Category Archives: Books&Art

Book and art reviews, postings, tutorials.

OUR IMAGINATIONS! RED SHIRT, BLUE SHIRT, YELLOW SHIRT

OUR IMAGINATIONS! RED SHIRT, BLUE SHIRT, YELLOW SHIRT

ReadIn My New Yellow Shirt by Eileen Spinelli

Aunt Betty gives her nephew a new yellow shirt for his birthday.

“That’s no fun,” his best friend, Sam, declares.

But the birthday boy loves it and imagines himself transformed into a variety of yellow shapes and forms:

A yellow dick

A yellow lion

A yellow cab

A yellow caterpillar

A yellow daffodil

A yellow tropical fish

A yellow tennis ball

A yellow trumpet

A yellow canary

A yellow butterfly

A golden treasure hidden in a dark, dark attic

A yellow banana

A yellow submarine

A yellow and black fire fly

And a “smile of moon.”

Project:

Do you play soccer? Do you collect fire flies? Do you belong to a secret boys’ or girls’ club? Decorate a T-Shirt with a favorite shape or symbol.

Materials:

T-Shirt

Fabric paint

Fabric brushes

Fabric markers

Water and container for water

Fabric glue

Iron-on transfers

Iron-on patches

Additional Reading:

Boase, Petra. T-Shirt Fun

Gould, Deborah. Aaron’s Shirt

Wells, Rosemary. Max’s Dragon Shirt

Wollman, Jessica. Andrew’s Bright Blue T-Shirt

 

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OUR IMAGINATIONS! IT STINKS!

OUR IMAGINATIONS! IT STINKS!

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH THESE SUPER STINKY SNEAKERS??

Read:

Stink and the World’s Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers by Megan McDonald.

In this book, Stink and his friend enter a contest to win the prize for the world’s smelliest sneaker. Stink meets someone

who actually works using his nose at the competition. He asks Stink to be one of the judges! It means that

Stink can’t enter the contest but he accepts. None of the judges knows whose sneakers are whose. It’s a surprise to all

the judges especially Stink about who has the World’s Super-Stinky sneakers.

 

Project:

Everyone has a pair of stinky sneakers (including adults)! Challenge your friends to a contest to see who has the

sneakers that stink the most! First, read how Stink and his friend made their sneakers the worst ever and try to come up

with ideas of your own that are better than theirs! Then using the materials you assembled, make your sneakers stink!

 

Materials:

A pair of old sneakers

Substances that will make the sneakers stink (Use your imagination but NEVER use anything that is dangerous!)

A fence or wall to display the sneakers entered in your contest (ask an adult for permission to use the fence or wall)

One or three judges (an odd number is best so there are no ties in the voting)

A trophy or similar prize for the world’s worst stinky sneaker

Paper

Markers

Make fliers to announce the contest and hang them up all over the neighborhood.

Then, make your sneakers the ones that stink the most! Bring them to the place where you will hold the contest. Make

sure the judges write their choice of a winner on a piece of paper so that the judging is secret. When the contest is over,

display the sneakers for everyone in the neighborhood to see. If you use a chain link fence, tie the shoelaces on the

fence and let the sneakers dangle. If you use a wall, keep the pairs together by tying the shoelaces together.

Wheew! Displayed together the sneakers really do stink all over!

 

Additional reading:
Want to know what else you can do to a sneaker or shoe?

Read: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin and James Dean.

 

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WHAT’S IN A NAME, ANYWAY?

WHAT’S IN A NAME, ANYWAY?

Entering kindergarten for an immigrant child in 1955 wasn’t simple or easy, especially when her parents brought their regional differences with them to America.

My mother, Eugenia Pagonis, arrived from war-torn Greece in the winter of 1947. Her siblings, who had relocated to Pittsburgh PA, during the Depression, had pre-arranged a marriage contract for her with a Greek Cypriot.

Eugenia Pagonis married Andrew Savvas Constantinides on March 7, 1948 at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Pittsburgh.

