Powerful picture books

Dreamers

Freedom Soup 

Bodega Cat 

     A mother and her infant son cross the bridge into America.  On the other side they are immigrants, homesick in a strange place.  The mother wonders if it will ever feel like home.

     Then one day they discover an amazing place "where we didn't need to speak, we only needed to trust."

     Yuyi Morales shares her immigrant story in lyrical prose that begs to be read aloud and vibrant illustrations.  If you look carefully you'll find a monarch butterfly ( a very beloved immigrant) on each two page spread.

"Today is New Years Day.  This year, I get to help make Freedom Soup.  Ti Gran says I've got a heart made for cooking, and it's time I learn how."

     Belle, narrator of Tami Charles' Freedom Soup, and her Ti Gran may be able to see snow falling outside their kitchen window.  But their hearts and minds are in a far warmer place.  It's Belle's turn to learn how to prepare a recipe that's been passed down from generation to generation in her family and many others.

     As they cook together Ti Gran tells the story behind the soup.  It's a story of slaves in Haiti having to serve a soup they could never eat to their abusive white masters.  After a successful revolution eating the special soup became part of the annual freedom celebration.

     Charles makes this soup with her own son every New Years Day.  (She includes a child friendly recipe).  In her author's note she tells readers, "It's been several years since Ti Gran left us, and I continue to be thankful for the lessons she taught me: that freedom comes at a price, that the price you pay is the work you put in, and that the ultimate reward is tasting the sweet freedom that you craved all along.  This book is an homage to Ti Gran and to the bravery of the Haitian people who have endured so much, in fighting their revolution, in the face of an earthquake, and in the face of continual oppression..."

     If my mother was still alive she would have loved this book.  She was a college English professor.  Way before multiculturalism was a thing she created a class called America's Heritage in Literature.  Everyone's favorite part of the class was the dinner where each student brought a food from her family's history and shared the story behind it.

     I have two suggestions for any parents sharing this book.

1) Prepare the soup together as you share the book.

2) Are there any special foods in your family's history?  What are the stories behind them?  Start or continue your own family tradition.

     "What's up?

     My name is Chip.

And I'm the boss of this bodega."

     Cat loving kids (and parents) are going to adore Louie Chin's Bodega Cat.  It's the story of a day in the life of a bodega narrated by the real owner, a feline named Chip.  Chip knows all the regulars.

"The guy with the beard? 

I knew him before

he was old enough

to have a beard."

Chip does everything: inventory, customer service, working the register, and even navigating on bike deliveries.

     I highly recommend this book to read aloud families.  It's a story kids will want to hear again and again and parents won't tire of quickly.

     I read the story aloud to Tobago.  I don't know what she thinks of it.  But she did sniff the pages attentively.

On a purrrsonal note, in at least parts of Maine we're under drought conditions.  Blame the recent heat wave coupled with not enough snow last winter and not enough rain now.  In other words, blame climate change.  People are laboring heroically to save the veggies and fruits we need.  People who rely on wells, which is a big percentage of this state's population, are running dry or about to run dry.  My smartphone and the channel 5 meteorologist are in agreement that the much needed rain will come Wednesday.  I'm rooting for the rain as much as anyone else, just hoping it starts after 10:00 in the morning.  Tobago has to go to her veterinarian for a check up.  I can't reschedule with school starting soon.  To get to the veterinary practice I have to walk down sidewalkless busy route two.  With the rain visibility would be crappy.  Just another reason I envy people who can actually drive. ( Jules)

She could always cancel that visit to the veterinarian.  I am in purrrfect health.  ( Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all people who are education about and fighting climate change.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone