Nikki McClure works her magic again in her newest picture book, The Great Chicken Escape. If you don't know anything about McClure's books, know that the natural world plays a powerful part in all of her work, often, specifically that natural world of the Pacific Northwest coastline. Also know that McClure creates her illustrations through the art of the papercut, saying, "I cut my images from black paper with an X-Acto knife. Everything is connected. It is all once piece of paper, yet now it holds a story." With only four lines of text in the book, the illustrations, as well as an introductory note from the author, the pictures tell the story of four chickens and their escape from their coop. One is caught, but two black and one white chicken make their way through the berry brambles, past grazing cows, and down a path to the coastline, where the chickens explore. Returning home in the evening to the ringing of the bells, the white chicken drags a rope of kelp with …
The Gumazing Gum Girl! Popped Star by Rhode Montijo with Luke Reynolds is here! And it smells like gum, sugar-free sour apple, to be exact! The Gumazing Gum Girl, aka Gabby Gomez, still hasn't revealed her secret identity to her parents, she has a cavity from all her gum chewing AND there is a new superhero in town!
Last year, I reviewed the first two books in The Gumazing Gum Girl trilogy, noting that these books are PERFECT for my students, the majority of whom are Latinx, and many of them English language learners reading below grade level. It is fantastic for them to read a book with a Latina main character and Spanish words and phrases peppered throughout. And, as I also noted, what I love most about Gabby is her conscience. In the first two books, she struggles with the fact that, to become the Gumazing Gum Girl, she has to chew gum, which her mother has (wisely, after Gabby fell asleep with gum in her mouth and woke up covered in it) banned her from chewing gum. And, since h…
Last year, I reviewed the first two books in The Gumazing Gum Girl trilogy, noting that these books are PERFECT for my students, the majority of whom are Latinx, and many of them English language learners reading below grade level. It is fantastic for them to read a book with a Latina main character and Spanish words and phrases peppered throughout. And, as I also noted, what I love most about Gabby is her conscience. In the first two books, she struggles with the fact that, to become the Gumazing Gum Girl, she has to chew gum, which her mother has (wisely, after Gabby fell asleep with gum in her mouth and woke up covered in it) banned her from chewing gum. And, since h…