Home on the Bayou: A Cowboy's Story by G. Brian Karas

I love the illustrations, the yellows, the greens that permeate each page as a child moves from "the west" to "the swamp" to unhappily join his widowed grandfather. In the car ride over, he remains silent, in fact, "he rather eat cactus spines than answer his mom." I remember the aura that "new kids" always brought, fully of stories that soon become tiresome of some other, better, place. When I was teaching, I had a student from West Africa (Dutch?) who was always trying to fit in and always failing and who was always speaking of his homeland and the father who was still there. I love children that talk about their fathers, especially at the age of eleven or twelve.... I wanted to tell him - you don't need to fit in with all the other little monsters, just be yourself and it will get better. For any child that's ever moved this is a great book!

From the sentimental side of things with the children's picture book featuring strangely neutral and washed out rabbits...My Wishes for You by Adele Geras and Cliff Wright.

"I wish you...

Light from behind the hill spilling into the sky...

A path that goes from here to everywhere...

Trees wide enough for you to hide behind and drifting shadows, pieces of the dark ...

which vanish as the sun moves through the leaves..."