The Reading List

Poetry, Drama, Film, and Response: American Born Chinese

2009-10-15T16:42:00.001-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. ISBN 9781596431522.

Plot Summary
Yang takes three very different storylines and weaves them together seamlessly in this graphic novel. In the first storyline, the Monkey King, rejected by the other gods as 'just a monkey, wants to be recognized as "The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven." In the second storyline, Jin Wang is uncomfortable beinig one of the 3 Asian students in his middle school. In the third storyline, Chin-Kee, a horribly overstereotyped Chinese caricature complete with laugh track, comes to visit his cousin Danny at his "Amellican" high school and proceeds to make Danny's life miserable.

Critical Analysis
In Gene Luen Yang's book, three Chinese characters display three very different aspects of being Chinese. In the first story about the Monkey King of Chinese legend, the Monkey King finds his own style of coping mechanisms when he's rejected by all the other deities, both major and minor. In the second story, Jin has to learn to cope with being Chinese in a large urban school where not even the teachers can say his name right. And in the third story Yang creates a character, Chin-Kee, who combines all the negative Chinese stereotypes known to man, into one single obnoxious charfacter.

Yang's illustrations for this story show a world filled with action, color, and movement. Even in a panel showing nothing but the monkey king sitting in the dark on his rock throne with a caption saying, "He stayed awake for the rest of the night thinking ways to get rid of it." we sense the monkey king's tension and anger in the very stillness he's shown in (20).

In the storyline featuring middle schooler Jin Wang, there's an ongoing joke about how none of the teachers can pronounce Chinese names. On Jin's first day of school, the teacher and Jin have this dialogue:
     T: (to class) Class, I'd like us all to give a warm Mayflower Elemtnary welcome to           your new friend and classmate Jing Jang!
     J: Jin Wang.
     T: Jin Wang!
               (next panel)
     T: He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!
     J: San Francisco.
     T: San Francisco! (30)

Two years later, another student arrives from China. Different grade, different classroom, different teacher, but the following scene once more takes place:
     T: (to class) Class, I'd like us all to give a big Mayflower welcome to your new
          friend and classmate Chei-Chen Chun!
     W: Wei-Chen Sun.
     T: Wei-Chei Sun!
               (next panel)
     T: He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!
     W: Taiwan.:
     T: Taiwan! (38)

Yang is showing us that prejudice, even it's casual and unintentional, never changes. Later, there's a scene where Jin has been observed out on a date with a Caucasian girl by a Caucasian boy. Interestingly, this same Caucasian boy was the one who defended Jin from some bullies on his first day in American school. But now, this boy turns out be prejudiced also. He approaches Jin at school the day after the date, and has the following conversation with Jin:
     Boy: Can I ask you a favor?
                    (next panel)
     Boy: Can you not ask Amelia out again?
     Jin: You - You like her?
                    (next panel)
     Boy: What?! No, No! She's like a sister. to me! We've known each other since,
             like preschool or something. No!
                    (next panel)
     Boy: It's just that she's a good friend and I want to make sure she makes
             good choices, you know? We're almost in high school. She has to start
             paying attention to who she hangs out with (179).

Is Yang telling us here that everybody is prejudiced to some degree, even if you are a nice person? It seems like it. But there are many kinds of prejudice. Closely related is being ashamed of who are, and this is the path that Yang pursues in diverging his three story lines into one. The monkey king learns to accept that he is a monkey. In turn, he comes to Earth in the shape of Chin-Kee to show Danny, who turns out to be Jin in high school, that there's nothing wrong with accepting who you are. In fact, by accepting who he is, Jin helps his friend, Wei-Chen Sun, accept who he is too. Wei-Chen Sun turns out to be the pivotal point of the three story lines, since he is, in reality, the monkey king's oldest son, sent to earth to serve humans, specifically Jin. Chin-Kee's yearly visits to his cousin Danny's house were actually the monkey king's annual checking in on his son. Danny reverts back to Jin, and Wei-Chen Sun learns to accept his role in life also.

Yang has written an amusing book on the surface, but when you dig down deep, the reader starts to find facets and depths to this book. Are we all truly prejudiced? Is prejudice somehting we can turn on and off, or is it something we need to learn to cope with the hard way, like Jin? And finally, prejudice can assume disguises, such as the boy in Jin's middle school, 'trying to help Amelia make the best choice for herself.' If something like this were ever said to me, how would I respond? Yang shows Jin's response to be total speechlessness.

The conversation continues after Jin is struck speechless.
     Boy: Aw, geez. Look, Jin. I'm sorry. That sounded way harsher than I meant it.
             to. I just don't know if you're right for her, okay? That's all.
               (next panel)
     Boy: No hard feelings?
     Jin: ...
     Jin: Yeah.
               (next panel)
     Boy: And you can do me the favor?
               (next panel)
     Jin: ...
     Jin: I guess.
               (next panel)
     Boy: Thanks, Man! I appreciate it!

And the boy strolls off, once more leaving Jin speechless. As Jin sees Amelia down the street, he walks past her without even looking at her (180-181).

Prejudice is a harsh weapon, and Yang shows us, through his words and illustrations, that even when the user doesn't intend to hurt, it still does -- sometimes even more than when somebody DOES intend their prejudice to hurt.

As a side note, my 18 year old son read this book, and he caught something I was unaware of. In the endspiece, Yang has placed a picture of Jin and Weng wearing basketbal shirts. My son informed me that this is an "in" joke among his age group, because there's a YouTube video showing two Asian boys wearing these exact same red shirts, singing a Backstreet Boys song. Even the background is the same as in the video!

Awards and Honors
Cybils , 2006; Winner Graphic Novels Ages 13 and Up United States.
James Cook Book Award, 2007; Honorable Book United States.
Michael L. Printz Award, 2007; Winner United States.
National Book Awards, 2006; Finalist Young People's Literature United States.
Northern California Book Award, 2007; Finalist Children's Literature United States.
Quill Awards, 2007; Nominee Young Adult/Teen United States.
Best Books for Young Adults, 2007; YALSA; United States.
Best Books of the Year, 2006; School Library Journal; United States.
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2007; Bank Street College of Education; Outstanding Merit; United States.
Books for Youth, 2006; Booklist Editor's Choice; United States.
Capitol Choices, 2007; The Capitol Choices Committee; United States.
Choices, 2007; Cooperative Children’s Book Center; United States.
Great Graphic Novels for Teens, 2007; YALSA; United States.
Top 10 Graphic Novels for Youth, 2007; Booklist; United States.
Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for Teens, 2007; YALSA; United States.
Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, 2007; YALSA; United States.
Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens, 2007; YALSA; United States.
White Ravens Award, 2007; International Youth Library; United States.

Review Excerpts
Jesse Karp (Booklist, Sep. 1, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 1))
Each of the characters is flawed but familiar, and, in a clever postmodern twist, all share a deep, unforeseen connection. Yang helps the humor shine by using his art to exaggerate or contradict the words, creating a synthesis that marks an accomplished graphic storyteller. The stories have a simple, engaging sweep to them, but their weighty subjects--shame, racism, and friendship--receive thoughtful, powerful examination.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2007)
The Monkey King is tired of his second-class status. Adored by his own subjects, he is snubbed by human deities until he perfects his powers and literally beats those who would mock him into submission. Jin Wang is the only Chinese American student at his school. When Wei-Chen Sun arrives from Taiwan, Jin Wang thinks, “Something made me want to beat him up.” Blond-haired Danny’s life would be perfect were it not for his cousin, Chin-Kee, who embodies every offensive stereotype of the Chinese, from buck teeth and braided ponytail to mispronunciations (“Harro Amellica!”). Gene Luen Yang’s brilliant graphic novel moves back and forth between these three separate narrative strands, each one exploring issues of identity, belonging, humility, and friendship as the storylines develop. Yang’s narrative builds to an unforgettable and dazzling series of revelations as the three storylines surprisingly converge in a book that is eye-opening and provocative, pushing the boundaries of comfort for readers as it exposes racism from its most subtle to most overt.

Rosemary Knapp (Library Media Connection, January 2007)
In this graphic novel, three humorous and seemingly unrelated stories keep the reader's attention until they come together at the end. The first story concerns a Chinese-American boy trying to fit in. The second is a retelling of the Chinese fable of the monkey king… The third story involves a Chinese cousin who visits an American boy each year. The depiction of the cousin is so painfully stereotypical that you feel guilty laughing. In each story, the central character is unsatisfied with who he is and goes to great lengths to be someone else-with humorous results. The reader might be puzzled as to how the three stories are connected until the conclusion. It's a nice combination of a fable and contemporary stories to convey the wonderful lesson of accepting one's culture and identity with pride. A quick read, this title has engaging art, and at times, funny dialogue.

Book Hook
If you enjoyed this graphic novel, try some of Gene Luen Yang’s other graphic novels, like Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order (SLG Publishing, 2004) or The Eternal Smile: Three Stories (First Second, 2009), which he co-wrote with Derek Kirk Kim.

Online Connections
For more information on the Monkey King in Chinese mythology, click here.
To see the YouTube video referenced in this book, click here.

Poetry -- Things I Have to Tell You

2009-10-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Franco, Betsy, ed. Things I Have to Tell You. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2001. ISBN 0763609056.

Plot Summary
Betsy Franco has amassed a collection of heartfelt free-verse poems and prose, all written by teenage girls.

Critical Analysis
These poems incorporate a wide range of emotions - first love, what it means to grow up female, sexual abuse, self-respect, independence, and family. Some of the poems talk about their loss of virginity. Some poems mention exploring their sexuality. One of my favorite poems is Apricot Bath:

          Apricot Bath
          by Lindsay Henry, age 17

          I don't want to be sexy right now
          I don't feel like arranging myself
          in positions that will delight your eyes
          Arranging myself so that my stomach doesn't show
          so that you can't see my feet
          I don't feel like making the effort
          I want to sit next to you
          in an apricot bubble bath
          and talk about why your politics conflict with mine
          without your staring at my breasts
          I want to sit cross-legged
          lean forward with my elbows on my knees
          and listen to your reasoning
          without your peering down between my thighs
          I want us to be two sexless beings
          Watching the steam curl off the water

          But if you must love me
          Love the little smooth scar on my knee
          not my eyes
          Love my round belly
          not my legs
          Love the two freckles on my neck
          that look like a vampire's kiss
          not my lips
          Love my square pudgy toes
          not my smile
          I want to inhale the apricot fumes
          brush the bubbles from your shoulder
          and argue with you over our beliefs
          I don't want anything to be sexual
          even though we're both naked and
          our feet are kissing under the tepid water
          I want us to stay in the bath
          until we don't know
          where water ends and skin begins
          Until I know
          Why you are who you are
          Until you love me
          for my flaws and what I believe in (30-31)

I don't remember being that intelligent at 17, to understand so deeply the difference between love and sexuality.

These young women also think about their future vs. their present:

   To Live
   by Miriam Stone, age 16

                                          reacting with phosphorus      learning without
                                          I don't react                          knowing
   I sit in my                         I see through the paper          without room
   crunched-in                      and my pen writes                  to learn how
   restraining                        poetic equations                    to know myself
   desk, they call it,              my mind plus my life              to be myself
   with my paper                   equals                                  trial and error
   and my pen                      something beyond this           minus lab write-up
   and I am                           doodles litter my                   feeling without
   supposed to see               notebook like snowflakes        a thesis
   the blackboard                  dancing through the trees       learning youth
   around the tall boy            beyond the window                 mi futuro
   en frente de mi                 the lined paper                       learning how to live
   and my mind on my          lines with soul                       without a textbook
   text and my pen on           forgetting cosines                   without a teacher to
   the page I am                   life without phosphorus           correct grammar
   supposed to                     and my life                             to live to learn myself
   for me                              mi futuro                                to live to know myself
   para mifuturo.                   beyond desk-chairs                 to live to be somebody
   but my head                     And dull muraled halls             who's learned how
   won't translate                   j.v.varsity and                         to live (58)
   this language                    setting the curve
   log base b of a squared;     school play and G.P.A.
   carbon monoxide               textbooks

These young poets show surprising depth through their writings. They have so much to say, but being teenage girls, it's hard for them to get somebody to listen sometimes: "Look out--I opened my mouth/and out came ideas/you don't think are pretty" (13). Some are exploring their feminie wiles, as in the selection below - make sure you read this passage out loud to get a sense of the strong rhyme and rhythm:

          This conquette can get
          Any man she's set
          Eyes upon--
          A female Don Juan.
          The best, I confess,
          Cannot help but obsess
          Over me,
          Devil walking,
          In one hell of a dress. (23)

The poetic imagery is also very strong in this collection, such as in "I am stuck inside this cocoon" (29), and "I look for my shield/and find my mask under the bed/I slip it on; it's warm and secure/but still a little uncomfortable" (32), and "my friend and i/got caught in a storm/with tears for rain,/and shouts for thunder, lightning fists/lashing out" (41).

These young women have a lot to say, and Betsy Franco has created an outlet for their deepest thoughts. There are poems in here about drug abuse, thoughts of suicide, and "A Man's Strength, But a Woman's Mind" ( 24-25). Maybe these thoughts, written out as they are to share with the world, may help another young woman when she needs support through a crucial time.

Awards and Honors
Amelia Bloomer Project, 2002; American Library Association-SRRT; United States.
Best Books for Young Adults, 2002; American Library Association-YALSA; United States.
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2002; Bank Street College of Education; United States.
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Ninth Edition, 2005; H.W. Wilson; United States.
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to the Eighth Edition, 2002; H.W. Wilson; United States.
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2002; American Library Association-YALSA; United States.
Senior High Core Collection, Seventeenth Edition, 2007; The H. W. Wilson Co.; United States.
Senior High School Library Catalog, Sixteenth Edition, 2002; H.W. Wilson; United States.
Young Adults' Choices, 2003; International Reading Association; United States.

Review Excerpts
Korbeck, Sharon.(School Library Journal; May 2001(Vol. 47 Issue 5))
"In allowing the words of teens from across the nation to shine through, without polishing or pushing, Franco has succeeded in compiling one of the brightest collections out there today. In a mixture of prose and poetry, the young women express their fears, dreams, relationships, and angst. There are some poetic turns of phrases here ("we put on our chatter/like red lipstick/with the same amount/of greasy enthusiasm") and some strong language. And while the poems are triumphant in their realism, the book is elevated by the inclusion of gritty, unposed black-and-white photographs. These pictures, not taken to illustrate the poems, do so in an exemplary fashion. Like snapshots from personal photo albums, the images of a multicultural array of "everygirls" are harmonious complements to this outstanding collection."

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2001)
Several striking entries in this compilation of poems and prose lift it above the majority of such offerings; all of these writers take on issues of family, love, body image, drugs, and sexuality with clarity and insight. The black-and-white photographs are neither literal illustrations of the pieces nor portraits of the writers; they reflect the emotional currents of the writing and provide further expression of a diverse group of young women.

Book Hook
Pair this book with Betsy Franco's You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Candlewick, 2000).

Online Connections
Betsy Franco's website can be found here.

