The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez by Robin Yardi (Carolrhoda Books, 2016) is the story of Mateo, a boy who thinks of himself as a knight with magical powers, his new best friend, Ashwin, and a couple of … shall we say… interesting skunks.
Mateo swears that the skunks not only stole his beloved, old trike, but actually ride the thing around the neighborhood while talking to one another. I know. I know. It sounds impossible, but I’m telling you… just read the book because Mateo’s voice is so earnest, so genuine, so believable that within the first few paragraphs, you, too, will have slipped into a magical world where Mateo and Ashwin are knights, skunks can talk, and the things that make life hard – like growing apart from your old best friend and letting go of some of your favorite memories of childhood – can and do work themselves out in a midnight war between raccoons and skunks and a couple of boys on a mission. Add in one sweet and lovely relationship between Mateo and his younger sister, and you’ve got a winning story, not to be missed!
From Publishers Weekly: “Picture book author Yardi (They Just Know: Animal Instincts), in her first novel, delivers an entertaining story of sibling loyalty, friendship struggles, and the sometimes vexing passage into adolescence. “
Be sure to check back Monday when the ReaderKidZ talk with Robin about her latest book!
DIANNE: Congratulations on your debut, BEARS MAKE THE BEST READING BUDDIES. What a fun book! Having spent so many years teaching kids how to read, I appreciate how you’ve nailed all the details – slipping in “buddy reading” tips like “They sit side by side, knee to knee, and put the book between you, so you both can see.”
You’ve obviously spent plenty of time in the classroom and know that kids love hearing the “story behind the story.” What was the spark that got this story idea rolling?
CARMEN: Abig warm bear hug to ReaderKidZ for featuring us. Thank you! It’s funny I tell kids that you never know where your story ideas are going to come from so always be on the lookout. The spark that got this story rolling was two-fold. I was working on a nonfiction picture book project at the time about spirit bears, a rare sub-species of the american black bear. I had bears on the brain. And I was up volunteering at my children’s school when they were assigning kindergartners their fifth grade reading buddies and I thought, wouldn’t that be funny if a girl came to school with her own live bear as her reading buddy. And that my friends is how I came up with the concept.
DIANNE: You’ve captured an important piece of reading in the early grades – paired reading – in such a humorous way… Bears sniffing out good books, using their “super-sensitive ears” for listening while a child sounds out the words, and offering “warm bear hugs” when the reading is challenging. Kids are sure to relate! (Oooh…! Bears make the best writing buddies, too! I can see teachers inviting young writers to write their own Bear/reading/writing
Students are always curious about how writers spend their days. What does your writing routine look like? Any writing tips for your budding readers?
CARMEN: My best writing is in the morning when I’m freshest. Exercise helps my brain work better so I try and fit in an early walk before I start writing. Then for me it’s the old adage of keeping my butt in my chair. No lumbering. No sniffing out a good book (not now). I keep my paws on the keyboard and type. I do like to write free hand with a pencil too. So many times, I’ll rewrite a ton of words on a piece of paper to brainstorm. I also like to revise one sentence over and over again until it feels right. Then I read it out loud to see if it rolls off my tongue. Do I stumble over any words? If I do, it’s back to rewriting. I don’t write every day because I also work with award-winning authors and illustrators and bring them into schools, libraries and special events. So I must balance my days with email correspondence, contracts, and talking on the phone with event planners and librarians. I LOVE librarians don’t you?
DIANNE: A first book is tremendously exciting, and busy! Book launches, school visits, and the like. But as writers, we’re always also working on the *next* story. What can your readers look forward to?
CARMEN:Well, I’m happy to say there’s another BEARS book in the works. So if you enjoy Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies then ROAR about it! While you’re at it, ROAR about READING and always get lost in the magic of stories!
DIANNE: Thanks for stopping by ReaderKidZ, Carmen! I know we can count on our readers to ROAR about reading BEARS!
Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies (Capstone, 2016) is propelled by the power of persuasion. In it, Adelaide wants to convince her teacher, Mrs. Fitz-Pea, to allow her reading buddy to participate in their classroom reading project. The problem is that Adelaide’s reading buddy is a bear. Not a tiny teddy bear, mine you. A real life, massive and mildly-mannered grizzly bear! Though Mrs. Fitz-Pea adamantly refuses her request, persistent Adelaide presents a litany of charming reasons why Bear should join in. The most poignant argument Adelaide presents is that, should a new reader get frustrated, Bear will wrap them up in a comforting hug. Truth be told, like many early readers, the skill of sounding out words does not come easily for Adelaide. And, Bear understands her struggle like no one else can.
Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies is Carmen Oliver’s debut as a picture book author. Her thoughtful text paired with Jean Claude’s engaging illustrations make Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies the perfect supportive tale for any novice reader.
“Well don’t just stand there, Adelaide. Show that bear in.” ~ Mrs. Fitz-Pea
Enjoy a downloadable, Educator/Activity Guide HERE!
I love BEAR AND BUNNY (Candlewick Press), written by Daniel Pinkwater and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand for so many reasons. The biggest is the fact that if I didn’t know better, I’d swear the author was five-years-old. I’ve been listening to Pinkwater on NPR for many years, however, and have also read his books, so I know he’s not. (I have also seen his photograph. Let’s just say he looks a bit older than five, although there’s something in his expression …)
It’s rare to find a book for very young children that reflects their inner thoughts and longings as perfectly as BEAR AND BUNNY. (At least, rare for me.) The voice of these characters rings absolutely true. The things they say, the sweet misinformation they hilariously exchange, their amazement over the tiniest things they find in the forest and their joy in sharing them with one another … Well, show me two five-year-olds in the backyard and Bear and Bunny would be them.
First, there’s this:
You see, the bear is sure the bunny is a very small bear. The bunny is sure the bear is a very large bunny. This is not so, but it would be too hard to explain It to them. Besides, it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter. When does who a friend is ever matter to a five-year-old?
Bear and Bunny like to do everything together. They like to sing. They like to talk things over.
Sometimes, they go their separate ways and tell one another what they discovered:
“What did you see in the forest today?” asked the bear. “I saw a caterpillar.” “You didn’t! What was it doing?” “It was crawling along.” “Imagine that! I wish I had seen it.”
One day, they decide they’d like a pet who they can feed and who will love them. I won’t reveal the results of their search, but suffice it to say that it’s charming and silly and touching and oh, so very five-years-old.
The wonderful illustrator, Will Hillenbrand, said: “This bear gave me his paw. As we walked and talked, he showed me how to see his world … Now you see what I saw.” And do we ever. Two of the sweetest, silliest animals-who-are-not-the-same-but-think-they-are, who happily take us all by the hand and show us how to see their world.
This is a picture book children will want to hear again and again and parents will want to read every bit as often. Everything that’s as wonderful and as innocent and as constantly amazed by the world as a five-year-old permeates every sentence.
Each year, the Bank Street Children’s Book Committee reads all books published for young readers, and grants three awards, one in fiction, one in nonfiction, one in poetry. Here they are!
During World War II in the city of London, nine-year-old Ada, crippled because of a twisted foot and abused by her mother, escapes their “prison apartment” to join her brother as trains loaded with children leave the city and head for the country, hopefully, to protect the children from bombs. Ada grows in spirit and strength, realizes her dream of riding fast and free on horseback, and trusting that someone could really love her. “The Josette Frank Award for Fiction honors a book or books of outstanding merit in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally.”
Fannie Lou Hamer was a champion of civil rights from childhood until her death in 1977. Her speech at the Democratic National Convention and heard across the country on television motivated many to vote Freedom! “The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award honors an information book that serves as an inspiration to young readers.”
Marilyn Nelson,a Newbery Honor medalist, Coretta Scott King Medalist and National Book Award nominee, brings alive the long lost community of Seneca Village, now an area known in New York City, Manhattan, as Central Park. “The Claudia Lewis Award is honors the best poetry book of the year for young readers.”
“For every STORY, there is a BEGINNING and an END, but what happens IN BETWEEN makes ALL the DIFFERENCE.”
DIANNE: Let’s talk about your newest book, ONE DAY, THE END. What a marvel! I love it for so many reasons – the clever, tight text; the possibilities it offers young writers; the exuberant illustrations. As picture books go, I’d say it’s out-of-the-box- genius. I understand your grandson was instrumental in the inspiration behind the book. Can you tell us about the genesis of the book?
