My New Year's Resolutions

     Every year I make not one, two, but a bunch of New Year's Resolutions.  I know I should probably just make one and stick to it, but I like to make different resolutions for different facets of my life. So I make one as a teacher, one as a mom, one as a wife, a personal one, and one as a reader/writer.  I won't bore you with all of them, I'll just let you know of my New Year's Resolution as a reader.
     In 2012, I will read all the Caldecott Medal Winners and Honors Books from 1938-to the present. I'll track my progress on Goodreads and I'll blog about my favorites here. If you want to join the challenge go here: Caldecott Challenge.
     I'm also joining the Newbery Medal Reading Challenge, but I know I won't be able to read all of them in a year, so this is a long term resolution (I'm shooting for 2 years).
     I'm going to read the books from both challenges in chronological order, but to spice it up, I'm starting from oldest to most recent with the Caldecott, and from most recent to oldest with the Newbery.
     So there it goes. It's written out so you can hold me to it (good thing I'm not sharing the other resolutions).
     Have a wonderful new year full or love, laughter and good books!

-Natalia Ortega-Brown

ps: you can follow along on Twitter #nerdcott and #nerdbery

The Buffalo Are Back

The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George
Paintings by Wendell Minor
Published by Dutton Children's Books
2010

     "In the mid-1800s seventy five million buffalo roamed in North America. In little more than fifty years, there would be almost none."  In The Buffalo Are Back, Jean Craighead George (Julie of the Wolves) explains in detail the historical events that lead these majestic animals to the edge of extinction.  In very clear terms, with very accessible narrative readers take a journey to the prairies during the 1800s, the westward expansion and the Indian Wars.  There is plenty to learn about the connections between the buffalo and the prairie and how the disappearance of the buffaloes eventually caused the prairie to become dust.
     The Buffalo Are Back is a beautiful non-fiction picture book to add to any home or classroom library. The paintings by Wendell Minor are gorgeous.  It connects to social studies and science curriculum but reads like a story. Wonderful find.

Swirl by Swirl

Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by Beth Krommes
Published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
2011

     What do you get when you combine the amazing talents of Joyce Sidman (Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night and Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors) and Beth Krommes (The House in the Night)? Well, you get a marvelous book written just for me. Yep, you heard that right.
     So here's something you might not know about me. I have been totally obsessed with spirals since I was a little kid. I buy everything a find that has a spiral on it. If I were brave enough to get a tattoo, it would definitely be a Fibonacci's spiral.  Now, I know you know I love picture books and poetry, but another of my passions is Mathematics (love, love, Math). So now we have an amazing poet, a great illustrator, spirals, picture books, and math, all in one...and yes! This book was made just for me.
     Swirl by Swirl is perfectly simple yet incredibly deep. It takes you on a journey observing nature and all the different ways spirals appear in it.  From snuggling animals, to the curls of a fern, to the arms of the octopus, the spiral in the spiderweb, the tails of spider monkeys, the crest of a wave, the petals of the calla lily (my favorite flower...see? again...my book!). Spirals are everywhere. They are a "strong shape", "exploring the world," "clinging tight," "graceful and strong."
     And my favorite. "It is bold" as in the breaking ocean waves:

    Swirl by Swirl invites you (a lot like Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner) to observe nature closely, to see the world with a more careful eye and notice its wonders.  At the end of the book, the author has included detailed information about all the spirals in nature she made reference to in the poem. She concludes by saying "while we don't always understand the reasons behind this patterns [spirals], something in us responds to them. They are beautiful, satisfying, and endlessly fascinating." Just like this book. I'm almost mad I didn't read this book till now or I would have included it on my Top Books of 2011 list. So there it goes, it's officially part of my favorites. 

      

Squirrel's New Year's Resolution

Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller
Illustrated by Kathi Ember
Published by Albert Whitman & Company
2010

     It's January 1st and Squirrel just put up the new calendar. On the radio they're talking about New Year's resolutions, but Squirrel has no idea how you make a resolution.  He heads out to see his friends and ask them about New Year's resolutions.  Bear already has one: to teach skunk to read. Skunk already has one: to learn how to read. Mole and Turtle have one: to start a garden. Porcupine has one: to be less grumpy.  Without thinking twice, Squirrel ends up helping all of his friends get started on their resolutions and along the way he finds a resolution of his own: to help someone every day.
     Squirrel's New Year's Resolution is a great read-aloud to share on the first day back to school after the holiday break. I love having my students write resolutions that last till the end of the school year and keep them on display around the classroom to hold them to it.  Have you made your resolution yet? 

Apples & Oranges

Apples & Oranges: going bananas with pairs by Sara Pinto
Illustrated by Sara Pinto
Published by Bloomsbury Children's Books
2008

     What do apples and oranges have in common? If you said they are both fruits, guess again.  What about a cupcake and an ice-cream? They're both desserts? nope.  In Apples & Oranges, Sara Pinto surprises the reader at each page turn by coming up with unexpected and hilarious answers to the match ups.  My favorite is How are trousers and underpants alike? With illustrations that will cause as much joy as the text itself, the answer becomes They both don't make good hats. Of course!
     Apples & Oranges will keep the young ones coming up with their own answers and offers an open ended question to keep the conversation going. How are you and I alike? We both don't... 

Migrant

Migrant by Maxine Trottier
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Published by Groundwood Books
2011

     Anna is part of a migrant family that every springs leaves their home in Mexico and travels north harvesting fruits and vegetables.  She is a Mennonite, a group of Low German-speaking migrants who moved from Canada to Mexico in the 1920's.  She wonders what it would be like to be able to stay in one place, "to have your own bed, to ride your own bicycle [...] Now that would be something." "What would it be like to be a tree with roots sunk deeply into the earth"
      On her way north Anna feels like a bird, "her family is a flock of geese beating its way there and back again." She's like a jack rabbit, staying in houses that don't belong to her family, "abandoned burrows." Her family works the fields like bees, "dip and rise over the vegetables, that is when all of them are bees." She's a kitten at night curled up with her sisters, her brothers are puppies growling in their sleep. She knows they stare at her and her family as they walk through town, sticking out and not speaking the language. And when the seasons change again, and fall arrives Anna leaves again "like a monarch, like a robin, like a feather in the wind."
     Migrant is a beautifully written book that, through similes and metaphors, captures the feelings and apprehensions of a child in a migrant family.  The language is lyrical, gorgeous, and the illustrations are enchanting, dreamlike.   Wonderful book to use in the classroom for examples of figurative language and in social studies to discuss migrant groups.  Gorgeous!

Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation

Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation by Linas Alsenas
Illustrated by Linas Alsenas
Published by Scholastic Press
2006

     Mrs. Claus is tired of staying behind year after year. She's never had a vacation in her life and she's tired of the snow. So she packs her bag, hitches a reindeer to the sleigh and says bye to Santa.  While Santa worries each day that she's gone and misses her terribly, Mrs.Claus travels all over the globe. She goes to beaches in Brazil, dances in Romania, visits the Taj Majal and eats sushi in Japan.  But after a while, everything starts reminding her of home and she knows is time to go back.
     Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation is a tender holiday story.  Mrs. Claus' adventures around the globe are delightful with bright and large illustrations (and a reindeer hiding in each page). In contrast,  Santa's pages, where we see him sad and longing for his wife, have smaller illustrations and are framed with holiday borders. She, for once, seems larger than life. Once she's back home, Santa gives her the world by inviting her to join him on his sleigh Christmas Eve.  This surprisingly romantic holiday story is sure to delight young readers and adults alike.