THE REMEMBER BALLOONS by Jessie Oliveros and HOW THEY CROAKED by Georgia Bragg and Kevin O'Malley

We began with our picture book, The Remember Balloons by Jessie Oliveros. A few of our readers had a problem with the idea of using balloons as a metaphor for the memories of a lifetime as a little boy visited with his beloved grandpa who told about the many wonderful memories of his life, including those that included the boy himself. Then the balloons began to float away, until there were none left in Grandpa's hand. Most of us felt that the idea of the "memory balloons" floating away was understandable for young children, especially those who could be dealing with an older person who might be in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease. We liked the illustrations which were mostly black-and-white, except for the colorful balloons, and we liked the interracial family and how the drawings of each of the memories were highlighted. As the little boy worried about why his grandpa was forgetting things, and even him, we liked how his mom explained that now he would 'carry' the balloons -- and the memories -- in the form of stories he could tell. We felt this story could also be useful as a prompt for children to create and draw their own "memory balloons."

 Our reactions to our longer book, How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg & Kevin O'Malley were generally positive. We liked the way the writer used humor and many gory details to explain, in chronological order, how nineteen very famous men and women, from King Tut through Albert Einstein died. Most of their deaths were due to the lack of medical knowledge during the long-ago times when they lived. We liked the 2-or-3-page explanations of scientific or medical facts following each vignette, and we also liked the exaggerated, almost cartoon-like drawings of each person in the throes of their misery. A couple of readers felt that it would have been a good idea to also emphasize why each person was famous and their contributions to the world, as well as an accurate drawing or photo so that readers could learn what they actually looked like. One reader mentioned that her 4th-grade grandson LOVED this book, to the extent that he kept shouting, "Hey Mom!!" in the middle of reading (even tho' his mom was trying to rest!) We felt that most young readers, from fourth grade through middle school would be similarly fascinated by this book. We also had input from a REAL doctor, who also loved the book, and didn't question any of its factual exposition. We felt the book would be a good starting point to encourage young readers to explore the lives of these luminaries by reading additional factual biographies about them. We also liked the lists of source materials and the suggestions for further reading at the end.