White Water - Michael S. Brandy, Eric Stein, Shadra Strickland

White Water by Michael S. Bandy & Eric Stein illus. by Shadra Strickland
On a very hot day Michael takes the bus to town with his Grandma. Halfway there all Michael can think about is getting a cool drink from the water fountain. He only takes a few sips of the nasty tasting water. Next to Micheal is a boy his age taking a nice long drink from the Whites only fountain. Now Micheal wants to see for himself how refreshing and cool the White water taste .

I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed White Water. Many times historical picture books are so focused on teaching, there's little room for anything else. White Water is the best of both worlds. From the seating on the bus to the two water fountains its a good look at the segregated South. With Micheal's imagination from his army men who cover him to daydreaming in class, the story is also fun.

"After that, I couldn't concentrate anywhere, not even at school. One moment I would be in class, then suddenly, I'd be crawling on my hands and knees in the hot desert. Out of nowhere, there was a palm tree with a water fountain under it. Above the fountain was a whites only sign. I got up, opened my mouth, and was about to take a drink, when "Michael. Michael," the teacher said, "would you care to join us today?" I snapped out of it. All the kids were laughing at me."

Strickland's wonderful illustrations compliment the text beautifully. The spreads are open with very nice muted earth tones. I love Strickland's commitment to detail, from the water drops to Micheal's faithful dog. The illustrations confirm that this is a story about a boy who went on a dangerous adventure and learned a valuable lesson in the process. Textually and visually White Water simply came together very well.

Excerpt
Publishers Weekly review
Kirkus review

Sunday - A Little of Everything (Including Borders)

On Tuesday I posted an interview with Farhana Zia the author of Hot Hot Roti for Dada- ji . the book is illustrated by Ken Min. Initially I had planned to post the author and illustrator interviews together. I wanted it look like the interview I did with Renee Watson and Shadra Strickland for When A Place Like Hurricanes Happen. Looking back on Watson's and Strickland I realize its a bit long. So in the end I think separate is better and this time it is equal. Min's is coming soon. I love his answers.

Finished WildCat Fireflies by Amber Kizer the other day. It was very good. I love this series. I especially enjoy that Kizer's story is its own thing and not more of the same. I will review in the release month of July. The first book is Meridian (which is out in paperback) my review.

Before the Borders I worked at closed, I purchased a Kobo reader at a good price. (personal severance). Now I don't have to read egalleys on my laptop anymore. Downloading the books was very easy. I just have to figure out how to increase the font for a pdf file.

Working at a store that is closing is actually a lot of fun. Its the one time when the seller has the power. All the customer threats made me laugh.

" I am never shopping here again" - Me too
"I am going to shop at amazon from now on" - Again, me too
" I demand you take back my year old return."

No more laughing at bad customer jokes. No more watching people come in 7 days a week to use the free Wi Fi and not buy anything. No more pretending to care. There are a lot of great customers but some people should not be allowed to shop in stores. Will be talking more about my time at Borders later.

Sunday - A Little of Everything

There are a lot of great links to share.

On May 1st, Guys Lit Wire announced their third annual Book Fair. This year all donated books will be going to Ballou Senior H.S. in Washington D.C.

"There are probably more books in my house then Ballou has in this video and that is wrong in so many ways that I don’t even know where to begin.

At the time the video was made early this year there were just over 1,150 books on the shelves at Ballou; there are over 1,200 students in the school. So there was barely one book for each student (the ALA standard is 11:1)"

Carol Rasco had two guest bloggers last week over at Rasco From RIF for El Dia de los libros
Illustrator John Parra - His latest project is Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown

"Creating and illustrating Waiting for the Biblioburro, was a tremendous pleasure. As I painted the book’s many scenes, I would get lost in the characters and landscapes that made this story special to me."



And author/illustrator Eric Velasquez - 2011 Pura Belpre winner for Grandma's Gift

Part of the fun of illustrating books is that sometimes the images mean more to the illustrator than to the people who read the books and other times if you are lucky the images mean more to the reader than to illustrator or the author, because they add their own back-story to the characters based on their own life experiences.



Librarian and Blogger Edi Campbell recommends a few titles for Asian-Pacific Heritage Month

"I love blogging! It gives me such an opportunity to learn! I was going to do, am doing, a quick and easy post on Asian- Pacific American Heritage month, but in gathering photos to spruce up my verbage, I found out that"

Congratuations to author Zetta Elliott and illustrator Shadra Strickland, their book Bird was this year's winner for West Virginia Children's Choice Book Award

Literacyhead is an organzation that believes in teaching literacy through art.

"A Literacyhead is someone who is intensely serious about exercising creative literacy, making connections across multiple literacies, pursuing thoughtful literacy as an individual and as a teacher, and constantly searching for ideas. Literacyheads may have expertise in different areas of literacy, but all are committed to children's literacy, passionate about the arts, incessant thinkers, and display a propensity for having fun. "



The Guardian linked to one of my post last week it was very exciting. Though the irony is they selected one of my few bookseller post and very soon on the 15th I will no longer be a bookseller, store is closing. I considered changing my blogger name but I decided againist it, I've earned my moniker.

One of my favorite novels this year ( and its not a YA crossover) is Please Look After Mom by Kyung- Sook Shin.


Usually with translated titles I feel as if I've missed something, this was not the case. I loved this book so much.

Vasilly wonderful review of Please Look After Mom.