Titles for Chapters

One of my favorite assignments for helping students summarize chapters in a novel is having them create titles for chapters. The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman does that brilliantly and humorously. While the story itself was intriguing as it was about a boy who faded into the background, like so many teens feel that they do, I just loved the chapter titles. Some good examples:
"Manny Bullpucky gets his sorry butt hurled off the Marine Park Bridge"
"As if I didn't already have enough annoying things to do every day, Now I gotta do this"

and a personal favorite

"Maybe they had it right in France because getting my head lopped off by a guillotine would have been easier..."

Who wouldn't want to read to find out what that's all about?

If you liked Inkheart, you will like...

...Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton. The two books have so much in common. They are both fantasies that are firmly based in our real world. They both have books as a central motif. They are both adventures. Both are my kind of book. Endymion Spring is a book for Anglophiles as half of it takes place in one of England's most famous spots, the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It also takes place in Mainz, Germany during the time of Gutenberg. This is one of those wonderful times that I could perfectly picture the setting of these books. I remember vividly walking in the cathedral at Mainz and being astounded by its Medieval character; I also have fond memories of taking my children to see the dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History Museum of Oxford University and having dinner at a local university hangout/pub after walking by the spires of the different famous colleges. Two such wonderful places...maybe that's why this book really came to life for me.

Besides which, it is a book about books...always a favorite for me...the story starts as Blake finds a book on the shelves of the library that has blank pages. Or does it? Why do messages appear on these pages? Why do they appear only for him and not for his more academically minded sister? Why does the message appear so sinister?

Homeless Families

I should have paired today's book How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor with my entry on Finding Stinko since they both deal with homelessness. However, Newboy in Finding Stinko is a runaway, on his own in the streets. How to Steal a Dog is the story of a family who loses their home when the father and main provider walks out. Georgina's family lives in the family car while her mother works to earn enough for a deposit and rent. Georgina hates this new life and hits on the idea of stealing a dog, then "finding" it to claim the reward. I can't say that I liked this book; I just hated the idea of a child feeling like she had to commit a crime to put a roof over her head. Still, it is a book that older children could really benefit from reading. It raises all kinds of important questions about morality and values like, is it ever ok to commit a crime?

I did love the beginning. O'Connor quickly hooks her reader with, "The day I decided to steal a dog was the same day my best friend, Luanne Godfrey, found out I lived in a car." It doesn't get much better than that!

Penny From Heaven by Jennfier Holm

I made my son read this book. It is definitely not the typical book that I recommend to him, not enough action, but I think he enjoyed it anyway. I had him read it, because I thought it might give him a glimpse of what his grandfather's life growing up in New Jersey as an Italian American might have been like as Penny is a young girl caught between the worlds of her Italian father's family and her more traditionally "American" mother's. The book also hints at a small piece of our family history lore...Because my father-in-law and his parents were born in Sicily, they were not allowed to own radios during WWII. That little piece of history comes up in the story as well. My son brought up another book from the era of WWII after reading Penny from Heaven, Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki and Dom Lee. Not that the two books have enough in common to be read as a pair, but they both document injustice against ethnic groups during the war.

Penny is one of those books that will bring up conversations about what life used to be like for children. It is a particularly good read for Italian American children...and we have plenty of those in RI!

New Job, New Slant

I have been offered a job teaching 7th grade Language Arts in a small Catholic school here in RI! So, my reading and my blogging will naturally take on a slightly different slant. I am thinking of the books I read in terms of how I can use them in the classroom. Can I read them out loud on Friday afternoons? can I use them in a book group to meet once a month? can a picture book be used as a way to introduce a lesson? how can this poem augment a unit on that genre?

With this in mind, I just finished two books that would fit very well in a seventh grade classroom for a book group as they both are fairly easy to read, have some "meat" to them for discussion but they don't present any themes that are too racy for this highly transitional age. Sixth and seventh grade are ages where students are beginning to wean themselves from the "children's room," but they aren't mature enough for free and unchaperoned access through the wonderful world of young adult literature. Both Finding Stinko by Michael de Guzman and Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate fit the bill for this age group.

Finding Stinko is about Newboy, born into the foster care system that routinely fails to nurture him beyond the basic necessities, and one day, he simply quits speaking. When he lands into a particularly abusive and hypocritical household, he decides to take his chances on the streets.
He discovers a ventriloquist's doll that he names Stinko who begins to speak for him. He discovers a whole society of children on the streets and some of the issues they might encounter. I enjoyed this book, but I wondered if street life wasn't a bit whitewashed for the audience. The end is very hopeful if unrealistic. I would use it as a jumping off point for asking students to finish Newboy's story.

