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The short video below featuring author, Matt de la Peña, reading from his book will convince you that this is a wonderful book. My concern as a public librarian, however, is how best to share this book with kids. The book is a little lengthy for my usual storytime crowd, and school-aged kids can seldom be convinced to check out a picture book. It's in instances like these, that I envy school teachers and media specialists, who have such a wonderful opportunity to share great books with large numbers of kids. This is perfect book for reading aloud in school.
But, how to share it in a public library setting?
Last week, I had a last-minute inspiration and it was a rewarding experience. I have a small book club that meets every month. This month, I asked each of the kids to read Last Stop on Market Street - right then. In addition to positive comments about the book, I loved two of the observations that they reported:
I never would have chosen this book if you didn't hand it to me.
The people at the soup kitchen look like regular people.
We then discussed public transportation (none of the kids had ever been on a bus) and soup kitchens (none had ever been to one). Working in a suburban library with poor public transportation, I can understand this. However, as a suburban parent, I can tell you that I made sure that my own children volunteered at the local food pantry and experienced public transportation (I made all of them ride the public bus with me to the mall even though it was more expensive than driving my minivan and took twice as long). As a suburban librarian, I can't take kids on the public bus or to the soup kitchen, but at minimum, I've ensured that a few more children are now aware of the lives that others lead.This is one of the many things that makes my job worthwhile.
One of the missions of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks (TM) campaign is to make sure that "all children can see themselves in the pages of a book." This is important, but also important is recognizing that all people are just "regular people." We always have more in common than we think.
Title: Mango, Abuela and Me
Author: Meg Medina
Illustrator: Angela Dominguez
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2015
Themes: love, learning new language, making friends
Awards: Belpre (Author and illustrator) Honor Books, 2016
Ages: 3-7
Opening:
SHE COMES TO US in winter, leaving behind her sunny house that rested between two snaking rivers. … Continue reading →
Today’s Diversity Read/Review falls into categories #1 and #2. The author Matt de la Peña is half Mexican/half white and the illustrator Christian Robinson is African-American. Title: Last Stop Market Street Written by: Matt de la Peña Illustrated by: Christian Robinson Published by: G. … Continue reading →
Today is Mother’s Day, a time when we tend to think happy thoughts about our mothers or other maternal figures in our lives. We might buy them cards and presents, or take them out to eat. There’s no right way to celebrate it, but we each have our own special ways or traditions.
Anna Jarvis
While most people think of Mother’s Day as a joyous day, the founder of the holiday, Anna Jarvis would probably think we’re celebrating it all wrong. Jarvis originally created Mother’s Day as a way to honor her own mother after she died. She worked to get several states to recognize it as a holiday. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson declared that the second Sunday of every May would be Mother’s Day. It was a day to honor your own mother, not mothers in general. Prior to this, Jarvis, who was a peace activist and cared for wounded soldiers during the Civil War, tried to create Mother’s Day to honor women who had lost sons during the Civil War. When Hallmark and other card companies latched onto the holiday, it became greatly commercialized, much to the chagrin of Jarvis.
Despite this, we still believe that Mother’s Day is a wonderful way to show your mothers and grandmothers that they hold a special place in your heart!
Here are five titles we’ve rounded up that celebrate mothers and grandmothers:
Abuela’sWeave: A girl in Guatemala learns about family tradition and trust from her grandmother.
Goldfish and Chrysanthemums: A Chinese American girl helps preserve her grandmother’s childhood memories of China by creating a special garden for her in America.
Love to Mamá: Thirteen Latino poets celebrate their bonds with their mothers and grandmothers.
Love Twelve Miles Long: Frederick’s mother walks twelve miles each way for a nighttime visit with her son, during which she recounts what each mile of the journey represents. Based on facts from the life of Frederick Douglass.
Raymond’s Perfect Present: A Chinese American boy receives a nice surprise of his own when he tries to surprise his mother with flowers that he grew.
My ears perked up at the familiar thud…thud…thudon the staircase, followed by the slam of the screen door. My brother was fourteen — six years older than I — and we didn’t communicate much, other than to fight and say dreadful things to each other. But I could always count on him to indirectly let me know when it was time to go to our grandmother’s house for lunch. “Tom!” I’d yell, scrambling to tie my sneakers and get through the door before he was out of sight. “Wait for me!”
