A Personal Story about HOW TO TIE A SHOE

I began this blog with liltle-to-no understanding of how to do it. But I knew I had something to say and decided to go for it. Some of my most personal and frequently viewed posts were from those early efforts, developed during a steep learning curve. 

That's pretty much me in a nutshell.

I seem to have been born with a determination to NOT be left behind, to learn everything I could, and to prove that I could do things I if I set out to do them. 

Don't confuse that with arrogance or ego.

I know my limits, and they are many. Even so, my youngest memories included an I CAN DO IT mindset that has, over the years, served me well, despite some spectacular face splats along the way.

Penny Candy Books, 2020

Here's a prime example:
As a youngest, then middle child, I was determined to do, to go, to copy everything my older brother and sister were doing. Picture those kid-dense neighborhoods of the fitties, playing outdoors from dawn-to-dusk. 
That's where and how we grew up, running in packs and playing in dirt lots, neighborhood parks, under lawn sprinklers, and pumping bike pedals. 
These were multi-aged kid-packs and the age-range was wide.  Upper-age kids would gradually peel off and younger ones would eventually tag along, keeping the population of the pack fairly stable. 
Even before kindergarten age, I was certain I belonged in that pack and tried to join daily. Depending on the activity, I might manage to chase the ice cream truck, to catch lightning bugs, or otherwise serve an apprenticeship to prove that I could keep up. 
I will never forget the day I sat on the top stoop of our front steps and called out to the gathering pack, "Wait for me, I'm coming." 
Someone older among them looked at the dangling laces on my sneakers and said, "You can't even tie your own shoes. You can't come."
My rage was such that I didn't think to ask for help, I shouted, "I CAN TOO TIE MY SHOES!"
Which I could not.
But I did. 
Right then and there.
And then I jumped up and ran after them, not pausing to wonder at what I had done or to wait for applause. 
I just did it. And I did it every day after that.

Ask any parent or kindergarten or preschool teacher how rare that result was. I credit not my manual dexterity but my determination and blind faith for my success.

Here's a short musical YOUTUBE clip that will remind  adults how tricky the process is, despite the clever and seemingly simple directions. There are also countless books and interactive toys allowing kids to practice the actual mechanism of tying shoes.

HOW TO TIE A SHOE & OTHER BIG ADVENTURES, created by SKIP HILL, takes a different approach. It's a HOW-TO book about building confidence, celebrating past success, and diving into daunting situations with both feet (and hands). The focus is on recognizing one's own agency and the exciting consequences of stepping forward into adventures. 

Interior spread: Penny Candy Books 2020

From the opening spread, it is clear that motivation and confidence can overcome even a massive serving of slippery spaghetti. Each page invites smiles, predictions about the direction of the text, and nods of recognition. 
The realistic black-and-white line drawings of diverse kids in a variety of settings connect young readers with memories of satisfying and successful experiences. 

This is not about the mechanics of tying shoes but about the mentality of making a stab at it. 
This is the first of a series of planned books and I look forward to reading the upcoming releases. 

Kirkus reviews gave it a well-earned star, and provided this quote:
"A quirky picture book that respects the intelligence of children."

A FRIEND FOR HENRY: Empathy and Insight

If you missed my post about HENRY THE BOY (Penny Candy Books), I hope you'll click back to that post (HERE) and take a few minutes to read it. The HENRY in today's post is not the same boy, but they have much in common. If you read that post (better still, read the book) you will note that HENRY of HENRY THE BOY is quite a confident and self-aware young person. You'll also note that it is his external differences that affect his interactions with peers. 

Chronicle Books, 2019

A FRIEND FOR HENRY is written by Jenny Bailey and illustrated by Mika Song. The Henry who stars in this recent picture book appears to be a few years younger than Henry of the first title, but they otherwise have many things in common. Both want to have friends, both have issues that affect their ability to interact with peers in "typical" ways, and both experience complications when it comes to making friends. 
I greatly admire the ways in which both author and illustrator have revealed younger Henry's personality and needs. What appears to be a third person narration, including some dialogue, which gradually invites readers to view the story unfolding as an inner voice, a peek inside Henry's head. 
At no point is Henry labeled. No reference is made to being on a spectrum, to rigidity, to being high-functioning, or any of the other designations that are becoming catch phrases among  the general public. 
Assumptions are shattered, in the subtlest of ways, revealing that Henry does not "prefer" to be alone, but is, in fact, eager for a friend. He adheres firmly to a sort of checklist of criteria and rules to determine who COULD be a friend, the kind of friend he wants and needs.
Text makes clear that Henry is observational, often standing apart to gather information. He holds firm to his conclusions about others but is capable of growth. Henry has strong preferences (in colors, locations, activities) but but he CAN adjust, if given a chance. 