Poetry -- Zombie Haiku

2009-10-15T16:39:00.001-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Mecum, Ryan. Zombie Haiku. Cincinnati, OH: How Books, F+W Media, Incorporated, 2008. ISBN 9781600610707.

Plot Summary
In a series of progressively mindless (in true zombie style) haiku, Mecum shows us that even zombies have a heart - even if it isn't beating anymore.

Critical Analysis
A haiku is a traditional Japanese form of poetry, containing three lines. The pattern for the poem consiste of 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables. Haiku are usually about beautiful, peaceful aspects of nature. So what can you say about haiku purportedly written by a dead, mindless, decaying zombie?

This is supposedly a poetry journal by an anonymous poet. Ryan Mecum starts his anonymous poet off with poems about normal poetry topics. The human who eventually becomes the zombie writes about love, flowers, and springtime. BUT. There are notes in another handwriting, scribbled on the front title page by a different individual named Chris Ryan. Chris tells us about the plague, and about how "somehow, people turn into these things when they die or if one bites them" (2). Ironically, the haiku just before Chris's scribbled note is:

                 My soul hovers up
          climbing from its stomach cave,
             to give my heart warmth. (2)

What foreshadowing! If this poor guy only knew what his stomach and heart will be subjected to over the next few hours. A few more haiku further on, our soon-to-be zombie poet writes:

               Fifty years from now,
          When I am slow, old and gray,
             will she be there, too? (3)

Missed again! He won't be gray in fifty years, he'll be gray by tomorrow evening. Slow, too.

Things progress from bad to worse. Our hero writes about being trapped high on a billboard sign with a horde of zombies waiting below for him:

                  for hours, I sit.
            Morning turns to afternoon,
            and they keep staring. (22)

Our plucky hero climbs into his car and waits to die after trying unsuccessfully to escape the zombies without being bitten. At this point, Mecum cleverly adds splashes of red to the pages, and the handwriting becomes erratic. Oh, no, what's happening?

           Something is not right.
          If my blood is in puddles
         Why do I feel strong? (29)

Now that our protagonist has (un)succesfully changed into a zombie, Mecum's poems get outrageously, disgustingly funny. Zombies are always hungry for fresh human meat, and this hunger is aptly demonstrated:

           You think I'd get full
          eating so many people,
          but really, I don't. (50)

Even Mecum's weakest haiku serves to highlight the zombie's singleminded hunger:

                    Brains, BRAINS, Brains, brains, BRAINS.
          BRAINS, brains, Brains, BRAINS, Brains, brains, BRAINS.
                 BRAINS, Brains, brains, BRAINS, brains. (32)

Mecum illustrates this book with photos taken by the zombie poet before and after his transformation into a zombie. Although the photos aren't very clear when taken by the zombie poet vs. the human poet, this is in keeping with the theme of the book, that this poetry journal was created by a zombie with nothing on his mind but the desire for human flesh. What we do make out fits in with the haiku surrounding each photo. For example, when the zombie enters a wheat field in search of humans hiding in the dark, the photograph shows two zombies staggering through a wheat field at night. When the zombie hordes travel down the highway, there is a photo of out-of-focus zombies staggering down a highway with arms askew and legs stiff.

Although my 14 year old daughter found this book totally repulsive, Zombie Haiku raised an interesting dilemna in my mind. If this zombie poet thinks only of eating human flesh, then how does he maintain enough sensibility to write perfect haiku? My rational side says it's not possible and I should just accept this book as fantasy, but my poetic side tells me that poetry is something that is internalized, not something that can be detached from your spirit. This book could raise all kinds of questions such as "Is the zombie's soul still alive?," "Is poetry an instinct or something we acquire?" and so on. Unfortunately, this kind of metaphysical discussion is beyond the scope of this blog, but it's still interesting to contemplate.

Admittedly, the gross subject matter might be a little much for the squeamish, but if you read beyond the rotting body parts, bloodsplatters, and maggots to the poetry within, this haiku collection is actually addressing the questions I raised in the previous paragraph. This man's/zombie's poetry cannot be contained within in him. No matter what happens to the poet's body, the poetry will come gushing out - just like the blood, guts, and assorted other body parts in these poems.

Awards and Honors
Baker & Taylor Paper Clips July 2008 (Formerly Hot Picks)

Review Excerpts
Robert Kirkman, author of The Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies
"A thoroughly unique and entertaining experience. Ryan Mecum has quite possibly found the only corner of entertainment not yet infected by the zombie plague--haiku--and made me wonder why it took this long, as the two seem to go together like zombies and brains. I highly recommend it to fans of all things zombie." (Amazon.com)

David Wellington, author of Monster Island
"The most inventive zombie book in years!" (Amazon.com)

Book Hook
Pair this book with Ryan Mecum's brand new book, Vampire Haiku (How Books, 2009).

Online Connections

For "The King of Giggle Poetry," Bruce Lansky's views on writing Haiku, click here.
For another weird but hilarious look at zombies, check out "What to Do in a Zombie Attack", available here.
For more information on zombies, click here.

Sources
Amazon.com. Last accessed November 18, 2009 from http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Haiku-Good-Poetry-Your-Brains/dp/1600610706/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Historical Fiction--The Wednesday Wars

2009-10-15T16:36:00.001-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Schmidt, Gary D. The Wednesday Wars. New York: Clarion Books, 2007. ISBN 9780618724833.

Plot Summary
It's 1967, and the Vietnam War is in full swing. But seen through Holling Hoodhood's eyes, the war is minor compared to his personal affairs. Holling doesn't know what to think of his life. His 7th grade English teacher hates him and makes him read Shakespeare. His sister is a flower child and is always arguing with their conservative father. His father, a successful architect, assumes Holling will take over the family business one day. But nobody seems to care what Holling wants. Through his firsthand account of the humorous events which seem to befall only him, Holling finds his own identity and does some growing up along the way.

Critical Analysis
It’s 1967, and the Vietnam War is going strong. But Holling Hoodhood barely notices. He’s got problems of his own to worry about. But this year, something will happen to Holling, something he never expected. Holling is about to meet the Immortal Bard, William Shakespeare. And with the Bard’s words to guide him, Holling will never be the same.

The story is written in the first person narrative, and it is a monthly accounting of Holling’s 7th grade school year. Due to unavoidable circumstances, Holling and his 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Baker, are in class by themselves for the last hour of each Wednesday, and Holling is convinced that Mrs. Baker hates his guts.

          “So, being a Presbyterian was now a disaster. Especially on
          Wednesday afternoons when, at 1:45 sharp, half of my class
          went to Hebrew School at Temple Beth-El, and, at 1:55, the
          other half went to Catechism at Saint Adelbert’s. This left
          behind just the Presbyterians—of which there had been three,
          and now there was one.

          Me” (3).

The story is set in Long Island, New York. Holling lives in a medium sized town, and his father, a successful architect, is constantly trying to place situations and people from town into the context of his architectural practice. If they can’t lead to more architectural jobs, they’re not worth Mr. Hoodhood’s time and energy.

          “Dad…”

          “So, Holling, what did you do that might make Mrs.
          Baker hate your guts, which will make other Baker family
          members hate the name of Hoodhood, which will lead the
          Baker Sporting Emporium to choose another architect, which
          will kill the deal for Hoodhood and Associates, which will drive
          us into bankruptcy, which will encourage several lending
          institutions around the state to send representatives to our
          stoop holding papers that have lots of leg words on them—
          none of them good—and which will mean that there will be no
          Hoodhood and Associates for you to take over when I'm ready
          to retire?”

          Even though there wasn’t much left of [dinner], it started to
          want to come up again.

          “I guess things aren’t so bad,” I said.

          “Keep them that way,” he said” (8)

Mrs. Baker finally settles on Shakespeare to pass the time on Wednesday afternoons. This serves to convince Holling now more than ever that Mrs. Baker hates his guts. But it’s through the time that Mrs. Baker spends with Holling, discussing Shakespeare’s words and meanings that he begins to make sense of what else is happening in his life.

Because Holling is familiar with Shakespeare, he gets a part in the Festival Theater’s performance of The Tempest. When pictures of him playing the part surface at his school (With him wearing yellow tights. And white feathers on his butt!), more problems result. His sister’s on his case about the photos, his classmates want to stick up for him but are too afraid of the bully who did it. And Mrs. Baker goes on to Macbeth.

Through one incident after another, one Shakespeare play after another, Holling finally starts to make sense of things. He makes the astonishing discovery that Mrs. Baker doesn’t hate him after all. He and Mrs. Baker establish a secret code word between the two of them, “Chrysanthemum for something really good” (170). He makes the varsity track team and Mrs. Baker (who turns out to have won a silver medal for running in the 1956 Olympics) coaches him.

          “Mrs. Baker leaned back in her chair. “It was for the women’s four-by-one
          hundred relay. Don’t look so surprised. You didn’t think I’d spent my whole life
          behind this desk, did you?”

          And I suddenly realized that, well, I guess I had. Weren’t all teachers born
          behind their desks, fully grown, with a red pen in their hand and ready to
          “grade?

          “Go home now, Mr. Hoodhood,” said Mrs. Baker. “And tomorrow,
          run like Jesse Owens”” (170).

A sure sign you’re growing up is when you realize your teacher is a person, too.

Another sign you’re growing up is when you realize you make your own decisions about becoming a man, not your father. After Mrs. Baker, Holling’s father and sister are the next most important minor characters. Holling’s father is dictatorial and believes that his way is the only way. Holling’s sister, Heather, picks on him and insults him like most big sisters and is constantly fighting with her father, trying to assert her independence and make him see that other people might have important opinions also. By the end of the story, Holling has overcome his fear of confronting his father, and he finds out his sister really does love him and is even proud of him.

Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King make short appearances in the story also, as the news of their assassinations deeply affects Holling.

At his friend Danny’s Bar Mitzvah at the end of the story, Holling finally realizes he can live his own life, not the life his father has planned for him.

          “”It was a whole lot more than chanting at everyone,” I said.

          “Let’s get in the car,” said my mother.

          “No,” said my father. He put his arms up on top of the station
          wagon’s roof. “I’d like to know what Holling thought was a whole
          lot more.”

          My stomach got tight. “He became a man,” I said.

          “You think that’s how you become a man, by chanting a few
          prayers?”

          “You think you become a man by getting a job as an architect?”

          My father straightened. “That’s exactly how you become a man,”
          he said. “You get a good job and you provide for your family. You
          hang on, and you play for keeps. That’s how it works.”

          “I really do think we should get in the car,’ said my mother.

          “I don’t think so,” I said to my father. “It’s not just about a job.
          It’s more. It has to do with choosing for yourself.”

          “And you didn’t even have to go to California to figure all that
          out,” said my father. “So who are you, Holling?”

          I felt Heather looking at me. And somehow—I didn’t know how—
          I thought of Bobby Kennedy, who could have made all the
          difference.

          “I don’t know yet,” I said finally. “I’ll let you know.”

          “What a bunch of mumbo-jumbo,” said my father. He got into
          the station wagon and slammed the door. My mother blew me a
          kiss—really—and then she got in, too.

          And my sister got in last of all.

          She was smiling.

          I could hardly breathe.

          When they drove away, I went back inside Temple Beth-
          El…”(260)

Back inside the synagogue, Holling’s classmates are all still at Danny’s Bar Mitzvah. Mrs. Baker is there also.

          “Everyone was laughing and jostling to their places. I needed to
          go find mine.

          “L’chayim!” I said to Mrs. Baker.

          “And she smiled—not a teacher smile. “Chrysanthemum,” she
                    said“ (260).

The theme of this story is man vs. man (Holling vs. his dad, Holling vs. Mrs. Baker, Holling vs. the bully), but ultimately, it’s a story of man vs. himself. Danny wasn’t the only boy who became a man that day.

While reading this story, I couldn’t help but think of my older brother. He is Holling’s age, and I wonder if he was as aware of the Vietnam War as Holling. To me, it’s terribly ironic that Holling thinks the war is wrong, but my brother came very close to serving in Vietnam. The war ended in April of 1975 and my brother graduated one month later.

Awards and Honors

Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007; Winner Best Novel for Young Readers That Adults Would Love if They Knew About It United States.
Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007; Winner Book We Could Have Sold More of with a Better Jacket United States.
Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007; Winner Favorite Middle Grade Novel United States.
Cybils, 2007; Finalist Young Adult Fiction United States.
John Newbery Medal, 2008; Honor Book United States.
National Parenting Publications Award, 2007; Gold Book Ages 12 & Up United States.
Society of Midland Authors Book Awards, 2008; Winner Children's Fiction United States.
Thumbs Up! Award, 2008; Nominee United States.
Best Books for Young Adults, 2008; YALSA American Library Association; United States.
Best Books for Young People, 2007; Washington Post; United States.
Best Young Adult Books, 2007; Kirkus; United States.
Children's Book Sense Picks , Summer 2007; American Booksellers Association; United States.
Editors' Choice, 2007; Booklist; United States.
Notable Children's Books in the English Language Arts, 2008; NCTE Children's Literature Assembly; United States.
Notable Children's Books, 2008; ALSC American Library Association; United States.
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books, 2007; Cahners; United States.
Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, April 16, 2007; Type Cahners; United States.
Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth, 2008; Booklist; United States.

Review Excerpts
Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Jun. 1, 2007 (Vol. 103, No. 19))
"On Wednesday afternoons, while his Catholic and Jewish schoolmates attend religious instruction, Holling Hoodhood, the only Presbyterian in his seventh grade, is alone in the classroom with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who Holling is convinced hates his guts. He feels more certain after Mrs. Baker assigns Shakespeare’s plays for Holling to discuss during their shared afternoons. Each month in Holling’s tumultuous seventh-grade year is a chapter in this quietly powerful coming-of-age novel set in suburban Long Island during the late ’60s.... {Schmidt} knits together the story’s themes: the cultural uproar of the ’60s, the internal uproar of early adolescence, and the timeless wisdom of Shakespeare’s words. Holling’s unwavering, distinctive voice offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the right help, learns to stretch beyond the limitations of his family, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open."

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, September 2007 (Vol. 61, No. 1))
"Holling Hoodhood is the only Presbyterian at Camillo Junior High, a condition that would have no significance at all except for the fact that, on Wednesdays, Catholic and Jewish kids are dismissed early for religious instruction, leaving Holling as the lone remaining student in Mrs. Baker’s seventh-grade class. She’s as perplexed as he as to how “the class” should proceed, and they settle uneasily into a routine of reading successive Shakespeare plays, which Holling interprets as a sure sign that Mrs. Baker hates him. Nonetheless, over the course of the school year—as divided into monthly chapters and narrated by Holling—they form a bond of friendship that sees him through rough patches at home with his bombastic father and flower-child sister and Mrs. Baker through the ordeal of awaiting news of her husband, who has just gone MIA in Vietnam."