REBECCA: Thank you, Dianne. Funny, I’ve always loved the word *marvel.* Most likely because of Marvel Comics.My brother always had stacks of them. Words alone always make such connections in life. But back to the book. It started with a moment in the car when my grandson was 4 or 5. We were waiting on someone and he was bored and asked me to tell him a story. I must’ve been preoccupied and told him I would tell him a story later but he kept asking in that way children do, and so I just turned around and (channeling my dad, who always told me short, silly stories at bedtime instead of ever reading one) said, “One day I lost my dog. I found him. The end.” And he laughed and laughed. “Tell me another one, grandma.” Hmmm. “One day I went to school. I came home. The end.” And he laughed so hard again. Right then whoever we were waiting on came out and we drove away, but I knew I had an idea to work on when I got home because he seemed so tickled with the brevity of those two line stories. So it was an idea. A concept. I played around with things a dog would do when he runs away and wild and humorous things that could happen during one day at a school, then put it away. A writer friend convinced me to pull it out of the files and work on it, but I knew that only a great editor and illustrator could make it work. And that’s exactly what happened. Editor Rebecca Davis along with fabulous illustrator Fred Koehler helped create a truly special book.
DIANNE: In addition to a growing collection of picture books, you’re also an amazing poet whose poems can be found in your published collections, as well as in many anthologies. Can you talk briefly about your process? I’m especially interested in hearing about the differences in the way you approach writing a poetry collection/poem vs. writing a picture book. Do you sit down with an idea for a collection or poem and begin to explore your topic? What does that process look like? How is the process similar or different from writing a picture book?
REBECCA: It’s all fairly organic I would say. When I begin to explore a poem either for my own book or for an anthology invitation, the process starts off all over the place; I let myself wander and wonder and make lists of ideas and words while I have fun brainstorming. Once I get something to a certain stage then I can begin to mold it and the real dedicated work begins; the structure, the rhythm, etc. Then I polish until I get as close to a finished feeling as possible. Sometimes I let things sit for a long time and keep going back to it. Sometimes it comes fairly quick and easy. I approach books of poetry in both ways; I might explore a topic while taking notes and thinking of possible individual poems, and I have also gathered poems I have already written and see if I can group them into a theme of some sort and then add new poems to the mix.
I would say a picture book is often less organic than a poem. But not always. I am finding that the process is a hard thing to nail down with words.
DIANNE: I’m not sure you’ll remember this, but many, many years ago (close to 20!), you spoke at a California Reading Association Conference workshop in Long Beach. You shared examples of your “brainstorming pages” as you worked on fleshing out the poem, “Paper Clips” for Lee Bennett Hopkins’ anthology, SCHOOL SUPPLIES: A Book of Poems. Since that time, your poems have been published in many other anthologies and you’ve published picture books, concept books and easy readers (Peanut and Pearl), as well.
Each genre has its own “requirements” and “structure,” and all are greatly benefited by poetic techniques, but… do you have a favorite? Do you find one easier? Harder? Less or more time-consuming?
REBECCA: I do remember. (I remember meeting you there, and then getting to know you and spend time with you out at a Highlights poetry workshop!) Writing poetry will always be my favorite way of putting words and heart on paper. Having said that, I truly love writing picture books and focusing on the rhythms, the lyricism, the characters. Having said THAT, I adore writing the playful and childlike easy readers and concept books. None are easy. Yet all are easy. As simple as something looks, it takes work to build it – yet if you love what you do, all the work brings you joy and so for that reason it has an ease and a comfort level to it.
DIANNE: Your next, THE KNOWING BOOK, is arriving on bookstore shelves in just a few days. With illustrations by Matthew Cordell, it looks to be another wonderful book. Congratulations! What else can readers look forward to?
REBECCA:Thanks Dianne. Matthew Cordell’s illustrations are so beautiful. THE KNOWING BOOK is very special to me and I hope it will be to many people of all ages, from small ones to bigger ones and all those in-between. On the horizon are two rhyming picture books with Holt, the first to be illus. by Sachiko Yoshikawa, and another Grumbles book called Grumbles from the Town: Mother Goose Voices with a Twist, written with Jane Yolen (Wordsong/BMP) and illus. by Angela Matteson. I am also working on revisions of three books under contract with BMP, one rhyming picture book, one prose picture book, and a collection of poems. Thank you for inviting me to talk with your readers on ReaderKidZ.
The top 25 books selected as ILA- Notable Books for a Global Society are engaging, many-layered, diverse, and amazing. The variety of topics extends from bullying (RED) to women’s rights told in picture-book form (DRUM DREAM GIRL) and novel-in-verse (AUDACITY) and human rights in a plethora of forms: SITTING BULL; IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CRAZY HORSE; DROWNED CITY; MY STORY, MY DANCE, and many more powerful books listed below.