There is a strong (and overdue) push to represent our diverse world in all books, but especially in books for young children. This picture book succeeds in terms of externals (skin tones and ethnicities) but I was even more charmed and delighted to note that Henry (and readers) will identify personality and temperament differences, too. Henry notes the patterns of his peers (activity and noise levels, bossy/sharing tendencies, and others) and is aware of his own reactions to those personal styles. 
The two titles could be shared and compared, with similarities and differences noted. Both also offer rich resources for discussions about finding, making, repairing, and keeping friendships. Some amazing conversations about the illustration styles, color tones, and moods of the two books will arise, along with distinct preferences between the two approaches. 
As a side note, Henry seems to be a popular name these days. If you have a Henry (or two) in your home or class or library group, you will have some very enthusiastic readers!

How We See Ourselves: HENRY THE BOY

How we see ourselves matters. It is shaped in both subtle and obvious ways, rooted in early childhood, and, all to often, negatively affected by those around us. That can happen intentionally, through bullying, but also through the most casual of comments, glances, or even subconscious bias and consistent micro-aggressions.

Penny Candy Books, April, 2019

HENRY THE BOY is written by Molly Felder and illustrated by the mother-son team of Tara Sweeney and Nate Christopherson. It is true for all picture books that the story begins on the cover. In this case I especially urge you to linger at the cover, before knowing anything else about Henry.  Ask yourself what it tells you about Henry and who this boy really is. Here's what I came up with:

• Henry the Boy with curious eyes. 
• Henry the Boy with a big imagination.
• Henry the Boy living in a colorful world of possibilities.
• Henry the Boy with places to go and things to do.
• Henry the Boy with feelings.

Oh, perhaps you also noted that Henry the Boy wears glasses and has crutches. Those are also his truth, but are such small parts of HENRY THE BOY. The cover encourages readers to begin by seeing HENRY THE BOY, not Henry, the boy on crutches.

The illustrators use a combination of surrealistic distortions and additions to surround Henry, but safely embed those into stable and familiar scenes. Henry begins his day with a smile, using his sticker-covered crutches to descend steps, that are, in his reality, extremely steep. The images also reveal that coming downstairs to breakfast is a familiar challenge he has mastered, smiling while envisioning his sticker-covered, clicking crutches as his heron legs. 

It is during interactions with others, from classmates to his friend Joel, that Henry confronts the labels others use for him. Even if meant in fun (robot, chicken) Henry the BOY knows they are seeing that last detail, those crutches, as the most important one about him. They are erasing his agency and empowerment to reshape his perception of himself. 
And they are hurting his feelings.

With that problem presented in the first pages, Henry and Joel are free to have fun- on the playground, on their walk home, and in Henry's muddy backyard. Their adventures unleash the illustrators to splash the backgrounds with vibrant color and "people" the foreground with fine-lined drawings of the various metaphorical comparisons that arise throughout the book. Henry's freedom to just be a BOY in these pages is empowering, as is the end-of-play moment in which Henry manages to use his crutches to stand up on his own, no helping hand required. The help of being allowed to be a BOY has already been given.

Henry's busy day ends as we would hope-- with Henry the BOY as happy as he was when the day began. His book, his collection of object-friends, and his experience of acceptance and engagement with Joel have provided the confidence for Henry to be a BOY.

The combination of color, curiously engaging line drawings, and story will draw the youngest back to this book again and again. In the process, they will meet HENRY the BOY, absorbing the appealing sense that we are all more alike than different, and we can do more than others might imagine we can. In the process this offers a wealth of discussion potential about topics of resilience, empathy, confidence, and problem solving. 

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It is available now for preorder with a publication date of April 2.

Dealing with Death: THE YELLOW SUITCASE

Death and grief are difficult experiences at any age. Even the youngest infants and toddlers experience disruptions to schedules and sense the emotional intensity radiated by family members in grief. 
School age children are developing awareness of the finality of death, feeling deeply the immediate loss of loved ones from daily life or from the matrix of extended family and memories. Discussions about death and loss at that age are challenging, at best, and often avoided rather than explored. That's why death-at-a-distance is particularly jarring for children. Picture books offer surprisingly powerful scaffolds on which important and necessary conversations can be built. 

