Board Book Review: Lullaby for a Black Mother

Lullaby for a Black Mother by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Sean Qualls.
Text copyright 1994, illustrations copyright 2013, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, MA.
Board book, 20 pages.

The text of a famous poem illustrated and reformatted as a board book.

Lullaby for a Black Mother by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Sean Qualls.

One of my children adores Langston Hughes, and I wish I’d had this when she was younger. Instead, I asked her to read it to the little one staying with us, and enjoyed her surprise and delight when she flipped back to the cover – “This is my poet!”

Of course, Langston Hughes died nearly half a century ago, so how is he still publishing new books? This isn’t new writing rediscovered – it’s a poem that can be found in Hughes’ collection for young readers, The Dream Keeper as well as his collected poems and probably elsewhere.

Where Lullaby for a Black Mother excels is in the alteration of the poem into the board book format. The poem is well broken down, with each spread containing between one phrase up to a full sentence worth of the poem. All of the text is entirely in all caps, which initially struck me as a bold choice, but makes sense for extending the life of the book.

Review: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.
Penguin, New York, 2011.
Adult nonfiction, 244 pages.
Not leveled.

The story of a mother who tries to apply strict Chinese parenting techniques to her American daughters and finds that she’s making all of them miserable.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.

Just as I’m working on my goal of trying to write negative and neutral reviews (and thus be able to pass along those books and clear shelves), I was given books by a few different acquaintances. This was exciting as new-to-me books always are, and it was frustrating because there were far more books incoming than outgoing on these review shelves! So I did a push to read and review several in order to keep things moving. Among them were some Amy Chua books, and this was the earliest published so I gave it a try.

Board Book Review: Happy!

Happy by Pharrell Williams.
Putnam, Penguin Random House, New York, 2015.
Board book, 30 pages.
Lexile:  AD410L  ( What does AD mean in Lexile? )
AR Level:  1.7 (worth 0.5 points)  .

A board book (also available in picture book format) based on the popular song.

Happy by Pharrell Williams.

I just love song picture books and board books because they have so many applications.  Toddlers can look at the pictures.  Older children can read the words independently.  And everybody in between can sing the song!  These are nice for allowing children to read at a bit higher level than they are ready for, because they can use prior knowledge of the song lyrics to decode the words.  They can also be helpful for engaging reluctant readers who love music.

However, this type of book is challenging to do well.  Luckily, Williams and his team have done a great job converting this song to board book format.  Now, I will say that if you’ve never heard the song, this book might not make so much sense to you – the lyrics don’t exactly coalesce into a story.  But take a minute and go listen to the song, I’ll wait!

Review: Waiting for Normal

Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor.
Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins, New York, 2008.
MG contemporary fiction, 290 pages.
Lexile:  570L  .
AR Level:  3.7 (worth 7.0 points)  .

Addison Schmeeter’s entering a new phase of her life.  Since Mommers spent all the mortgage money, they lost the house.  Since Mommers left her girls at home alone for three days, the judge gave Addie’s ex-stepfather Dwight custody of her two younger sisters.  But Addie’s father is dead, so she’s saying with Mommers except for visits with her sisters.  Dwight bought them a trailer, and he gives her money for clothes or food.  So it’s sixth grade in another new place.

Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor.

Most of this review contains spoilers as it’s difficult to talk about the more diverse aspects of the book without giving away plot points.  If you prefer to avoid them please skip to the final paragraph for my general opinion.

Board Book Review: Hip Hop

The Hip Hop Board Book by Martin Ander.
Dokument Press, Arsta, Sweden, 2012.
Board book, 22 pages.

“Rap, Breakdance, Graffiti, & DJ:ing – now for the very youngest!  The Hip Hop Board Book is a different, colorful picture book about culture and everyday life with fun and clear pictures for small children.  A charming book with lots of humor and attitude.” ~Back Blurb

The Hip Hop Board Book by Martin Ander.

