Thank You, Mr. Falker, written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco. 40 pages, published 1998.

This book is the autobiographical story of the Polacco and her horrible school experiences before finally learning to read in the 5th grade. It was hard to read about the bullying, but the message of being different and everyone learning on their own timeline will resonate with a lot of kids. And let me give a shout out to Mr. Falker. May all students have such a teacher in their lives! I’d recommend this book for everyone, although the 3-5 grade set is probably the target. It touches on so many painful childhood experiences and will enable you to have honest conversations with your kids.

Gage’s thoughts…

This book is a memoir.

In kindergarten Trisha loved to draw but when she looked at a page to read she saw wiggling shapes. Numbers looked like a stack of wobbly blocks ready to fall.

Her grandma told her being different is the miracle of life and everyone is different. Her grandparents died.

It took five days to move from Michigan to California. The kids at her new school called her dummy, stupid, and ugly. In the 5th grade Mr. Falker came. When kids laughed at her he said, “Stop! Are all of you so perfect that you can look at another person and find fault with her?” The only time she was really happy was when she was around Mr. Falker. Mr. Falker kind of knew she couldn’t read, but not really. He told her, “you fooled many good teachers.”

In three to four months she could read a paragraph. She was happy, so very happy to read.

The Wall. Written by Eve Bunting. Illustrated by Ronald Himler. 32 pages, published 1992.

This is a fictional boy’s first person account of visiting the Vietnam War Memorial with his dad. The emotion portrayed was palpable and reading it slow let it all sink in. Not filled with facts or details but the heaviness of what war leaves behind.

For us, because we’d been talking about protests, this was the perfect time to read this one. We watched a few videos of actual war protests and how important they were. Here’s a short one I found to be helpful for kids. I found it interesting that the reporter called for more law and order until the police came for him.

Gage’s thoughts…

This book is sad because is shows people who died.

My connection to the wall is that my Grandpa fought in the war, but luckily he didn’t die.

I liked this book and recommend it to anyone who likes to learn.

Sometimes People March, written and illustrated by Tessa Allen, 32 pages, published 2020

I thought this was a nice, easy book to introduce kids to the many reasons people protest and how. There is a double page spread of signs from different marches. The last few pages focus on how a march is started by one person who talks to another and another until there are enough of them to march together and lets kids know that person could be them. I also appreciated the index in the back with the specific marches each picture represented.

Gage’s thoughts…

There are many reason people march. People protest for clean water, freedom, the Earth and people they love. We also protest against litter. The most important thing I would march for is clean water

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice. Written by Michael Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard. Illustrated by Jennifer Zivion. 40 pages, published 2018

This book focuses on two families, one white, one black, in the aftermath of the police killing a black man. Not only is this a great way to see the perspective of different races to the tragedy, but also generations. Since we have talked about police shootings and protesting at different points over the summer we spent more time talking about how important it was to see a situation from a point of view that you couldn’t really understand completely, but one you could still respect and sympathize with. There were a lot of resource pages in the back for parents and teachers. The illustrations were gorgeous.

Gage’s thoughts…

What’s the point of the story?

You can change the world by doing little things. Black and white should be treated fairly, equally. They still aren’t though.

Who would you recommend this book to?

People who think everyone should be treated the same.

Have you ever seen racism?

Not that I remember in person, no.

Does that mean it doesn’t happen?

No.

Favorite part of the book?

When Emma and Josh became friends with Omad.

At the end what happened between Emma and Josh?

They worked together for the same purpose, to make a new friend.

Gage has been obsessed with shipwrecks and sinking for a while. I thought the Titanic class would be good (and it was!), but it has ushered in a YouTube video obsession with all things sinking. Check out Cardboardia and know that he has watched these videos more than one time. So, I chose this book hoping it would help move his attention to something else. And I banned Cardboardia for the weekend to save my sanity.

Gage’s thoughts…

Marie Tharp loved to draw and figure out how the world worked. She used sounding, that is measuring the sound that goes to the bottom of the sea and bounces back, to confirm continental drift, the world land is splitting apart. She was treated differently because she was a woman (this was 1948) and was told she couldn’t go on a research ship because women were bad luck.

Thankfully, we live in different times and Gage didn’t understand the bias of women not being treated as equally smart as men. Every time it comes up in a book he makes sure to tell me how smart I am 😉

The Seed of Compassion.  Illustrated by Bao Luu.  40 pages.  Published 2020.

We read a Bible worksheet every morning to start our lessons and we follow it up with Mindful Movements from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book for kids.  This was a nice book to read right after that to solidify positive thoughts to start our day.  The Dalai Lama talks about his mother and how she taught compassion from the heart in the short years he lived with her before being chosen as the next Dalai Lama at four years old.  I love when books open up discussions that let me know what’s going on in that big brain of his and this one did that.

Gage’s thoughts… 

This is a memoir.

The Dalai Lama is the head of Buddhism.

Compassion is caring for one another.

This passage sums up the book…

“But only humans have the ability, with discipline and effort, to train the mind.  It’s what makes us different from all other animals.  It is our superpower.  And it is where the seed of compassion thrives.”  pages 32

I’d recommend this book because he’s a good person.

 

He also read to me which was pretty sweet.

 

The Secret Cave.  40 pages. Published 2010.

We’re studying ancient history and took this tour (watch it, so cool!) of Lascaux last week.  I was excited to find a book about the discovery of this cave, by four boys and a dog, no less!  I liked the cave map, the illustrations and the last two pages of the real story best.  The story in the book was okay, but could have better appealed to kids, I think.

Gage’s thoughts…

Main characters- Jacques, Jojo, Simon, and Marcel

This book is fiction based on real people.

Four boys find a cave under a fallen tree.  They went in to search for gold.  They found lots of cave art.  Marcel wanted to keep it a secret, but it wasn’t a secret for long.  Too many kids knew so they had to tell their teacher.  The teacher was amazed.  Their discovery was put in newspapers all around the world.

My favorite part is the illustrations.

I would recommend this book to people who like history.  I’m glad I read this book because I learned a lot.

 

We also read and .  Gage appreciates me having younger books like the Isle of You around when he has to read to me.  I don’t mind.  Surprisingly, he liked the whimsy of it and making an Isle of Gage is something going on our schedule this week 🙂