YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: WHEN DADDY SHOWS ME THE SKY- Review of a Debut Picture Book and a Giveaway!

 I enjoy sharing my author and illustrator friends' good news. This post is particularly special because Rebecca Wheeler, the author of When Daddy Shows Me The Sky (Belle Isle Books, 2021), was my student in 2008 when Joyce Hostetter and I taught Writing for Children at NCCAT. 

It is my delight to share Rebecca's book that is coming out this month. Details about her launch are below. 

REVIEW

Question: What happens when you combine astronomy, yoga, and a father and daughter who love each other? 

Answer: The STEM picture book, When Daddy Shows Me the Sky.

Here is the lovely beginning that sets the calm tone of the book.

My daddy is amazing. He shows me the day. Not in the daytime's bright sun, when life makes everything noisy, but at night. When it's quiet, and you can concentrate.

In the subsequent pages the narrator explains what she has learned from her daddy about the night sky and demonstrates yoga poses.  

In this way, information about constellations is knit together with each pose. For example, when the reader learns about Mars, the narrator demonstrates the volcano pose; the dragon constellation prompts the narrator to make the dragon pose. Here is another:

Daddy's favorite constellation appears in the winter sky. Orion,  [uh-rahy-uh n] the hunter, is made from seven stars, and a sword hangs from his belt.

I am a warrior like Orion!

A few pages later, the narrator stretches with her father and she thinks they look like hunting dogs. Then they roar together as they practice the Lion's breath.

In the spring, Leo the lion also comes out to play. I can find Leo all by myself. I just look for the backward question mark that makes his mane. I bet Leo plays with the moon like my cat plays with her ball of yarn.

Daddy and I both roar like lions!

 

Throughout the story, the affection between the narrator and her father is clearly heard in the child's voice and seen in Katherine Jordan's bright and bold illustrations. 

Before we day goodbye to the night sky, we stretch out our arms and pretend to hug the moon. The moon smiles, and I smile, because my daddy is amazing. He shows me the sky.

I hope this book will inspire other amazing dads (and moms!) to get outside with their children--day and night! What wonderful bonding times are created when we spend precious hours with our children--whether it's by practicing yoga or otherwise exercising and experiencing the natural world. 

BACKSTORY

Sometimes I interview authors to find the story behind the story. In this case, Rebecca did that work already--on her blog. Here are several informative posts which will help reveal why she wrote this book. 

• If you are curious about the family pictured in this book, please see Rebecca's blog post, Families Don't Have to Match. (By the way, her niece was the model for the narrator). 
• For more information about Rebecca's connection with yoga, see her post, Why a Yoga Picture Book? 
• And here's her road to publication story--which she calls her book's Origin Story.

BACK MATTER, CURRICULUM RESOURCES, and BOOK LAUNCH

Three pages in the back show a young girl (Rebecca's daughter) demonstrating the yoga poses presented in the book. On Rebecca's website, there is information about constellations, planets, mindfulness, yoga benefits for kids, and yoga tips for parents.

Rebecca's launch will be live-streamed on November 20 at 3 PM here. Hope you can join her!

GIVEAWAY

To win a personally autographed copy, leave a comment by November 13 at 6 PM. If you are new to my blog or share this on social media, I will put your name in twice. U.S. postal addresses only. I CANNOT enter you without your name and email address. If you are new--please include this information. 

Wish: A Review and Audio CD Giveaway

Reminiscent of the 2010 Newbery medal winner MOON OVER MANIFEST, Barbara O'Connor's latest middle grade novel, WISH (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2016) is the story of a young girl who feels abandoned by her parents, is forced to live with strangers, and searches to understand her past. Like MOON, it tugs on the reader's heart strings and shows the conflicts of a young girl who yearns to return home.

From the outside, eleven-year-old Charlie is an angry fifth grader who is forced to leave Raleigh, NC in order to live with her aunt and uncle (Bertha and Gus) in Colby, NC--home to hillbillies and kids who eat squirrel sandwiches. She's mad that her teenage sister, Jackie, gets to move in with a friend and live closer to their mother and visit their father (Scrappy) in prison. But as O'Connor skillfully portrays, Charlie's hard-to-control temper masks her deep longing for a home where her mother doesn't stay in bed all day with the curtains drawn and not caring if she watches TV and eats cookies for lunch. 

On the first day at her new school, Charlie meets Howard Odom who she thinks of as the "up down boy" because of the awkward way he walks. As her backpack buddy, Odom persists at befriending her despite Charlie's attempts at discouraging him and her insistence that she's going back to Raleigh. But even as Charlie repeats that line to Howard and the other children she meets, she wonders how long it might take for her mama to get her feet on the ground, as the social worker had said. 

Ever since fourth grade, Charlie has had a secret wish. Although the reader never finds out what the wish is, by the end of the book it is apparent that wishing on such things as hearing a bird sing in the rain, watching an acorn drop on the porch and turning around three times, or eating the pointed piece of the pie is not what makes Charlie's life better. Rather, the love of a new family and a special friend bring this story to a happy and satisfying ending. 

Part of the lyrical beauty of the story is Charlie's relationship with a stray dog (Wishbone) that she and Howard trap. Charlie has heard that dogs love their owners no matter what and she has an urgent need for that type of relationship.

Out on the porch that night, Bertha told Gus about her day while I sent my thoughts zipping through the trees to wherever Wishbone was. I wanted him to know he didn't have to be a stray like me. I wanted him to be mine. (p. 79)

Charlie and Howard finally trap Wishbone and bring him home. When Gus puts a tag around the dog's neck with his name on it, Charlie feels as if he belongs right there with her. But, 

....in the middle of that happy moment, I had a tiny seed of a thought that I hurried to push out of my mind before it had time to grow. That thought was this: Where in the world do I belong? (p. 111)

Later, after Wishbone runs off and Charlie is feeling miserable over being mean to Howard and she wonders if Wishbone wants to be a stray. Bertha reminds her,

"Charlie Reese," she said. "You think that dog don't know a good thing when he sees one?" 

"What good thing?" I said in my pouty baby voice. 

She held up a finger each time she counted off. "One, he eats bologna for breakfast. Two, he sleeps on a pillow. And three, he is loved by an angel." (p. 130)

Howard forgives Charlie, Wishbone returns, and by the end of the book Charlie has learned to appreciate the love she has received from her aunt and uncle and the Odoms. 

Here is the book trailer, 



and a glimpse into O'Connor's inspiration for WISH:



Suzy Jackson, the narrator, does a great job providing the different North Carolina voices. This audio book would be a beautiful book to listen to in the classroom or on a car trip with your family. If you would like to enter this giveaway, leave me a comment (with your email address if I don't have it) by Friday, April 21. If you share this on social media or become a follower of my blog tell me what you do in your comment. I'll add your name in the hat accordingly.