Ask your local library for these books. I promise that you will be amazed at all you will learn, including new and diverse perspectives of American and global history.
The goal of this list of Notable Books and the Mission of the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group is to promote the educational use of children’s books by focusing on recently published children’s literature, supportive professional books, issues relative to children’s literature, and current research findings.
At ReaderKidZ we will review several of the Notable Books, beginning with two of the middle-grade books in this post. A complete list of the 25 books are found at the end.
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CRAZY HORSE written by Joseph M. Marshall III and illustrated by Jim Yellowhawk challenges readers to relook and rethink history and heroism while riding along on a road trip with Jimmy McClean and his Grandpa Nyles. Descriptions of battles and stories about the great Lakota warrior and leader are presented in historical context. Crazy Horse’s commitment to protect his people from the illegal appropriation of their homeland is an uplifting story of selfless courage.
Kirkus Review writes: This powerful introduction to a great warrior and leader invites readers to ponder the meaning of “hero.” (with author’s note, glossary, bibliography)
BREAKTHROUGH: How Three People Saved “Blue Babies” and Changed Medicine Forever written by Jim Murphy reads like a dramatic page-turning mystery. A master at weaving an intriguing story while presenting important and often “buried” facts, Jim Murphy describes the dramatic story of one of the most difficult heart operations ever performed, an operation on “blue babies” that continues to save the lives of thousands of infants. The story is also several stories that includes discrimination, prejudice, and professional jealousies.
Here is the entire list of the 25 Notables 2016:
AUDACITY
by Melanie Crowder
Penguin Random House
BREAKTHROUGH: HOW THREE PEOPLE SAVED “BLUE BABIES” AND CHANGED MEDICINE FOREVER
by Jim Murphy
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
DROWNED CITY: HURRICANE KATRINA & NEW ORLEANS
by Don Brown
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ORBITING JUPITER
by Gary B. Schmidt
Clarion Books
RED
by Jan De Kinder; Translated by Laura Watkinson
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
DRUM DREAM GIRL: HOW ONE GIRL’S COURAGE CHANGED MUSIC
by Margarita Engle; illus. by Rafael López
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
MY STORY, MY DANCE: ROBERT BATTLE’S JOURNEY TO ALVIN AILEY
by Lesa Cline-Ransome; illus. by James E. Ransome
Simon & Schuster
ECHO
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Scholastic Press
FUNNY BONES: POSADA AND HIS DAY OF THE DEAD CALAVERAS
by Duncan Tonatiuh
Harry N. Abrams
GAME CHANGER: JOHN McCLENDON AND THE SECRET GAME
by John Coy; illus. by Randy DuBurke
Carolrhoda Books
GEORGE
by Alex Gino
Scholastic
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CRAZY HORSE
By Joseph Marshall III, illustrated by Jim Yellowhawk
Abrams: Amulet
JUNA’S JAR
by Jane Bahk; Illlus. By Felicia Hoshino.
Lee & Low
LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET
by Matt De La Peña
Penguin/G.P. Putnam
MAYA’S BLANKET/LE MANTA DE MAYA
by Monica Brown; Illus. by David Diaz
Lee & Low
RUBY ON THE OUTSIDE
by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Simon & Schuster
SITTING BULL: LAKOTA WARRIOR AND DEFENDER OF HIS PEOPLE
by S. D. Nelson
Abrams
STELLA BY STARLIGHT
by Sharon Draper
Simon & Schuster
STONE ANGEL
by Jane Yolen; illus. by Katie May Green
Philomel
THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR CELEBRATIONS
Sylvia Vardell & Janet Wong, Eds.
Pomelo Books
TIGER BOY
by Mitali Perkins
Charlesbridge
TWO WHITE RABBITS
by Jairo Buitrago, illus. by Rafael Yockteng; trans. by Elisa Amado
Groundwood
TUCKY JO AND LITTLE HEART
by Patricia Polacco
Simon & Schuster
WANGARI MAATHAI: THE WOMAN WHO PLANTED MILLIONS OF TREES
by Franck Prévot; illus. by Aurélia Fronty
Charlesbridge
VOICE OF FREEDOM: FANNIE LOU HAMER: THE SPIRIT OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
by Carol Boston Weatherford; Illus. by Ekua Holmes
Candlewick
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.