Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson was published in 2019 and is a sister book to Speak. Shout is Anderson's autobiography told in poetry form.

I needed this book to be published this year because it gives me hope that just maybe, my own autobiography will some day make it into print. I'm not famous like Anderson. I've yet to publish a book, but for years I have tried to write my history for my children. Every attempt has failed because there are many sad parts to my growing up and the writing of it caused me to sink into depression.

I started writing my story as poetry, and I've been able to continue writing because I can deal with the sadness as long as its just one poem at a time.

Shout will help those in the #metoo movement speak out. I love the title of this book. The poetry is written in free verse and is quite raw at times, but life is often raw, and in these bite sized pieces we can hear it without breaking.

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

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.

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul and Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul and Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon was published in 2015 and tells the story of Isatou Ceesay, a woman who saw a problem and did something about it.

In her town, the litter of plastic bags has caused goats to die and has become an eyesore. She and the women of the Gambia gather the discarded plastic bags, wash them, cut them into plastic yarn, and create fashionable and useful purses and bags out them. At first the women are laughed at, but them one woman buys a purse, and soon everyone wants one.

From their earnings, the women contribute to an empowerment center that gives free health care and literacy classes and also shows the dangers of burning plastic.


This book includes a Wolof glossary and pronunciation guide of the words used in the book. This book is uplifting and shows the difference one person can make if they have an idea, act on it, and share it.

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

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.

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan was published in 2015 and I found a copy of this book at one of my local Little Free Libraries.

In this novel, Ryan sets out to do a lot. The story is told in five parts, a preface, and four other parts. The preface begins in 1864, fifty years before WWI. Part one is set in Germany in 1933 as Hitler rises to power. Part two is set in Pennsylvania in 1935 where children often reside in orphanages. Part three is set in Southern California in 1942 and tells about migrant workers and Japanese interment camps. Part four is set in New York City in 1951 and has all the stories come together.

I didn't know the stories would come together and felt annoyed as each part ended because I got so attached to the characters, and I thought, "You can't just leave it like this. So when you read this, don't worry, Ryan ties it all together.

The way Ryan wove a fairy tale, a Holocaust story, a story of two orphans, a story of a migrant family, and incorporated Japanese interment camps is quite masterful. I bow down to her writing expertise. The stories are connected by a harmonica. Harmonica music is in the book, so your child can learn to play the harmonica. I listened to the audio version of this book and it was masterfully told with a different narrator for each part and included the music pieces, which was a nice touch.

Parts of this story made me cry, and I felt so involved in the characters' outcomes. If you want your child to appreciate music and fairy tales, this is a great book. If you want your child to understand history: The Holocaust, The Great Depression and its aftermath, the plight of migrant works, and Japanese interment camps, this is the book.

Each part gives the reader the desire to learn more about the history Ryan shares. This book is part fairy tale but mostly historical fiction and is a work of art. It won a Newbery Honor in 2016, but it probably should have won the gold.

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

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.

A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms by Paul B Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka

A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms by Paul B Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka was published in 2005 and would make a great addition to any classroom or home library.

As a teacher, this would have been great to have when teaching poetry and creative writing. It contains twenty-nine different types of poems with simple directions on how to create a poem of that type and an example of each type of poem.

This book is incredibly well organized and makes finding the type of poem easy as the table of contents is organized by poem types instead of poem titles. There are poems from well-known writers included in the book.

The illustrations are bright, colorful, and a bit funny making poetry accessible to children. This will be a go to book for all thing poetry for me.

As a teacher, if you only buy one poetry book for your classroom this year, get this one.

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

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.