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May’s a double-winner for Clover—the month’s abloom with blossoms and “Magnificent Must-Reads” your Bee Buddy is happy to introduce you to. All three books are brilliantly written and varied in subject matter, featuring characters and artwork that’s noteworthy and thought provoking.
You can count on Clover to keep the pages turning! Don’t miss my monthly picks!
The Community Literacy Foundation, with support from it's sponsors, provides these books to 37 school and public libraries in Washington, Union, Pacific, St. Clair and surrounding communities. Learn more at CommunityLiteracyFoundation.org.
Youngest Read
Stretch your concept of reality with “The End is Just the Beginning: A Book of Endless Possibilities,” by Mike Bender. The author sets up his story with a riddle-like introduction: “….prepare to have your mind blown, because the end isn’t really the end. It’s just the beginning of something else.”
Confused—I’ll say, until Bender offers examples to illustrate where he’s going. “When all the snow melts at the end of winter, that just means it’s the beginning of spring.”
Now you’ve got it, right? If not try this mind-bender on for size: “…a sign that literally says Dead End isn’t an end at all. It’s only just the beginning of whatever lies beyond it.”
Lovely artwork by Diana Mayo accompanies this wondrous read, one that offers young readers the opportunity to come up with their own beginnings and endings. No biggie if you’re stumped or you fail because “The end of a mistake…is just the beginning of learning something new.”
Check it out from the library
Middle Read
“Someone Builds the Dream” gives a hearty nod to workers whose brawn, brain and bravado helped shade our nation, and continue to do so—gifting us everything from bridges to books to beautiful buildings. Author Lisa Wheeler and illustrator Loren Long, team up on this stirring read in verse that encompasses the breadth of projects clever people gift to us with their strong bodies and creative minds.
“All across this great big world jobs are getting done by many hands in many lands. It takes much more than one.”
While an architect is credited with drawing a marvelous building, sometimes those who contributed to the finished product are overlooked. Wheeler and Long make sure these unsung heroes get their due, everyone from carpenters to steel workers, to trench diggers, plumbers and electricians to name a few.
It takes a bevy of workers coordinating their efforts to “build the dream.” Even the process of creating a book isn’t overlooked in this crowd pleaser that’s sheer perfection.
Oldest Read
Lisa Fipps tackles a touchy subject with compassion in “Starfish,” a book in meaningful, heart-wrenching free verse. In this touching, un-puttdownable story readers meet Ellie, an 11-year-old girl who’s born the brunt of being bullied for her weight for most of her young life.
At age 5, her older sister nicknamed her “whale” when Ellie cannonballed into the family’s backyard swimming pool, splashing everyone around her. It’s a name that stuck, one that Ellie bears with grace and sadness in school and in her home life, where her mother is her biggest critic. She constantly berates her daughter for her size, leaving dieting tips on the frig front and threatening to take Ellie to a doctor for stomach reduction surgery.
Fipps has created a courageous character in Ellie, one readers will have empathy for as Ellie rises to challenges that would overwhelm people with less pluck. Fortunately Ellie has an understanding father, a new best friend and a therapist who teaches her how to find her own voice and make herself heard. Once you meet Ellie you’ll be sure and root for her—and applaud the wisdom she shares in this simply marvelous new book.
Written by Chris Stuckenschneider. Copyright 2021, Community Literacy Foundation. Reprinted with permission.
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