Keila V. Dawson

Down in the Creole Bayou there is nothing that tastes better than a nice bowl of gumbo. Annabelle, her brother, Beau, and their parents go to their grandparents' house to make gumbo, a great Creole cultural food staple that can be made many ways. The story encourages diversity, gathering, interpreting, and making decisions based on data leading to agreeable negotiation. There is even a
Creole glossary at the end!
The illustrations by Katie Crumpton are fun, complex, colorful, and delightful.
Well suited for reading WITH someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting to anyone, but especially to a school or your local public library!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Charlesbridge via NetGalley. Thank you!… (altro)

Tributes in prose and poetry to children and teens of today who have spoken out to support a cause or protest injustice.

Budding activists in search of child role models beyond the high-profile likes of Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg may well draw inspiration from this less-intimidating—but no less brave and worthy—lineup. For each, a poem by one of 14 poets and a laudatory paragraph flank an engaging, soft-focus portrait by Bradley that digitally emulates chalk and pastels on a textured brown background. “Each activist,” write the editors, “inspired a poet who relates to an aspect of the activist’s identity.” New Yorker Charles Waters, for instance, gives a shoutout to 6-year-old Samirah “DJ Annie Red” Horton, “proudly / representing the People’s Republic of Brooklyn” with her anti-bullying rap; Zach Wahls, founder of Scouts for Equality, poses with his two moms next to a triolet from Lesléa Newman. Other contributors, including Carole Boston Weatherford, Janet Wong, and Joseph Bruchac, honor young people making good trouble in areas of contention as varied as climate change, gender identity, immigration law, safe drinking water, and gun violence. The contributors are as diverse of identity as their young subjects, and as a sidelight, the poems are cast in a variety of identified forms from free verse to reverso, cinquain, and tanka.

Never too soon to start stirring things up: “We may be small / but / we / can / ROAR!” (contributor bios, notes on poetic forms) (Informational picture book/poetry. 6-12)

- Kirkus Review… (altro)

Recommended Ages: Gr. 2-4

Plot Summary: Victor Hugo Green is a black man from New York who loved to travel but didn't feel safe doing so because he and his family are black. After being inspired by seeing a bok recommending restaurants for Jews who keep kosher, he used his connections as a mail carrier to find businesses that were either black owned or safe for blacks. This information was published for the first time in 1936. It became a hot seller right away, even though others had tried a similar concept, likely because of his connections and networking through his job as a postal worker. Victor and his wife worked on the next one almost right away, this time trying to find safe places for Blacks in other parts of the country. The Green Book was edited and published until 1966.

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Controversial Issues: in the author's note there is mention of two blacks dying at the hands of police and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement

Personal Thoughts: As a white woman, I was unfamiliar with the Green Book. This book had the right amount of information to use as an introduction to the historical importance. Segregation is explained in the first few pages to help the reader understand the need for the green book. The author's note was heartbreaking. I had no idea that there are three people working on updating the Green Book for today, which is telling me that society still has a loooooong way to go in giving everyone equal rights. Clearly this book is important, and I hope everyone will read the author's note to see it's not just a thing of the past.

Genre: informational text, narrative non-fiction

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