Home of the Brave tells the story of a young boy newly immigrated to the United States from the Sudan after spending time in refugee camps. Kek's brother and father are killed in the fighting, but his mother is missing. This book is brilliant at showing students how refugees might view the United States. However, students will learn almost nothing about the troubles in the Sudan. Since the Sudan is not a big news item, it would be important to introduce this book along with some information about life and current events there.

Three Picture Books from ALA's List of Best Books from 2007

My new favorite picture book is That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell. Crowell also wrote the Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III series which were masterfully adapted to audio by David Tennant. Emily Brown lives up to the brilliance of that series! It is one of those books that just begs to be read out loud. Cowell's voice comes through loud and clear, and it has the right amount of repetition for students to follow along. The queen covets Emily's rabbit Stanley...does everyone have their price?

Pictures from our Vacation by Lynne Rae Perkins is a great book for parents to use at the beginning of summer vacation. It would be a great impetus for elementary students to document their own summer vacations. It also has some great maps for social studies

Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison and Kevin Hawkes is a great book to use at the start of a unit on butterflies or to counteract sibling rivalry. Velma is the youngest sister of a trio who is looking for her own special niche in the world. She finds it at a butterfly conservatory.

Becoming Naomi León

This book made me want to read more by Pam Muñoz Ryan especially Esperanza Rising, a book I have heard a lot about, but haven't yet picked up to read. Becoming Naomi León is a meaty book which would be ideal for a book discussion group since it covers wide ranging topics such as alcoholism, child abuse & child custody. Naomi León is a character who grows in her sense of self as she discovers her father's heritage and the importance of her sculpting ability. However, this book is geared toward approximately fourth grade readers...it is a bit heavy thematically for this age group, and I, as a parent, am not sure that I would recommend this book for independent reading for this age group. I think some adult guidance is necessary to navigate this very sad, but very hopeful book.

Two Gems for Curriculum Connections

Frindle by Andrew Clements may be my new favorite chapter book for elementary school students. The main character Nicholas rises to his 5th grade teacher's challenge of using the dictionary. Only problem is, he doesn't use it in the way she intended. Instead, he creates a new word and conducts an experiment showing how a word becomes part of the English language. Language purists beware! Frindle may not be for you, but for those of you who believe in the power of words or think language should be playful, you are in for a delight!

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies can be used to teach math or business plans (in mini-societies as my son's 4th grade class did this year). Or, it can be used to make students sensitive to their peer's educational differences. The book switches point of view between people smart Evan and his math genius sister Jessie. Which of these two "intelligences" is better suited to selling lemonade? What happens when different strengths combine forces? A fun and funny look at sibling rivalry over one summer vacation.

Palestinian Childhoods

Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat is the true story of the author's childhood. The author begins her memoir with an episode during her adolescence when she was detained by Israeli soldiers from returning to her home. The episode catapults her back to her life as a refugee during the Six-Day War in 1967. The story is eye-opening as it describes war through the experiences of a child.

I read this right after reading the fictional A Stone in My Hand by Cathryn Clinton. Tasting the Sky made Clinton's book much more real for me especially the different emotions displayed by the various characters when faced with life under Israeli rule. Malaak withdraws into silence and into the shadows of the wings of a tamed bird, her brother's anger explodes and her mother sees the humanity of the enemy and dismisses terrorism as a solution.

Teens may find in these books some understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which is still so prevalent in Middle Eastern politics. Of course, I would recommend reading both sides of the story, since both of these books are told from the Palestinian point of view! Some suggestions from my "to read" list (so I can't personally recommend them) might be How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Elkeles, Habibi by Nye, or Real Time by Kass.

A Lesson Plan from the Mind of Seven Year Old

Rhode Island's Office of Library and Information Service holds a mock Caldecott award every year, and I try to read through their list of nominees to find what is best of the year's books. I got two through ILL this week: Heat Wave by Eileen Spinelli and Mary and the Mouse, The Mouse and Mary by Beverly Donofrio & Barbara McClintock. I read them with my daughter last night. She liked them especially Mary and the Mouse... Mary is a young girl who discovers a mouse in her house who lives a parallel life. Heat Wave is self explanatory--it's about a town during a heat wave. We finished, and my daughter said, "Now I'm going to read them both together." I furrowed my brow a bit and wondered where this was going.

