Clara Barton: Founder of the Red Cross by Augusta Stevenson

I would have loved this book as a child as I loved true stories about strong women. Clara Barton: Founder of the Red Cross by Augusta Stevenson gives the reader a feel for what Clara was like as a child. I never knew that Clara had almost debilitating anxiety (It is called being shy in the book) when she was little. I still love books about strong women who face hard challenges.

I learned that she was the youngest and adored daughter of her family. Her siblings were all a lot older than she was. She got her start by nursing sick and injured animals back to health. She started her nursing career as a child by nursing her friend and her brother back to health. She was a school teacher for a time.

This chapter book has larger text, great white space, and nice illustrations by Frank Giacoia. This book was published in 1946.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Yellow Bird, Black Spider by Dosh and Mike Archer

In Yellow Bird, Black Spider, authors Dosh and Mike Archer created a darling book with bright and fun pictures. Published in 2004, Black Spider keeps asking why Yellow Bird doesn't do things differently.

For instance: When Yellow bird takes a blue boat, Black Spider asks, "Why don't you fly across the sea?" "I like to sail, actually," said yellow bird. This continues on throughout the book until the surprise ending. Each page introduces a new color, which means this book teaches about colors and about doing what is right for yourself even if other people question your choices.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We are in need of Spanish books at this time, especially board books. We can always use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the book you donate. 

On Christmas Eve, these two books came in memory of Liam Heintz. I find the title of the first one especially fitting for Liam. 

Michelle sent this batch over:

And Janice sent this batch of books:

Thank you for thinking of our book project this holiday season. I delivered 38 packets of books to Angie on Christmas Day.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Bang! by Sharon G. Flake

Bang! by Sharon G. Flake was published in 2005. This story follows Mann, who is thirteen years-old. He and his family are dealing with the shooting death of his little brother, Jason. Being shot to death is a common occurrence in Mann's neighborhood.

Although I have not experienced the things that Mann and his family have experienced, there are  young readers who have experienced this. Mann's family isn't dealing well with Jason's death. His father is pushing Mann to be a man before he is ready and his mother who has stopped eating tries to keep Jason's memory alive by acting as if he is still alive.

Mann is hanging out with a friend who is leading him down the wrong path, but that isn't as bad as what he father does to try to make him grow up.

I wanted to strangle Mann's father, but Sharon Flake does a superb job of helping me see where his father's head is. I loved the conclusion and the growth of the characters. I was  confused on what happened to the caretakers or owners of the horses and wish that had been answered. I loved the conflict and the contrast between the city and the country and how the country also had dangers.

I wanted people to be nicer, but I know that often they are not. I wanted to see the artwork of Mann and his friend Kee-lee. I wanted to wrap my arms around all the characters and put them in a safe place. I liked that even though Jason was killed at the beginning of the book, he was still very present in the story.

Sharon G. Flake is a good storyteller. You will laugh and cry. You will be angry at her characters. You will want to shake them and protect them. Her stories will make you squirm and they may make you feel uncomfortable, but she addresses some hard topics and writes books that need to be in classrooms.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

We are currently in dire need of Spanish books. There have been a lot of Spanish speaking families who have had babies in the NICU recently, and we are completely out of books for them.

I found this stack of three board books on my front porch this morning. Thank you to whomever left it for the babies.

Michelle and I went shopping on Saturday and we found some books. Here are the books Michelle found. Thank you, Michelle.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton

Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton tells the story of Chanda, a teen girl who helps her mother and younger siblings. The story is set in a fictional country in Sub-Saharan Africa. When the story begins, Chanda's baby sister has just died from what we later find out is AIDS.

This story follows Chanda as she tries to keep her family together while trying to grow up and go to school as he mother struggles with her own health. This story is quite complex as Stratton weaves together the tale of Chanda's history, her friends, her family, and her community. This book is well written and hard to put down.

I found myself wanting to know what would happen to Chanda, her  mother, and her siblings. I loved her dedication to her friend and to her mother. I also liked that Stratton wrote her as a complex character who wasn't perfect but instead was human.

I loved the ending of this story and how Stratton shows the value of honesty and the importance of truth in keeping people safe. I feel that I can't adequately describe the nuances of this story or the plot line without giving spoilers. This book deserved the Snow Willow Award it earned and being nominated for the Michael L. Printz award.

This book is well researched and written. Thank you, Allan Stratton for a book that could save lives.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We are in need of Spanish books at this time, especially board books. We can always use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the book you donate. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Going Solo by Roald Dahl

Going Solo by Roald Dahl was published in 1986, and is the sequel to Boy. It is also Dahl's autobiography of the time he served as a fighter pilot during WWII.

I learned that Dahl flew planes in Africa. He crashed his plane and was injured. He was 6' 6" tall and struggled to fit in the cockpit, and now I think I need to go buy the book Boy and read it because Dahl had quite the life.

In this book, he shares stories about his first job in East Africa, the boat ride there, and being threatened by black mamba snakes and lions. He tells about flight training and how surprisingly fast new pilots were sent up in planes they were not familiar with.

This would be a great first autobiography for a child to read. It is interesting, funny, and introduces the reader to many interesting parts of history. Pictures, letters, and telegrams are included, which make this all the more interesting. I listened to the audio version, and it is well narrated by Dan Stevens.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord

In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord was first published in 1984; it has aged well.

