Family. Food. From the Heart.

This year, 2023, is the Year of the Rabbit.  The Chinese Lunar New Year began on January 21, 2023 and finished fifteen days later with the Lantern Festival.  Every twelve years, the animal that is celebrated in a given year is highlighted again.  Many years ago, this reader was born in the Year of the Rabbit.  For this reason, rabbits have a special place in my heart, even when they enjoy eating in my gardens without an invitation.

Like many others, Chinese food is one of my favorite meals.  When I am fortunate enough to go to a larger city near my community, I make sure to purchase spring rolls made fresh daily.  This year to my delight, they were serving three types of bao.  I am not sure if this is a new permanent item or just for the Lunar New Year. Regardless, yesterday I came home with Coconut Custard bao.  (I am still figuring out how to best steam them.)

To be able to eat this delicious food on a more regular basis would be marvelous.  This is one of several reasons Dim Sum, Here We Come! (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, January 3, 2023) written and illustrated by Maple Lam is pure delight.  Page after page, it is a joyous window into a world of family, food, and tradition, tied together with great affection.

Here we go! It's almost dim sum time!

Come on, Cece---hurry up, let's go.

I can't wait to see everyone!

Dim sum, here we come!

Grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins all join this bundle of energy with her sister, Cece, and her parents every Sunday to dine on dim sum.  As the group waits for an available table, Uncle Irwin takes the children to special spots in the restaurant.  For each one, we are told the cultural significance.  Did you know 

Dancing fish means good feng shui?

Our enthusiastic narrator is seated next to her grandmother. Soon a cart stacked with bamboo baskets filled with steamed food arrives at the table.  A dim sum card allows the diners to select which baskets they want.  They get ten baskets with ten different kinds of dim sum.  

It's hard to be patient for the turntable to spin from family member to family member.  Respectfully, our eager narrator waits for the basket with char siu bun.  Ten people later, that basket arrives in front of her.  She is so excited.

There is one left!  She carefully does three things with the char siu bun before her final act and then, she tells us what dim sum means.  After the families each travel to their homes, Cece and her older sister, our protagonist, have another dim sum moment.  It is here we learn the most cherished definition of dim sum.

With those first five sentences, spoken with pure happiness, our narrator's enthusiasm spreads to readers.  We appreciate how author Maple Lam, through the girl's first-person voice, introduces us to the art of enjoying dim sum, step by step.  Woven into her story are wonderful and enlightening beliefs.  Though the little girl may be hungry, of which she informs us often, mutual appreciation of others is foremost with each family member.  Here is another passage.

Uncle Jeremy refills hot tea for everyone.

Tap tap tap! Tap tap tap!

Tapping your finger on the table means thank you.

On the front of the matching dust jacket and book case, readers are introduced to our narrator, her younger sister, Cece, and the other ten family members who meet every Sunday for dim sum.  Seen here is familial love, merriment, and people who can hardly wait to try these delectable foods.  The design, the way the elements are placed in a large group, the two girls, and then the remainder of the family, leads our eyes to the title text.  

On the back of the jacket and case, the left side, on a white canvas with a delicate pale wash is a light red heart.  Inside the heart is the girl and her younger sister, enjoying the last of the dim sum.  Both are smiling and their eyes are closed in contentment.  Portions of their hair break the borders of the heart to give us a feeling of motion.

On the opening endpapers, as if in a spiral-ringed menu, are eighteen small boxes, nine on each side.  Within each are different kinds of dim sum.  They are labeled.  (This is guaranteed to make your mouth water with anticipation.)  On the closing endpapers the bamboo baskets and plates are still there, but empty.  Instead of the labels, we read commentary about the taste of each one.  On the title page, the siblings are running, hands clasped and mouths open.

These illustrations by Maple Lam were rendered using

watercolor and colored pencils.