Kathie Fitch (VOYA, June 2007 (Vol. 30, No. 2))
"Seventh grader Holling Hoodhood lives in the Long Island suburbs in the Perfect House with his less-than-perfect, architect father, his subservient mother, and his flower-child sister. On Wednesday afternoon, half of his class leaves for Hebrew School at Temple Beth-El while the other half goes to catechism. Holling is the lone Presbyterian so he stays behind with his teacher, Ms. Baker, whom Holling knows hates him. She introduces him to the plays of William Shakespeare, an assignment that Holling assumes is punishment but which actually enhances his life. There is a lot going on in this novel not all related to the politics of the turbulent 1960s. The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and the unpopular Vietnam War play a part in Holling's seventh grade year but so do two rats, Sycorax and Calliban, with their clacking yellow teeth; a part as Ariel in yellow tights; a track team; bullying and racism; a camping trip; and disappointment in a first love. Ms. Baker gently guides him through everything even as she brokenheartedly deals with the news that her husband is MIA."

Book Hook or discussion questions

If you want to read more from Gary D. Schmidt, try Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.
For more stories about a funny relationship between a student and his teacher, read Frindle (Clements, 1996) or Don't You Know There's a War On? (Avi, 2001).

Online Connections
For information on Shakespeare's life and times, click here.
For information on the Vietnam War (from PBS), click here.
For a video of Bobby Kennedy's speech announcing Martin Luther King's assassination, click here.

Biography--Lincoln Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Shaped an Extraordinary Life

2009-10-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Sandler, Martin W. Lincoln Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Shaped an Extraordinary Life. New York: Walker Pub. Co., 2008. ISBN 9780802796660.

Plot Summary
Martin W. Sandler takes a different approach from most Lincoln biographers. In this book he links photos and images of Licoln's life and times to current events, icluding the history of the art of photography. Through his concise text, Sandler shows us how Lincoln and the budding photography industry both profited and gained over the years of Lincoln's life, in a way tbat wouldn't have been possible if these two 'forces' hadn't come together at the same time in history. Not just a LIncoln biographiy, this book also serves as a basic ntroduction to the beginning of celebrity photogra0phy.

Critical Analysis

           “It was through the camera that the most remarkable events
           in Abraham Lincoln’s life were revealed, events that not
           only disclosed but shaped his life as well” (68).

Photos occur everywhere throughout this book, which is only appropriate considering that the book addresses how photography and Lincoln’s career developed so closely together, almost in a symbiotic relationship. Every page of this book until the end pages contains one or more photographs, paintings, or images. Sandler doesn’t restrict himself to photos of only Lincoln, though. We see a slave family, we are witnesses to the hanging of the Lincoln assassination conspirators, and we are even taken to the battlefield of Antietam to observe, through the haze of the cannons, the single bloodiest day to ever occur within the Continental United States.

Because photography was in its childhood stages, the photographs sometimes are not very clear, but others are of very high quality. For example, the only known photograph in existence of Lincoln at Gettysburg on the day of his famous speech is reproduced on pages 4 and 5. Sandler tells us told that a specific circled person within the photograph is Lincoln. The photograph is printed three times, once in its entirety, a close-up of one section, and then the close-up of a third section, which contains Lincoln’s image at Gettysburg. Although Pennsylvania Governor Curtis and his son are clear in the second reproduction, the circled image in the third section of the photograph looks more like Ulysses Grant than Lincoln to me. However, the librarian who, in 1952, found the plate this image was printed from was much more experienced at looking at old photographs than I am, since she worked in the Still Pictures Branch of the National Archives. Other than this one image, the photographs are all fairly clear.

Although this biography is not arranged in strict chronological order, some of the information builds on itself. However, this is not to the point where the book has to be read in sequential order. Most of the double page spreads are self-contained essays. A Table of Contents would have aided the book greatly; however, there is an index, list of places to visit, and lists of websites and books for more information.

Sandler’s choice of words in many passages is flawless; for example, “Union troops were trounced” (50), “a sad and weary Robert E. Lee left the courthouse, mounted his horse, and rode slowly away” (70), and “Eyes crazed with anger, Booth planned Lincoln’s assassination carefully and ingeniously” (78).

Sandler gives thorough photo credits and a list of sources in the back of the book. He specifically states, “The following sources have been particularly important in presenting key concepts in this book...” Further down the same page, he writes, “Here is a bibliography of the most significant sources I used in my research...” (95).

Although primarily about Lincoln, Sandler also gives us information about the first half of the 19th century, especially when he discusses Lincoln’s visit to New Orleans as a young man. The sights and sounds of 19th century New Orleans come alive in the text:

           “Lincoln was thrilled by the prospect of visiting his first
           genuine city. Although he was fascinated with the sight of
           the towering sailing vessels that jammed New Orleans Harbor
           and with the crowds of people from around the world that
           filled the city’s streets, he was shocked at something else
           he witnessed.

           More than 200 slave dealers conducted their business in New
           Orleans, and Lincoln was horrified at the sight of gangs of
           men, women, and children shackled in chains, being prodded
           along to the auction blocks to be sold off like horses or
           cattle” (16).

Many of us remember being forced to memorize Lincoln’s Gettysburg address in junior high or middle school. Placed in the context of Lincoln’s life and presidency, though, Sandler’s lead-up to it takes the words of what might have been just another dreary history lesson, and transforms them into a vibrant passage.

           “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
           this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
           dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

           Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
           that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated,
           can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that
           war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
           final resting place for those who here gave their lives
           that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
           proper that we should do this.

           But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not
           consecrate—we can not hallow this ground. The brave men,
           living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it,
           far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
           little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can
           never forget what they did here. It is for us the living,
           rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which
           they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
           rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
           remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take
           increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the
           last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve
           that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation,
           under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that
           government: of the people, by the people, for the people,
           shall not perish from the earth.”

Martin W. Sandler has taught American history at the university level. He is an award-winning television writer and producer. He has written more than 60 other books. One of his other books, The Story of American Photography, was named a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book. He has also written an award-winning history series for young readers for the Library of Congress.

Awards and Honors

Cybils, 2008 Finalist ; Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Book United States.
Booklist Book Review Stars , Sep. 15, 2008; United States.
Choices, 2009; Cooperative Children's Book Center; United States.
School Library Journal Book Review Stars, October 2008; Cahners; United States.

Review Excerpts
Ilene Cooper (Booklist, Sep. 15, 2008 (Vol. 105, No. 2))
"This extraordinary book is a tribute to the way contemporary and future generations came to view Lincoln....Part biography, part history of the Civil War, the book touches on many interesting topics....Although it’s the pictures that provide the “wow factor,” Sandler’s perceptive words have their own elegance. Well sourced and offering numerous ways to learn more (although, surprisingly, the fine Lincoln museum in Springfield is not cited), this will be an excellent tool for history classes; and browsers, too, will be caught up in Lincoln’s story."

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2009)
"Martin W. Sandler documents Lincoln’s rise to power through a chronological arrangement of photographs, accompanied by the fascinating stories behind each one, along with what they tell the modern reader about Abraham Lincoln."

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2009
"This well-researched photo-essay provides an engaging account of its subject and the historic events that shaped our nation. Using Lincoln's own words, anecdotes, and more than one hundred photographs, this biography vividly portrays the integrity, wit, and compassion of the president who ended slavery and reunited the country."

Book Hook
If you enjoyed the photodocumentary approach taken in Sandler's book, don't miss Russell Freedman's Lincoln: A Photobiography. (Sandpiper, 1989) which won a Newberry Medal in 1988, or The Civil War by Geoffrey C. Ward, Kenneth Burns, and Richard Burns (Vintage; Mti edition, 1994).

Nonfiction: Bodies from the Ice

2009-10-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Deem, James M. Bodies From the Ice : Melting Glaciers and the Rediscovery of the Past . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. ISBN 9780618800452.

Plot Summary
James W. Deem takes his readers all around the world in this photo essay of mummies and other frozen bodies throughout the world. We are introduced to the Italian Iceman, Ötzi. He takes us to Mount Everest, where we learn what finally happened to some famous missing explorers, and some other not-so-famous lost individuals. We are also taken to the other side of the planet, to the Andes Mountains of South America and to North America. He explains how these ice mummies were preserved, and why there are so few of them. We also learn about icebergs and glaciers, with a special emphasis on how the greenhouse effect is slowly causing them to disappear.

Critical Analysis
James W. Deem is a retired college professor. According to the inside back cover, he didn’t know anything about glaciers until he started writing this book. However, he did know something about mummies. Some of his prior nonfiction works include Bodies from the Ash and Bodies from the Bog.

The inside back cover also states that Deem wanted to write this book, not only as “a memorial to the people recovered from melting glaciers, but also to the glaciers themselves.” The final chapter, “Saving the Past,” is filled with statistics that give evidence of how fast our glaciers are melting, the problems this might create if they disappear totally, and an inset list of “Personal Ways to Help the Environment” (page 53).

Deem starts his book off with the oldest and perhaps most famous ice mummy, Italy’s Ötzi. Photos of Ötzi’s excavation from his ice tomb are included, with informative captions of what each photo shows. The next chapter transitions from Ötzi to basic concepts of glacier science, or glaciology. Deem builds on these concepts to explain scientific theories of how Ötzi and a few other ice mummies survived the glaciers and their movement. Further chapters discuss the history of the science of glaciology, ice mummies from other continents, the discovery of Sir George Mallory’s frozen body on Mount Everest (Mallory disappeared on an attempt to reach the summit in 1924. With the discovery of his body, scientists and historians hoped to determine if Mallory was the first to reach the top of Mt. Everest and not Edmund Hillary in 1953. With the discovery of his body, there is both evidence for and against this assertion, and the question remains unanswered.).

Deem makes sure his readers understand the terminology in the discipline of glaciology. He does this by providing pronunciation guides within the text, for example, “Ötzi (rhymes with tootsie)” (page 6). He also italicizes and defines new words and immediately uses using the words in their correct context within the text, for example,

          “Once formed, the glacier becomes a giant conveyor belt—
          essentially a moving river of ice—with two main parts; a
          higher accumulation area and a lower ablation (or melting)
          area. Although snow accumulates and melts in both parts,
          the accumulation area (where more snow falls than melts)
           pressures the glacier ice to advance to the ablation area
          (where more snow melts)” (page 11).

Deem’s style of writing is informal but knowledgeable. Even when he’s warning about the potential dangers associated both with mountain climbing and the glaciers’ melting, his tone remains informative and never ‘preachy.'

Photographs, both of landscapes and mummies, clarify and expand on the text by offering further information. The photographs are especially fascinating in the chapter dedicated to the discovery of Ötzi. They show the excavation of his body, the artifacts that were found with him, and close-ups of interesting features of his body. The book also contains maps, sketches, magazines, postcards, and paintings from both today and as far back as 1790. Deem’s painstaking research becomes apparent when he even includes a photograph of a Tlingit family from 1895. In the photograph, the father is wearing the same type of hat as was worn by an ice mummy found in North America. This particular ice mummy was believed to be related to Indians of the area and was subsequently returned to the First Nations Tribe for burial. Out of respect for their ancestor, the First Nations declined to photograph the body and cremated it according to their customs. (page 43-47). The mummy’s ashes were later sprinkled over the glacier where he was discovered.

The book contains many useful resources for readers who want to learn more. There are lists of ways readers can personally help the environment, suggested glaciers to visit all around the world, helpful websites, a bibliography and acknowledgements, and an index.

Awards and Honors

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, 2009; Honor Book United States.
Best Children's Books, 2008; Kirkus; United States.
Capitol Choices, 2009; The Capitol Choices Committee; United States.
Children's Catalog Supplement to Nineteenth Edition, 2009; H. W. Wilson Company; United States.
Choices, 2009; Cooperative Children's Book Center; United States.
Kirkus Book Review Stars, October 15, 2008; United States.
Notable Children's Books, 2009; ALSC American Library Association; United States.
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12, 2009; National Science Teachers Association; United States.
School Library Journal Book Review Stars, December 2008; Cahners; United States.

Review Excerpts
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2009)
"Deem continues his interest in mummified bodies... in this book that sits at the intersection of several disciplines. After introducing the oldest ice mummy (5,300-year-old Otzi), Deem gives readers a tour of mummified bodies found in ice the world over. The design, with its variety of photographs, captions, and sidebars, seals the appeal."

John E. Dockall (Science Books and Films (Vol. 45, No. 2))
"In Bodies from the Ice, author James Deem has compiled a highly useful and readable volume on a unique aspect of human history and prehistory.... In addition, the author provides a clear discussion of the science of glaciology (the study of glaciers) and how events in prehistory can be preserved. He concludes with a chapter on the scientific importance of the human past in relation to glaciers, and the ever-present threat of losing more of the world’s glaciers as climates continue to change. The book is small, but accurately portrays the process of science from discovery to investigation. A general audience would benefit from reading it, and it is appropriate as well for junior high and high school audiences. The book could also be used for classroom discussions pertaining to global environmental change, history, prehistory, and scientific inquiry."

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2008 (Vol. 76, No. 20))
"With global warming, the glaciers that crown our highest mountains have retreated, revealing humans who died there long ago. This respectful photo-essay opens with the story of Ötzi, found in the Alps in 1991 more than 5,000 years after his death. Deem goes on to explain how glaciers work to preserve and destroy human remains and to provide some historical background. Looking beyond Europe, he describes Inca children sacrificed on high Andean peaks, the discovery of the body of George Mallory, who died on Mt. Everest in 1924, and a man who died between 1670 and 1850 in what is now northern British Columbia whose DNA revealed connections to present-day First Nations Canadians. Clearly identified lithographs, paintings and archival photos help readers see how much has changed in these high altitudes, while maps make clear the locations of particular discoveries. Photos of skulls, mummified bodies and artifacts will fascinate readers. An intriguing read..."

Book Hook
Combine this book with Deem's other books in this series: Bodies From the Bog (1998) and Bodies From the Ash (2005). Both books are also published by Houghton Mifflin.

Online Connections
For more information on Ötzi, click here.
For the National Snow and Ice Data Center's webpage on glaciers, click here.

Fantasy and Science Fiction: Tithe

2009-10-15T16:32:00.001-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Black, Holly. Tithe. New York: Simon Pulse, 2004. ISBN 0689867042.

Plot Summary
Sixteen year old Kaye meets a beautiful, mysterious, wounded man in a thunderstorm. His name is Roiben. Roiben has superhuman speed and reflexes, and something about him fascinates her. Could Roibin be the answer to all the strange things that have happened to her throughout her life? Or does he represent only deadly danger to her? Kaye's answers should be beyond human understanding, but if so, why does Kaye understand them?

Critical Analysis
Kaye has always thought she was a little different than the other teenagers she knew. Her friend, Janet, calls her weird. Most teens have this feeling of not quite fitting in, of being strange, but in Kaye's case, she finds out that she has good reason to feel this way. She is a changeling child. The faeries exchanged her for a human child back when both Kaye and the human were just babies. Kaye is 16 now and finally finding out that she is not human. Combined with Kaye's satisfaction at finally knowing for sure that she IS different is the feeling of betrayal. Why didn't the faeries she knew as a child not tell her of her real identity? Why did she have to wait so long to find out that what she'd felt all those years was real?

          ""You are one of us," the Thistlewitch said to Kaye, black
          eyes glittering like jewels.

          "What?" She'd hear what was said, she understood, she
          was just stalling for time for her brain to start working
          again. she could not seem to get a breath of air into her
          lungs. There were grades to impossible, levels, at least of
          unreality. And each time Kaye thought she was at the
          lowest level, the ground seemed to open up beneath her.