She started to put the two stories together, and with this particular pair, it worked! How would Mary and the mouse's story change if they lived in Lumberville, the town featured in Heat Wave? Where could you introduce this new element? I loved this idea...read two stories, give one story the other's setting, how do the two stories change? or exchange the main characters? Can children write a new story based on the changes? What ages would this work with? I think younger children would be able to make some simple exchanges, but YA's could take two picture books and make a fairly sophisticated story.

Two from 2007 RI Teen Book Award Nominees

These two books have very little in common besides the fact that they were both nominees for the RI Teen Book Award in 2007. While they were both fun, and I would recommend them both to middle school students, neither one was perfect.

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan was a beautifully written with almost poetic descriptions of Africa, but the end was a bit too predictable for me to consider it a great book. I loved the premise--a young orphaned girl in Africa is hijacked by a couple to pose as their daughter in an attempt to win back the good graces of the rich grandfather. It has all the trappings of an old-fashioned classic, but as I said, I guessed much of the ending about three quarters of the way through the story. That just left some of the details.

Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman starts with quite a bang. The closet Catholic of the title is not Catholic at all, but Jewish! Again, what a great premise: what happens when a young Jewish girl decides to give up being Jewish for Lent? Justine is a excellent role model for middle school students who are asking themselves about their own identity. My biggest criticism is that the book gets slightly, and I mean slightly, preachy. But really, how can you avoid being preachy when you have a priest and a rabbi talking to a young girl exploring her faith?

Material Kids

My children's literature instructor this spring recommended two books about materialism for young adults: Feed by M.T. Anderson and The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian. Both of these books would make wonderful book group type reading material for YA groups. There is just oodles to talk about.

The Gospel According to Larry is about a teenager who takes on an Internet alter-ego as Larry and in that guise, pontificates about how advertising manipulates people into believing that their wants are truly needs. Larry's message and the website suddenly become very popular with some unforeseen consequences for its creator. Even the the book is a little out-of-date (Larry wouldn't have just a website now, he would be on Facebook, writing a blog and podcasting), its message is still very relevant, what defines us as people? who we are or what we own?

Feed takes this idea and jettisons it into the future. The characters in this book can message one another by just thinking, they can access the same movies or music in their heads, they are bombarded by advertising. They are entities whose government is only interested in them for what they buy (does that sound at all familiar? Remember what George Bush wants you to do with that economic stimulus check...don't pay down your debt, don't save it. Be a good American, and SPEND it for the good of the economy!) Again, these people are so interested in what they have over who they are that they don't seem to notice that they are developing leprosy-like symptoms, and the main character Titus can't cope with a girlfriend who wanted to be something more than today's acquisition.

Feed will require a little more thinking from students whereas The Gospel According to Larry is a little more straightforward and while not overtly preachy, it does hover near the edge. They would be excellent companion reads for comparison and contrast.

While I am on the topic of materialism, I just need to mention a revolting article from the May 10, 2008 front page of the Wall Street Journal that describes a growing trend for parents to dress their children as they see celebrities are dressing their children. Apparently, a whole blog exists to promote this mimicry! Yikes. Can't the bloggers find something else to do? And what parent has the time to read a blog on how to dress their baby fashionably?

Using the two books described above, ask teens what Larry and Titus would think of this growing trend.

A book a day

From what I have written so far, it must seem that I read a book (or more) a day. Even between semesters I don't have time for that! I have been playing a bit of catch-up with some books that I heard book talked as the semester ended during a mock Newbery Award session in my children's literature class. Many of the books that I have written about so far were nominated by a classmate for our mock Newbery. (In case you are curious, A Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman won).

I decided that I wanted to blog the children and young adult books that I read because I think it may be helpful to me personally as I look for work. I will have a public record of my reading and be able to showcase my knowledge of the digital world. But, most of all, I want to share books with others both adults and children. Somewhere along the way, I hope someone other than me enjoys reading this!

Precocious Young Girls

What is it about precocious female protagonists that I find so very appealing? Some of my favorite characters in children's literature have been Harriet the spy, Claudia Kincaid from The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Anastasia Krupnik and from today's book Margaret Rose Kane in E.L. Konigsburg's The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place. Margaret is typical of the rest of these girls--intelligent, misunderstood by less-than-sympathetic adults and willing to take risks. I often wonder if these aren't the characteristics of the authors themselves. Otherwise, where would they get the courage to write or worse, send off to a publisher, such wonderful books?

One of the arguments I heard a lot during classes is that children and young adults need to be able to identify with the characters in the books they read? So, do these books only appeal to precocious females? I would have to say no, because while I am female and, perhaps, intelligent, I would not describe myself as precocious, misunderstood or willing to take risks. Do these characters appeal, because they are who every girl wants to be (or for an adult, who she wanted to be as a child)? Or, and I sometimes suspect this, are they written for the adult women (as so many librarians and teachers are) who buy them?

