At Sunset

Walking outside as twilight falls after days of gale warnings, the calm is wonderfully comforting.  Pieces of sky are elbowing aside the billowing clouds to show a soft golden glow.  Sunsets, as well as sunrises, hold promises.

Except for those nighttime marauders moving with utmost care, creatures of the natural world seek sanctuary in their homes.  This is the promise of quiet.  The workday for many people throughout the world has come to a close.  This is the promise of rest.

Sunsets on Friday signal the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath; continuing until nightfall on the next day.  This is the promise of celebration.  Chik Chak Shabbat (Candlewick Press, September 3, 2014) written by Mara Rockliff with illustrations by Kyrsten Brooker eloquently portrays the promise of kindnesses returned.  

Every Saturday, a wonderful smell wafted from apartment 5-A.

This delectable aroma traveled from the fifth floor to Tommy Santiago as he played his tuba on the fourth floor to Signora Bellagalli who bustled about cleaning on the third floor to Mr. Moon on the second floor who wrote his newest novel and all the way to the ground floor where grins grew on the faces of the Omar family as they smelled.  Each of these people knew what was coming.  They could hardly wait for the door to apartment 5-A to open.  

Goldie Simcha would open her arms wide inviting the Santiagos, Signora Bellagalli, Mr. Moon and the Omars to her table to enjoy her freshly made stew, cholent.  None were certain what made it so tasty but all good-naturedly offered opinions.  According to Goldie, who told them of Shabbat preparations shared with her grandmother, it was the things done while the stew simmered for a night and a day which gave it the special flavor.  

One Saturday something was not quite right.  No delicious odor left the fifth floor winding in and out the other apartments on the other floors.  When small Lali Omar knocked on Goldie Simcha's fifth floor door, Goldie said she had been too sick to start the cholent.  It needed to simmer for a night and a day.  

The neighbors were certain it wouldn't be Shabbat without cholent.  Not a word is shared from neighbor to neighbor but a door on the first floor and the doors to 2-B, 3-C and 4-D open as the true spirit of Shabbat spread.  Differences blend to create the secret ingredient. 

Certain smells can trigger powerful memories.  I really appreciate that Mara Rockliff uses the smell of the cooking cholent to introduce us to Goldie Simcha and the other tenants in the apartment building.  Their attempt to determine the best ingredient in the cholent is the perfect opportunity for Goldie to speak about her family traditions during this weekly celebration.  It explains Shabbat to readers in the best possible way.  

Rockliff uses the same rhythm established in the beginning to alert readers to a change in the typical Saturday.  When the neighbors respond to this variance the cadence appears again.  This technique ensures the story will remain in readers' memories.  Here are two small passage samples.

It curled into 4-D, tickling Tommy Santiago's nose as he played his tuba.

It slipped into 3-C, tempting Signora Bellagalli as she bustled around, dusting her teacups.

Rendered in oil paint and collage, the illustrations of Kyrsten Brooker, beginning on the matching dust jacket and book case, bring readers into the charm of the lives lead by the residents of this apartment building.  The swirl of steam from Goldie Simcha's cholent ties everything together.  On the back a separate picture set on a lighter background shows the steam drifting from the pot, lid removed, and a spoon and filled bowl next to it.

A darker and lighter shade of blue form a diamond pattern seen on the opening and closing endpapers. (This is the wallpaper in Goldie's apartment.)  An initial title page framed in blue scroll work on a white background showcases a small image of the ingredients used in making Goldie's cholent.  A lovely double-page illustration of Goldie looking out her apartment window at the cityscape, Shabbat candles lit, presents the more formal title and verso information.

Most of the illustrations span two pages unless the reader needs to pause or the pace of the narrative is shifting.  A color palette favoring blues, browns and creams adds warmth to each scene.  Several times the border used on the initial title page will frame other single page visuals; especially when Goldie is telling her neighbors about Shabbat with her grandmother.

One of my favorite illustrations is when we first see all eight people seated around Goldie Simcha's table eating her cholent.  The joy in a shared celebration is evident on all their faces.  The details in their dress, the dishes and silverware and facial expressions make readers feel as if they too are seated at this table.  

Despite the diversity in their ethnic backgrounds these eight people come together to observe a tradition united by their love of Goldie Simcha and her cholent.  Chik Chak Shabbat written by Mara Rockliff with illustrations by Kyrsten Brooker is a book serving several purposes.  It touches our hearts with its story of generosity.   It informs us about the Jewish Shabbat.  It is one more book which serves to illuminate those things people can have in common.  I highly recommend this title.

For more information about Mara Rockliff please follow the link embedded in her name to visit her website.  This link to the publisher's website gives you a peek at another illustration from the book. 