          "Mortal girls are stupid and slow," Little said. "You don't have
          to pretend anymore."

          She was shaking her head, but even as she did it, she knew it
          was true. It felt true, unbalancing and rebalancing her world so
          neatly that she wondered how she didn't think of it before now.
          After all, why would only she be visited by faeries? Why would
          only she have magic she couldn't control?

          "Why didn't you tell me?" Kaye demanded.

          "Too chancy," Spike said.

          "So why are you telling me now?"

          "Because it is you who will be chosen for the Tithe." The
          Thistlewitch crossed her lanky arms serenely. "And because
          it is your right to know" (96-97).

Now that Kaye DOES know, she revels in her newfound freedom. To remove the 'glamour,' the spell that enables her to pass for human instead of the green pixie that she really is, she rolls in clover that night and then discovers that she can't change back. She runs to Janet's house but Janet is at school. Janet's brother, Corny, is at work, right next door, though. With Corny's help, Kaye also sprouts her wings.

Kaye tells Corny everything, about how she's seen faeries since she was little, about how she was a changeling, and even about the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, the two courts that rule over all the faeries in the area. She and Corny decide to consult the kelpie, a dangerous water beast that helped her save Roibin the night she met him.Corny accompanies Kaye on her explorations, both to the kelpie and later into the Unseelie Court itself. Roiben is also at the Court, and when he sees Kaye, the Unseelie Queen notices he is attached to her. Believing Kaye to still be a human, the Queen orders Roiben to sacrifice Kaye in the ritual of the Tithe, a human sacrifice that keeps the faerie folk subordinate to the Unseelie Court.

Even though Roiben's feelings for Kaye are strong, he is magically bound to the Unseelie Queen and forced to obey her every command. He prepares Kaye for the sacrifice.

Kaye has a secret weapon, though. She knows Roiben's full name, and that knowledge enables her to order Roiben to save her. In the ensuing fight, the Unseelie Queen is killed, and Roiben and Kaye escape.

In the meantime, though, Corny has met the faerie Seelie knight, Nephamael. Even though Corny is physically hurt, he and Nephamael begin an affair. This results in Corny being unable to leave the Unseelie Court because he is bewitched by Nephamael. Thus, Kaye's quest is set. Not only has she tricked the Unseelie Court into attempting to sacrifice a non-human, thus setting her childhood faerie friends free, but she also must rescue Corny from his self-inflicted captivity.

In a highly symbolic moment, Kaye finds the human Kaye that she had been switched with so many years before. The child is in the Seelie Court, not the Unseelie Court, where Kaye would have expected her to be. Up to this moment, Kaye has regarded the Unseelie Court as evil and the Seelie Court as the romantic faerie tale courts of legend. But now, armed with the knowledge that the two faerie Courts are both evil in their own ways, Kaye is forced to resolve a personal dilmena. Will Kaye choose to continue on her quest to rescue Corny or will her personal desire to find out about herself win out - causing her to stay behind to seek the answers to all her qudstions?

"But when she saw herself, she knew. The almond eyes sat oddly against the mopo of blond hair, making the child look fey despite her chuby body and round ears. Asian and blond. Kaye could manage nothing more than staring as the girl--far, far too young to be Kaye in any reasonable world--picked a weed and, wrapping the stem carefully, flung the head in the direction of a pretty faerie lady who laughed.

All the questions Kaye wanted to ask chocked her. She turned on her heel and stomped back to Roiben... grabbing his arm hard.

"We have to go now," she shouted, furious and trembling. "Corny could be dead (295).

Kaye's search for Corny is successful, and Corny, awoken from hiks enchantment, kills Nephamael, who has assumed the throne of the Unseelie Court. Now the Unseelie Court has no King or Queen, but Roiben has been freed by Kaye when she used his name, and he declares himself King of the Unseelie Court.

Kaye returns to the human world with her 'glamour' intact, but misses Roiben. At the very end. Roiben returns fo rher. It will be interesting to read inthe sequel how deep Roiben's feelings run for Kaye. Will he make her his Queen?

Awards and Honors
Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2005; American Library Association    YALSA; United States.
Teen Top Ten 2003: American Library Association YALSA; United States.
Best 2002 Books for the Teenage: The New York Public Library

Review Excerpts
Annette Wells (KLIATT Review, July 2004 (Vol. 38, No. 4))
16-year-old Kaye lives with an alcoholic rock star mom, whose lifestyle lends itself to travel and minimal attachment. The only consistent thing in Kaye's childhood is the visitation by her faerie friends, and her ability to make strange things happen, inhuman things like making a decrepit merry-go-round horse come to life. She is a sarcastic, sometimes bitter, edgy young woman struggling to find her place in a world that offers little in return. Then one night, following a disastrous, rainy night with friends, she rescues a Faerie Knight named Roiben on her way home. In this brief but pivotal moment, she tricks him into revealing his name, fully aware of the power this gives her, and then finds herself in the throes of a crush on someone she knows is not of this world. The real twist of the story is when she discovers that she herself is not human, having been "glamoured" to hide her true, shimmering green, pixie self. She then becomes a pawn in a rival war between two distinct faerie kingdoms, the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court. After many twists, turns, and bloodshed, the story ends happily, but not without sacrifice. This YA fantasy is definitely more appropriate for an older, more mature audience. Sexual references and situations abound, including homosexuality, as does profanity and alcohol use.

Book Hook
1. Pair this book with the other books in Holly Black's Faerie series: Valiant: A
    Modern Tale of Faerie and Ironside: a Modern Faery's Tale.
2. Holly Black is also co-author of the popular children's series, The Spiderwick
    Chronicles.

Online Connections
Holly Black's website.
Holly Black's blog.

Fantasy and Science Fiction: Weetzie Bat

2009-10-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Block, Francesca Lia. Weetzie Bat. New York: Harper Collins Children's Books, 1989. ISBN 0060205342.

Plot Summary
Weetzie Bat and her gay friend, Dirk, are given a lamp by Dirk's grandmother. Weetzie rubs it and out pops a genie. Weetzie wishes first for world peace (Genie: "It's out of my league. Besides, one of your world leaders would screw it up immediately."). Next, she tries for "an infinite number of wishes!" (Genie: "People in fairy tales wish for that all the time. They aren't stupid. It just isn't in the records because I can't grant that type of wish.") Finally, Weetzie settles for wishing for a love for Dirk, a love for herself, and a house for them all to live in happily ever after. This whimsical modern fairy tale is how Weetzie gets her three wishes granted and finds out if it really is possible to live happily ever after.

Critical Analysis

Weetzie Bat is a modern day fairy-tale, set in the make-believe, fantastic world of Los Angeles. Weetzie and Dirk are just looking for happiness and love. But it takes a genie and 3 magical wishes for them to find these ever so elusive things. Even after they find them, they know that happiness and love aren’t something that doesn’t have to be worked at. Weetzie’s true love, My Secret Agent Lover Man, leaves when Weetzie announces that she’s pregnant. And Dirk’s true love, Duck, leaves because he’s scared of AIDS.

Weetzie’s Los Angeles is crucial to the story. This is a Los Angeles that most non Angelenos aren’t even aware of. Oki dogs, Canter’s, the Tick-Tock Tea Room. But it’s also a city of illusion. Charlie, Weetzie’s father, describes it this way:

          "Everything’s an illusion; that’s the whole thing about
          it—illusion, imitation, a mirage. Pagodas and palaces
          and skies, blondes and stars. It makes me too sad. It’s
          like having a good dream. You know you are going to
          wake up" (73).

In Weetzie's Los Angeles, reality never seems to rear its ugly head. Everyday mundane tasks such as mowing the lawn, doing laundry, etc., don't exist in Weetzie Bat's world. They would only serve to root her in reality, and how can you tie down a free spirit like Weetzie? Weetzie lives in a dream world, not the real world. Things just seem to happen, just like in a dream. My Secret Agent Lover Man comes back after awhile. Duck returns home with Dirk. Charlie dies from a dream that he doesn't wake up from. And even the grief Weetzie experiences at Charlie’s death feels like a dream to Weetzie:

          "Weetzie,” he said., "your dad’s dead. But you aren’t,
          baby."

          She put her arms around him and cried. Their clothes
          fell away like clothes in a dream—like a dream peels
          away when you wake up" (75).

A story whose characters float through life in a dream-like state could only take place in Los Angeles, the movie capital of the US, where dreams are created.

This book has had its share of censorship. Dirk is gay. The 4 main characters live together without the benefit of marriage. But in Weetzie’s world, none of those things are important. The only thing that is important is happiness. My Secret Agent Lover Man comes back. Dirk finds Duck and brings him home. Weetzie’s baby, Cherokee, Witch Baby (who was dropped off on their front porch and who might be Secret Agent Lover Man’s child), Dirk, Duck, Secret Agent Lover Man, and Weetzie all live together in Los Angeles.

          "Weetzie’s heart felt so full with love, so full, as if it
          could hardly fit in her chest. She knew they were all
          afraid. But love and disease are both like electricity,
          Weetzie thought. They are always there—you can’t see or
          smell or hear, touch or taste them, but you know they are
          there like a current in the air. We can choose, Weetzie
          thought, we can choose to plug into the love current
          instead. And she looked around the table at Dirk and Duck
          and My Secret Agent Lover Man and Cherokee and Witch
          Baby—all of them lit up and golden like a wreath of lights.

          I don’t know about happily ever after… but I know about
          happily, Weetzie Bat thought" (88).

Awards and Honors
Parents' Choice Award, 2003: Gold Best 25 Books in 25 Years United States.
Best Books for Young Adults, 1990; Type of honor and awarded by.
Best of the Best Revisited (100 Best Books for Teens), 2001; American Library Association-YALSA; United States.
Eureka! California in Children's Literature, 2003; Book Wholesalers, Inc.; United States.
Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 1997; American Library Association-YALSA; United States.
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 1990; American Library Association-YALSA; United States.
Senior High Core Collection, Seventeenth Edition, 2007; The H. W. Wilson Co.; United States.
Senior High School Library Catalog, Fifteenth Edition, 1997; H.W. Wilson; United States.
Senior High School Library Catalog, Sixteenth Edition, 2002; H.W. Wilson; United States.

Review Excerpts
Susie Wilde (Children's Literature) (n.d.)
Block is a cutting-edge young adult author who writes of a heroine who rambles in a wild Los Angeles world filled with unique characters. Several of them... are gay. Her settings are lush and her tone is a mix of dream and (sometimes) nightmare. She writes gay-lesbians as characters rather than poster children. Books such as these can help bridge the feelings of isolation that some young adults may be experiencing.

Patrick Jones (Horn Book Magazine, November 1992 (Vol. 68, No. 6))
With characters with wild names, magical transformations, and spaced-out dialogue, it is not possible to read Block as one would the straight narratives of S. E. Hinton. Hinton's language was Tulsa tough; Block's world is that of punk/pop culture L.A. Terms like slinkster and clutch pig come not just from the mouths of characters but from the voice of the author. Block also draws upon L.A. pop culture for numerous references. At times her books seem less novel and more travelogue for those wanting to find the hip and well-read — and well-fed, for there are many references to food. As Hinton did with her working-class neighborhoods, Block draws the reader into her settings with her eye for detail and catalogue of cool. For the hour it takes to read one of Block's books, one can't help but be pulled into Weetzie's world.

Book Hook
Pair this book with Block's other novels about Weetzie's untraditional family: Witch Baby (1991), Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys (1992), Missing Angel Juan (1993), Baby Be-Bop (1995), and Neclace of Kisses (2005).

Online Connections
Francesca Lia Block's website can be found here.

Fantasy and Science Fiction: Life As We Knew It

2009-10-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life As We Knew It. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2006. ISBN 139780152058265.

Plot Summary
Miranda's life is typical high school stuff - classes, grades, and boys. Then one day, an asteroid hits the moon and knocks it out of its familiar orbit. Back on earth, this causes worldwide chaos - widespread tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and the loss of sunlight because of a massive cloud of volacanic ash. Suddenly everything's different. It's a race for survival. Will Miranda's family survive, against all the odds?

Critical Analysis
In Life as We Knew It, the protagonist, Miranda lives a normal teenaged life in rural Pennsylvania. Then an asteroid hits the moon and everything changes. Life becomes a daily struggle for survival.

The story is written as a series of diary entries by Miranda. At the beginning, she worries about school grades, what her friends are arguing about this week, and how she’ll ever make it through high school. Then the asteroid hits the moon. Pfeffer’s account of this moment reads ominously realistic:

            “And then it hit. Even though we knew it was going to,
           we were still shocked when the asteroid actually
           made contact with the moon. With our moon. At that
           second, I think we all realized that it was Our Moon
           and if it was attacked, then we were attacked.

           Or maybe nobody thought that. I know that most of
           the people on the road cheered, but then we all
           stopped cheering and a woman a few houses down
           screamed and then a man screamed, “Oh my God!”
           And people were yelling “What? What?” like one of us
           knew the answer.

           I know all those astronomers I’d watched an hour
           earlier on CNN can explain just what happened and
           how and why and they’ll be explaining on CNN tonight
           and tomorrow and I guess until the next big story
           happens. I know I can’t explain, because I don’t really
           know what happened and I sure don’t know why.

           But the moon wasn’t a half moon anymore. It was
           tilted and wrong and a three-quarter moon and it got
           larger, way larger, large like a moon rising on the
           horizon, only it wasn’t rising. It was smack in the
           middle of the sky, way too big, way too visible. You
           could see details on the craters even without the
           binoculars that before I’d seen with Matt’s
           telescope….

           It was still our moon and it was still just a big dead
           rock in the sky, but it wasn’t benign anymore. It was
           terrifying, and you could feel the panic swell all
           around us” (18-19).

With the moon’s new position in Earth’s sky, there are immediate widespread tsunamis which destroy the coastlines of every continent. Later, volcanic eruptions occur all over the world, to the point where the sunlight is blocked out by the cloud of volcanic ash filling the sky. Again, Pfeffer’s accounting of this, based on actual science, rings frighteningly true. Since the moon exerts such a strong gravitational pull on the Earth, influencing the tides, any shift in the moon’s position would of course affect the tides. And Pfeffer’s explanation of the increased volcanic activity also is based on sound science.

            “”The moon’s gravitational pull is forcing magma
           through the volcanoes. From what we heard on the
           radio last night and this morning, there are dormant
           volcanoes erupting everywhere. It’s been going on for
           a few days now and there’s no guarantee it’s ever
           going to stop. The earthquakes haven’t. The floods
           haven’t. The eruptions may not either.”

            “I still don’t get how that’s going to affect us,“ I said.
            “You said there are no volcanoes here. Have lots of
           people died?”

            “Lots,” Matt said. “And lots more are going to. And not
           just people who live near volcanoes, either….”

            “Look outside,” Matt said. “Just look at that sky.”

           So I did. It was that funny shade of gray.

            “When a large enough volcano erupts, it clouds the
           sky,” Matt said. “Not just a mile away and not just a
           hundred miles away. Thousands of miles away, and
           not just for a day or two either.”