One custom my parents brought with them declared that the firstborn child was to be named after one of the father’s parents.

So I was to be named Myrofora after my paternal grandmother. Myrofora is a Greek Cypriot name and is not common in other parts of Greece.

My maternal aunts and uncles didn’t like Myrofora, nor did they like the English-language version of my name, Myra. They wanted something else –whatever that might be.

Dad insisted on tradition. So I was alternately Myra or Myrofora for the first five years of my life.

I entered kindergarten in September, 1955 and my father had to decide what my American name was going to be. It was certain that I was going to be made fun of if I was to be called Myrofora.

Most first- and second generation immigrant kids wanted to be as American as possible. I was no different.

No one liked the name, but Dad decided that Meriam was the best alternative translation for Myrofora.

On the first day of kindergarten, he told the teacher my American name. She was an older woman who, it turns out, was hard of hearing. She recorded my name as Marion.  Dad didn’t pay attention until later, but by then it was too late to change it again.

In the end, neither my parents not my aunts and uncles named me. My kindergarten teacher did!

It wasn’t until third grade that Dad noticed that my last name was also misspelled. He marched to Holmes Elementary School and demanded a correction. He had had enough.

What’s in a name, anyway?

Plenty! I’ve always hated the “o” in Marion!

Marion Constantinides

                      Good Old Days

Volume 4, No. 4

July/August 2015

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JUST LOVED READING: Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale

JUST LOVED READING: Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale

JUST LOVED READING:

Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale

by G. Neri 

Middle Grade/Fiction

 

Neri, G. Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2017.

Tru moved away from his mother’s cousins home in Monroeville, Alabama. He thought living in New York with his mother and step-father would be fun but after a stint in a military academy, Tru runs away.

He hops on a train with other hobos and heads back to Monroeville. He becomes friends again with Nelle who lives next door to his cousins. It’s the Christmas season but events happen which dampen everyone’s spirits: the house the cousins live in burns down and they move in with Tru’s aunt and uncle on their farm outside Monroeville.

Nelle’s father takes on a case of two black men accused of robbing a store and killing its owner. Nelle blames herself for arrest. Reminiscent of the case in To KIll A Mockingbird, this case doesn’t end happily, either.  The story does reaffirm the better side of the human spirit when Tru and his family and Nelle and her father celebrate Christmas with the accused in the local jail.

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

In a surprising twist, Tru’s cousin, Sook, invites a member of the KKK to the celebration. Only his son, the local bully, shows up and demonstrates how beautifully he plays piano.  It doesn’t turn everyone into good friends but the incident highlights how complex race relations were during the Jim Crow era in the South.

Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale is the continuing narrative of the friendship between Truman Capote and Harper Lee which continued into adulthood (until Truman Capote became jealous of Harper Lee’s literary success). The first book in the series, Tru and Nelle, recounts their earlier childhood adventures.

Xmas tree

Xmas tree

Monroeville, Alabama was founded in 1815 on lands ceded by local Native Americans. It was later formally incorporated in 1899 and named after President James Monroe. Monroeville is the seat of  Monroe County, Alabama. In 1997, the Alabama legislature designated Monroeville as the “Literary Capital of Alabama.”

https://www.monroevilleal.gov./

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/whats-changed-what-hasnt-in-town-inspired-to-kill-a-mockingbird-180955741

www,monroecountyal.com

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The Grand Mosque of Paris

The Grand Mosque of Paris

Just Loved Reading:

The Grand Mosque of Paris

MG/Non-Fiction

DeSaix, Deborah Durland and Ruelle, Karen Gray. The Grand Mosque of Paris. New York: Holiday House, 2009.

The Grand Mosque of Paris was a gift from the French government to the Muslim population of France in honor of the half million Muslims from their French colonies who fought for France during World War I.