The chosen color palette, shapes, and lines made by this artist all contribute and elevate the liveliness of the narrator.  The illustrations vary in size from two-page pictures, to full-page pictures, edge to edge and some surrounded by white space.  The different perspectives are outstanding.  We are close to the characters in many of the scenes.  Sometimes we are looking at them from slightly above.  The food is depicted in all its deliciousness.

Readers will be endeared to all the family members.  They genuinely enjoy each other's company as shown by their facial features and body postures.  This is a day full of promise each week.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a two-page image.  From the lower, left-hand corner on the left to the lower, right-hand corner on the right is an arc.  This arc shows all twelve members of this family seated in their chairs at their table, even though we know it is a circle.  It is as if we can take the two ends and pull them together to complete that circle.  The baskets and plates of dim sum are in the center.  There is some talking and a whole lot of eating.  You want to hold the joy portrayed here in your hands beyond the story.

This book, Dim Sum, Here We Come! written and illustrated by Maple Lam will quench readers' hunger for food, family, and happy hearts.  It is certain to promote discussions about family, family food and family traditions.  Readers will be ready to research dim sum and other Chinese cultural traditions.  I can't imagine a professional or personal collection without a copy of this title.

To discover more about Maple Lam and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  There is a twenty-one page teacher's guide on her website along with several activity worksheets.  Maple Lam has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  There is some process art on her Instagram account.  Maple Lam is interviewed about this book by author illustrator Jena Benton.

Grandmothers-Feeding Our Hearts And Our Bodies

Last evening a character, a grandfather, in a story was complaining repeatedly about getting old.  He did not have one good word to say.  Everything was wrong about adding years to your life.  By the time the adventure he, his lifelong friend, his grandson and his grandson's friends shared was coming to an end, he remarked to his grandson about the grave error in his previous thinking.  He realized getting old was a gift.  It is one of the best gifts of all best gifts.

This change in perspective which many elders hold dear and live as a truth allows them to relish their neighbors, friends, and family.  For many of them, this joy is expressed in the art of cooking.  Dumplings for Lili (Norton Young Readers, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Company, June 1, 2021) written and illustrated by Melissa Iwai is a story of one granddaughter, many grandmothers, and the search for specific ingredients.  Which dumpling is the best?

It's a special day

when Nai Nai says:

Lili, do you

want to help

me make

baos?

These delectable delights are Lili's favorite food.  Her grandmother has passed to her granddaughter eight secrets in making them taste scrumptious. Side by side they work until a startling discovery is made.  There is no cabbage to help with the eighth secret.  

Lili rushes to Babcia, another grandmother, who lives on the sixth floor to borrow cabbage. Unfortunately, the elevator is out of service.  She and her pooch pal, Kiki, run up the flights of stairs.  Babcia does have cabbage, but she is out of potatoes for making her pierogi.  She makes a request of Lili.  Down she and Kiki go to the second floor.  

Once there, Granma has potatoes by lacks an item for her recipe.  Up and down the stairs Kiki and Lili go from one grandmother to another, receiving and giving necessary food elements for each of their delicacies.  She and Kiki are exhausted.  Finally, they are back with Nai Nai.

Later, six grandmothers and Lili meet outside, each bringing a version of their dumpling dishes.  It is a gathering of goodness, for hearts and bodies.  And yes, dear reader, one more dumpling makes an appearance, a seventh dumpling.  It is another of the best gifts of the best gifts.

Like blending the elements in a recipe, author Melissa Iwai combines narrative and conversation to welcome readers to go on this journey of culture, language, and cooking with Lili.  The secrets are interlaced in the story flawlessly.  Word choices convey the lively spirit of Lili, Kiki, and the beloved grandmothers.  Here is a passage.

As Kiki and I are about to leave, she says, "!O, cielos!

I'm out of cumin! How will I finish my tamales?"

I remember that Nonna on 3rd floor has lots of

spices in her kitchen.  "Don't worry, Abuela," I say.

"Kiki and I will go ask Nonna for cumin!"

