It’s that time of year again! Kids are heading off to school and parents are celebrating the end of summer vacation. It is also time for me to clean and organize a bit before settling into my fall and winter work routine. I have been accumulating books all year and it’s time to share some of those with you! So, today I am giving away four books to help your young reader get into the school year.
The Granddaughter Necklace by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and Bagram Ibatoulline, an uplifting tale of love, kinship, and gifts, passed down through generations.
There are moments in each person’s life that we take great care to remember: the pride of a young girl standing up for herself for the first time; the heartbreak of leaving one’s country and family for a new beginning; the thrill of getting ready for the piano recital of a lifetime.
In Sharon Dennis Wyeth’s family these moments were marked with the passing on of the Granddaughter Necklace: not a fancy piece of jewelry, but a precious one, worn smooth by the touch of mothers and grandmothers, each with her own story to tell.
With a historical sweep that reaches back to Ireland and to Africa, and an intimacy that resides in every family’s treasured stories, Wyeth tells the tale of one family’s journey from the old world to the new, from the past to the present, and from mother to daughter.
Here’s a book that we feel will be passed on from generation to generation too, read in laps and in groups, opening conversations about our own necklaces of memory.
My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., written by Martin Luther King, III, illustrated by AG Ford
What was it like growing up as a son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? This picture book memoir, My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King III, provides insight into one of history’s most fascinating families and into a special bond between father and son.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King III was one of those four little children mentioned in Martin Luther King’s groundbreaking “I Have a Dream” speech. In this memoir, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son gives an intimate look at the man and the father behind the civil rights leader. Mr. King’s remembrances show both his warm, loving family and a momentous time in American history.
You Never Heard of Willie Mays, written by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Terry Windener
Many believe baseball great Willie Mays to be the best player that ever lived. He hit 660 home runs (fourth best of all time), had a lifetime batting average of .302, and is second only to Babe Ruth on The Sporting News‘s list of “Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players.”
In Jonah Winter and Terry Widener’s fascinating picture book biography, young readers can follow Mays’s unparalleled career from growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, to playing awe-inspiring ball in the Negro Leagues and then the Majors, where he was center fielder for the New York (later San Francisco) Giants. Complete with sidebars filled with stats, here is a book for all baseball lovers, young and old.
“The Say Hey Kid had style to spare, and so does this irrepressible book.” —Booklist, Starred
and A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, written by Renée Watson, illustrated by Shadra Strickland (that’s me)
New Orleans is known as a place where hurricanes happen . . . but that’s just one side of the story.
Children of New Orleans tell about their experiences of Hurricane Katrina through poignant and straightforward free verse in this fictional account of the storm. As natural and man-made disasters become commonplace, we increasingly need books like this one to help children contextualize and discuss difficult and often tragic events.
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