After the Nazi occupation of their country, French Jews were in danger of arrest and deportation. The Grand Mosque, located on the Left Bank,  became a place of refuge and temporary escape for Jewish men, women and children, Allied military and prisoner of war escapees. Many of them stopped at the mosque for only a few hours or a few days and then continued their journey out of Paris. It was too dangerous for most of them to do otherwise.

The Nazis and the occupied French Vichy government suspected that Jews and others were hiding at the mosque. Its rector, Si Kaddour Benghabrit, issued Certificates of Conversion and Muslim birth certificates to them at great danger to him and the Muslims living in the mosque’s apartments.The rector issued these false identification papers whenever possible. Someone (possibly Si Kaddour Benghabrit) even went so far as to carve the name of one man’s grandfather on a blank tombstone.

During the 1930s and 1940s, most of the resident Muslims at the mosque were Kabyle or Berber emigres from Kabylia in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria  and it was hard to discern any physical difference between the Jews and Muslims from that region. Religious differences aside, there were also cultural similarities that bonded them.

Some were also members of the Resistance.

The Jews and the escapees from the war or prisoner-of-war camps went through a sub-basement, tunnels, underground rivers and passageways under the mosque. A small handful stayed in the mosque especially children and women. The children were often too young to know how to escape and blended with the families of the handful of people who lived and worked inside of the monastery.

While some of the Kabyle and Berbers were members of the Resistance, many were workers. They used peniches or barges to carry people fleeing from the Nazis to safety along with their cargoes of large vessels of wine.

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

Historians tell us that history repeats itself. Once, people of two different religions that are now at war with each other once had a history of coöperation and respect. During the occupation of France during World War II, Muslims helped Jews escape arrest and deportation to concentration camps at great peril to their own lives.

The authors thoroughly researched the book as much as they could but the main players are all dead and little authentic documentation exists. Much of the story about these courageous people remains unfortunately lost.

However, in 1990, filmmaker Derri Berkani, released the film, Une Resistance Oubliee: La Mosque which tells the story of the Grand Mosque of Paris during WWII.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rosbottom, Ronald C. When Paris Went Dark, The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944. NY: Little, Brown, 2015.

  https://www.quora.com/How-was-French-life-in-Paris-under-the-Nazi-occupation
 
 Cahill, Susan and Ranoux, Marion. The Streets of Paris: A Guide to the City of Light   Following in the Footsteps of Famous Parisians. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/movies/how-a-paris-mosque-sheltered-jews-in-the-holocaust.html
  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lft2t3zTm8 (You can view the film, Une Resistance Oubliee: La Mosque)
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JUST LOVED READING: My America: An American Spring, Sofia’s Immigrant Diary, Book Three

JUST LOVED READING: My America: An American Spring, Sofia’s Immigrant Diary, Book Three

 

Just Loved Reading:

My America: An American Spring, Sofia’s Immigrant Diary, Book Three

Middle Grade Novel

Lasky, Kathryn. My America: An American Spring, Sofia’s Immigrant Diary, Book Three. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2004.

 “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

EMMA LAZARUS

 

In An American Spring, the heroine of Kathryn Lasky’s three-part story of immigrant Sofia Molinari continues to learn about her adopted country.

Sofia is in fifth grade. Miss Burnet, her second grade teacher, is her teacher once again. Sofia’s best friend, Maureen, an immigrant from Ireland, lives with Sofia’s family and attends Miss Burnet’s class, too.

Sofia and Maureen dress up for Halloween (as tomatoes) and celebrate Thanksgiving for the first time. They and Sofia’s older sister, Gabriella, meet the wealthy and elegant Isabella Stewart Gardner when Gabriella is hired to sew a ball gown for her.

Mrs. Gardner is a kind employer. She arranges for a private hospital room when Isabella falls gravely ill and provides the turkey and all the trimmings for the Molinari family’s Thanksgiving.

But most exciting of all is the assignment Miss Burnet gives them in honor of Patriot’s Day (April 19th). Miss Burnet sends her fifth grade class on a Freedom Treasure Hunt. Each child is provided with a map and riddles and has to locate landmarks of the American Revolution. “You see,” Sofia writes in her diary,” Boston is where it all began.”