The first hint readers have of the happiness found in the pages of this book is on the open and matching dust jacket and book case.  On the front, we meet Lili framed in shades of green flora as she inhales the wondrous odor of the cooked baos.  Around those we see dumplings representing food traditions from other countries. 

To the left, on the back, the spring green hue continues, covering the entire surface.  Dancing in the center are Lili and Kiki.  Kiki's front paws are being held by Lili, as the dog balances on its hind legs.

On the opening and closing endpapers, a culinary bliss greets readers.  Placed on a canvas of pale blue are recreations of six kinds of dumplings in an enticing pattern.  They are labeled in white, fatayer, ravioli, bao, pierogi, tamale, and Jamaican beef patty.

On the initial title page, two bao, one with a missing bite, are featured.  A two-page illustration, including the apartment building on the left with the grandmothers and Lili in windows, is displayed for the formal title page.  Pigeons roost and fly around the homes.

The images in this book rendered in watercolor and layered digitally by artist Melissa Iwai are a visual gallery of diversity.  Through her research, elements representing each culture are included in the depictions of each grandmother's home.  The details ask readers to pause at each page turn, noticing what is on the shelves and the walls.  Many of the significant words are shown in speech bubbles. 

The pictures vary in size from double-page images to a group of smaller illustrations on a single page, and single-page pictures, with and without framing.  These, along with different perspectives, enhance the careful pacing.  Readers (this reader) will especially enjoy the large double-page image mapping Lili's adventure up and down the stairs of the six floors.  It reminds us of names and dumplings.  Careful readers will also note the passage of time by looking at the various clocks on the walls.  

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is that of Nai Nai tying the back of the apron on Lili.  There is something loving and intimate about this action between a grandmother and her granddaughter.  It is a single-page picture.  We are close to the duo.  The colors in Nai Nai's clothing and glasses are reflected in the fruit on the pockets of Lili's apron.  Kiki is seated and watching near the kitchen table.  Tools needed for the making of the baos are placed on the table.

For a commemoration of food, grandmothers, friends, family, and an array of cultures, Dumplings for Lili written and illustrated by Melissa Iwai is an exceptional selection.  Through her writing and artwork, it is a sensory experience, one we would gladly duplicate.  At the close of the book, two pages are dedicated to Nai Nai's Baos.  There we can use ingredients and secrets to make our own baos.  Melissa Iwai's delicate drawings show us exactly how to fold the dumplings.  I highly recommend this title for both your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Melissa Iwai and her other work, please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  Melissa Iwai has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  This book and the writing and illustrating process are showcased at Kathleen Temean's Writing and Illustrating, Jama Rattigan's Jama's Alphabet Soup, and librarian, collegiate lecturer, and writer John Schumacher's Watch. Connect, Read.  At the publisher's website you can preview portions of the book.

Remembrance Of A Food

It sustains us physically.  It sustains us mentally.  We are grateful to have it.  We are saddened, and sometimes ill, when it is absent. The gathering of it, the preparation of it, the serving of it, and the enjoyment of it are laden with memories.  Words about it fill pages of books.  It is celebrated in song.  

Food in some form is necessary for us to survive.  What we eat, when we eat, who we eat with (or not), and where we eat can be a matter of routine and customs or change often.  Watercress (Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, March 30, 2021) written by Andrea Wang with pictures by Jason Chin is an intimate portrait of a particular food and its place in a family's history.  As children we can never truly know the full extent of our parent's past, until they make the choice to reveal it to us. 

We are in the old Pontiac,

the red paint faded by years of

glinting Ohio sun,

pelting rain,

and biting snow.

An unexpected cry from the mother has the car suddenly halting.  Both parents simultaneously say the same word, watercress.  There is something rarely heard in the tone of their voices.  From the trunk of the car, they remove a paper bag, and scissors, the worse for wear.

