Children's Books discussion

Any good ones out there that you really like? I am thinking of issues like: explaining 9/11, explaining slavery in the U.S., the Holochaust and so on. Whatever you consider to be the sort of issue that is difficult to explain to a child.

I think a really good one is "Grandfather's Journey" explaining immigration.

As ds gets older, I want to delve into these sorts of books more.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli for the Jewish ghetto of WWII.

Macmillan Library has a series of "big issue" non fiction books for senior primary school students. The series is called "What's the issue?", and individual titles are about topics such as the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia's Immigration policy and Endangered Species. I am writing a title for series two on the Great Barrier Reef.

Julie, do you have a link?

Hi Cheryl,

Yes, here's the link...http://www.macmillan.com.au/primary/o...

And I noticed Macmillan also has 3 "Global Issues" series too. Here is the link to set three...http://www.macmillan.com.au/primary/o...

Sorry, I don't know how to hyperlink the text.

Best regards, Julie.

Thanks, Abigail!

Thanks for the MacMillan links, both of you as a team!

Do you want just historical issues, like The Red Badge of Courage or Ruffles and Drums, or do you want personal & social issues, like Holes and Cold Skin?

I'll be thinking on this, but for now let me warn you that the four mentioned here are not for younger children and are even 'iffy' for teens, just so you know.

Oh, I did recently read Dave at Night that deals with immigration and orphan issues between the world wars, during Harlem's hey-day.

Cheryl~~I was thinking of "Issues" in the sense that there is a topic you want to explain, but can't really explain it well. So a book helps you along. For example, I've heard "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" is good for 9/11, but we have not read it yet.

I agree with the person who said that a big issue would require several books....

Yes, Kirei, I understand what you mean by "big issue." What I'm wondering is if you want

A) History, like the Holocaust or 9/11
B) Personal, like anorexia or mental illness
or
C) All of the above.

I personally like to learn, and share, all of the above. :)

I meant all of the above. Some issues I can't see tackling with my ds yet (like anorexia), but maybe somebody else would find them useful.

And to tell the truth, I was thinking of picture books....... but we shouldn't have to limit it.

ah - ok - thanks for the clarification - I'll keep thinking -

Karen Hesse comes to mind. The Cats in Krasinski Square is a picture book.

Kirei, oh now I get what you meant by "big issue". In terms of "big issue" picture books, I really like stories that help children cope with being a little bit different. For example Some Dogs Do is great, with a brilliant twist at the end. There's also Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, which is a celebration of friendship between two children who are very different characters (from each other). There are lots more, but why do they not spring to mind when you want them? I'm sure they'll come to me in time...

We just finished reading, "Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave." I used it to try to get across to my children how wrong slavery was. That here was this brilliant fellow, and how he was kept from practicing his skills as he might have, had he been free.

For older kids there's To Be A Slave by Julius Lester.
I haven't read that one, but my cohort in reviewing raved about it.

Even though Free Piano Not Haunted is an issue book (graphic novel), these presented issues seem much more important than the story itself and that I definitely am quite disappointed that both text and images are so didactic and so boring (and that it took me almost two months to finish kind of says a lot, although the haunted piano and how ghostly 1980s one-hit wonder Vision mentors Margot are kind of neat, shows potential but that this is kind of destroyed for me by Gardner's preachiness and moralising).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

See the banned and challenged lists. *sigh*

Start with babies

Antiracist Baby

and toddlers

Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race
Being You: A First Conversation About Gender
Every Body: A First Conversation About Bodies
All of Us: A First Conversation About Disability
Together: A First Conversation About Love
We Care: A First Conversation About Justice
Goodbye: A First Conversation About Grief
Yes! No!: A First Conversation About Consent'

All of the books in the First Conversation series have been excellent and informative even for me as an adult without children.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The Bears' House


Definitely issue-heavy, often really depressing, but in my opinion a superbly poignant story of abandoned children and intense family dysfunction as well as bullying and with an ambiguous and open ending that especially adult I appreciates hugely (although I really do not like the artwork).

And while the featured dollhouse of The Bears' House is of course basically a toy, for main protagonist Fran Ellen (who at the age of nine still constantly sucks her thumb, is bullied and often being told that she smells due to this by her generally cruelly uncaring classmates) it represents oh so much more, that it is a haven, a refuge, a source of love and an escape from the harsh reality that is her and her family's life (an absent father, a depressed and often bedridden mother, the constant fear of the family being split up), how when in The Bears' House Fran Ellen in her imagination enters the dollhouse to interact with Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but especially with Mama and Papa Bear, she can at least for a while pretend that her life is a bit easier. But just to point out that what Sachs textually provides thematics and contents wise in The Bears' House, this is also not ever simply a story of a child drifting off into a world of sweet and delightful make‐believe playing with a dollhouse, that with Mama and Papa Bear representing the family life Fran Ellen no longer has, this tends to increasingly become more concrete for her than what is actual reality (so that by the end of The Bears' House, there is a really precarious feeling of Fran Ellen Smith no longer being able to really all the time distinguish between what is real and what is her imagination and wishful thinking).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Fran Ellen's House


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Not as hard-hitting and as such equally not nearly as depressing as The Bears' House is Fran Ellen's House (and with an ending that is still a trifle open, but is also hopeful even though one does feel a bit sad for Fran Ellen basically giving up stewardship of the Three Bears' and their dollhouse to Felipe, to her younger sister). But what Sachs textually provides in Fran Ellen's House is in my opinion and definitely a more than worthwhile sequel to The Bears' House (and that the only reason why my rating for Fran Ellen's House is three and not yet four stars is that the scenario with the shoplifting feels a bit tacked on, as coming out of the proverbial blue so to speak and that the school science project where Fran Ellen brings two cockroaches school that become breeding class pets named Romeo and Juliet is really funny, is really neat but ends up kind of fizzling out, that this really should most definitely be expanded on by Marilyn Sachs).