Byrd BaylorRecensioni

A special book to be enjoyed by a child and their reader

This book is awesome! It teaches kids to celebrate even the little things in life.

Hawks

This is such a sweet beautiful book. The illustrations lend it a surreal surreal quality while the text is just simple and direct enough to be ageless.

Beautifully written story of a young Hispanic shepherd and his grandfather. The boy learns to hear the different meanings of the coyote's cry through his life and death experiences caring for the sheep and their sheepdog's puppies.

Primary to Intermediate
The way to start the day by welcoming and singing songs to the sun. It talks about how many different cultures all do this in different ways.
I'm not sure if I'd have this book in my classroom because I'm biased to poems that rhyme, and these poems don't, but I do love the vibrant illustrations.

This book would be good for later primary and early intermediate. This is a book of poems about how to start your day by facing the sun, and it has poems about old traditions of various cultures, and the way they view the sun. I don't think I would use this in my classroom because it is an older book and I could find other cultural poetry books that would be more relevant to today's society.

A powerful story written in poetry form of a Native Boy that believes there are others out there. The tribes is only worried about the day to day needs, but the boy has a friend in the Old Man. The two dream together and find what they are looking for. The book is a strong message to those growing up. Beautiful watercolor illustrations.

This is a wonderful book and it is NOT children's book (unlike the rest of her writing). Unless you think children need to read about real world poverty, prejudice, and hopelessness and despair which lead to alcoholism. Despite the subject matter, and despite Byrd's anglo heritage, this book sensitively portrays the connection of a Papago woman to the natural world, and the cultural outlook of the Papago which sees social relationships in such a different way from the anglo social workers.
We are introduced to many people who live in a slum in a large unnamed city near the Papago reservation. The time frame appears to be the late 1960s-early 1970s.Maria Vasquez's rented house has just been condemned and she and her children have no option but to sleep in it's backyard. Welfare won't give her any money because now she doesn't have an address, but her neighbor, Elma Dominguez, lets her use her address. Mrs Dominguez makes money from selling her handcrafted baskets, but she is also short of funds, has been unable to roof her adobe house, and needs to improve her 'temporary' shack to welfare standards so her grandchildren won't be put in foster homes while their mother is under psych care. Quite an interesting story as the Papagos attempt to live their lives under anglo strictures. Baylor's biography indicates she worked for a short time as a social worker, and it is easy to imagine her poking fun at herself in her portrayal of the new social worker, Sue Mills.
The delicate stippled artwork by Leonard Chana is beautiful.½

I was taken aback by the beginning: the young girl ashamed of their poor home and wishing her family was rich. Not what I expected from Baylor. But as the story developed, her parents talked about how much they prized different aspects of nature and self-sufficiency. I think the girl changed her attitude too quickly, to make a good story, but realize this is just a short picture book, & better suited for non-judgemental children.

This book is about a little girl nicknamed, Mountain Girl. She doesn’t think her family is rich because they do not have a lot of money. However, her parents, who visit different places, and pan for gold, believe they are rich because they have each other, they are free to roam, and they get to spend their days enjoying nature. They begin to put a price on how they live their life and the girl realizes that they are rich. She comes to understand that money does not define happiness.

This book holds truth in being rich in the simplest ways; the imagery is powerful and the underlying theme is a great lesson.

This book reads like poetry to me, but in an easy for children to understand kind of way. It about one boys wonderment on if there are other people out there that aren't like him. You go on a journey of discovery through the eyes of a child. I think all kids have this wonder and could relate to this book even no days with all this technology. I believe this book would incite conversation and learning begins with a question.

A low-key, dryly funny book of sensible advice on how to choose your very own rock. I'm not sure it has much to do with geology, other than celebrating the diversity of size, shape, texture, smell, and appearance in the rocks you find as you search, but it's a lovely, slow, solitary sort of book. People who hate solitude will likely find it boring and empty, but I find it redolent of nostalgia (I used to spend a lot of time looking for rocks) and replete with possibility (I may well look for rocks again in the future).

