The Oklahoma Reader V55 N2 Fall 2019

RECOMMENDED: BOOKS THAT CHALLENGE, DELIGHT, AND INSPIRE Sue Christian Parsons, Ph.D. Fall 2019: In Celebration of Families Family is a universal experience yet the ways we experience family are myriad. The books featured in this edition not only celebrate the marvel of family, but also the many ways families are formed and nurture the people within them. Reaching across cultures and settings, in a wide variety of situational contexts, family in these stories binds and launches, guides and nurtures, forgives and celebrates—and love abounds.

The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd.

(2018, Candlewick) The spirited narrator of The Patchwork Bike joyfully describes her “mudfor-walls” home, her “crazy brothers,” her “fed up mom” and the siblings’ antics. They build sand hills to slide down and climb trees in the “no-go desert,” but best of all is the bike they have patched together from foraged parts that can, as she marvels, bumpetty-bump through the village, glide right through our mud-for-walls home carrying me and most my brothers past my fed up mom. The playful, rollicking language exudes enthusiasm and celebrates resourcefulness. The family obviously lives in poverty, but love and joy reside there as well.

Home in the Rain by Bob Graham. (2017, Candlewick) Tenderness floods this lovely story—tenderness between a parent and a child but also a tender look at the vulnerable world around them and grace that abounds in small moments. Francie and her pregnant mother are driving from grandmother’s house to their own, but a torrential rainstorm forces them to pull off the road and wait. As they shelter, eating the picnic grandmother sent along, Francie wonders when her father will return from his faraway job and what her new baby sister will be named. Meanwhile, Graham gives us glimpses of life outside the car—a soaked boy who regrets fishing on such a day, a baby rabbit diving for cover, and a miserably wet field mouse who is lucky, too, as the rain shields him from the kestrel’s view. Back on the road, Francie and her mother find a gas station and, as life happens all around them, one perfect moment in the midst that they will remember forever.

I Really Want to See You, Grandma by Taro Gomi. (2018, Chronicle Books) Yumi lives on a hill; Grandma lives on a mountain. One day, each gets an intense yearning to see the other so, out they go. Grandma takes a train to Yumi’s house, but the bus Yumi rides passes over it. Oh, no!

Grandma hails a taxi while Yumi catches a ride with a neighbor carting a cow in a truck. But darn the luck—they pass each other again. Finally, each determinedly sets off on a scooter, meeting in the middle with unbridled joy. The illustrations speak volumes as frantic neighbors point out the problem, Yumi and Grandma’s expressions register shock, determination, and frustration, and once united, launch elatedly toward each other. Gomi’s expansive illustrations animate the simple story, a celebration of love accessible to emerging readers but enjoyable for all ages.

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