.png)
We need our people, friends we can trust and have fun with, loyal pals to cheer us up on bad days and celebrate our achievements on good days. Measuring up as a friend can be a challenge at times, but being consistent, honest and loyal with others pays dividends divine, of that you can be sure.
Clover’s ever so grateful for her friends and happy to celebrate them with March Picks that focus on “Bee-ing a Good Buddy.” Page on! Enjoy!
The Community Literacy Foundation, in partnership with Neighborhood Reads, and with support from its sponsors, provides these books at no cost to 37 schools in Washington, Union, Pacific, St. Clair and surrounding communities and to the Washington Public Library. Learn more at CommunityLiteracyFoundation.org.
Youngest Read
An unexpected friendship blossoms when a snowstorm transforms a young girl’s world into a winter wonderland. Readers will be captivated by “Wonder and Awe,” a poignant picture book by debut author Annie Herzig.
Gifted with a powdery landscape, the girl decides to “make a new friend” and gets to rolling, stacking and patting the snow into shape. The girl calls her creation “Wonder,” because “She is simply full of wonder, and it makes me wonder … ’How did I miss this before? I’m in awe.”
The snowperson opens up the world for the child who begins to notice the magical gifts of nature she’s missed, like the sunny-yellow bird nesting in a birch tree above her head.
After fun-filled days with her new friend, the girl’s snowperson suffers the same fate as the frolicking Frosty we all know and love. When a spring thaw reduces the snowperson to a puddle, the girl is awash in tears and regret.
It takes the child time to accept the loss of her friend, but when she does, the veil of sadness lifts from her eyes and she once again sees the magic in the world. In no time, it’s winter again, with all the wonderous possibilities of a reunion.
Middle Read
It’s sad to be friendless and lonely. Mr. Cat knows that feeling all too well in “The Letter,” by Irene Verdú. Day after day, the fractious feline mopes the hours away in his easy chair until fate intervenes and sends Mr. Cat a gift from the sky, a missile with a message.
“I love you” reads a letter inside an unmarked envelope that the wind picks up and passes along, cartwheeling and dancing in the breeze. As luck would have it, the letter blows through Mr. Cat’s house, landing smack dab on his head.
The affectionate script jumps out from the page, leaving Kitty to wonder who might have sent the message to him. Determined to discover the goodwill ambassador, Kitty begins his search, eventually coming into contact with three different animals, each needing help in one way or another.
Mr. Cat pitches in to offer his assistance to them, garnering blessings that return to him like a welcome echo. Simple, yet detailed illustrations by Verònica Aranda bring Mr. Cat to life, his varied emotions easy to see in a sweet book translated by Luisana Duarte Armendáriz.
Oldest Read
It’s 1915, and Marta and her father are going home to Germany after visiting family in the United States. There’s great tension and concern about World War I breaking out and they are in a hurry to return because Marta’s brother, Hans, plans to enlist in the military. Germans can no longer travel for fear of them being spies, so Marta and her father have altered identification papers. Their fateful journey also is complicated by warnings from Germany that they will torpedo ships that near Great Britain’s shores, the route Marta and her father’s ship, the Lusitania, is taking.
So begins “The Enemy’s Daughter” by Anne Blackman, an exciting tale of historical fiction that begins with the sinking of the Lusitania, and evolves into a story of friendship between two girls from opposite sides of the conflict, Marta from Germany, and Clare O’Sullivan, the daughter of an Irish family who has immigrated to York, England.
Alone, traumatized by nearly drowning in the sea, and unable to locate her father, Marta knows she must mask her identify, and so pretends to be Dutch when the O’Sullivan family takes her in. Each day she works in a chocolate factory with Clare, the two becoming best friends, a relationship built on lies, a deception that bothers Marta, but what can she do?
“The Enemy’s Daughter” is a riveting story of courage and love that can grow between people who are vastly different from one another—in this case enemies. Wrapped in this exciting story is a message of hope reminding us that different viewpoints can be breached with kindness and compassion.
Written by Chris Stuckenschneider.
Copyright 2025, Community Literacy Foundation.
Comments