Gift of Tom Farley

The little girl in this book does not like her life much because she feels her family does not have much. This is a good story around how you do not have to have money in order to live a happy life. It is possible to find joy in other things that may not cost much.

Good book for teaching Main idea and Theme. Main idea - A girl believes she is poor but is convinced by her parents that they are rich in many ways. Themes - Spirit, Family Values, Nature. Author's Message - The most valuable things in life are those with no monetary value at all.

This book focuses on how Harvey ravaged the city of Houston. While no character names are mentioned, the girl does talk about what Harvey did to her family and how they had to fix it.

"The Way to Start a Day" received a Caldecott Honor in 1979. The book describes how people from different cultures around the world from many different time periods celebrate the sunrise. There isn't necessarily an overarching storyline, instead the reader is told to find their own way to celebrate their morning, while other cultures' morning rituals are shown. I actually think the lack of a plot aids the book's impact on the reader; being able to see these people from different times and places greeting the morning sun just like many of us do today is very powerful. Although every culture is different in how they start the day, waking up and looking up at the sky seems to be a universal experience. The illustrations are powerful in their own right; I can't tell what the medium of the art is (I think it's pen and ink), but the art style is extremely 1970s, though I believe this is a good thing. The extremely thin, loose lines and strong, contrasting yet harmonizing colors (I know that phrase logically doesn't make sense but if you see Peter Parnall's art you'll know what I mean) perfectly illustrate how it feels to be sitting by yourself at dawn, watching the sun rise. In all honesty, I didn't care too much for the text of the book, but the illustrations made me fall in love with it. I think that "The Way to Start a Day" is appropriate for all ages, since it not only teaches the reader about different cultures, but also encourages those reading to create their own way to appreciate each new day- a ritual that I think everyone needs in the stressful times we currently live in.½

This is a great book for teaching about other cultures, and also it is a good idea to point out how to book is structured.

Rudy is a boy who wants to fly. In hopes that it may teach him to fly, he takes a baby hawk from its nest. He finally realizes the hawk will never fly free on a string, and lets him go.

The story leads you to think about doing the right thing versus what you might want to do, an important idea for kids to contemplate. With beautiful black and white line drawings and colorful text, this book is one to inspire deep contemplation.

Rudy Soto wishes he could fly like a bird, not like any bird though; he wants to fly like a hawk. One day Rudy steals a baby hawk right before it could learn to fly. He says that this hawk is his brother and one day they both will fly together. He keeps the hawk in a cage, and when he takes it out of the cage, he ties a string around its foot so it could fly away. One day Rudy observes how sad the hawk looks and how he's looking at the sky wishing he could soar high. Rudy finally decides that since they both can't fly together is not fair that flying is taken away from the hawk, so he lets the hawk go. At that moment when the hawk flies away, and rudy feels as if he's flying also even though his feet are touching the ground. The illustrations are done in black pen. There's also no color in any of the drawings.

The Way to Start A Day is a story about how people from around the world greet the sun in the morning. Those in Peru chanted, while those in China rung golden bells. This is a good story to read to children because it exposes them to different parts of the world, and the different traditions and cultures that are a apart of a place. Even though I am in college, I found this book to be pretty interesting. I did not know that people from around the world greeted the sun, let alone greet the sun in different ways.
As far as the art goes, I found it to have very calming illustrations. There were lots of red and yellow, colors that I found to be bright, yet soothing. I think the art brings the text to life. When Baylor writes about the sun coming up, and it is a new day... the illustrations made those words stand out much more. All in all, the illustrations added emphasis to the text.

This can teach inclusion in the world because everyone looks at the same sky. In this book, people chant to the sun with music and singing. This makes readers not feel so alone in the world. The beauty of the skies color is illustrated in the ending of the book and makes me think of life's simple pleasures. The diversity of culture is conveyed through the skies illustrations, it had hidden pictures of people within particular cultures, the book speaks of Aztec people specifically as well.

find a rock but dont tell whats so special about your rock choose it when its quiet
age 3 to 5