Posted on: 31/08/2019
In the month of celebrating the birthday of the late Cesária Evora, the Cape Verdean vocalist and recording artist nicknamed the ‘barefoot diva’, we are thinking about stars: stars in the fame and fortune sense as well as stars that we can see in the night sky - omnipresent guiding lights watching over us. There is something in the knowledge that there is so much more to the universe than we can see that is of comfort and it is this idea of comfort alongside resilience and courage that provide us with the central themes to this month’s literature review. Timely, we think, seeing as so many children (and teachers and probably parents) will be feeling a bit wobbly about the start of a new school year. Whilst Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth isn’t perhaps the best guiding star from literature she did leave us with one very good piece of advice in her line ‘screw your courage to the sticking place’. And so three books that we feel embody this very sentiment, that all happen to also be about stars in some way are: Look Up by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola; A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby and Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln by Margarita Engle and Rafael Lopez.
(Puffin, 13thJune 2019)
This is such a beautiful book about a small girl with a huge dream… a character named Rocket was never going to wish for anything else in life than to travel to space. Rocket, so-named as she was born on a day where another rocket blasted into space, has been obsessed with the moon and stars ever since she was born but cannot understand her older (and rather long-suffering brother) Jamal’s reluctance to actually ‘look up’ and rejoice in all that the night-sky has to offer. Like many teens, he’s glued to his phone and seems to notice not much else. So, one day, when cool high-fade sporting Jamal is made to take Rocket out, he is mortified to find his little sister leafleting unsuspecting passers-by. What is she doing? It transpires that - wishing to share the long-awaited Phoenix meteor shower with others, she’s advertising the incredible ‘show’ that awaits. But will anyone turn up? Will the meteor shower be visible? And will Jamal actually look up and come to appreciate the awe and wonder that his sister experiences?
A gorgeous book filled with hard and fast facts about space in the form of little fact bubbles; a star-struck, orange space-suit wearing child wanting to become the next Mae Jemison and important messages about ambition, race and gender and how, when you wish upon a star, your dreams might just come true.
Perfect for any Nursery, Reception or year 1 class.
(Egmont, 8thAugust 2019)
This evocative novel cleverly pairs two worlds: one inhabited by main protagonist teenage Safiya and one ‘visited’ by Safiya, worlds and decades apart. Safiya’s parents are separated and having chosen to live mostly with her father, the relationship between mother and daughter is a tricky one to navigate where each finds it difficult to relate to the other. But then comes the terrible news that Safiya’s mother has experienced a stroke. She lies in a coma and when Safiya visits her in hospital, she is mysteriously transported back in time to her mother’s childhood home of Kuwait. Realising that she’s not actually dreaming, rather infiltrating fragments of her mother’s memories, somehow Safiya must work through each memory - as if in a computer game - in order to release her mother from a locked room to then awake.
This isn’t just about unlocking the past to secure her mother’s future though. Having felt worlds apart from her mother, Safiya begins to see the world in the way her mother has always seen it and as this connection between mother and daughter strengthens, we see Safiya embark upon a journey of self-discovery which, ultimately, helps her to stand up for herself and others against a crowd of peers that aren’t all that nice. But will the flyer for a play that Safiya’s mum was in all those years ago prove to be that missing final key to unlocking her mother’s memories resulting in her waking up? Sometimes in life, the answers are closer than we think and in this case, mother and daughter are closer- and more alike - than perhaps each thought.
Tenderly written, this is such a beautiful and important piece of children’s literature about our inner stars, how we’re never all that different from others but also about letting that ball of fire - that inner star - within shine. Highly recommended for children aged 10 and up.
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 27th August 2019)
As a young girl, Teresa is sung to by her mama and her papa teaches her how to play the piano. It isn’t always easy though, and takes a while for her to learn how to control the keys:
Sometimes she had to struggle to make the stubborn music behave as she practised gentle songs that sounded like colourful birds singing in the dark and light branches of a shade-dappled mango tree… and powerful songs that roared like prowling jaguars, beside towering waterfalls in a mysterious green jungle.
By age 6, a star is born and ‘Teresita’ is composing music and performing in magnificent cathedrals. But then at eight comes the war. The family‘s lives are turned upside down and they flee through the storm in a ship. Struggling to cope with the loneliness that being an outsider can bring Theresa finds comfort in music, discovering that wherever there’s a piano,
Some people are friendly, drawn together by songs.
Musicians came to her home, playing along while they listened to the dazzling notes of her dancing hands.
And then, now famous at age 10 following years of travelling around the world to perform, with her Papa at her side, Teresa receives the highest accolade of all: President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play for his whole family at the White House!
Fear of failure overcome, she grows to realise that she possesses ‘musical courage’ that she shares simply by letting her fingers travel across all the beautiful dark and light moments of hope.
Like notes on a stave, the words soar and flutter across each page in this exquisitely illustrated book about hope, fear, courage and the power of music to spread joy and bring people together. And given that it is biographical, the factual accuracy paired with the imagery used, from describing different types of music to the joy and comfort it can bring makes this an utterly beguiling piece of narrative non-fiction. A perfect addition to book corners and school libraries for all children to access, it would be particularly good for Year 2 children who have been studying The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield. The similarities in theme would afford you the opportunity to work on the statement for Greater Depth Reading around making links between books.
Posted in: Literature Review