Poetry Problems

A line spoken in a movie, a phrase written in a book or a tune from a well-known song can become etched in the collective minds of many; Toto...I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore (The Wizard of Oz movie), Holy Bagumba! (Flora & Ulysses:  The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo,  2014 Newbery Medal winner) and the theme music from Jaws, the movie.  Their meanings have and will evolve over the course of history becoming a part of pop culture.  Whether they are spoken, read or heard, people will have a connection in common.

Sometimes one of these iconic phrases or songs will run on repeat in our minds needing another powerful phrase or song to chase it away.  Sometimes the activities of our days or the weather feel like they are on repeat, too.  More than once I've read people's declarations on social media this winter about feeling like they are in the Bill Murray, Audie MacDowell, Chris Elliott movie, Groundhog Day.  A boy in The Poem That Will Not End:  Fun with Poetic Forms and Voice (Two Lions) by Joan Bransfield Graham with illustrations by Kyrsten Brooker has a similar problem.  He has poetry in his thoughts...continually.

It started with a rhythm,
a rhythm and a rhyme.
It wouldn't let me stop,
it ate up all my time.

That's exactly how it began but it did not stop.  At breakfast his mind was busy and his fingers twitched; alphabet-letter cereal shaping words (plus some squashed bananas) made his little brother squeal. Using a crayon on his buddy's shirt and a stick on the playground dirt, this young poet had no control.  Everything became the means to his end including French fries at the midday meal.

Recess writing in chalk produced an acrostic verse. After school tracing in mud composed a concrete, soccer ball ode. Riding and racing away, his bike seemed to speak.  His efforts to run from this worrisome word explosion were in vain as a sneeze at dinner spread a poetic three-liner in peas on the kitchen wall. Oh, this is getting worse.  When a thunderstorm rolled in that evening, the gifted guy was scribbling with pick-up-sticks on the steps into the house.

The craziness continues as he gets ready for bed.  These rhythms and rhymes keep spilling from his head.  After tossing and turning all night, he drags himself into school wondering if there is any end in sight.  What?  That's the next assignment?! Thank you, Ms. Frost.


The title only hints at the fun readers have following the story of Ryan O'Brian's poetic problems penned by the clever, creative Joan Bransfield Graham.  The entire narrative is a chain built from four-line rhyming verses.  Tucked within this story the living room, breakfast table, playground, school cafeteria, soccer field, on a bike or skateboard, kitchen, outside the house, bathroom, bedroom and classroom are all places poems seem to pop forth from Graham's inventive mind.  Twenty-three poems total, counting the story itself and a special poem on the back jacket and book case, in at least fifteen fabulously written forms, characterize this typical boy having a not so typical day.  Here is one of the poems.

Soccer Ball

Soccer ball,

you are the center,

sun of our universe.

We are planets orbiting

your supreme presence,

hoping to rocket you,

like a blazing comet,

into the galaxy of

our goal.

Mixed-media collage art pieced together by illustrator Kyrsten Brooker completely captures every poetic particular.  The illustration on the front cover of Ryan O'Brian soaring on his skateboard shouts out a greeting as the picture on the back invites speculation.  A paper is taped to a brick wall; a pencil is lying on the ground next to Ryan's dog looking up at the poem titled Anonymous. Guess who's peeking around from behind the wall in his signature striped shirt and baseball cap?

With little effort at all you can hear the sounds every single one of Brooker's illustrations makes.  Her pictures are alive with movement and brimming with humor from the title page to the final page.  Choosing to broaden and heighten the text with either two page spreads, single pages edge to edge or individual elements on white space, she takes readers by the hand leading them into Ryan's world.  And we are so glad she does.  We get to feel all the emotions on the character's faces from place to place.

The scenes at the breakfast table and during the storm are two of my favorites, each covering two pages.  The alphabet cereal scattered upon the kitchen table, Ryan holding up toast spelling face place, the dog looking woebegone with goo and bananas on his head and the baby covered with his meal, a poem written on his high chair tray are laugh-out-loud funny.  With overlapping shades of blue and gray in prominence, wind swirling about loose newspapers, tree tops bent in the wind, waves rolling white, an umbrella carrying woman scurrying and blackbirds screaming, Ryan conducts from the porch top.  His written poem covers the stair steps beneath him in all its Italian sonnet glory.

Written by Joan Bransfield Graham with illustrations by Kyrsten Brooker The Poem That Will Not End:  Fun with Poetic Forms and Voices is a lively look at the world of poetry through a delightful story.  Writers (and even those who would rather not write) will hardly be able to resist giving at least one of these forms a try.  The final three pages are Ryan O'Brian's Guide to Poetic Forms and Voices.  Nineteen terms are explained in the first section, five in the second.  You are going to love this book so much you will not be able to wait for National Poetry Month or even a special poetry day in your classrooms.  I know you will be hearing read it again more than once or twice. 

Please follow the link embedded in Joan Bransfield Graham's name to her website.  This link is to the final stop of the book's blog tour at Jama's Alphabet Soup.  Visit the blogs to gain more detailed information about this title.  Here is a link to a short review by Julie Danielson at Kirkus.