            “The concern is that the volcanic ash will cover the
           sun most places on earth,” Mom said. “Like it seems
           to be doing already here. And if it lasts long
           enough…”

            “Crops,” Matt said. “No sunlight, no crops. Nothing
           grows without sunlight.”

           ….”They’re starting to issue warnings,” Mom said.
            “The scientists on the radio. They say we should be
           prepared for major climatic changes. Drought’s a real
           possibility, and record cold temperatures. It’s already
           cooling off here. It was eighty-eight when I went to
           bed last night, and it’s seventy-two now. But feel how
           muggy it is. It hasn’t cooled off because of a
           thunderstorm. It’s cooled off because the sunlight
           can’t penetrate the ash in the sky” (121-122).

The plot of this book is filled with such realistic detail that one of my classmates commented, “I have noticed that I look at the moon a little differently now and wonder could the moon really be knocked off kilter and cause such havic [sic] on the Earth?” (Beaird). One of my favorite lines in this book is from Miranda’s diary entry of October 26. Two days before that, Miranda’s mom declares Indian summer when the temperature gets up as high as 29. On the 26th, though, the temperature drops back down, and Miranda writes, “It was 12 degrees this afternoon. I guess Indian summer was pretty short this year” (229).

Christmas is especially poignant. Christmas Eve night, the neighbors, who have never really known each other, all get together to go caroling. It’s so wonderful to see other people again, not just Miranda’s family members. “So much food. So much laughing. It was great” (281). Then Christmas Day, everybody has presents. That night, Miranda writes:

            “The Christmas after Mom and Dad split up, they both
           went crazy buying us presents. Matt, Jonny, and I
           were showered with gifts at home and at Dad’s
           apartment; I thought that was great. I was all in favor
           or my love being paid for with presents.

           This year, all I got was a diary and a secondhand
           watch.

           Okay, I know this is corny, but his really is what
           Christmas is all about” (255).

The winter wears on. No electricity, no heating oil, no gasoline, no water. Miranda’s family is slowly forced to cut back to starvation rations. They gradually cut back to only one meal a day, and finally down to only 5 meals a week. At the beginning of the winter, Miranda sulks and argues when her mother asks her to reduce her meals to leave more food for her little brother. But by the end of the winter, Miranda has nursed her family through a flu epidemic that killed most of the neighbors. She has single-handedly kept her family alive when the chimney catches on fire. She has matured enough now to admit that her little brother, Jonny, has the best chance of survival out of all of them. Miranda makes the conscious decision to sacrifice herself so that Jonny can have more food.

She has the emotional courage to set out on what she believes is a suicidal cross-country ski trip to town. She talks to no one but her older brother because she doesn’t want them to try to stop her.

            “”Do you really think you have the strength to make to
           town and back?” he asked.

           I wanted to say, No, of course I don’t and we both
           know it and that’s one reason why I’m going. I wanted
           to say, Stop me, because if I’m going to die, I want to
           die at home. I wanted to say, How could you have let
           this happen to me? As though it was Matt’s fault and
           he could have saved us somehow. None of which I
           said.

            “I know it’s crazy,” I said… How much longer can I
           last anyway? A week? Two? I’m willing to lose a few
           days for peace of mind. You understand that, don’t
           you?”

            “But if you can, you will come back,” he said after a
           long pause.

            “I hope I can,” I said. I’d rather be here. But if I can’t
           that’s okay, too.”

           ….Well that was it, wasn’t it? I was leaving home to
           give Jonny just a little better chance. We were
           starving ourselves to give Jonny just a little better
           chance.

           I … kissed him goodbye. “And I love you and Jonny
           and Mom more than I ever knew” (228-229).

The theme of this novel is man vs. nature and man vs. man, but mostly man vs. self. Miranda has some growing up to do, and the events caused by the asteroid strike help her maturity develop faster than if it hadn’t happened. If Miranda’s family hadn’t been isolated by the catastrophes that occur throughout the story, Miranda would have continued on her normal path. In January, her Mom tells her, “You’re a very special girl. No, you’re a very special woman, Miranda. Thank you” (311).

Miranda makes it to the City Hall, where she finds out that food is now being given away to all survivors. She takes food back to her starving family on a snowmobile. And Miranda has learned what the important things in life are. On her 17th birthday, Miranda writes the last entry in this journal:

            “…today, when I am 17 and warm and well fed, I’m
           keeping this journal for myself so I can always
           remember life as we knew it, life as we know it, for a
           time when I am no longer in the sunroom” (237).

Awards and Honors
Black-Eyed Susan Book Award, 2009; Winner High School Maryland.
Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, 2009; Winner Washington.
Hal Clement Award, 2006; Finalist United States.
Quill Awards, 2007; Nominee Young Adult/Teen United States.
Sheffield Children's Book Award, 2008; Shortlist Longer Novel United Kingdom.

Review Excerpts
Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2007)
In this taut survival story, an asteroid hits the moon, knocking it closer toward Earth, which results in cataclysmic natural disasters. Sixteen-year-old Miranda's journal entries provide a riveting account of how lack of information and resources, and, subsequently, loss of hope for the future shrink her world. Against mounting dismal conditions, her family's drawing together to find meaning in their altered lives is all the more triumphant.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2007)
When Miranda begins writing in her new diary, there are few surprises. She is an average teenage girl, living in an average Pennsylvania town, prone to adolescent self-absorption. But when an asteroid hits the moon, a nearly apocalyptic weather change occurs and her shift in attention is sudden and palpable. No one can predict the long-term outcome of the catastrophe. Mass hysteria is followed by the slowly dawning realization that things may not get better. Months go by and Miranda’s diary reveals the growing anxiety and fear within her family. There is scarcely power, the water supply is threatened, and meals soon need to be rationed to one or two cans of food a day. Her family survives illnesses and injuries, and the death of close friends, all the while cut off from knowledge of what is happening beyond their town. The sense of doom in this fast-paced, speculative novel is overwhelming, but so, too, is the humanity of its characters and the will to survive.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 18))
Sixteen-year-old Miranda begins a daily ten-month diary documenting the survival ordeal her rural Pennsylvania family endures when a large meteor's collision with the moon brings on destruction of the modern world and all its technological conveniences. The change in the moon's gravitational pull begins to cause natural havoc around the globe in the form of catastrophic tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes and other weather-related disasters. Miranda's American teen view gradually alters as personal security, physical strength and health become priorities. Pfeffer paints a gruesome and often depressing drama as conditions become increasingly difficult and dangerous with the dwindling of public and private services. Miranda's daily litany of cutting firewood, rationing canned meals, short tempers flaring in a one-room confinement is offset by lots of heart-to-heart talks about life and its true significance with her mother, older brother and religiously devout best friend. Death is a constant threat, and Pfeffer instills despair right to the end but is cognizant to provide a ray of hope with a promising conclusion. Plausible science fiction with a frighteningly realistic reminder of recent tragedies here and abroad.

Book Hook or discussion questions
Pair this book with Pfeffer's other books in this series, The Dead & the Gone (2008) and This World We Live In (due out in 2010).

Online Connections
Susan Beth Pfeffer's blog titled Meteors, Moons, and Me.

Sources:
Beaird, S. 10/24/2009. “Re” What may be – Life as we knew it.” TWU Fall 2009      Blackboard posting for LS5623 (Advanced Literature for Young Adults).

Sports, Adventure & Mystery: Vanishing Act

2009-10-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Feinstein, John. Vanishing Act. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. ISBN 97806375835926.

Plot Summary
Middle schoolers Stevie and Susan Carroll attend the US Open Grand Slam Tennis tournament as junior reporters. Media darling Nadia Symanova is the favorite to win, but on the way to her first match she disappears, the victim of a kidnapping. Who kidnapped her and what do they want? Stevie and Susan Carroll decide to find out, but then they find themselves in danger also. Who are the good guys and who are the badf guys?

Critical Analysis
First of all, I didn't like this book. I'm into neither tennis nor sportscasting, so this book's tournament action left me wondering when the game would be over and Feinstein would get back to 'the real action.' I agree totally with the remark Karen Leggett made in her reiew, "The story is slow to take off and often includes enough extraneous detail to read like a play-by-play account." The constant stream of names that I felt like I should recognize but didn't also left me frustrated, which is just what another reviewer, Elizabeth Bush, was talking about when she mentioned how "Feinstein continues to have a ball name-dropping, stirring real-life sports journalists and personalities into the fictional broth..." However, if your young adult IS into that sort of thing, this book will hold their iterest. The plot seems predictable, but just when you've resigned yourself to 'knowing' what will happen next, Feinstein throws in a plot twist, and more than once.

There are some funny running gags that most teens will relate to, such as every time Stevie tries to check in with his press credentials, the security guards can't believe that somebody as young as he is could possibly have valid credentials. Meanwhile, Susan Carroll, who looks mature for her age, gets in with no questions asked. How many teens do you know who can realte to that kinid of frustration?

The setting was unrealistic - I don't know too many parents who would send their 13 year old son from Pennsylvania to New York City for a whole week with only $250, and to stay with strangers. However, this would also appeal to teens who long for their own independence.

The story is told in a limited omniscient point-of-view. We are privy to Stevie's thoughts, and so we see the other characters through his perspective. Foir this reason we see almost no characterization of some of the newscasters mentioned since Stevie isn't very concerned with them in this story. However, we see lots of characterization of Susan Carroll and the tennis players in the tournament. Especially interesting is how Stevie's perception of Nadia Symanova changes. Stevies moves from "Stevie did not have a cursh on Symanova. That would have implied that he knew her or might somehow have a chance someday to even meet her" (4), to "It occured to him that he no longer even thought about Nadia Symanova that way. She was involved n soemthing dirty--or at least her family was--and there was no way for Stevie to see her as attractive anymore" (187).

The presence of certain adults in the plot also makes this book unrealistic. These adults either mysteriously appear and just as quickly disappearm, never to be seen again; or act so contrary to what another adult would do in this situation that it's hard to take these scenes seriously. For example, in Chapter 12, a USTA official named Mark Preston appears just long enough to get family credentials for Stevie and Susan Carroll to use to get into places where media is not allowed but family members are, then disappears, never to show up again. Huh? Who was that maked man? And after Stevie gets beaten up in the subway by two thugs who tell him not try to find out anything more about Nadia Symanove, the doctor who treats Stevie completely disregards the fact that Stevie is a minor and his parents legally have to give permission for him to treat Stevie. Every doctor knows this cold quite possibly result in the doctor's license being revoked. And yet, a doctor who routinely deals with minors in the tennis world doesn't know this?

According to Nilsen & Donelson, young adult mystery readers are expected to "suspend most of our disbelief" (200). Taken all together, these shorcomings were too great for me to enjoy this book. However, a young adult who enjoys mysteries or stories about sports might be willing to suspend disbelief and aactually enjoy the book.

Awards and Honors
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2007; Bank Street College of Education; United States.
Book Sense Children's Picks, Fall 2006; American Booksellers Association; United States.
Children's Choices, 2007; International Reading Association; United States.
Children's Pick of the List, 2006; NAIBA; United States.
Core Collection: Sports Fiction for Girls, 2007; Booklist; United States.
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to Ninth Edition, 2007; H.W. Wilson Company; United States.

Review Excerpts
Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Sep. 1, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 1))
Although too many logistical details slow the pace, sports fans will be fascinated by the insider's view of the tournament, and even teens ambivalent about sports will connect with the memorable, high-achieving kids and the messages about maintaining integrity versus selling out--in sports and in life.

Karen Leggett (Children's Literature, n.d.)
John Feinstein tells a very good story....The story is slow to take off and often includes enough extraneous detail to read like a play-by-play account, but this title will still be a good choice for readers who thrive on tennis, novels of suspense, or dreams of being a great sportswriter.

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 2006 (Vol. 60, No. 2))
Feinstein continues to have a ball name-dropping, stirring real-life sports journalists and personalities into the fictional broth, and even recruiting a pair of characters from his adult mystery Winter Games to serve as the kids’ New York guardians and journalist mentors during the Open. With only two sports down and so many more to go, readers can expect Stevie, Susan Carol, and their laptops to be back in the news soon.

Book Hook
Pair this book with John Feinstein's other books about teen reporter/sleuths Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson: Last Shot: A Final four Mystery (2005), Cover-up: Mystery at the Super Bowl (2007), and Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series (2009).

Online Connections
Teen Ink, a magazine, website and books written by teens since 1989. The nonfiction sports section of their website can be found here.

Sources
Nilsen, A.P. and Donelson, K.L. Literature for Today's Young Adults Eighth Edition. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2009.

Sports, Adventure & Mystery: I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You

2009-10-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Carter, Ally. I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You. New York: Hyperion, 2006. ISBN 1423100034.

Plot Summary
Cammie Morgan attends the Gallagher School for Exceptional Young Women in a fictional town called Roseville. Gallagher is secretly a school for spies, but the Roseville residents think it's a snooty private girl's school. Then Cammie meets Josh, a boy from Roseville, and all the rules change. Cammie needs to decide fast which world she wants to belong in, her world of spies, secrets, and espionage, or Josh's 'normal' world.

Critical Analysis
Cammie Morgan is smart, friendly and attends an exclusive girl’s school, The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. She also knows a huge secret—Gallagher Academy is actually a school for spies. Spying is the Morgan family business. Cammie’s father was killed on a spy mission. Her mother was also an active spy who retired when her husband died and is now the headmistress of Gallagher Academy. Spying is Cammie’s world. She like what she does. She’s good at what she does. She knows no other life.

Then one day, Cammie is on a class reconnaissance mission, and gets ‘made’ by a civilian. The civilian looks “like a cross between a young George Clooney and Orlando Bloom” (80), and his name is Josh. Josh has lived in Roseville his entire life, and he’s ‘normal.’

          ”Plain curtains? Striped curtains? What kind of society
          had I stumbled into? I should be getting COW extra
          credit for this! We walked farther, down a winding
          street with manicured lawns and perfect flower beds
          that couldn’t possibly have been mere miles from the
          Gallagher walls. I was getting an insider’s tour behind
          the picket fence. I was going where no Gallagher Girl
          (well, at least this Gallagher Girl) had ever gone
          before—into a normal American family” (187).

Cammie is suddenly exposed to a world she hardly had suspected existed. Yes, she knew she was different than other teenagers, but she had never realized just how different. She tries to exist in both worlds, but finally realizes that she needs to choose between one or the other.

The climax comes when the Gallagher girls go to town one Saturday, and Cammie is forced to choose between pretending she’s not a Gallagher girl, or telling Josh she’s been lying to him about who she is. She stands back while some of the town boys try to bully one of her classmates. Back at the school later, Cammie is ostracized by her friends, who feel that she’s betrayed them by choosing Josh over them. And Cammie has to admit to herself that they’re right. She finally makes her decision, even though somebody’s going to get hurt. She decides that spies can’t fall in love with civilians.

          ”I couldn’t see anything but Josh. I couldn’t hear
          anything but the fear in his voice when he said,
          “Cammie, tell me the truth.”

          The truth. I could hardly remember what it was. I’d been
          eluding it for so long that it look me a moment to
          remember what it was and what had brought me to that rooftop.

