SOMEONE LIKE ME... Worth Reading at Any Age

 Patricia MacLauchlan authored some of the most classic and unforgettable novels for young readers of all time. If the author's name doesn't ring a bell, how about the titles SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL, SKYLARK, THREE NAMES, and the audio books for BOXCAR CHILDREN. She lived a long and productive life (1938-2022), writing now-classic stories for children and all humans. 

Neal Porter Books, 2017

SOMEONE LIKE ME is written by Patricia MacLachlan and illustrated by Chris Sheban. This lyrical picture book addresses young readers (well, really, readers of any age) with a gentle, second person voice. Illustrations mirror that tone and expand the possibilities of imagining life deeply immersed in the daily experiences as suggested in questions and lines of text. 

The title page shows an older woman and young person (gender and age don't really matter) on a stoop. They move throughout the scenes as unlimited possibilities drawn from everyday life are illuminated with an optimistic glow.

The opening spreads indicate that the root of her ideas was storytelling, evoking connection and then becoming nuggets of memories that would later launch familiar titles, including THREE NAMES. Then the author invites her companion to imagine being a little girl who read voraciously- even while walking home and crossing streets.Finding more stories and absorbing them deeply. Or being a girl who climbed trees to watch the changing skies, or snuck under a diner table to hear grown-ups talk. A girl who did SO many things that connected her to the world under her toes and at her fingertips. 

This was written late in MacLachlan's life, but there is such a sense of youthful spirit and joyful engagement, such immediacy,  that readers will want to find her and tell her of their own special moments. I know that was my wish while reading it. 

I haven't mentioned the tremendous value of using picture books as mentor text in recent posts, but this title demands it!  Many of the youngest learners are encouraged to write simple stories from their lives. "Small moments" is a prompt often used. Young writers can be eager to write highly fantastical stories with dramatic characters and events, stories that mirror movies or video games. That can and should be encouraged. But when trying to guide and develop writing skills, sentences that flow from one thought to the next, stories that becomes rich with emotions and meaningful language that the learner has experienced directly, small moments serve well. Except ...some would-be writers feel like their own lives aren't worth writing about.  SOMEONE LIKE ME can be the perfect read aloud to shake loose any hesitancy about writing everyday life stories. Just a mention of the many awards and medals and movies and accolades that such "Small Moments" inspirations sprouted for MacLachlan should encourage excitement about writing from personal experiences. 

Then there are older writers, those in middle and older grades. The structure of the language used merits a read aloud to demonstrate conditional forms (If you were... ) throughout the text, along with second person voice and a tone that bridges realism and dreaminess. Writers at this age likely know (and may well cherish) MacLachlan's books, recognizing their origin stories  in this simple text.  They might even find deep connection in that closing line:

"You might be someone like me...

a writer."

Whether shared as the gorgeous and heartwarming story that it is, a memoir-like childhood account by a treasured author, or as the launch to a writing lesson, this should, in fact be shared. I hope you'll read it and pass it on. And maybe read/reread some of those fabulous books.

Making Memories: IN A JAR

This will be brief.
Not because this book deserves little attention, but because it is a brilliant reminder to nurture the life beyond ourselves- in the natural world, but especially in relationships. As soon as possible, get your hands on this book and get busy making memories in real life.

IN A JAR is the recent picture book written and illustrated by Deborah Marcero.

Penguin Books for Kids

Someone I dearly love began, with her first baby's first breath, to whisper the words "Let's make some memories" in that infant's ear. She repeated some version of that mantra preceding the mundane and miraculous, the planned and the unexpected, throughout her kids' lives, including their eye-rolling adolescences. 
Now adults, I expect they'll do the same with their own eventual families.
This picture book is eloquent in words and images, offering that same invitation to the tot audience and to the adult reader, the ones holding books and turning pages. It calls all to be intentional, to be direct and in the moment, to savor and save, and to use those moments to root us in deep relationships. 
Digital screens have value. Our brains (big ones and little ones) are drawn to them. But on the other side of a human-screen relationship, no one is THERE.  No one remembers back. There is no authentic emotional link, no one to smile with, or cry with, or just KNOW us.

There are countless wonderful things about this book, and meaningful ways in which it reveals nature and seasons and life cycles and longing. But mostly, it just might launch someone into making memories.

For more details about this book (and added praise), check out starred reviews from KIRKUS (HERE), and SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (HERE). The Booklist starred review included this:
*”Marcero works magic with prismatic watercolors, ink, and pencil, as her light-filled illustrations chronicle the young rabbits’ exploits and their appreciative wonder of the world around them . . . This joyful account of friendship will charm readers with the notion of capturing wind or a rainbow in a jar, but its deeper message of maintaining relationships over a distance will comfort those who have moved or know someone who has.” —Booklist, starred review

Two Picture Books Celebrating Daily Life of Native People

Roaring Book Press, 2019

FRY BREAD: A Native American Family Story is raking in well-deserved awards. It is written by Kevin Noble Mailard and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, a talented pair who together created a modern miracle. There are not enough words of praise to offer, but I'll give it a try.

This remarkable book is an outstanding example of a picture book for every age. The seemingly simple premise of defining a staple food product- fry bread- is expanded and exposed, in phrase after phrase, with each page turn exploring various aspects of this unifying yet diverse food and the distinct practices and customs involved in its preparation and sharing. What seems, on first glance, to be an attempt to define a food product succeeds, in fact, in embracing the vast and intimate connections among indigenous people, their varied histories,  and their individually distinct relationships with friends and family.
Fry bread has rich symbolism and cultural significance to people who were deprived of millennia of authentic traditions only to be replaced with inadequate and alien ingredients. The adaptation of those many people is celebrated here, honoring fry bread's most significant ingredients -family, friends, love, support, survival, and resilience. 
The author's recipe and notes in back matter sparked memories of a few family heritage foods of my own- Aunt Sally's biscuits and cornbread, pots of ham hocks and beans, among others, each of which claimed superiority to any other versions. And yet even those variations are evocative of the broader landscape of time, place, and people to which I am connected. 
I had the pleasure of hearing the illustrator speak at a workshop before her first books were released, before they garnered stars and awards. Her message then (in her talk) and now (in her work) is that the heart of any story is the HEART of it- the connections within the pages and reaching beyond to the hands holding those pages. This book is an incredible experience, and one that should be shared. 
If not with fry bread, then with whatever fills your own family's hearts as fully as your bellies.

University of Minnesota Press, 2019

From this expansive story of a staple of daily life, shift gears to enjoy a very particular small moment in one day in the life of one small family. JOHNNY'S PHEASANT is written by Cheryl Mennema with pictures by Julie Flett.This, too, has won attention and awards, each of which is well-deserved. 
The text provides a superb example of the potential for writing powerful versions of "small moments". It's a story of noticing, of curiosity, of gentle caring, of reasonable doubt, of imagination, and oaf faith. This is mentor text for any and every age, with each word in the spare narrative serving its purpose perfectly. The images in the illustrations pair well, providing enough detail to feel intensely familiar but remaining lean in line and tone.
Heartwarming, hopeful, packed with with life lessons and a feather-light-touch of humor, this book should also be shared, again and again.
Both are also windows to slices of life in modern Native family culture, laying an inviting  path to connection and appreciation for the diversity of our world.