Before Bandit and her mother go to the United States of America to live with her father, she is given a new name. She chooses the name Shirley Temple.

Goodreads blurb: Shirley Temple Wong sails from China to America with a heart full of dreams.Her new home is Brooklyn, New York. America is indeed a land full of wonders, but Shirley doesn't know any English, so it's hard to make friends. Then a miracle-baseball-happens. It is 1947, and Jackie Robinson, star of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is everyone's hero. Jackie Robinson is proving that a black man, the grandson of a slave, can make a difference in America and for Shirley as well, on the ball field and off, America becomes the land of opportunity. 

Bette Bao Lord based Shirley's story on her own from when she, herself, was a newcomer to America. Shirley deals with bullying, with trying to learn a new language, with trying to understand a new culture, and with trying to make friends. 

This story is endearing and sweet. This chapter book is great for 54 year-old elementary students with good white space and wonderful illustrations by Marc Simont. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

I listened to I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley, and the reader was perfect as Flavia. She was just the right combination of snarkiness, intelligence, and innocence. This is book four in the Flavia de Luce mysteries.

Flavia is an eleven year-old sleuth who has an inherited chemistry lab, and her favorite variety of chemicals are poisons. Each book has a mystery to solve and there is a dead body at some point of the story.

In this installment, her father has rented out their estate to a film company, and of course they bring the mystery with them. Precocious Flavia can not stay out of the way, and of course when a dead body shows up, she refuses to be left out of trying to solve the case.

The relationship between Flavia and her sisters is complicated, but their relationships develop and grow. Their butler/man of everything, Dogger, is still one of my favorite characters as he is complicated but loving. We learn a bit more about the love story between Flavia's dead mother and her father.

This is a great series for your budding scientist, or if you are like me and love everything British, you will enjoy this series. My copy of this book has a skeleton with a Santa hat on the cover, but this one is nice as well.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Michelle brought for more books for the babies. Thank you, Michelle. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

The Cay and Timothy of the Cay by Theodore Taylor

The Cay and Timothy of the Cay by Theodore Taylor are set during WWII in the Caribbean Sea. The Cay was first published in 1969 during a time of great cultural strife in the USA. I listened to the audio version of this book, and the narration by Michael Boatman was wonderful. At the end of the narration, they had an interview with Taylor and it was fun to hear in his own voice and words how this story came about.

He was inspired to write this story after learning about German subs attacking off of the Caribbean. He learned about a Dutch ship that was attacked and sunk and a young Dutch boy who was seen on a raft after the attack. He thought about this missing boy for eleven years before he wrote a story about it.

In this historical fiction, Phillip and his mother are Americans who along with his father live on the island of Curacao. As German attacks get more frequent, his father sends them on a ship to return to the USA, but their ship is attacked by a German submarine. After the ship sinks, an injured Phillip finds himself on a raft with the "blackest man he's ever seen".  Phillip's mother has warned him about black people: "They are different, and they life differently." Phillip loses his eyesight, and has to rely on Timothy for survival. They find their way to a small island, and a blind Phillip must learn from Timothy how to navigate his small world in order to stay alive.

The character Timothy was patterned after a man that Taylor knew named Robert - he only had one name. Robert knew more about the sea than anyone Taylor ever knew. He picked him to the be the rescuer of Phillip and named him Timothy.

This story is powerful and shows that in allowing ourselves to really know the "other" we deepen our love and understanding for all in the world and come to understand our own self even more. I loved the changes in the characters in this story. The story is a fast paced 137 page novel with large text and a lot of white space making it perfect to introduce a younger reader to civil rights, WWII,  prejudices, and true friendship.

Timothy of the Cay picks right up where The Cay ended, only it shares Timothy's life from the time he was a boy. This story alternates between Philip trying to regain his sight and Timothy sharing his life story. We learn why it was so important to Timothy to save Phillip.

This book is good because it is a little longer at 161 pages, and although it has a lot of white space, the text size is a bit smaller than The Cay, which is a natural progression from one book to the next.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

What happens to a donated box of books?

Recently, two of Angie's friends have donated boxes of used books to our NICU book project. I want to show you how the books are sorted and used. Books that can't be used in the NICU find a home.

Here are the pictures of the boxes of books.

The books are carefully sorted and cleaned. Some books go to a book stash in the NICU for parents who haven't received their packets yet or for nurses to read to the babies. That is where these books pictured below are headed.

 Some books will head to the NICU waiting room for visitors to use to keep their littles occupied. I like to send sturdier books to the waiting room.

Other books, like these, will be sent to teachers who are trying to build their classrooms. Kids need classrooms with a lot of books, and teachers have a limited budget or non-existent budget for books.

Books that are like new or new, like these, are put into a packet of five books. These books are read to the babies while they are hospitalized, and then these books go home with the baby.

Books that make noise are sent to a little free library so that the visitors to that library can take a book or leave a book. This assortment of books have been sorted but not yet cleaned. Some will head to the waiting room, others to the NICU, some to classrooms, and some to the little free library. No books are wasted. All of them find a home where they will be loved once again. 

We also received the following books from the friends and family of Liam Heintz in honor of his second birthday. Thanks to all who brought books for his birthday party. These will each contain a book plate with his name.

If you have access to a library of books, you are never truly alone. 

Click on this Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate new books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can always use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you.