Blanket

Blanket
by Ruth Ohi (Author / Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: It’s a beautiful morning, but when Cat wakes up, the world feels gray. Cat wraps up in a blanket and hides — until Dog comes in. What can Dog do to help Cat?

Dog joins Cat under the blanket and listens to Cat’s worries. Dog’s flashlight illuminates the darkness and brings laughter. The two friends build a blanket fort where they can make shadow puppets and find comfort in storybooks. Dog makes sandwiches so that they can share a picnic meal. With Dog’s help, Cat discovers ways to cope until the sadness starts to lift in this wordless picture book.

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Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Building an Orchestra of Hope

Building an Orchestra of Hope: How Favio Chavez Taught Children to Make Music from Trash
by Carmen Oliver (Author) and Luisa Uribe (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: In Cateura, Paraguay, a town built on a landfill, music teacher Favio Chavez longed to help the families living and working amid the hills of trash. How could he help them find hope for the future? Favio started giving music lessons to Cateura’s children, but soon he encountered a serious problem. He had more students than instruments!

But Favio had a strange and wonderful idea: what if this recyclers’ town had its own recycled orchestra? Favio and Colá, a brilliant local carpenter, began to experiment with transforming garbage into wonder. Old glue canisters became violins; paint cans became violas; drainpipes became flutes and saxophones. With repurposed instruments in their hands, the children of Cateura could fill their community–and the world–with the sounds of a better tomorrow.

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Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

The author, Carmen Oliver, is one of my former students.
Copyright © 2023 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.