          I do go to the Gallagher Academy....”

          “I don’t believe you.” He didn’t sound hurt then—the words
          were a dare.

           “What do I have to say?“ I snapped. “Do I have to tell you
          that my father’s dead, and my mom can’t cook, and that
          these girls are the closest thing I have to sisters?...
          Do I have to say that you and I can’t ever see each other
          again? Because it’s true. It’s all true.” He reached out
          to touch me, but I jerked away, saying, “Don’t come looking
          for me, Josh. I can’t ever see you again.” And then I
          looked into his eyes for the first time. “And you’ll be
          better for it” (264).

But Cammie has forgotten one important thing: "the persistence of a regular boy who has the misfortune of loving an exceptional girl" (271). Josh comes to resuce her from what he thought was a kidnapping, but was actually just the final for Cammie's Covert Ops class.

After the dust settles (literally, since Josh drove a forklift through a wall to 'rescue' Cammie), Cammie and her mother have a long overdue talk. Not as a student/headmistress, but as a mother and daughter.

          "Cammie," she said, moving to sit beside me. "I'm not glad
          you lied to me. I'm not glad you broke the rules, but there
          is one part of this that has made me very proud..... Do you
          know that your dad and I weren't sure we wanted you to go to
          school here?...When we came here, I knew I'd be taking away
          everything that isn't inside these walls. I didn't want this
          to be the lnly life you know. Your dad and I used to talk
          about whether this was the best place for you.... But the
          thing I worried most about was that you'd spend your childhood
          learning to be hard and strong and never learn that it's okay
          to be soft and sweet. Doing what we do, it doesn't mean turning
          off the part of yourself that loves, Cam. I loved your father...
          I love your father. And you. If I thought you would
          have to give that up...to never know that...I would take you as
          far away from this place as we could go" (278-279).

So Cammie has learned something new about herself, her mother, and her world - there MUST BE room for love in it. However, at the end of the story, Josh has been told everything by Mrs. Morgan and one of Cammie's teachers. From Cammie's CovOps report of the night's occurences, we know that there is a 'memory modification" tea that leaves its drinker with absolutely no memory of the few hours before he or she drank the tea. On his way out the door of Mrs. Morgan's office, Josh's final words to Cammie are, "Oh, tell your mom thanks for the tea" (283). It'll be interesting to read the sequel to this book and find out if that was a teaser or true foreshadowing.

Awards and Honors
Black-Eyed Susan Book Award, 2009; Winner Grades 6-9 Maryland.
Kansas Notable Book, 2007; Winner United States.
Amelia Bloomer Project, 2007; Feminist Task Force SSRT ALA; United States.

Review Excerpts
Mary Loftus (Children's Literature, n.d.)
Clearly chick lit for teens, this story is amusing with engaging characters and a lighthearted plot.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2006)
Cammie attends Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a school allegedly for geniuses but actually for spies. The coursework is rigorous, the teachers are experts in their fields, and her mother is the headmaster. Disappointingly, Cammie's undercover skills are only used to investigate a boy she likes, but the book--more romance than spy thriller--is still entertaining.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, May 2006 (Vol. 40, No. 3))
This is escapist fiction for those who like unusual school stories.

Book Hook
This book is just the first in a series of adventures featuring Cammie and the Gallagher Academy. Ally Carter has also written Cross my Heart and Hope to S (2007) and Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (2009). Both books are published by Hyperion.

Online Connections
The CIA actually offers a program for high school seniors called the Undergraduate Scholarship Program. For more information, click here.

Sports, Adventure & Mystery: Double Helix

2009-10-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Werlin, Nancy. Double Helix. New York: Dial Books, 2004. ISBN 1423100034.

Plot Summary
Eighteen year old Eli takes a year off from college to work in a bioengineering lab. While there, he finds that his family has been involved with the head of the lab, Dr. Wyatt, before. Now his mother is dying of Huntington's Disease, a genetic disorder. Does Dr. Wyatt's lab hold the secrets to Eli'a past, his future, or both?

Critical Analysis
Eli Samuels has just graduated from high school. His mother, Ava, is dying of a genetic disorder known as Huntington’s Disease. When offered the chance to work at a genetic research facility, a job that most graduate students would jump through flaming hoops for, Eli takes the position despite his father’s objections. Eli wants to help out with the finances since his mother’s illness has inflicted a major blow on the family’s finances. He is stunned when his father is adamant about him not working at Wyatt Transgenics Institute. Even more frustrating, Eli’s father refuses to explain his objections to working with Dr. Wyatt. All he’ll tell Eli is that his objections are not because of some past involvement between Eli’s mother and Dr. Wyatt. But that’s not enough for Eli.

           Later on, I would remember that moment as the
            turning point. Odd, because I’d have thought other
            moments would feel more decisive. But that was the
            one that stood out in my memory, the moment in
            which what I said, what I decided was the single vital
            factor. The moment in which I stood with words—
            important, life-changing words—on my lips just
            waiting to come out.

            I’ll quit the job. I’ll do what you ask, without any more
            questions. And you owe me.

            But I didn’t say them. Instead, I said, “I’m sorry, Dad. I
            want to do this. If it had been about Mom—well, I
            would have quit. But since you say it isn’t…”

            I waited. I gave him a chance to tell me what it was
            about.

            He didn’t. After a moment, he simply picked up the
            William Blake, opened it and began to read.

            I left his room, closing the door behind me. I went to
            mine. I sat there in the dark, on the edge of my bed.

            I was sorry to hurt my father. But I wanted to know Dr.
            Wyatt. There was at that time no force on earth that
            could have kept me from getting to know Dr. Wyatt
            and the world that he was promising to me.

            And so, the next Monday, I went to my new job at
            Wyatt Transgenics.” (60-61)

Eli is so tired of being treated like a child. If his father would only treat him like an adult, give him rational, adult reasons to not work for Wyatt instead of his silent agreement “to just let me do what I had decided to do” (70). Eli feels his father doesn’t understand him.

Eli wants to feel like he contributes to the family’s well-being. He has learned about all the bills that have been accumulated from his mother’s illness and unwillingly resents both his mother for causing them, and his father for not letting him know. Their financial affairs are one reason why Eli wants to put college off for a year. After his mother’s death, Eli wants his father to get on with his life. But his father is stuck in mourning for his mother.

           “He had thrown so much of his life away. Was he
           planning to salvage what was left? To indulge, finally
           in wine, women, and song? He deserved all of that.
           He’d been good to her. To me. He could have a full
           life now, a new life. He ought to want it.

           But as far as I could tell, he was still stuck dwelling
           on the past.

           She was an extraordinary person.

           So what? Who cared? She’d caused devastation
           and destruction. She’d wrecked lives, mostly his...
           She hadn’t meant to do that, of course. But she had
           all the same.

           Well. One thing I knew, I could make sure that my
           father didn’t have any additional burdens, any
           additional debt, any additional heartache, any
           additional life wreckage. Enough was enough.
           I was eighteen, and employed. In every way, I could
           take care of myself now. I could move on, and in
           doing so, force him to do it, too.” (141-142)

While working at Wyatt Transgenics, Eli inadvertently discovers that he is actually a genetic experiment conducted by Dr. Wyatt at his mother’s request to ensure that she would have a child without Huntington’s Disease, which kills its victims early in life after they go insane first.

While trying to learn more, Eli also learns that the cost for providing his parents with a healthy child (himself) was having to give Dr. Wyatt all of his mother’s other ova. Eli’s father didn’t find out about that horrible price until Ava was pregnant with Eli. Eli finally learns the truth.

            “”I didn’t know at first.” There was a pleading note in
           my father’s voice. “I swear to you, Eli, I didn’t know
           about that part of the bargain until after Ava was
           pregnant with you and Wyatt had assured us that you
           did not have HD. Ava knew I’d have a problem with
           their agreement. She told me it was her business,
           hers and Wyatt’s. Her body, her choice. Not mine. I
           was only involved in your conception.”

            “But I dream about them,” my father said starkly. “I
           feel that they…wherever, they are, maybe still in
           embryo, frozen—that they are my children somehow.
           Not genetically, I know that. But my responsibility.
           And I’ve failed them, because…because he’s not a
           man you would trust with a child. I knew that the
           minute I met him. Brilliant, yes. But that’s not
           important. At least, I don’t think it is.”

           He swallowed. “Eli, we let him have the eggs. We
           gave him dozens of potential children to play with, in
           exchange for you.”” (205)

Wow. Talk about a climactic moment! Finally, Eli understands his father’s feelings - Eli has other siblings all over the country that have also been genetic experiments of Dr. Wyatt’s, and his father has had to live with this knowledge all these years. Dr. Wyatt views these children as scientific experiments, and has been involved in the other children’s lives since they were born. But Eli, Eli was the one who Dr. Wyatt “considered… irretrievable data.” (220). That’s why Dr. Wyatt offered him a job too tempting to turn down. And that’s why Dr Wyatt is suddenly so much a part of Eli’s life. And that’s why Eli’s father can’t bring himself to even be in the same room with Dr. Wyatt.

While spending time with Dr. Wyatt, he also meets a 19 year old girl, Kayla, who is related to him genetically. In Dr. Wyatt’s words, they “have some DNA in common” (179). ” While trying to find out more about Kayla’s conception, Eli also learns that Kayla DOES have Huntington’s disease. She was Dr. Wyatt’s first, unsuccessful attempt at producing an embryo without the chromosomal marker. Dr. Wyatt expected the embryo to not be viable, but instead, Kayla has grown up into a beautiful, intelligent young woman.

When Kayla learns that she has Huntington’s Disease and Dr. Wyatt could have possibly prevented it, she is so furious that when Dr. Wyatt shows up in the room where Eli and Kayla are looking at Dr. Wyatt’s notes, Kayla tries to kill Dr. Wyatt. As Eli grabs Kayla, Dr. Wyatt escapes. Kayla and Eli turn over their discoveries to the police, but keep a backup CD of the notes for themselves, to try to figure out where they fit into Dr. Wyatt’s scheme.

Eli not only holds himself emotionally back from his father, but from his girlfriend, Viv, also. Eli tells himself that it’s for her own good that she doesn’t’ know about his mother, and that she doesn’t know that there is no future in a relationship with him. During Eli’s voyage of self-discovery though, he realizes that he hasn’t held back from Viv to protect her, but to protect himself from getting hurt by yet one more person who loves him. Ironically, after Eli finally trusts Viv enough to tell her about himself, it’s Viv who brings father and son together for the talk they should have had long, long ago.

Eli has made quite an emotional journey during his employment at Wyatt Transgenics. He began as an 18 year old kid who thought he was mature enough to handle the world alone, by himself. By the end of the story, he has matured enough to realize that being adult doesn’t mean you have to rely only on yourself and never on others. Eli has Viv, he has Kayla, and most of all, he has his father.

           "But we do have the data. We have each other. We
           have two healthy little sisters, in Chicago and in
           Edgecomb, Maine. And in Clearwater, Florida, and in
           Los Angeles, we have one little brother, and one infant
           sister, who have all sorts of problems….

            “And it’s not like there isn’t medical hope,” Viv says.
            “It’s not like scientific advancements are all suspect or
           evil. Far from it.”

           …We have the data, then and I will learn how to read
           it and I will learn what it means. Chromosome by
           chromosome, gene by gene, I will learn who and what
           we are. But no matter what I learn, no matter what the
           gene map says, I don’t believe it predetermines who
           we—who anyone—can be. l don’t believe it.

           I have only to look at my father, after all. We don’t
           know the exact nature of our genetic relationship, my
           father and I—or even if there is one. We don’t know
           the extent of Wyatt’s tinkering with me. But that most
           profoundly does not matter. Jonathan Samuels is my
           father. I am his son.

           We chose.

           I fight my way through the snow and the wind and
           then I am home.” (247-248)

The setting is Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, which is a suburb of Cambridge. Since Harvard University and MIT are both located in Cambridge, this setting contributes a background atmosphere of intellectual intensity to the story. Eli also takes long walks along the Charles River when he needs to be alone, but otherwise, this setting is fairly insignificant. The point of view is first person, narrated by Eli Samuels, the protagonist.

The themes of this story are man vs. nature, man vs. man, but primarily man vs. self. Eli must come to grips with the facts of his existence and decide for himself how this will affect his future. By the end of the story, Eli has decided that he still wants to work in the biogenetics field, and in the final scene, we find Eli meeting with an MIT bioethics professor to request admission to her usually senior and graduate level bioethics seminar. The words he says to her contrast directly with the conversation he had with Dr. Wyatt the night of Eli’s graduation from high school.

           On the night of Eli’s graduation:
            “I looked him right in the eye. “I think that, as a
           species, we visit this topic in fiction over and over not
           because—or not only because—we’re obsessed with
           the human soul. I think that just gives us a framework
           for discussion. The real reason is because, as a
           society, we’re on the verge of making the creation of
           life, by humans, reality. We’re trying to find ways to
           talk about it with people who aren’t necessarily able to
           understand the science—because we all have to
           participate. As a species, I mean. We all have to
           decide what’s best to do.” I wanted to add, what
           choices to make, but then I remembered that Dr.
           Wyatt had just said that he didn’t really believe in free
           choice. Just in neurons.” (53-54)

           At the end of the story:
            ““I don’t trust us,” I say. My voice cracks. “I don’t trust
           us to be able to decide. Even with the best of
           intentions—we might think we’re eradicating suffering,
           but are we? We’re only human—we don’t know what’ll
           happen even tomorrow. How can we make decisions
           that will affect all our descendants forever? How can
           we possibly know what’s best?”” (245)

The story definitely raises some intriguing ethical points. Most older teenagers will enjoy this book and its call to readers to decide for themselves where they stand on the issue of genetic manipulation. Reading about how it could affect the life of other teens just like themselves makes these issues all the more real.

Honors
Best Books for Young Adults, 2005; American Library Association YALSA; United States.
Booklist Book Review Stars, Feb. 1, 2004; United States.
Capitol Choices, 2005; The Capitol Choices Committee; United States.
Children's Literature Choice List, 2005; Children's Literature; United States.
Core Collection: Character Education In YA Fiction, 2006; American Library Association-Booklist; United States.
Editors' Choice, 2004; American Library Association Booklist; United States.
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Ninth Edition, 2005; H.W. Wilson; United States.
School Library Journal Book Review Stars, March 2004; Cahners; United States.
School Library Journal: Best Books, 2004; Cahners; United States.
Senior High Core Collection, Seventeenth Edition, 2007; The H. W. Wilson Co.;
United States.
Senior High School Library Catalog, Sixteenth Edition, 2004 Supplement, 2004; H.W. Wilson; United States.
Top 10 Youth Mysteries, 2004; American Library Association-Booklist; United States.

Review Excerpts
Stephanie Zvirin (Booklist, Feb. 1, 2004 (Vol. 100, No. 11))
Werlin has proved herself to be one of the best youth thriller writers working today. … She is a master at building suspense and creating the sort of clever manipulations that keep readers eagerly turning the pages…. A solidly crafted, thoughtful novel featuring a clever, obsessed kid who finds truths, small and large, about life, family, and, of course, himself.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 2))
Tragedy and family politics combine for a suspenseful exploration of love and bioethics…. Thought-provoking, powerful, and rich in character.

