WONDER WALKERS by Micha Archer and YOUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE by Jason Chin

We had a great discussion of our two picture books at our December Zoom meeting. We began with Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer. We all loved this book. We loved the fact that it dealt with a young sister and brother who were exploring their world on their own, and asking their own questions about it -- without any adults telling them what to look for/at. We loved their closeness, and they way they communicated and understood each other. We loved the fantastic colorful multi-faceted collage illustrations which showed the wonder of the world around them -- as they wondered about it. (We also loved the dual meaning of the word 'wonder'!) We thought that these illustrations, which showed such painstaking detail, were a wonder! We wondered if Archer had done them all by hand OR if she had used digital availabilities. We thought it was the children who actually made every picture meaningful with their bright, inquisitive faces. As for the text, one reader said she became a bit bored with the continual questions, but others felt that the economical text told so much....with the phrases, "I wonder" and "Me too" popping up in the middle of the book, and then again at the very end. We thought this was a great read-aloud, and would be very useful in home and classroom situations in helping young children to become more observant of the world around them. A 'thumbs-up' all the way!

We were equally impressed with our second picture book, Your Place in the Universe by Jason Chin. We loved the concept of how the first illustration pulled the reader in, with its focus on the group of diverse eight-year-olds, as the idea of size was explored, and how in each ensuing spread the 'universe' got bigger as the children, books, animals, trees, and skyscrapers got smaller. We thought that the way Chin showed relative size was not only very clever, but very informative as well. Since it was a challenge to keep the text simple, we liked the way that Chin augmented this by using a different smaller font where specific scientific explanations or measurements were necessary. As the universe was shown to get bigger and bigger, the text always circled back to the kids. We thought the final illustration of the Cosmic Web (even though no-one has ever seen it) was very engaging and compelling. We loved that it ended back with the group of kids -- realizing they were on our Earth -- a little dot in this great Cosmic Web. We thought young readers would find this book very interesting, since it dealt with comparisons they themselves could make as they learned about relative size. We also felt it could encourage kids to further explore STEM possibilities. We were also very pleased with the extensive Back Matter which provided a wealth of additional facts and figures about Earth and its place in the universe.

We loved the relationship between these two wonderful picture books: a sort of left brain/right brain -- facts/imagination exploration of our planet and our place in it.

WATERCRESS by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin, and THE LAST CUENTISTA by Donna Barba Higuera

 

It was interesting this month that both of our books spoke to the importance of story. We began with our picture book, Watercress, by Andrea Wang; illustrated by Jason Chin. We all loved the "breathtakingly beautiful" poetic writing and the perfectly executed illustrations, using Chinese art techniques and brushes, of this first-person story of a young girl whose parents are immigrants from China. She describes the annoyance she feels when her parents stop the car on a family trip to pick watercress growing by the side of the road, and then her refusal to eat it later because it reminds her of "hand-me-down clothes and roadside trash-heap furniture." The importance of story comes to the fore when her mother shows an old family picture, showing famine years ago in China, and ultimately our heroine comes to the realization that her mother's younger brother had died because of it, and her outlook on everything changes. We loved the way it depicted an example of the immigrant experience, of struggling, of yearning for a land long ago left, and of a young girl being ashamed because she isn't "American enough." We felt that it was an excellent read-aloud that students with immigrant parents could relate to, and that would give non-immigrant kids an understanding of what it felt like to be different. We also related to the universal shame of being economically needy, and wanting to be able to just buy things at the store rather than obtain them by other means. We also thought that it would encourage all readers (and listeners) -- especially youngsters -- to seek out and hear and ultimately tell -- the stories of their own families.

Stories were also the emphasis in The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera; the title of which actually means 'the last storyteller.' We had a variety of reactions to this dystopian novel, which starts in the year 2061, when Earth is threatened with total destruction by a giant comet, and goes on for seemingly hundreds of years, as Petra a 13-year-old and her younger brother Javier and scientist parents are among those chosen to begin/create life on Sagan, a new planet. We all agreed that the book was too long, and the plot somewhat convoluted as we learned that everyone's memories of Earth had been technologically removed...everyone except Petra, who continued to remember her life on earth as well as her time spent with her beloved grandma (abuelita, or Lita) who made her very aware of her ancient culture thru the vehicle of storytelling. We liked the relationship Petra had had with her 'Lita' and her desire to not only remember her past on earth, but to share her stories with other children in her midst to help them remember their families also. There are so many more details to this story, too numerous to recount here -- which is mostly why it needed editing -- and why we had mixed feelings about the book. One reader absolutely loved it, and said it brought her to tears when Petra's brother was found and made the ultimate sacrifice so that all could live, and she felt that middle schoolers today would "eat it up" given the kinds of stories they are 'into' these day about alternate universes -- online and in books and movies. Although the rest of us all found parts that we liked, we were mostly not fans of dystopian fiction. A couple of readers felt that some of the things that happened to many of the characters were just 'too horrible', and one reader felt that most of the tropes of this sci-fi fantasy had been done before -- that there was nothing new here. Others had a hard time getting thru the whole book (but did!) and felt that there were just too many details to remember and that it wasn't particularly engaging. Our bottom-line conclusion was that there will be plenty of young readers (and -- obviously adults -- since it is a Newbery Award winner) who will love it, and others, like those in our group, for whom it just isn't their 'cup of tea.'

GRAND CANYON by Jason Chin and THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR by Nicola Yoon

For our holiday dinner get-together at our last meeting we enjoyed delicious food and fun. We discussed our picture book first, Grand Canyon by Jason Chin. We all agreed that the illustrations in this book were stunning, and we also loved the amount of information it contained about the Grand Canyon. Many of us felt that the writing was quite dry and 'textbook-ish,' but we felt it could be a very useful book, both in classroom situations and for families planning to visit this noted American landmark. A couple of readers were a bit put off by the illustrations of the dad and his daughter on their trek through the canyon, as well as the many small illustrations of Grand Canyon plants and animals shown throughout in the margins of many pages. Others of us thought these were fine. We mostly liked how the design of the book showed a small 'hole' in the page on a particular illustration, and then after turning the page you could see how this fossil or other formation had happened from a historical point of view. We also liked all of the information presented in the 'back matter,' which made it obvious that the author/illustrator had done extensive research. So, though we weren't thrilled by the writing, we all agreed that this was a good, important book.

 

For our novel, The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, there was a definite divide between the 'romantics'  and the 'nonromantics' among us. All of the 'romantics' loved it. A few readers spoke of sobbing, or at least tearing up at the end. We felt it was a plausible story, which dealt with the many issues of a Korean-American teenaged boy and a Jamaican immigrant girl falling in love -- all in one day -- after a chance meeting in New York City. We liked that it included their families, their cultures, the issue of immigration and possible deportation, and the idea that we never really know what 'the universe' has in store for us -- and how within just a single moment everything can change. Many of us liked how the story was told in different voices: the two protagonists, their relatives, other characters with whom they came in contact, and 'the universe.'  A couple of readers just didn't like it at all, and in fact couldn't finish reading the book. They thought it seemed contrived, 'fairy tale-ish,' and just unreal. But those of us who loved it really loved it, even with the seeming 'fairy tale' ending. We thought it was an important story that needed to be told, and we loved the format in which it developed.