My grandmother and grandfather lived in our small town “down by the creek,” and even though it was only a couple of blocks, there was a busy street that I was forbidden to cross alone. Tom would allow me to go with him…as long as I stayed at least half the distance to the moon behind in case he ran into one of his buddies along the way. Nothing would be more humiliating to a high school freshman than to be seen walking anywherewith his dumb little sister. It was worth the effort to stay out of his way because at the end of our journey was the promise of a table full of the greatest food in the world.
May Blume Rainbolt and Grover Cleveland Rainbolt planted an “award-winning” garden. Each year they’d grow corn, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, cabbage, fresh mint, and much, much more. But best of all…they grew rhubarb. My grandmother was the best rhubarb pie baker in the county, which was proven by the stash of blue ribbons she kept “inconspicuously” in an old Ball canning jar on the windowsill. Oh pshaw, she’d blush. Those old things? I’m just saving them for quilt scraps. She even made her own piecrust — an art she passed on to me (for which my husband is eternally grateful). Come to think of it, the quality of our grandmother’s rhubarb pie was one of the few things my brother and I ever agreed on when we were kids.
Lunchtime was a real event at her house, especially since my mother worked, which meant I’d usually settle for baloney or tuna sandwiches at home. And besides, Mom insisted I was too young to stay by myself. I wonder what she’d think if she knew my “babysitter brother” threatened, on a regular basis, to hang me by my heels out his second-story bedroom window. I overlooked that since we always managed to arrive in Mamaw May’s kitchen just as she was filling the table with bowls of mashed potatoes swimming in real butter, pinto beans seasoned with country ham, stewed okra, sliced tomatoes — still warm from the garden sun — and cucumbers smothered with onions. Although peas weren’t a favorite of mine back then, I enjoyed the days I watched my grandfather gracefully eat them with a table knife. He’d somehow manage to fill the entire length of the knife with little round peas, then tilt back his head and let them slide into his mouth. I tried this once, to my grandmother’s dismay, and ended up spending the better part of the afternoon picking peas up off the linoleum floor.
More exciting were the August days we’d spend together at the Harrison County Fair playing bingo. Come to think of it, I probably acquired my taste for gambling — without the risk of losing much money — from her. We’d sit for hours under a dusty tent on the Midway, playing two and three cards at a time, and competing for valuable prizes. I suppose it must’ve seemed strange that I preferred playing bingo with my grandmother to riding on the Ferris wheel or the tilt-a-whirl with my friends. I can still remember the excitement of winning a rainbow-striped pitcher and matching iced-tea glasses to proudly present to my mother. After all these years, I’m still not sure whether the tears in her eyes were from joy at the sight of my gift, or from wondering where in the world she was going to store another set of worthless glassware.
My grandmother lived well into her 70’s, but in my family, that’s like being struck down in the prime of life. She should’ve lived at least ten more years, but a freak auto accident was responsible for her early decline in health. My main regret is that, because she died when I was in my teens ― I wasn’t able to truly appreciate and enjoy her company in my adult years.Still, I learned some valuable lessons. For instance, the best piecrust is made with vinegar. Yes…vinegar. And if we’re persistent, the true bingo professionals, like us, will beat the socks off the amateurs every time.
But the most important thing she taught me, is that sometimes, especially on a steamy, Southern Indianaevening, it’s best just to sit on the front porch and rock gently back and forth in the swing.
Add a slice of warm, rhubarb pie…and it’s perfect.
Luisa May, known to her family and friends as Lu, loves to play games with her Grandma. When she’s bullied at school, Grandma has a special puzzle for Lu to help her see how valuable she is—no matter what others say, or how much doubt she feels within herself. Soon after, Grandma has to go to the hospital, and Lu finds out Grandma needs help recovering. Then it’s Lu’s turn to help Grandma see how valuable she is—no matter how much doubt she feels within herself. It’s a beautiful parallel for young and old alike, as each age learns from the other.
Written and illustrated with loving hands, this delightful children’s story offers a heartfelt message that unites and bonds generations. From the award-winning pen of Fay A. Klingler, I Am Strong! I Am Smart! provides to women of all ages a reminder of the tremendous gift of “girl power.”