The children, an older brother and sister, are asked to help gather the watercress.  They remove their socks and shoes to wade in the cold, muddy water of the ditch.  When a car goes by, the daughter hopes it is no one she knows.  Her brother teases her with a soggy mess of watercress, and she grows weary of stuffing it into the sack.  Not soon enough for the daughter, everything and everyone is back in the car and heading home.

At dinner that evening the daughter refuses to eat the watercress.  It represents, to her, all the free things in their lives which set her aside from being her perception of normal.  The mother leaves the table and returns with a photograph of her family in China.  Her younger brother is in the photograph.  Of him, the brother and sister know nothing.

As her mother tells a sorrowful tale of her childhood in China, the girl is filled with shame for her thoughts and refusal to eat the watercress.  She now understands the significance of the leafy vegetable.  She begins to eat it, savoring its unique flavor.  It is a taste she will remember.  This is a story she will tell, to be passed from generation to generation.

As you read the free-verse poetic text penned by Andrea Wang, you feel as though you've stepped back in time and place.  The use of simile and alliteration and detailed descriptions create a sensory experience.  Regardless of your family's history, empathy for this girl, her parents, and the entire family is foremost in your mind and heart.  We identify with her first-person narrative and the inclusion of some conversation.  Here is a passage.

The tops of the cornstalks make

lines that zigzag

across the horizon.

Mom shouts,

"Look!"

and the car comes to

an abrupt, jerking stop.

Mom's eyes are as sharp as

the tip of

a dragon's claw.

The illustrations rendered by Jason Chin 

using watercolor on 140 pound cold press Saunders watercolor paper

are first visible to readers on the open dust jacket.  It is here we see his color choices, each representing the present and the past and a blend of the two.  The cornstalks on the right, front, transition to stalks of bamboo across and left of the spine.  Our narrator unhappily wading in the ditch to gather watercress along the side of the road becomes, on the back, her mother and her younger brother as children seated on a grassy hill overlooking their village.  The sky here is not that of a sunny day in Ohio, but a dismal sky in a China suffering during a famine.

On the book case Jason Chin presents us with an up-close view of watercress growing in a watery setting.  The circular leaves of varying shades of green float on a darker surface.  In the lower, right-hand corner is a dragonfly.  Its red body and translucent wings rest on top of the watercress.  Its presence is suggestive of transformation.

A deep teal covers the opening and closing endpapers.  It is close in color to the varnished title text on the dust jacket.  On the initial title page, we see the red Pontiac in the distance driving down the country road between midwestern fields of crops.  On the formal title page, the perspective has shifted.  The rows of corn are close to us on the left side of the image.  The car is driving down the dirt road directly at readers, on the right.  A row of utility poles line the road on the right.  With a page turn, the point of view alters again.  The car spans, close, across both pages.  The narrator of the story, the daughter, looks out the back window.  Farther away, next to her, sits her brother.

With each page turn, we are always immersed in the story, but our vantage point changes.  To elevate the text and emphasize pacing, the illustration sizes are either double-page pictures or full-page visuals.  Like the dust jacket, there is a stunning display, a blend of the present and the past.  We are aware of the emotional state of each family member by their facial features and body postures.  You find yourself filling with compassion for each one.

One of my many favorite images is a double-page illustration.  For me, a drive in the country becomes the beginning of a huge revelation.  On the left is the corn field growing up to the watery ditch filled with watercress.  There is a small grassy slope from the road to the ditch.  On the right the road comes into view with the red Pontiac demanding the focus of our attention.  The mother is looking out the passenger window at the watercress.  The father is leaning in her direction, noticing what she is seeing.  The sky reflects the hazy heat of a summer afternoon. 