Penny Candy Books, March 12, 2019

Many picture books rely on the comfort of animal characters, fables, or metaphorical tales to allow portrayals of death to move from the immediacy of personal sorrow into a safe zone, one at arm's length.
THE YELLOW SUITCASE, a debut offering from author Meera Sriram, was inspired by her own family's experience and confronts the subject directly. 
The pain Asha feels at her  grandma's death is complicated by the distance between their homes and the loving routine she had established when she traveled from California with her parents to visit in India every year. Asha has lugged her vibrant yellow suitcase back and forth each time. She brings it stuffed with special treats for her Grandma who, in return, fills that case with special surprises and remembrances when it was time for Asha to return home. 
Once they arrive at Grandma's home in India, Asha observes her family's grieving and remembrance rituals, smells the incense, notes familiar pictures, sorting the familiar from the unfamiliar. That process begins as soon as they arrive when Grandma's chair sits empty on the porch. Asha asks questions of her father, even though she knows the answers in her heart. 
The yellow suitcase becomes a symbol of unwelcome changes: the losses, the helplessness Asha feels, her emptiness. Only when it is time to return home does she realize that the suitcase has been filled with a special gift, a quilt Grandma made for Asha from the comforting fabric of her favorite saris. Only then is Asha able to spill her tears, gather Grandma's portrait, and carry with her the love that will never die.

This is a universal story with dynamic specificity in the illustrations, including a variety of two-dimensional art. On some pages it is sticker-like, on others somewhat surreal, and on others it is comfortingly familiar. Illustrator Meera Sethi's career encompasses design, textiles and clothing, and it shows. 
Asha is a character of nonspecific age, with a distinct sense of collage-like fashion. Although I found myself wanting Asha to be younger on my first read, I came to appreciate her potential strength in a preteen(?) identity, suggesting a developmental stage of deep emotion, firmly anchored memories, and cognitive capacity combined with a longing to regress, to NOT understand death. 
India is not named in the text, but iconic indicators throughout make that clear to adult readers or those with global awareness. For others the colors, images, and intensity will intrigue and encourage further investigation. This distinctive style, story, and setting are a welcome addition to picture book shelves. My "virtual" friend, author/publisher/entrepreneur Richa Jha, is a leading voice in picture book trends in India and I believe this book will be welcome there, too. I've featured Richa Jha's work in a prior post, HERE. As the world is shrinking I welcome the opportunity for our hearts to grow, to embrace global stories and styles. The Yellow Suitcase is a wonderful place to start.

It is available now for preorder and will officially release March 12. I was able to review an advance, untrimmed copy thanks to the publisher, PENNY CANDY BOOKS in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Posthumous Poetry: H Is For Haiku

Ready for a tongue-twister loaded with truth?

A tiny, purpose-powered little publisher has packed a lot of punch 

since it was launched by a pair of poets in 2015. 

Any idea who that might be? 

It's PENNY CANDY BOOKS, founded by Alexis Orgera and Chad Reynolds. Their stated mission is "to publish children's literature that reflects the diverse realities of the world we live in, both at home and abroad. This means seeking out books by and about people and subjects that speak to a broad range of human experience." 

PENNY CANDY BOOKS, 2018

The most recent release in their blooming catalogue is H IS FOR HAIKU, by Sydell Rosenberg and illustrated by Sawsan Chalabi. Rosenberg, a charter member of the Haiku Society of America in 1968, spent her professional life as a classroom teacher in New York City, frequently writing for and with her students. She was prolific and wrote in many forms, but her poetic form-of-choice was HAIKU.

The comments above are written in past tense because Syd, as the author was known to friends and family alike, died in 1996 nearing the age of sixty-seven. By that time she had written and published countless poems, many in haiku form. She had also written about the nature of haiku, sharing her passion and talent while inspiring others (young and old) to write their own small moments as haiku. 

Publication of this collection was championed by her daughter, Amy Losak, whose note precedes the collection  with a "Dear Reader" address. In it she highlights the observant and intuitive nature required to recognize potential poems in everyday objects and events. The next page presents thoughts about Haiku from Syd's own writings, including this:

"Haiku is that fledgling moment, when the wingstrokes become sure-- 

when the bird has staying power in the air."

These individual poems were selected and lightly edited by Losak from among her mother's lifetime of creativity. Rosenberg always dreamed of producing an alphabet-themed collection of haiku for young readers and Losak strove to make that vision a reality. The premise of arranging the poems by the alphabetical order of the first words provides a structure. On that scaffold, though, multiple patterns and relationships provide additional  conversations between and among the poems. There is an urban sensibility to some of them, as in these examples:

"Queuing for ice cream-

sweat-sprinkled office workers

on Queens Boulevard"

and

"Room of first-graders

practicing the recorder

through a thunderstorm"  

Several others reflect the author's intense and somewhat wry observations of nature's creatures and the amazing planet we share with them, often oblivious to their beauty and grace.  This pair share a double-page spread:

"Neon wings of moth

exploding into headlights

on a country road"

and 

"On a ruby sun

two white swans cross their black beaks

as they meet, gliding"

Losak reveals even more of the back story about the book and about her mother, Syd, in a recent guest post on the POETRY FOR CHILDREN blog, HERE. 