My thoughts:
This is a beautifully written and illustrated book I can whole-heartedly recommend to parents--and especially grandparents--to read with children. It has a vital message: the power of words and self language and the effect it can have on our self esteem. Also, how everything is a matter of perception and how words can only hurt if we allow them to. I Am Strong! I Am Smart! is a sweet, heart-warming story about an 11-year old girl and her grandmother, and how they each help each other at their times of need. A lovely addition to any library shelf. Since the girl in the story is eleven, and there's quite a lot of text, this picture book is geared toward older ages as well. The illustrations are beautiful and perfectly complement the story. Highly recommended!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fay A. Klingler, author and illustrator, is an award-winning creative and technical writer, as well as a sought-after motivational speaker for women’s groups. Her expertise includes successful patterns for life, betrayal recovery, and effective grandparenting. Her previous publications include We Are Strong! Mothers and Daughters Stand Together;A Woman’s Power: Threads that Bind Us to God; Shattered: Six Steps from Betrayal to Recovery; Daughters of God, You Have What It Takes; The LDS Grandparents’ Idea Book; My Magnificent Mountain; The Complete Guide to Woman’s Time; Our New Baby; and A Mother’s Journal.
The Klinglers have twelve children and thirty-five grandchildren in their blended family. They reside in Draper, Utah.
5 Stars Silly Frilly Grandma Tillie Laurie A, Jacobs Anne Jewett Flashlight Press 32 Pages Ages: 5 and up Inside Jacket: Sophie and Chloe are lucky that their Grandma Tillie knows how to be royally silly. To their delight, whenever Grandma Tillie babysits she seems to disappear, only to be replaced by a parade of [...]
A little of this and a little of that, as I'm ahead in reading and behind in writing!
(short stories, novel, audiobook)
Kibuishi, Kazu. 2012. Explorer: The Mystery Boxes. New York: Amulet.
This book is an unexpected little gem, something of a mystery itself. From the cover, I was expecting a graphic novel mystery, a la The Box Car Children infused with a bit of magic. What I found instead, was a themed, graphic, short story collection. Mystery Boxes contains seven stories by noted graphic artists including Raina Telgemeier (Smile). What ties these disparate illustrators and authors together is that each story features a mysterious box, contents unknown. The stories range from amusing ("Spring Cleaning by Dave Roman and Telgemeier) to profound (Jason Caffoe's, "The Keeper's Treasure") to social commentary on war (Stuart Livingston and Stephanie Ramirez', "The Soldier's Daughter").
Judging from the way my Advance Reader Copy was scooped up by a child in my book club, I'd guess this will be popular if it can find the right audience. I'm also assuming that we can look forward to more collections in the Explorer series. I, for one, would like to see more interest in short stories. They don't seem to be required reading for middle schoolers - a pity. (Another good short story series, though not in graphic novel format, is Jon Scieszka's Guys Read Library)
I chose to read this one because it features a multi-generational Irish family. It's hard not to like Ireland - a beautiful country full of "lovely" people. In fact, you will hear people in Ireland describe nearly anything as "lovely" --friendly people they are in general, but I digress.
This is the first Roddy Doyle book that I've read and I wasn't sure what to expect. I thoroughly enjoyed it once I stopped looking for some artificial contrivance or tricky plot twist and settled in to enjoy a simple yet touching story of 12-year-old Mary O'Hara, and three of her female relatives, one of whom happens to be dead. A Greyhound of a Girl covers a short span of time in a short book (208 small pages) about life and death and family. Being of Ireland, of course it is not without humor.
A to Z Challenge Day23: W . 3 Stars When Grandma’s False Teeth Fly: Katie is not a little girl anymore—she is six years old! But some mean girls at school still tease her about her chipped baby tooth. Katie seeks advice from her grandma, who will tell her a hilarious story that encourages her to use [...]
Click on the title to view a news video of a robbery in progress. In the first few scenes look out for the figure in red on the opposite side of the road. Reminds me of the old saying about the difference between fiction and non fiction. Fiction has to be believable...
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My Grandmother Mary Heriza died on September 21st, just a month short of her 99th birthday. Though blind In the last years of her life, she was still doing crossword puzzles and emailing and writing on her computer. She loved poetry and could recite reams of her favorites (Milton, Tennyson) by heart. When her eyesight failed, her son called her weekly for a private poetry reading. With the help of my mother, Grandmother wrote two charming autobiographical chapbooks about her childhood which were celebrated in her hometown of Baker City, Oregon.