But, these books are not all about the wonderfully clever characters who always seem to best the somewhat dense authorities that people them. I loved that Outcasts was about a girl who loves her eccentric, European uncles and who appreciates and is willing to fight for "outsider art." I loved the truffle hunting dog and the neighbors with the sourdough starter kit. Konigsburg's humor appeals to me as does her sense of beauty.

Another wonderful read from the the mind of E.L.Konigsburg

Elijah of Buxton

My children's literature class discussed Newbery winner Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, and after the discussion, I just had to read the book. However, as so often happens with me, when a book (or movie or restaurant or anything else for that matter) gets a lot of buildup, I found I was disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, there was so much to like about this book! But, I really wish I had read it before the big buildup.

So what's to like? Elijah is a "fragile", humor boy at the beginning this book who grows into a responsible young man through the course of the book. Elijah is the crux of this book, and few books have such a solid core.

I found learning a bit of Elgin Settlement's history fascinating. I had heard of towns made up of former slaves, particularly in Kansas, but these started only after the Civil War. Elgin was in Canada and was a safe haven for runaway slaves.

I won't give away the ending, but I thought it was fitting, believable and poignant.

So, I don't know why I was disappointed, but as I said, sometimes too much anticipation is a bad thing. Hopefully, I haven't ruined someone else's enjoyment of this book.

2007 National Book Award Winner

Just finished Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and I can see why it has topped almost every "must read" list for 2007 (except for an ALA award...interesting). Humor, poignancy, devastating sadness mixed with hope all make this book very real to me. The main character Junior recounts his freshman year in high school through his sharpening talent as a cartoonist and his writing. Junior was born with multiple medical issues. Still, he grows up to be a very intelligent teenager who realizes that if continues with school on the Spokane Reservation where he lives, he will be trapped there forever. He opts to go to a "white" school where he is treated as an outsider because he is an Indian. On the reservation, he is considered a traitor. As he makes friends and moves through a year full of tragedies that would devastate most adults, he wrestles with the problem of who he is, a theme with which all young adults will be able to identify.

This book is definitely for young adults. Although the reading level is not demanding, it contains mature subject matter particularly Junior's obsession with "boners" and masturbation.

Are you feeling Lucky?

Newbery Award winner and user of the word scrotum (gasp), The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron is a wonderful story of young Lucky whose mother has died, and her Guardian is her father's first wife Brigette. Lucky has problems with trust as would any child who lost a mother and whose father opts to not parent. The driving fear of the book is that her Guardian will desert her and return to France. She wonders how to access her Higher Power, a force that she overhears her twelve step neighbors discuss. The conflict with her Guardian is neatly resolved, but I was left a bit unsatisfied with Lucky's contact with her Higher Power. Still, it was a wonderful read.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

I very much wanted to like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, but I didn't. The premise was excellent: a naive nine year old boy moves from his beloved Berlin to a place he calls Out With, because his father has caught the eye of the Fury. The reader quickly realizes that the boy has moved to Auschwitz so his father can run the camp there for the Führer.

However, once that premise was established, the story wasn't very believable to me. The boy Bruno meets a Jewish boy through the wire, and for a year maintains a friendship with the boy. I just couldn't believe that over the course of a year that no guard noticed these two boys meeting and talking. I definitely did not believe the ending. Without giving it away, I wanted to know why if it was so easy for Bruno to get into the camp, why none of the Jews were able to get out of it.

There are much better books on the Holocaust out there, read those instead. Try Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman, some of the original graphic novels, or Friedrich or I Was There by Hans Peter Richter or The Diary of Anne Frank.

Lois Lowry

New and old: Lois Lowry doesn't fail to please. Anastasia Krupnik is a series that I have missed somehow along the way. I loved it. I loved that she kept a list of things that she loved and hated and that entries routinely were crossed out and shuffled from category to category. Anastasia is a bright girl, perhaps too bright for the adults around her, and her 10th year is full of the stuff of life--birth, death, love and loss. What's not to enjoy?

I enjoyed The Willoughbys with its spoof of old-fashioned, orphaned characters from old-fashioned children's books. I wasn't so certain that children who didn't grow up with Anne of Green Gables, Tom Sawyer or Heidi would get the joke. Still, they may enjoy the idea of getting rid of their parents by sending them on vacation or the happy ending when the children are adopted by a rich candy maker.