The Becket List

The Becket List: A Blackberry Farm Story 
by Adele Griffin; illustrated by LeUyen Pham
208 pages; ages 7 - 11
Algonquin Young Readers, 2019

Rebecca Branch is a city kid, born and bred. From subways to sidewalks, she knows how to navigate her habitat. But now that third grade has ended, her family is moving to the country to live with Grandma at Blueberry Farm. Family includes mom and dad, who are veterinarians, older sister, Caroline, who is on the cusp of teendom, and Rebecca’s twin brother, Nicholas, who is his own person.

Rebecca is looking forward to being a country kid. She wants to get a “country dog” even though Mr. Fancypants has been a faithful canine companion. And she decides to change her name to Becket because, she points out to her family, “Rebecca doesn’t fit me…”  Still, she does bring some of her old life with her, like an entire moving box filled with penguins. The stuffed kind, not the live, fishy, flippery kind.

One of the things Becket does is start a list about How To Be a Country Kid. The other thing she does is shout out “beautiful alerts” to remind people to enjoy the natural beauty around them.

Becket wants to be of use, so she adopts farm chores: feeding Grandma’s donkey, mule, and 97 chickens – including the mean Lady Godiva. There’s summer camp, a lemonade business, and tractor-driving lessons. But mostly, there’s a story about family and friendships and growing up.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle , so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Henny

Henny
by Elizabeth Rose Stanton
40 pages; ages 4-8
Simon & Schuster, 2014

theme: finding yourself

Henny was not a typical chicken. Henny was born with arms.

A typical chicken, we all know, has wings. But poor Henny. Instead of fluffy, feathery wings she had long skinny arms. Her mother loved her anyway.

What I like love about this book: the silliness of a chicken with arms - and the wonderful images Elizabeth Rose Stanton paints with her words. For example, when she runs, Henny's arms "flutter behind her like ribbons". You don't even need the illustration to see that picture!

I also like it that Stanton gives Henny some worries. For example: is she right-handed or left-handed? And what should she wear?

I like that Henny discovers so many things she can do with her arms - twiddle her thumbs, for example, or comb her comb. There's just one niggling worry: will she be able to fly? Nothing to fret over - Stanton's got that covered.

Beyond the Book: There is so much chicken silliness waiting to happen. Start with some chicken jokes. You may have heard why the chicken crossed the road, but do you know what you get when a chicken lays an egg on top of the barn roof? An Egg Roll! For more chicken jokes, go here - or make up your own.

Discover different kinds of chickens. If you have a chance to visit a farm with chickens, take along a camera or sketch pad and draw the different kinds of chickens you meet. Or visit some chicken breeds on this page.

Check out their eggs. You might know that some chickens lay brown eggs, but do you know that chickens also lay green and blue and pink eggs? Some lay dark brown eggs, some lay speckled eggs. The color depends on what breed of chicken is laying the eggs.

Do the Chicken Dance! The steps are easy: you make a beak with your hands and open-close it four times. Then you flap your wings four times, then wiggle your tail feathers four times, then clap four times. After a few repetitions, you circle round with a friend or two, or make up your own chickeny moves. Here's a video of some folks at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh demonstrating how to dance.

Today is PPBF (perfect picture book Friday) over at  Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books.  Review copy from the author.