For many years, Grandmother was the "Story Lady" on KBKR in Baker City, Oregon. She read children's stories on the air on Saturdays and always said a special hello to us grandkids when we were visiting. I feel that I'm a recipient of her love of words and stories. She raised my mother who passed on her love of books and writing to me. My own children are readers and writers. I could go on about Grandmother's sterling attributes and lists of accomplishments, but it is her literary legacy that I'm most thankful for. She's gone now, but the love continues.
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Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion. Mo Willems. 2010. September 2010. HarperCollins. 52 pages.
One day, not so long ago, Trixie took a big trip with her family. They were on their way to visit Trixie's "Oma" and "Opa" in Holland. So that meant taking a taxi to the airport, waiting in line, watching Knuffle Bunny go through the big machine, waiting some more, and (finally) getting onto a real airplane!
Trixie is back in her third adventure. She's lost Knuffle Bunny at the local laundromat, the local school, what's next? The airplane, of course! It has been a few years since Trixie went boneless at the loss of Knuffle Bunny. Her parents tell her again and again that she is bigger now. Her grandparents tell her again and again that she is bigger now. But is it true? Can Trixie be okay without Knuffle Bunny by her side? (It helps when Trixie dreams of Knuffle Bunny having adventures in China--the next destination for that plane. It does NOT help when Oma and Opa try to buy her a replacement bunny--that speaks Dutch and dances!)
It's not quite what I was expecting. To be honest. Because I wasn't expecting Trixie to be this mature. To be okay with her loss this time. I think this surprises her parents a bit too! I'm not sure I loved it. Not in the same way I loved the first one or the second. But I liked it.
The art--like always--is fabulous! My favorite illustration? Trixie in the bathtub! My favorite twist? Reading Trixie's "first letter." When you read the book--be sure to read this letter! It might be easy to miss.
Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolution Has Shaped Women’s Health written by Wenda Trevathan, Ph.D., a Regents Professor of Anthropology at New Mexico State University, we learn about a range of women’s health issues. Trevathan’s hypothesis is that many of the health challenges faced by women today result from a mismatch between how our bodies have evolved and the contemporary environments in which we live. In the following excerpt, Trevethan draws from Jane Goodall’s observations of primates to illuminate how grandmothers, by virtue of being present in the family, contribute to the growth of prosperity of the grandchildren and the family unit as a whole.
Grandmothers and Reproductive Success
Most long-lived, group-living mammals have in their social groups as many as three generations present at any one time. Examples include elephants, whales and many primates. For primates who live in matrilocal groups, that usually means three generations of females: Infants, their mothers, and their grandmothers. A famous example comes from Jane Goodall’s studies of a Tanzanian chimpanzee social group in which Flo, her adult sons Faben and Figan, and her daughter Fifi lived together. Flo was a high-ranking female and her presence had a number of positive effects on her offspring. For example, Fifi was able to stay in the troop into which she was born, whereas the more typical pattern among chimpanzees appears to be for young females to leave their birth troops at maturity. By staying with her mother, Fifi was also able to rise to a high status. She began reproducing much earlier than most chimpanzee females and not only set the record for reproductive success at Gombe, but one of her sons became the largest male ever recorded at Gombe. Two of Fifi’s sons rose to high status in the dominance hierarchy and her daughter began reproducing much earlier than Fifi did. There is little doubt that grandmother Flo’s status had an effect on her daughter’s (and thus her own) reproductive success. There is no evidence, however, that Flo contributed directly to the care and feeding of her grandchildren, although it is true that she was not in good health at the time Fifi’s first infant was born in 1971.
Anthropologist Sarah Hrdy notes that despite her reproductive success, Flo serves as a good example of why having offspring at later ages may not be a good way to achieve this success or why “stopping early” might be selectively advantageous. Flo reproduced for the last time when she was very old and in poor health, but that infant did not live long. Goodall proposes that this last pregnancy was so draining for her that she was unable to mother her other young offspring, Flint, and when Flo died, Flint died also, even though he as at an age when he should have been able to survive on his own. In fact, if Flo had stopped reproducing after Flint, he probably would have lived, perhaps going on to sire another offspring and increasing Flo’s reproductive fitness through her grandchildren.