Sarah Briggs (The ALAN Review, Winter 2005 (Vol. 32, No. 2))
This gripping novel explores some serious themes such as morality and the ethics of genetic engineering. It is also a story of the ties of love and loyalty that bond a father and son.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 2004 (Vol. 57, No. 6))
Werlin carefully crafts this emotion-packed and thoughtful story…. The taut pacing gives this thrilleresque appeal, the emotional intensity and contemporary plausibility will suck in even readers usually skittish about speculative fiction, and the challenging exploration of genetic ethics will definitely prompt some thoughtful discussion.

Book Hook
1. Pair this book with Frankenstein by Steve Parker (Copper Beech Books, 1995).
2. More advanced readers will also enjoy reading the original Frankenstein, or, The
    Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, available in many versions.

Online Connections
1. For information on the Human Genome Project, click here.
2. In 2005, a group of middle-schoolers and research scientists from Harvard and MIT     met to discuss the ethics of topics such as stem cell research, bioenginering,
    etc. The article summarizing this discussion can be found here.

Realism, Romance, and Censhorship: Girl 15, Charming, but Insane.

2009-09-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Limb, Sue. Girl 15, Charming but Insane. New York: Delacorte Press, 2004. ISBN 0385732147.

Plot Summary
Jordan's best friend, Flora, is beautiful, smart, everything Jordan wishes she could be. But when Flora tries to become a singer in her boyfriend's band, Jordan learns that looks and intelligence aren't everything. Sometimes, what you've really wanted has been there all along...

Critical Analysis

The plot of Girl, 15, Charming But Insane, is about a normal (?) 15 year old, Jess Jordan, who is trying to reconnoiter the whys and wherefores of growing up. First crush, first love, parents’ odd foibles, best friends who don’t know they’re perfect, trying to figure out who she is, they’re all in here. The story is told from the limited omniscient point of view, so the reader is privy to Jess’s view of her slightly crazed world. One of the funniest moments in the story is when Jess goes to a party after having stuffed her bra with minestrone soup in sandwich bags. During the party, a particularly obnoxious boy squeezes her breast and the bags burst all over the boy and Jess. Jess goes to the bathroom to clean herself up, removing her top and bra. She later finds out that somebody had placed a hidden video camera in the bathroom, and the video was going to be seen by everybody who was anybody among Jess‘s circle of acquaintances.

          ”She didn’t have to worry about being sick on CCTV. What she had
     done was much, much worse. She had stripped to the waist. She had
     thrown her homemade bra inserts down the loo. And she had washed
     minestrone off her boobs—-while talking to them and calling them
     Bonnie and Clyde! Jess wondered how far it was to the nearest
     nunnery, because her life was definitely over.” (65).

The book’s style flows like Jess’s life, in a series of ups and downs. One moment she’s in total despair, the next she’s elated. She has an argument with her mom about giving up her bedroom to her Granny, storms out and spends the night at a friend’s house. One the way home the next morning, she daydreams in the “they’ll be sorry” mode, until she reaches her house. “By the time she got home, her insides had screwed themselves up into a dreadful knot, and she wished she hadn’t eaten…”(43). Then she walks in and finds a note from her mom telling her Jess didn’t have to take the dreaded small bedroom after all. “Tears of joy ran down Jess’s cheeks. Her mum was so kind! Jess loved her so much!” (44) Within 5 minutes, Jess has gone from the pits of despair to the heights of ecstasy. For those of us who have already finished with the roller-coaster ride of adolescent hormones, this book is poignantly reminiscent. But for teens that are still deep in the throes of puberty, reading about the realistic mood swings of another ‘normal’ teen can be helpful – “Hey, other kids feel this way, too! I’m not so strange after all.”

Later in the story, Jess realizes that she is a very funny person. One of her teachers. Mr. fFthergill, encourages her to do a standup routine for the school show, but Jess is taken ill and unable to perform the routine. Mr. Fothergill, who has a copy of Jess’s standup routine, “Girl, 15, Charming but Insane,” gives it to Flora, Jess’s perfect, beautiful, gets-all-the-breaks friend. Sure enough, Flora steals the show.

          “The thought of Flora doing her stand-up routine was just
     absolute torture. It made it worse that the feeling was kind of
     selfish, and Jess felt ashamed of herself. It was all her own work,
      and though she had really loved writing it, she had been looking
     forward to getting up on the stage and performing it to a live
     audience more than she had ever looked forward to anything.
     She hated Flora for having stolen it. She couldn’t help it.
     She knew it wasn’t Flora’s fault. Mr. Fothergill had asked her
     to do it. But Jess simply hated her.“ (192).

Not only is it tough enough being an adolescent, but it’s even tougher when you have a wonderful, beautiful friend like Flora who can’t help being perfect. But learning who your real friends are and how to deal with their quirks is the theme of this book. For young adults who are trying on different aspects of the world to see how they fit, this novel shows them that no matter who you are or how you act, your real friends will always remain true to you.

Awards and Honors
Heartland Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, 2006; Finalist United States.

Review Excerpts
Frances Bradburn (Booklist, Sep. 15, 2004 (Vol. 101, No. 2))
...Limb's novel features Jess Jordan, big of bum and small of boob, who covets her best friend Flora's body, beauty, and popularity. Jess is ... friends with Fred, the class clown and nerd. After Flora confesses a crush on Fred, Jess suddenly realizes what everyone else has known for years: she and Fred are perfect together! Limb's characters are memorable. Jess is funny although occasionally over the top; her dad, whom we meet via his daily horoscopes, which delineate the chapters, is funny, too, but unreliable; and her peacenik librarian mother is a source of both embarrassment and security. Most endearing is Fred, whose wit, integrity, intelligence, and outward confidence earn him the love and respect of his peers and probably of readers, too. Full of bawdy humor, this is a charming, easy read that handles issues of body image, popularity, and adolescent insecurity with humor.

Donna Freedman (Children's Literature)
This book will no doubt be compared to Bridget Jones' Diary, and with good reason: it's written as the journal of a misfit-in-her-own-mind English gal who's at war with her own body and looking for love in all the wrong places. But Limb's story succeeds on its own as a hilariously droll and at times touching tale that hits all the usual teen-angst stops: parties, clothes, embarrassing parents and, of course, snogging.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 14))
Plucky and mouthy, Jess Jordan manages to get herself in a variety of messes, mostly having to do with boys. Convinced that she is hopeless compared to her best friend, Flora, she relies on her humor and dry wit to stay afloat. She soon finds that while her mouth can get her in trouble, it can also get her the kind of attention she wants. Romance blooms in improbable places as Jess makes it through a long spring full of funny adventures and lucky mishaps. A tendency towards an easy laugh keeps the story rolling, but also keeps it from reaching any depth. Timely references to pop culture will cause this one to date quickly, but an occasional well-crafted scene and witty dialogue help it along.

Book Hook

Sue Limb has also written a prequel and two sequels to this book:
1. Girl, Barely 15: Flirting for England,
2. Girl, (Nearly) 16, Absolute Torture, and
3. Girl, Going on 17, Pants on Fire.
If you liked this book about teen-aged English schoolgirls, try Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison.

Online Connections
Sue Limb's website.

Realism, Romance, and Censorship: Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle

2009-09-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle. New York: Hyperion, 2004. ISBN 0786809183.

Plot Summary
In this hilarious sequel to Son of the Mob, Vince has escaped his New York mobster family roots and taken off for his freshman college year in California. But when his older brother shows up with homemade ziti and some 'Uncles," Vince is quickly and unwillingly drawn back into "the family business." Throw in a gorgeous undercover FBI agent, a roommate who is the son of a popular but secretly corrupt Congressman, and the foibles of film school, and Vince wonders if he'll even make it through his first semester. At the end of the book, though, he is left with a new understanding of how much his father really does care for him, despite his Godfather persona.

Critical Analysis
Vince Luca has escaped his Mafioso roots back in New York to come to California, only to find his past coming after him. Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle is filled with “cardboard exaggerations” (Vardell, 2003) such as Mafia thugs with hearts of gold, a California beauty of the stunning starlet variety, and assorted clueless college students. The movie-making industry is based on illusions and making things seem larger than real life. Vince wants to make movies. But his life IS a movie. When he despairs of ever completing his film class project, Vince turns in a film of an actual crime taking place, courtesy of some of his “Uncles” from New York. While this desperate ploy wins him accolades from his film professor, the Uncles later steal the tape back –- after all, it’s “evidence.” Meanwhile, Vince’s girlfriend is caught up making her own movie debut, his best friend has made a new, very suspicious (to Vince, at least) friend in Las Vegas, and Vince’s roommate is spiraling downward into Vince isn’t sure what kind of mental state. Sounds like a B movie from the 1950s.

Even though both the plot and characters seem over the top, these exaggerations work on a visceral level. How many teens have ever wished they belonged to any family but their own? Vince has this same desire, except when he talks about family, he’s talking about the Family, with a capital F. Reading about Vince and his Family problems shows other teens that their own families maybe aren’t as bad as they could be. At the end of the story, Vince is left with a new understanding of how much his father loves him.

          “Crowded out by so many other revelations, the real top story of
     tonight is just beginning to sink in.

          My father was willing to take a bullet for me.” (240)

This story is told in the first person point of view by Vince. His laidback approach to life is obvious in the narration. He’s probably seen things other people can only imagine, so nothing should phase him, right? Well… Let’s let Vince tell the story of when his girlfriend came to dinner at their house in New York for the first and only time.

          “And then the meal is seasoned with a little dash of the vending
     machine business.

          There’s a pounding at the door, and in staggers Benny the Zit, who
     sometimes does odd jobs for Tommy. He looks like something out of
     Dawn of the Dead-—covered from head to toe in blood, with a
     stainless-steel corkscrew buried in his neck up to the third spiral.

          My father, who just turned sixty and claims to be slowing down,
     leaps out of his chair, charges across the foyer, and leaves his feet
     like an NFL linebacker. He hits Benny right between the numbers,
     driving him back outside. The door slams shut behind them.

          “Old family friend.” Mom tells Kendra confidentially. “Poor boy
     cut himself shaving.”

          From our front stoop comes an earsplitting scream as Dad yanks
     the corkscrew from Benny’s flesh.

          Mom has an explanation for this, too. “Owls. They‘re all over the
     neighborhood.”

          For the rest of the meal, we pretend to concentrate on our food,
     and not the howls of agony that come as my father, who includes
     amateur surgery on his list of talents, stitches up Benny the Zit in
     our not-very-sterile garage. Kendra hangs tough, but at one point,
     I look over, and she’s gone so pale that she appears to have no
     lips.

          She’s still a little shaky when I drop her at home. “Is your house
     like that every night?”

          “No,” I deadpan.; “Mom only makes gnocchi on special occasions.”
     And we crack up laughing.

          Mom hands down her judgment that night. “A beautiful girl—a
     lovely person. Don’t bring her here no more. Do her a favor.” (19-20)

And other teens think their families are strange? Maybe not as much as they first thought after reading this book. Between the hilarious episodes and farce, there’s a definite message in this story, that family is family, whether it’s spelled with a capital F or not.

Awards and Honors
M. Jerry Weiss Book Award, 2007; Winner Grades 7-12 New Jersey.

Review Excerpts
Todd Morning (Booklist, Oct. 1, 2004 (Vol. 101, No. 3))
The complicated plot involves the kidnapping of a union boss, the unmasking of a seemingly high-minded congressman, and Vince's brief fling with a beautiful FBI informant. By the end, Vince has managed to sort through the thickets of corruption, thievery, and colossal misunderstandings, finding that his first semester of college has been much more lively than the average freshman's. Korman delivers many funny lines throughout as he deftly balances satirical elements with an action-packed story.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 17))
Korman's cleverly conceived and plotted followup to Son of the Mob (2002) will keep fans in stitches as hero Vince Luca, the son of a Long Island-based mafia boss, again tries unsuccessfully to extricate himself from "The Life." Determined to leave all things mob behind him, Vince crosses the continent to study film in California but soon finds himself up to his camera lens in dirty doings. Worse, the love of his life, who also happens to be the daughter of the FBI agent investigating his father, is starring in a pretentious classmate's film project and no longer has time for him. Although the focus is on funny, to his credit Korman doesn't ignore the harsher realities of the underworld nor the uneasy alliance between powerful fathers and their struggling-to-define-themselves sons.

Leslie McCombs (VOYA, December 2004 (Vol. 27, No. 5))
Vincent Luca is off to college at last… Unfortunately for Vince, one cannot escape the mob that easily. In no time at all, his oldest brother, Tommy, and a flood of "uncles" start appearing at his dorm, armed with trouble and his mother's famous five-cheese baked ziti. Vince is certain that they are not there for a vacation to Disneyland. But Vince has his own problems when his roommate's goddess of a girlfriend starts chasing after the son of the mob. Vince spends his first semester away from home tying to retain his own girlfriend, avoid his roommate's girlfriend, and figure out what his father is up to….The complicated plot is neatly bound together by one-liners and awkward situations that Vince cannot seem to avoid, no matter how hard he tries. Each character is portrayed with deft touches of reality that mix perfectly with the clever comedy of errors. It is easy to relate to Vince's problems with his father, friends, and girlfriend. Korman's latest offering is a wonderful sauce filled with brilliant characterization, sneaky plot twists, and humor that will make teens fall off their chairs with laughter.

Book Hook

If you enjoyed this book, try its prequel, Son of the Mob (2002).
Korman has also written many other books for middle and high school, among them, One False Note in the "39 Clues" series and "on the Run," a series of books about teen siblings Aidan and Meg Falconer who get involved with the FBI when their parents are imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit.

Online Connections
Gordon Korman's official website, including his brand new blog.

Source
Vardell, Sylvia. 2003. Texas Woman's University. LS 5623 Adv. Lit for Young Adults. Online Lectures > Module 2: Realism, Romance & Censorship > Evaluation Criteria. Accessed 9/22/2009.

Realism, Romance, & Censorship: The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

2009-09-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Lyga, Barry. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. ISBN 0618723927.

Plot Summary
Fanboy is a geek and more intelligent than even most of his teachers, which makes him an easy target for bullies. He's kept a "List" of students, teachers and other people who have made his life miserable since 6th grade. He fantasizes about the school being taken over in a Columbine like incident and all the members of the List being struck down in the resultant gunfire. When he first meets Goth Girl aka Kyra, they initially bond over their similar fantasies of the school being violently taken over. But Kyra doesn't have a List, though. She wants everybody in the school to die. This is the story of how the two teens help each other, but in the end, just as in real life, both Fanboy and the readers of this story are left wondering if it's enough.

