story about dumpling potluck, we see diverse families not only expanding our definition of dumpling, but giving readers a glimpse into family kitchens with The short text is a counting dumpling book that includes little taste hits followed by actual recipes and real photos. 

Picture Books in Secondary Ideas:

Food as culture as writing inspiration 

Expanding a definition of one thing  like dumplings = shish-barak with baba, bourekas with Saba, gyoza with oji-san 

Creating a recipe book with family stories and pictures

Anything that gets culture, food and writing with a link to community

Tomatoes for Neela (Picture Book)

 

Publication date: August 31, 2021

Author: Padma Lakshmi

Illustrator: Juana Martinez-Neal

My Thoughts:

I grabbed this book sample at a children's book conference and I am just excited. I really admire Padma Lakshmi's point of view through her work, through her writing and even through her IG. She is about cooking with family, both here and not here. She is about enjoying fresh ingredients and passing that love on to her daughter. She is also about an international palette. In addition, she is a great writer.

Add to that the beautiful illustrations by Juana Martinez-Neal and this is a fresh picture book to watch out for. I am adding this to my foodie reading list. I just feel like cooking some tomatoes and picking some hot peppers in the yard now. 

Teaser:

Pigskins to Paintbrushes (Nonfiction Picture Book)

 

Publication date: August 17, 2021

Author and illustrator: Don Tate

This biography about the late athlete and artist Ernie Barnes is a fabulous window into an American success story. Ernest Barnes, Jr. was badly bullied in school for being different. He was not athletic in a time when athleticism in black boys was a way out of the ghetto. Instead, he loved to observe beauty and draw, but he also lived in a place where blacks were not allowed in museums. His mother, a domestic, worked for a lawyer who let young Ernie look through his art books in his library. In high school, a coach saw his sketchbook and encouraged him to get into bodybuilding which led to Barnes playing football in high school, college and the AFL. His art, which he was able to do after his early retirement, has a dynamic flow of bodies that comes from his observations and sketching while playing sports. 

This is a new person for me and although he died in 2009, I got to meet him and his art for the first time through this children's book and spent hours reading articles about him and his pieces like "Sugar Shack" below.

Lunch Every Day (Picture Book)

 

Publication date: September 7, 2021

My Thoughts:

The author's note on the back cover includes a picture of long time educator Jim Perez who has been running innovative bullying prevention programs in Southern California. This is a story about Jim as a bully in his younger years and the unasked for charity and grace that was shown to him. This kind of intervention of kindness and compassionate action is what helped him to become the leader that he is today, and this simple picture book says just enough of the story to show all of that about him. 

As a middle school teacher, this picture book is a great way to have conversations about why people do what they do. Even in the pre-service, teacher preparation program that I teach in, this is a great way to really talk about how punishment does not work, but compassion and action does. 

Another thought: what a great model text to use as a way to start an oral history project in the classroom and focus on one pivotal story that changes the trajectory of your interviewees life. It also can help students try and learn from their own pivotal moment by writing and/or drawing. 

From the Publisher:

Every day Jimmy takes ‘Skinny Kid’s’ lunch at school. No way will he be caught dead standing in that FREE LUNCH line. Even when he’s called into the principal’s office, Jimmy just shrugs. “Yeah. Whatever.” Until a surprising act of kindness stops him in his tracks. For a split second a door cracks open into Jimmy’s heart. Who knows? Maybe he’ll just kick that door right open.