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

Sofia is a spunky character which makes it easy to relate to her and her adventures in America. She is infectiously excited about her experiences in her adopted country whether it’s dressing up as a tomato for Halloween and letting ghost stories get the better of her or visiting Isabella Stewart Gardner’s “palazzo.”

The third series is thin in its plotting –   Gabriella’s illness is the climax of the novel and is followed by the Freedom Treasure Hunt which feels anti-climactic. The lighting of the lantern on Patriot’s Day and Sofia and Maureen’s new found patriotism is the end of Sofia’s story but the reader expects – and wants – more.

Further Reading:

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island:

https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org

https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org

Italy:

www.italia.it

 

 

 

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JUST LOVED READING: My America: Home at Last, Sofia’s Immigrant Dairy, Book Two

JUST LOVED READING: My America: Home at Last, Sofia’s Immigrant Dairy, Book Two

Just Loved Reading:

My America: Home at Last, Sofia’s Immigrant Dairy, Book Two

Middle Grade Novel

Lasky, Kathryn. My America: Home at Last, Sofia’s Immigrant Dairy, Book Two. New York: Scholastic, 2003.

 

 “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

EMMA LAZARUS

Sofia Monaris is released from quarantine on Ellis Island and moves to Boston’s North End with her family.

She learns a new language and slowly adjusts to a new culture and way doing things. Learning a new language means going to an American school, making new friends and adjusting to new teachers.

Sofia makes friends with a fellow Italian-American and joins one of their social clubs.  In the meantime,  Sofia’s older sister and younger brother have adjustments of their own to grapple with.

Her family encounters the good and bad in Boston’s Italian-American family. Her parents work hard to make ends meet but take advantage of any and all opportunities that come their way.

When near tragedy strikes Sofia, her courage and spunk carry the day.

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

Sofia is a spunky character who could probably survive many difficult situations and it was easy to relate to her and her adventures in America.

 Further Reading:

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island:

https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org

Italy:

www.italia.it

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JUST LOVED READING: My America: Hope in My Heart, Sofia’s Ellis Island Immigrant Dairy, Book One.

JUST LOVED READING: My America: Hope in My Heart, Sofia’s Ellis Island Immigrant Dairy, Book One.

Just Loved Reading:

My America: Hope in My Heart, Sofia’s Ellis Island Immigrant Dairy, Book One.

Middle Grade Novel

Lasky, Kathryn. My America: Hope in My Heart, Sofia’s Ellis Island Immigrant Dairy, Book One. New York: Scholastic, 2003.

 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Emma  Lazarus

 

            Sofia Monaris and her family leave their native Italy for America. It’s a long uncomfortable journey on board a ship teeming with people yet Sofia’s heart skips a beat when she spies the Statue of Liberty on the horizon.

As the ship draws closer to New York harbor, she positions herself to get a better look. A cinder gets in her eye. When the family goes through customs, Sofia is diagnosed with trachoma and quarantined.

Separated from her family for the first time in her life, speaking very little English, Sofia feels isolated and alienated in America. She has company, though. In the state-run hospital, she meets Maureen who is from Ireland and Madame Coco from France. Madame introduces the girls to Rafi, a gypsy stow-away. The four befriend each other during their ordeal as they face mean anti-immigrant bureaucrats and which lasts longer than any of them would like.

Sofia’s life in America had just begun.

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

Although my immigrant ancestors didn’t arrive until years after Sofia and her family came to America, I heard many of their stories. Many struggled in their first years and many came illegally. They had to navigate America’s ever-changing immigration laws but they became found work, became American citizens and raised their families.

Not every story was about those struggles; some of their stories were funny and uplifting. Sofia is a spunky character who could probably survive many difficult situations and it was easy to relate to her and her adventures on Ellis Island.