The sheer beauty of the words and paintings in this story, Watercress written by Andrea Wang with art by Jason Chin, not only envelopes the reader but resonates long after the final sentence is read, and the last image is seen.  This is a book to read repeatedly.  At the close of the book is an author's note and an illustrator's note.  You'll want a copy for your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Andrea Wang and Jason Chin and their other work, please visit their respective websites by following the link attached to their names.  You will find numerous useful links at Andrea Wang's site.  Andrea Wang has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Jason Chin has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, John Schumacher, features Andrea Wang and this book on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read.  Both Andrea Wang and Jason Chin talk about this book at Publishers Weekly.  This book is highlighted on NPR, Picture This.  An interview with Andrea Wang at The Yarn, School Library Journal, by Colby Sharp gives you further insight about this title.  At author, reviewer, and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, this title and Jason Chin are showcased.  At the publisher's website is an educator's guide.  At Penguin Random House, you can view the initial title page.

   

A Recipe for Perfection

Food, like stories, connects us.  We need it to physically survive but it represents more.  Food preparation and delivery is an art form.  Culinary schools train the best chefs who work in a vast array of restaurants and private homes.  Numerous cookbooks published each year become bestsellers; some, decades old, are classic staples in any collection, public or private.  Food videos, shows and networks are highly popular.

For every professional chef, there are thousands more cooks who assemble ingredients and supply meals for their families, friends or community members every day.  Of these meals some are traditional, cultural or commemorative.  They evoke sensory memories and, yes, for some of these foods there are stories told about them year after year, generation after generation.  In Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao (Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, October 1, 2019) written by Kat Zhang with illustrations by Charlene Chua a little girl loves the taste of the bao made by her parents and grandmother. Her one wish is to make this savory delight as delectable as theirs is.

Amy can do a lot of things.

She brushes her teeth.  She ties her shoes.  She really wants to make the perfect bao, but she can't.  Every time her bao are flawed.  Their size is wrong.  The filling is the incorrect amount.  Unfortunately, her bao tend to fall apart, not always, but sometimes.

Today, Amy decides is the day her bao will be perfect.  Her father mixes the dough.  Together they knead it, punch it and leave it to rise.  Then her father punches it again, rolls it and cuts it into slices.

Amy's mother is in charge of combining delicious elements with the meat.  When Amy, her grandmother, mother and father sit around a table to make the bao, she is hopeful.  Her grandmother's bao is perfect.  Her mother's bao is perfect.  Her father's bao is perfect.  Amy's bao is not.  She is crestfallen.

Suddenly Amy looks at the dough and draws a wonderful conclusion.  She shares an idea with her grandmother.  Her grandmother's actions help to fulfill a heart's desire.  And Amy . . . discovers something else, something we all need to discover and remember.


With her first sentence, author Kat Zhang invites readers into this story.  We want to know what things she can do, and Kat Zhang tells us, inserting a bit of humor, too.  Then she tells us what Amy cannot do and the tale unfolds.

Reasons for her lack of perfection in making bao follow; along with those who can make perfect bao.  Already we are cheering for this girl.  Repetition of key words and phrases further bind us to the narrative.  Each short, descriptive sentence builds on the others fashioning a tender tension until we truly feel every emotion Amy Wu experiences.  This is why we all love the ending.  Here are two passages.

Amy's first bao turns out a little
funny.  So does the second.

It's hard to know how much filling to
add.  Too little and the bao is sad and
empty.  Too much and ---oops!


Look at the front of the open and matching dust jacket and book case!  The expression on Amy Wu's face and her kitten's face is enough to make anyone smile or laugh.  I love that they are waving on top of an enormous bao with light and clouds radiating from it as if they are heroes.  (Which they are!)  To the left, on the back, standing among clouds in the lower, left-hand corner, Amy's arms are extending as a bao slips from her grasp.  It arcs toward her sitting and kneeling grandmother and parents.  Here in a thought bubble Amy defines bao for readers.  On the dust jacket, the characters are varnished as are the yellow lines in the clouds.

