Sealed with a Kiss

Friendship

Sealed with a Kiss by Beth Ferry and French illustrator Olivier Tallec is a silly story about a seal who is new to the zoo. It teaches readers about friendship and forgiveness and is a blast to read. It has lots of fun vocab, alliteration and sprinkles of French. It's just a fun book to read!

The gist:

This book is about a French seal who is new to the zoo! She waits for the other animals to welcome her, but no one comes. Eventually, a sparrow flies by and gives her a peck on the cheek, which inspires her to go out and make friends herself! She tries to make friends but all the other animals run away because her breath smells fishy. This leaves her feeling sad and alone. When little bird scolds the other animals and reminds them of how they felt when they first came to the zoo, they decide to apologize and welcome her with open arms, and, some breath mints!

My favorite (and not so favorite) part(s):

This book is so goofy and I loved it. It's a blast to read aloud because it's littered with alliteration and sprinkled with French. It also has a lot of really fun vocabulary that could be fun to decode with students. Plus, it has a great message! Everyone's been the new kid at some point or another and it can be really hard. It's important that we remember that feeling and work hard to welcome new people to our communities. And, when we make a mistake or are not-so welcoming, it's important to always say sorry and try again.

I did have two reservations about this book, but I still like it enough to recommend. One, the seal's French accent is a bit cheesy and I'm not sure how appropriate it is to appropriate an accent of any sort. However, the illustrator is a French man, and because the French aren't historically and systematically marginalized, I saw this as "punching-up" kind of humor. Two, there's the issue of consent. People shouldn't go around kissing others without their permission. However, I think this is an opportunity to engage in a conversation about cultural customs. In France, and many other countries, it's perfectly normal to greet people (even people you're just meeting!) with a kiss on the cheek. Perhaps this book could also be used to facilitate a conversation about how to react when someone has different cultural customs.

What you can do:

I think this is a great book to read either at the beginning of the year or when you have a new student join your class. This book will help students remember how they felt when they were new and will remind them to welcome their new friends with open arms.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

 Doing the Unimaginable 

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat is a fantastic book about being brave and finding friendship. It won the Caldecott Award in 2015 and was very received for its ability to convey the anxiety that can come with forming new friendships. Because of this, I think it would be a great book to read at the beginning of the year as students are still settling in and getting to know one another!

The gist:

Dan Santat tells us the story of a magical island where imaginary friends are born. Over time all the imaginary friends are imagined by children and given special names -- except for one. He waits and waits, but his turn to imagined and go live in the real world, but his turn never comes. So, he decides to take matters into his own hands and find his child himself. He sets off on an incredible quest and eventually meets his special friend, who names him "Beekle."

My favorite parts:

The illustrations are gorgeous! They're half the story in and of themselves. Check out this page, where you can clearly see exactly how Beekle feels about not having been chosen yet. 

I read this book recently with a four year old I was babysitting and he loved chatting about all the illustrations. I would ask him to look closely at the pictures and ask him questions about how characters were feeling or what he thought might happen next. This book would work well in the classroom to help students develop their inferential skills!

What you can do:

I think this book could lend itself well to a creative writing exercise! Have children draw pictures of what they would want their imaginary friend to look like and have them use this book's illustrations as inspiration. Then, have the children write about the imaginary friend that they drew. What do they look like? What do they like to do? Do they have a name? Then, have an author's circle, where students can show off their work!

Happy Reading!

The Undefeated

A Love Letter to Black America

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson might be my favorite book that I've found for this blog so far. It's a gorgeous tribute to some of the most influential figures in Black American History. The author, Kwame Alexander, is a New York Times best-selling author and past winner of the Coretta Scott King Book award. Illustrator Kadir Nelson is also well renowned, having written several distinguished picture books and won the Caldecott Honor for illustrators twice.

The gist:

Kwame Alexander describes this book is "a love letter to America. To Black America." It is an ode that highlights the strength, passion and perseverance of some of the greatest Black figures in U.S. history. It includes references to lyrics and lines of poets and musicians (like Gwendolyn Brook's We Real Cool) and beautiful portraits of influential figures.

In his afterword, Kwame Alexander writes "I wanted to establish from the very beginning that much of what I'm talking about in this poem, so much of American history, has been forgotten, left out of textbooks, and that to truly know who we are as a country, we have to accept and embrace all of our woes and wonders." This book does just that. This book highlights so many incredible Black figures in American History, and does not shy away from the "woes" of slavery and racism. Following the afterword, the book goes through each historical figure featured or referenced and gives a short, factually accurate bio. 

My favorite parts:

This book is unafraid to bring to light issues that too often people continue to push into the dark. Like Kwame Alexander says in his afterword, "...We have to accept and embrace all of our woes and our wonders." Our country must acknowledge the racist foundations of this nation and stop brushing them under the rug. We must acknowledge the horrors of slavery, of Jim Crowe, and the racist structures that continue to oppress Black Americans. This book is beautiful in so many ways, but perhaps my favorite part was the tribute to Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin. This page, and their short biographies written at the end of the book, is so incredibly powerful. I cannot do justice to it, so I'll just leave you with this image.

What you can do:

First off, please, please have conversations about race and prejudice with your children and your students. It's so important to begin having these difficult conversations at a young age. Not sure where to start? Listen to this NPR Podcast that provides strategies for talking about race with young children. Then, check out this PBS page, which has tons of articles for you to read as well as resources you can share with your child, including this Arthur video! Who doesn't love Arthur?

This book is designed to help guide your conversations. It will act as a jumping off point for you to lead conversations with your students about all these incredible Black figures. After the initial reading (let the kids just sit and bask in this book's glory the first time around!), you can go back to certain pages or sections and discuss who each figure it. Want to take a deeper dive into the artists highlighted (Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and more)? Great! Grab the art teacher and see what kind of project you can think up! Think your students would prefer learning about the athletes? No problem! There's tons to choose from -- Wilma Rudolph, Michael Jordon, Sheryl Swoopes and SO MUCH MORE. There are so many ways you could use this book as a starting point to bring these historical figures to life.

Happy Reading!