Short & Sweet by Josh Funk

Josh Funk is back with another Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast adventure, this time the two friends are feeling a little stale. Professor Biscotti has a contraption in his lab that will help to despoil them, but in an attempt to make them fresh again, they instead transform into little kids! Now it's a race against the clock for Professor Biscotti and Baron von Waffle to try to transform Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast back to their old selves.

I adore every picture book that Josh Funk creates, but I hold a special place in my heart for his Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast books. Not only is Josh one of the most effective and adept authors when it comes to rhyming picture books, which can get hokey really quickly, but this series speaks to the foodie in me loves his playful use of food in these stories. Phrases like the Fjords of Farfalle, Bran Canyon, and the Great Wall of Pine Nuts gave me a good chuckle (and made me a little bit hungry). 

But even better than his rhyming and clever use of foodie phrases, are his incredible book trailers which he created, recorded, and SANG himself. Yes, I think it's safe to say that Josh Funk is a jack of all picture book trades. 

Also watch the trailers from the previous books in the Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast series:

Short & Sweet by Josh Funk, illustrated by Brendan Kearney

Published: September 1, 2020

Publisher: Sterling

Pages: 40

Genre/ Format: Picture Book

Audience: Primary

Disclosure: Digital copy of book provided by author

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It's Monday! What are you reading? 9-14-2020

                              

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a wonderful community of readers, teachers, and librarians. Hosted by Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts along with Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers, participants share their reading adventures from the past week along with their reading plans for the week ahead.

My Monday posts are generally just a highlight of what I've been reading during the week so if you'd like to see all that I've been reading, follow my Goodreads page.

Last week I read and loved:

Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

A beautiful book that is a reminder to everyone, teachers especially, that names are sacred and we must respect them enough to learn how to pronounce them. A Journey Toward Hope by Victor Hinojosa and Coert Vorhees, illustrated by Susan Guevara A beautiful, heart-wrenching story about a group of children making the dangerous journey from Guatemala and El Salvador to seek asylum in the United States. Currently Reading: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Point-less: An English Teacher's Guide to More Meaningful Grading by Sarah Zerwin My Life in the Fish Tank by Barbara Dee Currently reading with my ears: Invisible Ghosts by Robin Schneider

It's Monday! What are you reading? 9-7-2020

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a wonderful community of readers, teachers, and librarians. Hosted by Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts along with Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers, participants share their reading adventures from the past week along with their reading plans for the week ahead.

My Monday posts are generally just a highlight of what I've been reading during the week so if you'd like to see all that I've been reading, follow my Goodreads page.

Happy Labor Day! Since my last post at the end of July, a lot has happened. I have started school in person. I am now teaching 8th grade English again. And while I am grateful that I still have a job and I have an amazing class this year 1) I am grieving not being in the library this year and pray that this job shift is only temporary 2) I am extremely worried about being back in person, especially since I live and work in a college town.

But anyway. Here's what I've been up to reading-wise the past six weeks.

Say It Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy by Tiffany D. Cross
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. I loved Tiffany Cross's conviction in both her writing style and her narration of the audioibook.

Despite a media narrative that states otherwise, Black voters are not a monolith. And the criticism that they blindly vote for Democrats because there's some sort of unspoken rule in the Black community is incredibly disingenuous and lacks any sort of intellectual curiosity when it comes to Black America's motivations. The fact of the matter is, the Black community recognizes that all politics and systems in America seek to harm them in some way; they just choose to vote for the party that harms them the least. They are under no delusions that voting for Democrats is also not going to harm them in some way. They're just choosing the path of least resistance and least harm.

I love how Tiffany Cross provides readers (and listeners) with historical context and supplants that sense of intellectual curiosity that has been lacking in the media as to why Black America votes the way they do.

Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet
Berlin is my absolute favorite city in the entire world. The past and the present hold hands with each other in such interesting and seamless ways, and yet the city has a youthful energy that is almost palpable. So reading a book that takes place in East Berlin in 1989 just as the Iron Curtain is crumbling, it reminded me of all of that intrigue and beating pulse of the city.

Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan, illustrated by Anna Bron
Salma just moved to Vancouver, Canada from Syria as a refugee. Despite missing her home and her father back in Syria, Salma and her mom are building a community in their new home. But Salma still sees the sadness in her mother and wants to cheer her up. She decides to enlist the help of her new community and make one of her mother's favorite dishes, but not without a few problems along the way. This is a beautiful story that shows just how powerful and impactful a welcoming community can be that provides safety nets for people who are struggling or in danger.

Natsumi's Song of Summer by Robert Paul Weston, illustrated by Nisa Saburi
An enchanting story of family, friendship, and summertime in Japan.

Izzy and Frank by Katrina Lehman, illustrated by Sophie Beer
Izzy loves her lighthouse home and especially loves her seagull friend, Frank. But then she has to move away from the home and friend she loves to the big city and she is sure she'll never see Frank again. But then one day, Frank finds her and brings her memories of her old home.

How to Write a Story by Kate Messner, illustrated by Mark Siegel
An excellent mentor text to use with students when doing any sort of fiction writing in class. I plan to use this when I do NaNoWriMo with my 8th graders.

That's Life! by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld
If this book had been written by a different author, it would have come off as hokey, didactic, and full of nothing but cliches and platitude. It's basically the picture book version of the Frank Sinatra song of the same name. But somehow the way Ame Dyckman does it, paired with Cori Doerrfeld's endearing illustrations, this book is an inspiring revelation.

Drawing on Walls: A story of Keith Haring by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Josh Cochran
An inspiring and heartfelt picture book biography of the artist Keith Haring. His work really takes me back to when I was a child/teen in the late 80s/early 90s because his work really was part of the cultural zeitgeist.

How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, illustrated by Ziyue Chen

A compelling account of women's suffrage in America 

Shirley Chisholm is a Verb! by Veronica Chambers, illustrated by Rachelle Baker
Fighting Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed, was the first Black woman ever elected to Congress and the first woman to run for president. The fantastic biography, emphasizes all the ways Shirley Chisholm lived her life by doing.

Luci Soars by Lulu Delacre
What if your shadow is what is keeping you rooted to the ground and preventing you from flying?

Currently Reading:

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Point-less: An English Teacher's Guide to More Meaningful Grading by Sarah Zerwin