Spike: The Penguin With Rainbow Hair by Sarah Cullen, Carmen Ellis

Genre; Children’s Picture Book
Source: Purchased

I absolutely loved this book. I loved it so much I read it to my husband. He laughed and said I was being a teacher. However, he loved it as well. I am a sucker for stories that rhyme. They did a wonderful job with that. The story is of a young penguin born with a tuft of rainbow colored hair on top of his head. His parents are so proud of him and name him Spike. Spike is not fond of his hair and tries everything he can to make his rainbow colored hair go away. The lesson to be learned is that we are all different and we don’t need to be the same to fit in. This is a wonderful book to teach such a wonderful lesson geared for the youngest of children.

The Illustrator,  Zuzana Svobodova is a wonderful artist. The colors she chose are soft and colorful, except for his bright tuft of hair. The penguins are cute and cuddly. I kept thinking that I would love to have a stuffed penguin who looked just like Spike. I personally think it would be a beautiful addition to go with the book. I will still share this with my grandchildren. They love reading them even if they are older and read on their own. It is all in how you present it to them. Highly recommended to parents, grandparents and teachers.

Student Saturday: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Student Reviewer:  Malia W.

Genre: Elementary, Middle Grade, Adventure

" I couldn't possibly", said Despereaux, backing away form the book.  "Why? Um," said Despereaux. "It would ruin the story." You see this might not seem like much but Despereaux was always the odd one in his family, but from this point on ...everything would start to go downhill. To me he had an emotional intelligence that the other mice did not - it made the reader feel more connected to him but for the mice in thebook, he wasn't normal -- that wasn't normal. Regardless of that when Despereaux said he couldn't possibly because it would ruin the story it reminded me of myself. There's often times I want to tell my friends something but then I don't because I'm afraid it would ruin our friendship.

You know when you were little and your mother might say "I'm disappointed in you" yeah, well I'm starting to think that's just a mom thing. In the book Despereaux's mother gave birth but all the other mice died except him -- and even he was so frail that she said he would die like the others. "All that work for nothing," said the mother. She sighed. "It is so sad. It is such the disappointment." Disappointment was something she said often, it was her favorite words.Sometimes it makes me wonder if it's my mom's favorite word too. There was just this time where my mom would always say she's disappointed in me, little me didn't reallyunderstand why at the time but Ido do now. I guess much hasn't changed since I still make selfish-idiotic choices that give my mother al the rights to be disappointed in me - to give everybody that right in fact. It often makes me wonder why people like me, still have faith in me. 

"But his existence was cause for much speculation in the mouse community," You know that feeling when you're the odd one in the family or on the side lines in the friend group? I think that is what this quote feels like. Like the guild-eating, self-conscious that's telling you that whatever you're thinking is 99.iiii% correct. When you feel like your existence is something to question, not just for you but for others too. It's almost like everybody you know and consider your friend starts to blur out and blend in with the darkness and start to questions why the even became friends with  you and why you're even here. Though in Despereaux's case, it was worse, even so he ignored it all and just did him. Sometimes I was ore like that instead of focusing on what others think about me.

This small book has so many lessons to teach and I highly recommend it.

 

A Long Way From Home by Laura Schaefer

 

Genre:  Middle Grade, Science Fiction

Source:  I won a copy from LibraryThing. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Abby Monroe has just moved to Florida. Saying she doesn't want to be there is an understatement. Her mother works for SpaceNow and she never gets to spend much time with her. Her mom seems like all she is interested in is making sure her daughter follows in her footsteps.  Abby only wants to go back to Pennsylvania and her friends. Then she meets two young boys, Bix and Adam. They need her help. They need a place to hide out and food. They need her to believe that they come from the future. Abby agrees.  Things seem to be more difficult than she imagined. Bix and Adam are in her time trying to locate the exact time and place that Adam's sister will arrive. This is important for Adam's sister and all of this time period.  

I loved this book. We learn why Abby's mom is so caught up in her work. We learn why Abby's mom and her aunt have not spoken in years.  We learn the real underlying reason they moved to Florida. The twists and turns kept me reading non-stop. The lessons learned by all characters and what the author's message was to readers is what made this book so wonderful.  I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this book.