Further Reading:

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island:

https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org

https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org

Italy:

www.italia.it

Italy:

www.italia.it

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JUST LOVED READING: The Royal Diaries: Mary, Queen of Scots

JUST LOVED READING: The Royal Diaries: Mary, Queen of Scots

Just Loved Reading:

The Royal Diaries: Mary, Queen of Scots

Middle Grade Novel

Lasky, Kathryn. The Royal Diaries: Mary, Queen of Scots, Queen without a Country. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2002

 

“I am a princess. All girls are; even if they live in tiny old attics, even if they dress in rags, even if they aren’t pretty or smart or young, they’re still princesses.”

 

Mary Stuart was crowned Queen of Scots when she was nine months old after the death of her father King James V.  When she was 5, political conflicts forced her to leave her mother and flee Scotland. Mary went to live in the royal court of King Henry and Queen Catherine de Medici of France.  In order for Scotland to forge an alliance with France (and send a message to England), the powers-that-be betrothed Mary to Francis, the sickly son of Henry and the treacherous Queen Catherine de Medici.

Mary’s journal begins in 1553 when she is 11 years old and ends a year later.

The diary relates a year in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots a year packed with parties, visits to castles, playing with her Ladies-in-Waiting (all four of whom are also named Mary) and her betrothed, Francis, academic and music lessons and court intrigue. She muses about marriage to Francis and her attraction to her royal Scots guardsman. Mary is smart, athletic and loves the arts. She is also impulsive and we get a hint of the trait which will ultimately lead to her demise at the hands of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England.

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

      The story of Mary Queen of Scots takes place during two important historical periods: the Renaissance and the Reformation. Both movements influence Mary’s life and thoughts as she grows into womanhood. A devout Catholic, she becomes aware of the influence John Knox and the Protestant Reformation has on her native Scotland. She muses if she will exercise tolerance of religious dissent when she returns to her native land. Yes she tells herself but we now know only time will tell.

Living in the French royal court affords Mary many of the refinements of the arts: music lessons, poetry and more. She is not unaware of this when she reflects that in Spain none of these refinements are found in its royal court. Indeed, the Spanish seem obsessed with the Inquisition and nothing else she writes in her diary. Mary gives credit to Queen Catherine for bringing many of the arts from Italy.

We will never know what the real Mary Stuart thought and felt at the age of eleven but the Royal Diaries gives us an idea especially since history tells us how the rest of her life transpires.

FOR FURTHER READING:

https://www.scotland.org

https://www.visitscotland.com

www.localhistories.org/scotland.html

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/history-scotland

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JUST LOVED READING: Secrets at Sea

JUST LOVED READING: Secrets at Sea

Just Loved Reading:

Secrets at Sea

Middle Grade Fiction

Peck, Richards. Secrets at Sea. New York: Puffin Books, 2011.

Upstate New York in the late nineteenth century is the background for Secrets at Sea.  The protagonists are a family of mice who leave the comforts of their middle class home and sail across the Atlantic ocean to England.

Helena Cranston is the oldest of her siblings now that their parents and oldest sisters have passed. It isn’t easy being the matriarch of this family. Her sisters, Beatrice and Louise sneak out late at night (Helena thinks they are meeting members of the opposite sex) and their brother, Lamont, plays hooky from school.

The owners of the big house they live in, the Cranstons of Hudson Valley, decide to travel to England to find a husband for their daughter, Olive.

Even though mice are afraid of water, the siblings decide to go with them and hide in one of the Cranstons’ large trunks. Why not? It is the eve of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

Once on ship and out of the trunk, siblings discover an aristocratic society of mice. There are as many crooks and crevices in the luxury liner as there were in their Hudson Valley home if not more.They dine in splendor and enjoy high tea. They even meet the Mouse-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise.

As is common with the novels of Richard Peck, one humorous adventure leads to the other including romances for the sisters.

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

Only master of fiction for children and Young Adults can write about a family of mice and make it an enjoyable read.  I hate mice but I loved reading about the Cranstons of Hudson Valley.

 

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