McDuff Series
by Rosemary Wells and Susan Jeffers
I met Susan Jeffers at the Kennedy Center right before Christmas, which is what made me think of these books. I love her illustrations! My favorite books are definitely the McDuff books that Rosemary Wells wrote. I spent a year or two reading these stories at least once or twice a week! They are terrific read alouds for the preschool set. McDuff is a wonderful little terrier adopted by Fred and Lucy. The stylized drawings, invoking the 1930s/1940s with wonderful colors, are the biggest attraction for these books.
McDuff Moves In
McDuff Comes Home
McDuff and the Baby
McDuff Saves the Day
Over the past month I've been immersed with immigration stories. First I reread Tea with Milk written and illustrated by Allen Say. If you've never read anything by him before, you are in for a treat. In this story of a Japanese-American, you see what life was like in the early 20th century for a Japanese girl. The book opens with the tension that existed in Ma-chan or May's life: "At home she had rice and miso soup and plain green tea for breakfast. At her friends' houses she ate pancakes and muffins and drank tea with milk and sugar." When May reluctantly returns to Japan as a teenager with her parents, she leaves behind old dreams and has to make new ones. The story shows a strong protagonist who has to make her way between two worlds and how she finds her own place in it. Allen Say does an amazing job of making you want to know what happens next.
Anything by Emily Arnold McCully catches my eye (she won the Caldecott for Mirette on the High Wire). This story however really fascinated me because it was about Martha Washington's slave, Oney Judge. I wasn't sure if this was fact or fiction. It turns out Martha really did own a slave named Oney Judge, and she did escape during Washington's presidency. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, and can't believe I didn't already know about this little tidbit of history.