A vibrant sea green covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the initial title page, the title text appears in a large bao.  With a page turn a muted shade of the sea greens spans two pages.  These pages are peppered with a variety of bao.  In the lower, right-hand corner the kitten assists readers in the pronunciation of bao.  At the bottom is an author's note about the pronunciation.  Illustrator Charlene Chua on the next double-page image gives readers pure delight.  Beneath the publication information Amy Wu is peaking over a pale orchid-colored table.  All we see is her face, close to us.  Her eyes are on a perfect bao, larger than life, sitting on a plate on the right.  You feel a surge of happiness when looking at this visual.

The digital illustrations, in varying sizes of several smaller ones on a single page, to full page, edge to edge, and several double-page pictures are full color.  They are animated with lively depictions of the characters.  Readers will be fascinated and filled with joy at all the details.  Amy Wu's kitten reinforces emotions and adds touches of humor.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is one of several close-ups of Amy Wu's face.  On this single-page picture Amy is attempting to pinch the bao closed.  With the dining room wallpaper as a background on a small portion of the left, the remainder of the image is filled with Amy's face and hands.  Her intense expression of concentration is fabulously portrayed.  She is holding the bao in her left hand and trying oh so hard to pinch, pinch, pinch it closed perfectly.  (You have to love this little girl.)


As a read aloud, one-on-one or with a group, Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao written by Kat Zhang with illustrations by Charlene Chua is a wonderful choice.  For those striving to perfect something of importance to them, they will find a clever champion in Amy Wu. At the close of the book Amy's Family Recipe is included on two pages.  I highly recommend this for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Kat Zhang and Charlene Chua and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites. At Kat Zhang's site there is a link to a coloring page.  At Charlene Chua's site there is an interior illustration not included in those shown at the publisher's website.  At the publisher's website you can also watch a video on how to make bao along with being able to print out the recipe.  Kat Zhang has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Charlene Chua has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.  I think you'll enjoy the cover reveal on Pragmatic Mom (Mia Wenjen).  At author Tara Lazar's site, Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) she chats with Kat Zhang and Charlene Chua about this title.  Kat Zhang writes a guest post at the Nerdy Book Club about this book.

It Only Takes . . .

It only takes one.  One shy glance, one delectable taste, one resonating note, one gentle touch or one sweet smell to effect a change.  We never know how a simple act, freely given, can alter someone's life.

In those sensory moments, short or long, small or large, we are joined with another being.  It is a force for good.  One Hug (Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, December 10, 2019) written by Katrina Moore with illustrations by Julia Woolf explores a memorable day in the life of a family.  All kinds of hugs convey a range of emotions centered in love.

One hug.

A boy's day begins with a hug from his mother as they watch a plane pass by his bedroom window.  The hugging continues with an embrace from his father.  The boy hugs his sister right out of her bed.  Special hugs are given to the boy from his canine companion.

Each member of the family is busy, moving items from their home to their back yard.  Is it a picnic?  Is it a sleepover?  The letters on a banner spell WELCOME.  Soon shouts of happiness announce a long-awaited arrival.

A grandmother hugs her daughter.  An uncle hugs and whirls his nephew around as three cousins laugh and jump for joy.  The boy's sister, hesitant, joins the hugging jamboree when given some extra tender care.

A shared meal, catching-up conversations and the gentle capture of fireflies spread warmth inside the family members' hearts and a gentle glow outside as dusk descends.  Pajama-clad children build blanket beds inside a tent.  A grandmother's song envelops the nestled gals and guys as they end their day looking at a star-studded sky.


In her debut picture book, author Katrina Moore meticulously builds a narrative featuring enthusiastic embraces within a family.  Her selection of words creates a symphony of rhyming sounds; read aloud it sounds like a song.  Repetition of a refrain is a connecting chorus.  Here are two sentences.

Chasing, racing, to and fro,
sometimes hugs are on the go!

Open arms that swoop around,
some hugs whoosh you off the ground.