Illustrator Sawsan Chalabi enhances the carefully curated poems and their engaging interactions by incorporating mutliple strategies to magnify meaning and to encourage reflection. The haiku FIRST LIBRARY CARD is posted on the spines of books. Each word of a poem about rain splatters the page inside a raindrop. 

Harking back to the premise on which I launched this blog many years ago, I believe picture books have important things to offer readers of any age. This format of books is ideal for learners at any stage because they are COMPACT, COMPLETE, and COMPELLING. This picture book exemplifies those qualities. Among the many forms of poetry, for any age, HAIKU can be said to offer readers the same benefits as picture books. Syd Rosenberg, somewhere in time and space, must be very proud of her daughter, of this book, and of the ways it will carry on her advocacy for reading and for writing HAIKU. 

April is National Poetry Month. H IS FOR HAIKU releases on April tenth but is available for pre-order at the publisher, PENNY CANDY BOOKS, HERE. That means you could receive your copy in time to share and enjoy it on INTERNATIONAL HAIKU POETRY DAY, April 17. 
Stay tuned for more April poetry posts here, including some on haiku collections and picture book stories told in haiku forms. Here's a prior post with other titles to keep you reading until your copy of H IS FOR HAIKU arrives.

BLACK BOYS: THREE Fresh Looks to Celebrate

When I began working on today's post, I was excited to notice for the first time that the total page views since I began posting six years ago have topped 150,000! That's hardly a tsunami of readers but it is more than I could have imagined back at the start of this journey.
And that landmark was passed during the week I shared thoughts on BALDERDASH and the ALA Awards, which you can watch on video if you missed it live last week. I was excited, of course, but not nearly as thrilled as I've been to see the wide success of three recent releases celebrating black culture: two picture books and one film. 

Agate Bolden, 2017

One of the books that garnered MANY awards and honors during the ALA awards last week was also a finalist in my CYBILS category for poetry: CROWN: An Ode to the FRESH CUT, deftly written by Derrick Barnes and gloriously illustrated by Gordon C. James. A series of short poems unfold in a cumulative homage to the power of a skilled barber to shape a life:

"You came in as a lump of clay

a blank canvas, a slab of marble.

But when my man is done with you,

they'll want to post you up in a museum!
That's my word!"

The flow of each phrase, image, and page-turn draws readers on to a flourishing conclusion, providing for some a pure revelation of the culture of a barbershop focused on maximizing the unique qualities of African American hair. For others this will be a mirror of their own lives, revealing every angle and sheen with each turn of phrase and shift of perspective. The density of color and tone, the finesse of positioning and perspective, and the subtle depth and humor in this picture book make the individuals spring to life and claim their place in the world, far beyond the world of a barbershop. They are both specific and universal, entirely complex and appealing, and unforgettable.

Penny Candy Books, 2018

This second picture book may garner similar awards for the coming year. THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACK BOY, is written by Tony Medina in tanka poetry form, with each spread illustrated by a noted, often award-winning, black illustrator. Each spread reveals a specific facet of young black boys'/men's experience. As with CROWN (above), these poems and images will reflect or reveal to readers aspects of black lives that resonate, surprise, inspire, and excite. Even more so, they will individualize and personalize lives that matter, erasing assumptions and stereotypes. Read just one sample, here, and see how perfectly these two picture books will serve to compare, contrast, and consider:

Brothers Gonna Work It Out

We righteous Black men

Patrol the should of this 'hood

Raise young bloods proper

To be the kings they are

Crowned glory of our future

Even though the poems and images are compelling, even captivating, but pull yourself away from those spreads long enough to read the introduction, the brief artist biographies in the back, and the thank you note from the author.

Finally, I can't personally recommend the recently released  movie, BLACK PANTHER, because I haven't seen it yet. Nevertheless, I plan to see it as soon as possible and  recommend it for the same reason as the two picture books featured here. Until I do, there is a graphic novel/comic book update of the original Marvel Comics by none other than Ta-Nehisi Coates: BLACK PANTHER: A Nation Under Our Feet. Of course this is not aimed at the typical picture book audience. Still, I've developed that surprising number of page views over the past years in part because of the premise of this blog: picture books (and comic books, and graphic novels) have a particular power that can reach readers of any age. I'm convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that these are just precursors to a wave of books and other media that will invite new and open-minded views of "Black lives", not only for non-black readers but for readers of every ethnicity.

Do yourselves a favor and read all three!