Similar evidence that the presence of grandmothers has positive effects on reproductive success comes from observations of a number of other primate species. Again, it is not usually resources and direct care that older female grandmothers provide; rather, they help to defend the infants from other troop members (including infanticidal males) whose behaviors endanger them. In fact, observers report that grandmothers will often act even more vigorously in defense of infants than younger kin. Grandmother Japanese macaques make a significant difference in survival of their grandchildren through the first year of life. Furthermore, females have much greater reproductive success if they have living mothers, even when those older females are still r
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Peck, Richard. 2009. A Season of Gifts. New York: Dial.
In ASeason of Gifts, Richard Peck returns to rural Illinois and the small town that larger-than-life Mrs. Dowdel calls home. This time, the year is 1958 and Elvis, television and Civil Defense are the buzz words of the day when the Barnhardts move into town. A poor Methodist preacher in a town of "foot-washers," Mr. Barnhardt and his wife have their work cut out for them, as do their children - narrator, 12-year-old Bob, younger sister Ruth Ann, and Phyllis, a high-schooler on the road to trouble. Local kids don't feel any brotherly love for PK's (preacher's kids).
Although each of the books in this companion set A Season of Gifts (A Year Down Yonderand A Long Way from Chicago) has its own narrator, it is the over-sized, outrageous Mrs. Dowdel who dominates the story. And though she "doesn't neighbor," and is often trigger-happy,
I'm about a squat jump away from a loaded Winchester 21, ...and I'm as tetchy as a bull in fly time,
underneath her flap hat, apron, boots, and afghans, she's got a heart of gold.
Like a master comedian, storyteller, or practical joker, Peck takes his time in setting up the dry humor that characterizes Mrs. Dowdel. The reader, so engaged in the story, never sees the setups that span a chapter, two chapters, even the entire book. Mrs. Dowdel is always one step ahead.
A Year Down Yonder is still my favorite, but A Season of Gifts runs a close second. Highly recommended.
On the left is a picture of my German grandmother, on the right is an image from my Jubilee Edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, three volumes in Gothic script, which I got when I was still quite young, but didn't actually read through till I was at university, when I read them all in quite a scientific way, noting the repetition of key motifs and mentally grouping them into 'story-sets'. Something I recently heard Sue Price say she had done too! I love the image, it is of course the story-telling grandmother, an old peasant woman, and it's replete with German romanticism. Looking at it now, though, I realise that since half my ancestors were German, Polish and Austrian peasants, it is like a picture of one of them. And I do see some similarity between it and my own grandmother's image, though I've always also seem a resemblance to Virginia Woolf, who, like Omi, had a severe psychological illness.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
It was she who first told me Grimm's fairytales, in German - my favourite was the Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, and I still have in my mind the vivid picture I formed then of the wolf, his face covered with chalk, erupting into the middle of the terrified little kids, chasing them round and gobbling most of them up - except for the smallest, who I understood to be me - who hid in the cupboard. Interesting that I never tried to imagine what it might be like for the others inside the wolf, who were later scissored out of him while he slept off his feast. (I did later spend quite a lot of time imagining Jonah's life inside the belly of the whale.) The story plays, in my mind, against the background of the darkness of my bedroom. Omi used to sleep on the same floor as my brother and me, in the attic of our house in Kendal, and if I wanted to go down the scary stairs to the loo in the middle of the night, I'd wake her up, because she was always patient, and then demand that she told me this story. It never scared me, nor did any of the other Grimm stories. It was safely stitched up (like the stones in the wolf's belly) in the world of story. Whereas the ghosts and murderers my big brother had told me infested the stairs at night were indistinct, unconfined by any narrative, and therefore incredibly menacing. As was the roaring lion who lived in the flush - another story of my brother's.
I can hear Omi's voice in my head now, gentle, rather silvery, actually very beautiful, but I didn't categorise her voice like that. She told me Red Riding Hood (another scissored-open wolf), and Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella - oh, that sister cutting the heel off her foot - and various other gruesome narratives - odd for her, who was so gentle that she literally couldn't hurt a fly, I remember seeing her watch one, saying 'Such a tiny being.' She was a vegetarian because she didn't want animals to die to keep her alive. The other stories she told me I was less interested in, like the Heiligejungfraumaria, (Blessedvirginmary) who she went to visit in church, a plaster lady with a bland face, though I did, to do Omi the favour, take my new/old doll (my mother's before me) to show Mary when I got her for my third birthday. I didn't much like the Jesus my Dad was so keen on either, though I believed in God. I preferred the Divine to be unpictured, and I still do.
