The pre-k set received a pile of hardback books last week. Lamentably, all five are books from Dr. Seuss, which led me to imagine a different year or different school budget that might offer free copies of these five books for keiki:
- Dragons Love Tacos, by Adam Rubin and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri published in 2012
- The Blue Songbird, by Vern Kousky published in 2017
- Seven Pablos, by Jorge Lujan and illustrated by Chaira Carrer, translated and published in English in 2018
- Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin published in 2000
- Nino Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales published in 2015
For that matter, there are so many compelling books we just have to do some more research. A few places that I’ve come to rely on for names of new titles and new authors include:
- Enchanted Lion books
- We Need Diverse Books
- scrolling through the table on wikipedia listing the Newbery Medal awards
- Neal Porter books
Seuss’ wordplay is clever and enticing to read more and laugh, or at least smile, while reading. His opposition to America First nationalism in the late 1930s (written about with a glorifying praise tone in this bbc page) does not negate nor lessen his anti-Black racism and xenophobic caricatures of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans. As I read this rah-rah list of 10 things you may not know, it is #5 that I hold most dearly: that luck plays a tremendous role in our lives and that no-matter-what-keep-going. The adage that I’m commiting to memory as NMWKG.
washing dishes: a father’s glimpses 