When you look at the open dust jacket (I'm working with an F & G. My hard copy is arriving soon.), one word comes to mind, bliss.  It is a bliss born of the embrace between a grandmother and her grandson reunited at last.  It is a bliss born of running at night among fireflies.  Notice the use of circles and loops in the design.  That's what hugs do.  By placing the grandmother and her grandson on the "o" it's as if they are seated on a crescent moon.  It makes a reference to the expression "over the moon."  All the elements on the blue are varnished.

To the left, on the back, the boy and his sister are standing together.  The boy holds his dog in his arms.  His sister is reaching out to hug the dog.  On the title page an interior image of the boy and his sister laughing and hugging is enlarged and placed between the text.

Rendered using

ArtPrint printers ink by Seawhite of Brighton and Photoshop

these digital illustrations by Julia Woolf depict all the delight found in a family whose affection for each other is expressed by hugging.  The close-up portraits of the family's faces when they are hugging supply readers with the sure knowledge of the shared contentment.  Careful readers will also find humor shown on some of those same faces.

Full color pictures are layered with the people and specific elements slightly darker than the background.  Details in the visuals show the blend of two cultures.  Julia Woolf shifts the sizes of the illustrations from full-page pictures, double-page pictures and several grouped together on a single page to heighten the cadence created by the narrative.

One of my many favorite illustrations is on a single page.  It's nighttime.  From the left a trunk of a tree forms a triangle in the upper corner.  A full moon shimmers as fireflies flutter on either side of the open-door tent.  The five children, now wearing pajamas, are getting ready to sleep in the tent.  The two boys are playing with their pillows and laughing.  A girl is laughing and dancing on the grass.  Another girl is hanging a lantern inside the tent.  The littlest girl, the boy's sister, is seated and yawning.  This is a picture you'll want to hug.


You can't read One Hug written by Katrina Moore with illustrations by Julia Woolf without smiling.  The charm of the combination of rhythmic words and images full of merriment surrounds you from beginning to end and long after the story is finished.  For a story time full of mirth pair this with The Runaway Hug, Hug Machine or Hug It Out!  I can't imagine a professional or personal collection without a copy of this book.

To learn more about Katrina Moore and Julia Woolf and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their websites.  Katrina Moore has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  Julia Woolf has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  At Harper Stacks Katrina Moore writes about one of her students and the beginning of this book.  Katrina Moore is featured at 12 x 12 Twelve Picture Books Twelve Months and KidLit411.  The cover reveal is hosted by teacher librarian Matthew C. Winner here.  At the publisher's website there are two pages of printable activities.

Not As Expected

Yesterday started with a plan, a plan for productivity.  The gardens in my newly purchased home are out of control; left to grow with abandon by the previous owners and frankly, not at the top my list until now.  Working in them is no easy task.  The hot summer temperatures combined with the lack of rain makes the soil (clay) like working in cement.  Just as I was about to head out the door promising myself to get, at the very least, the front area completed, torrential rains fell.

The book held in my hand to read during gardening breaks became my afternoon companion.  As life would have it, a significant place in the story is a garden.  Making Friends with Billy Wong (Scholastic Press, August 30, 2016) written by Augusta Scattergood is a slice of life into our historical past.

All it took to send my summer on the road to ruin was a fancy note and a three-cent stamp.  The minute that envelope showed up, Mama was packing my suitcase.

Eleven-year-old Azalea Ann Morgan loves her mother and father and was looking forward to sharing a trip to the Grand Canyon with them.  Gone are her plans of spending the remaining summer days with her best friend Barbara Jean.  Instead she has left Texas for Paris Junction, Arkansas to help her grandmother.  She is having a difficult time believing her mother's words that everything is going to be fine. Didn't her mother and father leave Paris Junction as fast as they could after high school?  Even now, her mama can hardly wait to get on the road back home to Texas.

As Azalea is struggling with how she will survive weeks of living with a grandmother she hardly knows, working in the large garden, cooking and cleaning for them, she is informed other garden helpers will be arriving on certain days.  Too polite to voice an opinion, this is unwelcome news for a girl who is uncomfortable meeting and speaking with new people.  Life in the small town of Paris Junction in 1952 is about to surround Azalea.

