Memoirs of a Goldfish

Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian
Illustrated by Tim Bowers
Published by Scholastic
2010

     The first day, he swam around his fishbowl. The second day, he did the same thing, twice. Third day? same thing. But by day four, the goldfish sees something new inside his fishbowl.  Goldfish finds his new companion (a scuba diver figurine) to be kind of creepy: "He doesn't say anything. He just bubbles." By day 6, a bunch of plants are added. "I guess I'll have to water them. Great." And then it just starts getting crowded inside the fishbowl: first a snail, then a crab, then a pair of guppies and even "an angelfish named Cha-Cha who says she's from Hollywood." Goldfish has no room left to turn around.  Day Eleven: he's a nervous wreck. Day Twelve? He lost it and screamed, "I want my bowl back."  When he gets his wish, will he be able to enjoy his newly found solitude or will he miss his fishbowl companions?
    Memoirs of a Goldfish is told in first person following the format of a diary.  The daily entries by the goldfish are full of voice and personality, and the characters that move one by one into his bowl add to the hilarity of the tale.  With great illustrations and funny situations, Memoirs of a Goldfish is a great read aloud.

Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York!

Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York! by Edie Colón
Illustrated by Raúl Colón

    In Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York!, Edie Colón tells the story of a 6 year old cuban girl named Gabriella. The story is basically autobiographical, but Colón explains on a note at the end of the book that she decided to use a different name for the main character "so that I could have some distance from my story."
     Fidel Castro has recently taken control of Cuba and under the banner of the Revolution, the government has taken control of all private property, including Gabriella's family restaurant.  In search of a better life, Gabriella's parents move to New York.  They travel ahead to get everything ready for their new life, while she stays with her grandparents in Havana.  When her father comes back to take her to the Bronx, Gabriella must face the pain of leaving her adored grandparents behind, not knowing when and if she'll see them again.  During the rest of the book, we see Gabriella dealing with the lifestyle changes after the move to New York. It is colder, more urban, she's far from her beloved ocean, and she doesn't speak the language. Throughout the school year, Gabriela makes new friends and learns to speak English. And at the end, she's reunited with her grandparents. The whole family is together again, but this time in their new home in the Bronx.
     Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York! is a good book to share in the multicultural classroom. As an ESL teacher, I know my English Language Learner students will relate to Gabriela's struggles, feelings, and fears.  The story uses a lot of phrases in Spanish with an English translation immediately following (I found that since the phrases were long, the translations seemed to interrupt the flow of the story). The illustrations by Raúl Colón are simply beautiful, with a warmth of color that immediately brought me back to the Caribbean coast.  This book would also be a great mentor text to introduce memoirs. 

Singing Away the Dark

Singing Away the Dark by Caroline Woodward
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
2010

     When she was six, Caroline Woodward had to walk a mile in the dark and through the woods to get to her school bus stop.  From this memory, she has written a beautiful story.  On a windy winter's day, she leaves her house when it's still dark outside and heads downhill trekking through the snow.  As she gets farther away from her home, she's frightened by the "creaks and groans and hoots and howls " that creep into her ears.  But she has learned how to deal with those fears, she takes a breath and sings until the darkness disappears.  "I sing for sun, I sing for strength, I sing for warm toes, too."  She makes it to her school bus, ready to start the school day.  "When I was six and walked a mile and sang the dark away."
     Singing Away the Dark is a very special book, a lovely find.  The illustrations are beautiful and find a perfect balance of darks and lights to create the feeling of walking in the dark through the white snow. I love the detail of the little cardinal that shows up in a couple of pages adding a splash of red over a white landscape.  The text rhymes but never feels to be doing so intentionally, which is a great thing...it just has this lovely lyrical rhythm to it.  A great read aloud for the classroom and a perfect text to use as a sample of exploding the moment when writing a memoir.

All the Way to America

All the Way to America by Dan Yaccarino
2011

     Dan Yaccarino tells the story of his family starting with his great-grandfather's journey from Sorrento, Italy to New York City.  When his great-grandfather came to New York he brought with him a little shovel he used in the fields in Italy.  As the different generations of Yaccarinos prosper in the US, the shovel gets passed down from fathers to sons always becoming a part of their new life and endeavors.  The shovels goes from the fields, to being used to measure flour and sugar, dried fruits, olives (as the family became store owners and restaurant owners), to pour salt outside of Dan's father's barbershop, all the way back to the ground as a shovel used by Dan's son, Michael, to grow vegetables in their city apartment's terrace.  Through all the years, the message passed down through the generations of Yaccarinos is to work hard and value family.
     All the Way to America is a moving family tale and a great read-aloud to introduce personal narratives as well as immigration units. It will be a fantastic conversation starter, that will have kids asking their parents where do their families come from...At the end of the day, we are a nation of immigrants.  

Grandpa Green

 

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
Illustrated by Lane Smith
Published by Roaring Brook Press
2011
Caldecott Honor 2012

     A great-grandson walks us through a garden of shaped topiary trees as he tell us the life of his great-grandfather. Each topiary tree represents a part of his great-grandfather's life: trees in the shape of roosters (a childhood spent in a farm), the characters from the Wizard of Oz (the stories he read as a child), a tree with red fruits representing the time when he had chicken pox, canons and planes (time spent at the war), the Eiffel tower and a wedding cake (the time when he met the love of his life). As he walks through the stunning gardens, the boy gathers the tools, watering can, glasses, and the floppy straw hat that his great-grandpa has left scattered around. He's old and forgets things, "but the important stuff, the garden remembers for him."

     Grandpa Green will steal your heart. This is one of my favorite books of 2011. The illustrations of the topiary garden by Lane Smith are breathtaking. It's a story about family, memories and love. The final two images (the great-grandfather having the boy pose for a new topiary tree of him fighting a dragon, and the boy himself now taking on the garden and making a tree sculpture of his great-grandpa) are just gorgeous. I can't recommend this book enough. It's definitely on my shelf of favorites.

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco
1994

     Patricia's older brother could do everything better than her.  He could run the fastest, get the dirtiest, burp the loudest and spit the farthest.  It drove her nuts!  And Richie would push her buttons even more saying "I'm four years older than you...Always have been and always will be."  Her babushka told her one night that if you made a wish on a shooting star it would always come true, so she stayed up until she saw one and wished that she could do something better than her brother.  The following day, Richie and Patricia went to a carnival.  She ran straight for the merry-go-round and decided she would stay and ride it longer than Richie.  She rode it for so long that she fell off the merry-go-round right into some bottles.  When she woke up she was laying in bed surrounded by her family and she found out that her brother had carried her all the way home and called the doctor.  That's when their relationship changed.
     My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother is a warm tale of sibling rivalry and family memories.  I love using this book in the classroom as an introduction to writing personal memoirs.  I read it for the first time to my four year old son and he loved it.  Being an older brother himself, he laughed at Richie always one-upping his little sister and also related to the final show of brotherly love.  When we finished reading the book he said: "that's because an older brother's job is to protect his little sister, you know that?"  So there you go, a great book for the classroom and home.