That last is a digression, but not totally, because, coming back to those stories told in the dark, where my imagination made the pictures, I'm really glad I heard Grimm in that way, in the oral tradition, heiress to the policing of generations of children who must have said: 'No, it goes like this - you've left out the bit about hiding in the cupboard - what about the chalk, Omi?' And so on.
Author Denise Vega and illustrator Erin Eitter Kono have created a fabulous story in Grandmother, Have the Angels Come? Highlighting the special relationship between the very old and very young, this is a joyful meditation on growing old as seen through the eyes of a young girl.
Rich, vibrant and whimsical, the saturated color of the illustrations perfectly match the heartwarming and inspirational text. The story is written joyfully and reassures the granddaughter that her beloved grandmother will always be there to love and guide her.
Here is a sample: Grandmother, Grandmother, have the angels come and bent your fingers?
Yes, my darling granddaughter. They have bent my fingers so I may hold your hand more tightly.
Will you hold me when I'm scared and feeling all alone?
Yes, my darling granddaughter. I will hold you when you fly and when you fall.
This special book will reassure youngsters that this special love will endure. This is a book to treasure. Check for other reviews here and here.
0 Comments on Review: Grandmother, Have the Angels Come? as of 6/12/2009 8:37:00 AM
With the emphasis on the development of reading and math skills during the last few years, many elementary schools have pushed science instruction to the margins. So, it's wonderful to read a good story that is built around a science topic.
Turtle Girl by Carole Crowe and illustrated by Jim Postier is a lovely story of the special times a girl shares with her grandmother each year as the sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. The special nature of Magdalena's relationship with her grandmother is linked to the need to protect the turtles.
Then when her grandmother dies, Magdalena is bereft and tries to protect herself from the hurt by ignoring the turtles' annual rituals. In the end, she remembers that her grandmother said, " I will always be with you, Magdalena, especially at turtle-time."
She wakes her mother to go to the beach in the middle of the night just in time to see all the turtle hatchlings scurrying to the sea. She realizes that her grandmother was right as she can feel her presence all around her during this special night.
Jim Postier's illustrations are integral to the story as they complement the narrative and create context for this annual ritual that few are privileged to see.
Hidden, By Dotti Enderle Illustrated by T. Kyle Gentry Pelican Publishing Company (August 15, 2007)
Hidden is a treasure.
"You can learn a lot from dead people. You just have to know where to look," says twelve-year-old Fiona, the day after her grandmother's funeral. She's none too happy about being recruited by her mother to help sort through Grandma's worldly possessions. That is, until underneath the drawer of an old cash register, Fiona finds an intriguing anniversary card to Millie from Don, with a strange message about having found "a new hiding place." A new hiding place for what?
Unable to draw her mother or dad into the mystery, she turns to a newfound friend named Eugene who seems to appear at the drop of a hat, and disappear just as quickly, especially when Fiona wants to introduce him to her parents. They work together to interpret the clues hoping a valuable treasure will be found. The mystery turns deadly when Grandma's house is broken in to and searched, or as Fiona observes; It looks like the house puked.
Hidden is a real page-turner. I know that's an overused expression, but I couldn't stop reading! A very enjoyable story for 8-12 and beyond. This adult reader enjoyed it immensely. Dotti Enderle's writing is funny, family-friendly, descriptive and concise. No words are wasted in this 'tween mystery. T. Kyle Gentry's illustrations are an added bonus. I'd recommend it for all.
Mary, this does look like a fun book. If you liked this book, you might like my friend Alethea Eason's book "Hungry." There's a nice review of it in the May issue of SFRevu, a great science fiction, on-line publication.
You can see the review at: http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=6059
In 2008, librarians surprised everyone by choosing the 533-page, The Invention of Hugo Cabret as the winner of the Caldecott Medal honoring the "most distinguished American picture book for children." This year, the award committees surprised us again with the choice of a picture book, Last Stop on Market Street, as the winner of the Newbery Medal, given to "to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." 
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i got to see this in australia a few years back and this it is exactly the book I ned to explain. thanks for he tip!
Oh, how wonderful that must have been. Thanks for sharing.