Sometimes I really hate dialect in books. And part of the reason I do is that too often is crosses racial, class, or regional bounds between the author and the character and becomes downright offensive. As beloved as the Henrietta Lacks book that came out recently is, it made me cringe so desperately to hear how the white author portrayed the Black speech in that book. My girlfriend even asked “She knows they’re speaking English right?” Dialect is hard to pull off because ultimately, unless […]
Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten
I have one word about this book: Chills. It gave me chills to read. Chills to look at the illustrations. Chills to hear the story of Elizabeth Cotton. She had always heard music, but when she was a child she borrowed her brother’s guitar and taught herself to play. But not just in the usual way. She was left handed and had to play her brothers guitar “upside down and backwards” to make it feel right. Over the years she played and wrote songs. But […]
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race
The story of the women from Hidden Figures has had many written formats as well as a film dedicated to telling about the lives of these amazing women. These were women who helped changed history by changing the world of male-dominated-science, the space program, women’s rights and the rights of African Americans. History of NASA, the space program and even the term computer are introduced while introducing a younger audience to Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden. Women who were good at […]
Let Music Ring!
Let Music Ring! Is there a rating higher than five? I do not usually get this excited over a book. In the end this is just a really good book. However, the fact they talk about lynching in a children’s book (though tastefully done, if such a thing is possible) is a real eye-opener for how far books have come. This is what makes this book stand out. It is not shying away from the issue of race, discrimination and the results of that. It […]
Chinese New Year
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Or Happy New Year. Friday February 16, 2018 the Year of the Dog begins. Many traditions surround this holiday. One of my personal ones is to read books about the Chinese New Year. Two new (to me) books, are Ruby’s Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee and Joey Chou and Home for Chinese New Year: A Story Told in English and Chinese by Wei Jie and Xu Can. Ruby’s Chinese New Year hints at Little Red Riding Hood and tells the […]
Bork, Bork!
I have a newish part time job teaching an ethics class for kids on Sunday mornings. I thought I was going to be teaching 10 – 13 yr olds, but instead I have 4 – 6 yr olds. I was taken aback at first, but now I am delighted. The kids are great and they make me laugh every session. One morning recently, three of the 4 year olds came in with mothers who were clearly at the ends of their respective ropes. I was […]
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