I wish I remembered finding this board book.  It’s not brand-new, but hasn’t gotten much buzz – and it’s from Sweden, although the text is in English.  Perhaps Amazon recommended it to me when I was ordering some other hard-to-find board books.

Web: Maya Angelou

I’ve been reading some of Maya Angelou’s work, and what variety!  I’d really never progressed beyond some of her more popular poems, so this has been very eye-opening for me.

Perhaps you are new to Angelou’s work, or just want more background? Check out her biography page on the Poetry Foundation website.  You can get a good overview of her life and books as well as read a small sampling of her poems.

If you want to hear from the woman herself, check out this 2003 interview from Smithsonian magazine.  The wide-ranging conversation covers her traumatic childhood, her writing methods, and so much more.

Of course, you can also watch clips of Angelou or hear her recite some of her poetry at her official website, which is still running with updates on the latest Angelou-related projects.

Or watch one of the final Angelou projects come to fruition after her passing:

That’s Harlem Hopscotch, one of her poems reimagined as a song on the Caged Bird Songs album.  You can hear more on their website (this is the only music video, but they do have a few lyric videos available as well).

What’s your favorite Angelou book, poem, song, or project?

Review: Singin’ and Swingin’ and…

Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou.
Bantam, New York, 1977 (originally published 1976).
Adult autobiography, 242 pages.
Not leveled.

Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou.

In a funny coincidence, I gave away Angelou books (not even read yet… but better loved by someone else) and then a month later came across this in the free books.  Of course I started reading this one immediately and it was fascinating.  I’ve read quite a bit of her poetry before, but never one of her autobiographies.  Upon reading this one I realized that they are probably best read chronologically.

This title is the third, and covers the time when she lived in San Francisco after her son was born, worked a wide variety of jobs, spent a few years married to a white man, and eventually found herself with an entertainment career that took her all over the world, but sadly separated her from her son.

Web: Chinese Performance Art

The title of this week’s Website Wednesday was a bit of a challenge!  Basically I wanted post a few of the videos that we’ve used to try to learn more about classical Chinese music, dance, and opera.

Review: An XL Life

An XL Life: Staying Big at Half the Size by Big Boy (Kurt Alexander).
Cash Money Content, 2011.
Autobiography/memoir, 237 pages.
Not leveled.

The autobiography of Los Angeles radio personality Big Boy, once known for his size as much as the music he played.

This book opened with Alexander talking about the father he never knew and how he didn’t feel that contributed to his weight at all.  It’s a marked contrast to the last biography of a black man I read, Un-Ashamed.

On the other hand, Alexander was greatly impacted by constantly moving around as a child.  His stories about homelessness and frequent moves reminded me more of Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness, although he wasn’t moving from relative to relative.  His mother must have been truly remarkable, because his six siblings stayed with the family through various moves and hardships, even after they were adults.

Web: Lia and the Hmong

At first I was going to try to fit these links into my review… but they just made it far too long, so here are some further links for tomorrow’s review.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting my review of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.  I hadn’t planned to add this book to my collection, however, as A. M. Blair stated in her review, it can be reread at different stages of life.  Already my reactions to it as a parent are now drastically different then when I read it before.

After rereading this book, I looked for other books about the Hmong-American experience.  Two Wisconsin books are Mai Ya’s Long Journey and Hmong in the Modern World.  There’s an early chapter book called Pa Lia’s First Day.  Pang Xiong has a series of children’s early readers.  Several memoirs also exist.

The Atlantic also has an interesting article about Hmong in Wausau (an area of central Wisconsin).  The court case described is definitely worth reading about.  The article also mentions this song as a source of inspiration:

This last one is a bit of a spoiler, so you may want to stop now if you haven’t read the book yet…

Lia lived for an extraordinary 26 years in a persistent vegetative state due to the loving attention of her family.  This article reviews the book and includes information on her 2012 death.