Another recent arrival in the community is Billy Wong, great-nephew to the owners of the only grocery store, Lucky Foods.  He's thrilled to be staying and working with his great-uncle and great-aunt so he can attend a quality school, one offering more opportunities.  The prejudice, the looks, taunts and remarks, and vandalism, against Chinese Americans by some community members is a daily hardship for Billy and his family.

Azalea is pleasantly surprised to discover herself considering Billy a friend.  Two people she would not wish to have for friends are fashionista Melinda Bowman and mean-spirited Willis DeLoach, two young people who come to help in her grandmother's garden.  The one is there voluntarily, the other by court order.

Individually and together, in her grandmother's garden and out in the community, Azalea's and Billy's biggest trouble is with Willis DeLoach.  What has made Willis so nasty?  Soon Azalea has more questions than answers.  She is becoming a seeker and keeper of secrets.  One thing is certain, Billy Wong, Grandmother Clark and Paris Junction did not cause Azalea's summer to travel down the road to ruin.  On the contrary, they set her on a path paved with the best things in life.


Books written by Augusta Scattergood make us feel like we've come home, regardless of our age.  Her characters could be our neighbors, best friends or family members. Their joys and concerns become our joys and concerns not only during the story but resonating long after the final word is read.

In this title she alternates between the first person, prose narrative of Azalea filled with realistic dialogue and the poetic thoughts of Billy.  These writing styles take us into the essence of both of these characters and the other people in their lives.  Through their eyes we see the forest and the trees of this very particular time and place. Here are some sample passages.

Inside Lucky Foods Grocery
...Maybe I shouldn't climb trees to daydream in the
clouds.
But high on a tree branch, stories pop wide open.

I tie the white apron around my waist and
straighten pickle jars.
Stories jumping.
Popping.
Waiting to explode.
Onto the pages of the Tiger Times. ...

My grandmother had other ideas. "Help me to my room and turn on the radio, Azalea.  Go read a magazine on the porch where it's cool."
Cool, my foot.  I could die of heatstroke sitting on the front steps.  But just in time to save me from boredom, here came a man walking the world's littlest dog, barking her head off.  Now, I love dogs more than anything.  Cats, too.  I'm a whole lot better at talking to animals I don't know than people I don't know.  But this one looked plenty mad.
In case I was attacked by a dog not much bigger than a rat, I backed up.  The man pulled on a skinny leash and waved real big, same as most everybody in Paris Junction.

Once my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I sank into a soft chair that smelled like a rainy day.  I tugged the desk lamp's chain to shine light on a book of old pictures.  After a while, even though I heard the outside noises---cars slowing down, people talking---if I shut my eyes, the bad memories vanished into the room's quietness.  I understood why Billy wanted me to see this special place.


Making Friends with Billy Wong written by Augusta Scattergood addresses the dynamics between generations, family and friendship within the setting of 1952 Arkansas.  Her research is evident but the real gift Augusta Scattergood brings to us in all her books is her ability to make the past relevant in the present.  In her author's note she discusses the importance of Chinese grocery stores in the South, the Chinese immigration to the region and segregation prior to civil rights legislation.  This book comes with my highest recommendation.

To learn more about Augusta Scattergood please follow the link to her website attached to her name.  You can read more on her blog.   Augusta Scattergood chats with Scholastic Ambassador of School Libraries John Schumacher on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read. when the book cover is revealed. You can read wonderful interviews about this title with Augusta Scattergood at Reflections On The Teche, Twenty by Jenny, and Friend Friday hosted by author Kirby Larson.  A little more than a year ago August Scattergood wrote a blog post at Nerdy Book Club, Top Ten Things I've Learned From Kids About Writing A Book, you will enjoy reading.

UPDATE:  Augusta Scattergood has designed a discussion guide for educators.