Critical Analysis
The plot of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl is very realistic in today's world of Columbine and similar incidents. A Google search for "Columbine wannabes" turned up about 576,000 hits. And almost everybody over the age of 18 can remember at least one incident of feeling alienated and different in high school. In this novel, feelings of wanting to actually destroy those who are making them feel that way are crucial to the plot. Donnie, nicknamed Fanboy by Kyra, fantasizes about somebody else taking over the school and himself being the hero of the day, while Kyra, the Goth Girl, has even stronger fantasies about doing the shootings herself. The problem that these 2 main characters have to deal with is that they both know, on some level, that these feelings are 'wrong.' How each of them deal with those feelings and their awareness of this 'wrongness' is the main storyline. There are also minor storylines about how Fanboy copes with his mother's pregnancy and new husband (the step-fascist), two-faced friends, clueless teachers, and adults who refuse to see him as anything more than a child.

The climax of the book takes place when Brian Michael Bendis, a real-life graphic novelist, refuses to read Fanboy's graphic novel. Feeling hurt and stunned by the rejection of his idol, Fanboy's feelings change. He now steps over the line and wants to hurt somebody himself instead of relying on faceless others to do the shooting for him.

           "I want to kill them all. No, better yet, I want to die, No, even better
     than that: I want to kill them and then die. I thought high school was the
     end of it, the end of the bullshit cliques and the groups and kewl kids.
     But it's not. It's just the beginning. It's just the beginning and it only gets
     worse from here. College won't be any better and after college won't be
     any better and I might as well finish it. Finish it now. There's no point.
     I'll always be a loser. I'll never have friends, real friends, friends I can
     keep." (242-3).

Only after Fanboy realizes that Kyra has stolen his talisman, his "totem," the bullet he's been carrying around since 6th grade, does he snap out of this dangerous line of thought. He realizes that rough as he may have it, maybe Kyra has it rougher. He goes looking for her to prevent what he's worried she'll do. But he can't get any adults to listen to his concerns for Kyra. Not even Kyra's father seems to believe him. When he finally finds Kyra and confronts her with his worries for her, she strikes back at him both physically and verbally.

          "Go away," she whispers, and stands up.

          "I'm trying to help you." I scramble to my feet, the moment lost.
     So close. "I'm just trying to help."

          "I don't need your help, fanboy."

          "You need someone's help, and I'm the only one around you haven't
     managed to scare off."

          "Bite me. Here." She flips the bullet into the air and I reach out
     for it as my lower gut explodes in pain and a familiar agony. I
     swallow the air, claw for breath and collapse to the ground. She
     got me right between the legs while I was distracted by the bullet....

          And she's gone" (306).

Fanboy finally manages to get home after Kyra's attack. Once there, he finds a text message from Kyra. She's still alive. He greets his mother and at the very end of the book, he finally asks his mother for the very first time if he can feel the baby in her belly. This is a very important passage in the book because the first time Lyga writes a scene showing interaction between Fanboy and his mother, Fanboy rejects the baby and his mom's attempts to bring peace between her son and husband. Fanboy has come a long way from who he was at the beginning of the book. Bendis's rejection, the interactions with Kyra, even finding out that his step-father isn't as bad as he always thought - all of these incidents have led him to the moment when he can finally accept himself.

One interesting thing about this story is how Lyga uses two techniques to hook the reader into caring about Kyra, this deeply troubled and suicidal teen. The first one is that the story is told in the first person narrative by Fanboy. As a result, we don't learn enough about Goth Girl and her feelings, just what Fanboy guesses at with his limited knowledge of girls specifically and the world in general. The second technique Lyga uses is to write an open ending to the novel. The reader is left hanging, not knowing what will happen to Kyra, but caring very deeply. For those readers, Lyga has written Kyra's story, due to be published in October 2009 under the title Goth Girl Rising.

The adults in this story, with the exception of Fanboy's mother, are left very much to our imagination. This is an effective literary device since Fanboy narrates this story, and he sees them as weak, characterless, shallow stereotypes. Cal, Fanboy's best friend, is characterized in greater detail. He is pictured as a typical middle class teen around Fanboy who changes into somebody totally different around jocks and girls.

          "Well, that's life being Cal's friend. When the jocks call, he goes.
     On the mean streets of hick rural high schools, you have to keep up
     your popularity and your cool factor if you want to survive as a black
     kid. And being seen with me--especially talking comic books--is the
     best way to see your cool stock plummet.

          Cal doesn't even really know he's doing it. I can tell because
     he never refers to it, never acts as if he's done anything wrong. It's
     just survival. Just high school crap.. It doesn't bother me. Not
     anymore. Not really." (12)

The story takes place in a "hick rural" town (12). Most rural towns don't have public transportation, so Fanboy, being only 15, has to rely on the schoolbus and other drivers to get him around. Some of the most interesting interactions between Kyra and Fanboy take place when Fanboy is trying to deal with Kyra's erratic driving in yet another new vehicle. We later find out that Kyra has been lying about all these cars and they might even have been stolen. This realization on Fanboy's part just deepens the concern that both he and the reader feel over Kyra's future. In another crucial scene that takes place in a car, Fanboy is going with Cal to a party. When Fanboy gets into the car, he finds that some of the jocks he's despised for years are also in the car. On the way to the party, Fanboy realizes that the boys who have picked on him for years pick on each other too, not just nerds. This is a real revelation to Fanboy.

          "I can't believe it. I just sit there, silent, as three of my
     tormentors gang up on a fourth. It's like I'm a diver who's
     been saved from a shark by other sharks.

          "--smells so bad," Lorenz is saying, "that his zipper has
     a hazard alarm hooked up to it!"

          More howls. Wow. The pecking order doesnt' just peck me.
     Cool." (255)

The theme of this book is deep and troubling - violence and/or suicide is not the answer. While many teens today are emotionally troubled, the two protagonists in this story seem especially troubled. By the end of the story, Fanboy has grown emotionally, and we as the readers wonder very much about whether Kyra has grown enough to survive.

The style is consistent with what I imagine a teen boy's thought processes are like. He knows that the Senior Goddess, Dina, is out of his league but he wants to look at her anyway. He doesn't because he's afraid somebody will notice and pick on him about it. He notices a female acquaintance's underwear on a regular basis and is embarrassed that he tries to keep track of the colors. He is both incredulous and embarrassed when Kyra exposes himself to Bendis, but can't stop thinking about the parts of her body that he saw. He fantasizes over Dina, the Senior Goddess, but the fantasy Dina keeps getting mixed up with the reality Kyra. Add this to his concerns over Kyra and her emotional fragility, and he feels like he doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing next. All the time, we as readers, are privy to this jumble of thoughts that are Fanboy's narrative.

Even though I haven't been a teenager in many, many years, this book touched me on a level that I haven't considered for some time. It reminded me of how tough it was, and still is, to be a teenager, a child/adult; and feel frustrated, useless, ignored, and uncertain. This book will also appeal to teens who will relate to Fanboy. Seeing that other teens, even if they are fictional, have the same confused feelings that they do and there's no happily ever after is a very strong feature of young adult problem novels. This book leaves us hanging, wanting more. What happened to Kyra, What happened to Fanboy?

Awards and Honors

Best Books for Young Adults, 2008; Young Adult Services Divison of the American Library Association.
Best Books of the Year, 2006; School Library Journal; United States
Book Sense Children's Picks, Fall 2006; American Booksellers Association; United States
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to Ninth Edition, 2007; H.W. Wilson Company; United States
School Library Journal Book Review Stars, November 2006; Cahners; United States
Senior High Core Collection, Seventeenth Edition, 2007; The H. W. Wilson Co.; United States
Teen Books, 2006; Bank Street College of Education; United States
Teen List, 2006; Bank Street College of Education; United States
Top 10 Art Books for Youth, 2006; American Library Association-Booklist; United States

Review Excerpts
Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Sep. 1, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 1))
Fifteen-year-old Fanboy is miserable at school, where he is bullied, and at home, with his pregnant mother and her husband, the "step-fascist." His only relief is the late hours spent creating his own comic book. Then he receives an instant message from Kyra, an enigmatic Goth who seems to be the only witness to the violence he endures, and the two form a cagey, charged friendship…. Lyga's debut novel is a darkly comic, realistic, contemporary story of bullying and a teen's private escape in artistic pursuits. Fanboy entertains plenty of violent thoughts. He carries a bullet, keeps a tally of his abusers ("The List"), and lashes out with sometimes-cruel remarks, which feel sharply authentic…. Fanboy's whip-smart, often hilariously sarcastic voice skillfully captures a teenager's growing self-awareness, and adds a fresh, urgent perspective to age-old questions about how young people cope with bullying and their own feelings of helplessness, rage, and being misunderstood as they try to discover themselves.

Amie Rose Rotruck (Children's Literature)
Fanboy's life consists of being abused in gym class every day, tortured by the very sight of a gorgeous girl named Dina, fighting with his mother and the stepfacist--stepfather, and working on a graphic novel that he hopes to show his idol, Brian Michael Bendis. Fanboy's only friend is Cal, who shares Fanboy's interest in comics and graphic novels but is also a jock. The only thing that keeps Fanboy sane is a bullet that he carries with him every day. One day Fanboy is e-mailed a picture of him being hit in gym class by “Promethea387” and asking “Why do you let them hit you?” This leads Fanboy to meeting Kyra, otherwise known as Goth Girl. The two of them begin a rather intense on-and-off friendship colored by their own issues and their feelings towards each other. Barry Lyga perfectly captures teen angst and ironic humor in this gritty portrayal of the life of a teenage geek. Fanboy's voice manages to be truly original and, at the same time, speaks to everyone who ever felt like a geek, even for a moment.

April Spisak (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2006 (Vol. 60, No. 4))
Fifteen-year-old Fanboy knows that he is an outsider: he is ignored or bullied at school, he feels misunderstood at home by his pregnant mother and her husband, whom Fanboy calls the “step-fascist,”…. Goth girl,” Kyra … sees Fanboy being bullied and decides to become his friend. Kyra won’t be ignored: she demands that Fanboy share his graphic novel with her and, though Fanboy doesn’t see this, she is clearly using their newfound relationship to avoid dealing with her own problems… Unfortunately, this Fanboy-centric narrative means that intriguing questions about Kyra’s behaviors go unanswered because Fanboy doesn’t think to ask them…. (The) characters strictly adhere to all-too-familiar stereotypes (of course the goth girl is a deeply troubled cutter and the comic-book geek has unrealistic expectations about the bodies of real women). Indeed, the most interesting and complex character in the novel is Fanboy’s stepfather, whose awareness that his wife “married down” is poignant, and whose patience with the years of unfriendliness from his stepson is never rewarded.

Book Hook
Goth Girl Rising (Fall 2009) is Kyra's story:
"After six months in the Maryland Mental Health Unit, Kyra Sellers, a.k.a. Goth Girl, is going home.

Unfortunately, she’s about to find out that while she was away, she lost track of more than time.... Kyra is back in black, feeling good, and ready to make up with the only person who’s ever appreciated her for who she really is.

But then she sees him. Fanboy. Transcended from everything he was into someone she barely recognizes.

And the anger and memories come rushing back.

Fanboy. The Spermling. Miss Powell. Roger.

Her mother.

There’s so much to do to people when you’re angry.

Kyra’s about to get very busy." (From "Goth Girl Rising" at Barry Lyga Dot Com)

Internet Connection
Barry Lyga's website

Sources
Lyga, Barry. Goth Girl Rising at Barry Lyga Dot Com. 2007 and Beyond. Accessed 9/26/2009 from http://barrylyga.com/new/goth-girl-rising.html.

Printz Award winner: Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snooging: Confessions of Georgia Richardson

2009-09-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. Harper Collins Publishers: New York, 2000. ISBN 006028871X.

Plot Summary
Georgia's life is taken up by boys she doesn't like kissing, boys she wishes she could kiss, a half-breed wildcat who won't stop stalking her neighbor's pets, friends in and out of love, suspicious teachers and clueless parents. In between all of that, she manages to write in her journal for a whole school year.

Critical Analysis
The main character in this book, Georgia, records her thoughts, actions, and dreams in her journal. She fantasizes about boys like Robbie, the Sex God working at the greengrocers in town (48). She deals with an unsympathetic mother who doesn’t tell her that her nose isn’t big. Instead she advises Georgia how to hide the bigness with makeup (45)!

Her father leaves for New Zealand to look for work and Georgia’s not sure she even misses him: “Watching TV Mum said, “Do you miss your dad?” and I said, “Who?” (148). Meanwhile, she’s sure her mother is having an affair with the remodeler, Georgia is stuck too often taking care of her little sister, Libby, and Robbie hates her. Her best friend is having an on again/off again relationship with Robbie’s brother Tom, and Georgia is forced to listen to every detail. That’s what best friends are for after all, right?

She hates Robbie, she loves him, she hates him, she loves him.

She tries to shave her legs for the first time and ends up bleeding all over her mom’s nightgown. When she tries to wash it, it shrinks to the size of a doll’s nightgown.

We’re not given physical descriptions of the girls in Georgia’s life, but we are given detailed information about the boys’ appearances. Rosie’s boyfriend Sven is “about eight feet tall” (122). Robbie is “very tall with long, black hair and really intense, dark-blue eyes, and a big mouth.” (48) Tom has sort of crinkly hair and great shoulders.” (47). Mark, a boy from the neighborhood looks like Mick Jagger (94). At the age of 14, Georgia looks at the boys much closer than she looks at her girlfriends.

The story takes place in England. The introduction announces to the reader that Georgia lives in England, and she’s aware that some of the American readers may not understand all the words she uses, so there’ll be a glossary at the end of the book. Since British schools all expect their students to wear uniforms, school uniforms, or the dislike of same, play a minor role in the story line.

The theme of this story is growing up and learning to be happy with yourself. Georgia doesn’t really know what she wants, but she’s willing to try just about anything to find out. No boyfriend? Maybe she’s destined to be a lesbian. Big nose? Disguise it behind a new haircut (that her Mum vetoes). Parents don’t understand you? That’s because they’re stuck in the 80s. This is a story of the day-to-day life and thoughts of a typical 14 year old girl. What makes this book appealing to YA readers is learning that Georgia and other girls feel the same confusion, mistrust, and joy at growing up as they do.

Awards and Honors

American Booksellers Book Sense Book of the Year (ABBY) Award 2002 Finalist Children's Literature United States
Garden State Teen Book Award 2003 Winner Gr. 9-12 (Fict.) New Jersey
Michael L. Printz Award 2001 Honor Book United States
Smarties Book Prize 1999 Bronze Award Winner Ages 9-11 United Kingdom
Soaring Eagle Book Award 2002 2nd Runner-up Grades 7-12 Wyoming
Virginia Young Readers Program 2003 Winner High School Virginia

Review Excerpts
Michael Cart (Booklist, July 2000 (Vol. 96, No. 21))
Although performer and comedy writer Rennison clearly owes a large debt to Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (1998), her Georgia is a wonderful character whose misadventures are not only hysterically funny but universally recognizable. This "fabbity, fab, fab" novel will leave readers cheering, "Long live the teen!"

Rebecca Joseph (Children's Literature)
In this diary- formatted novel, young Georgia details the ups and downs of her unique teenage English life. Complete with a helpful glossary, the novel comically covers a year in which Georgia's father moves to New Zealand (he wants the family to join him there), her cat Angus (of the title) launches an attack on the neighbor's poodle, and she falls in love with an older boy (leading to some snogging, that is, kissing for Georgia). As spunky Georgia describes her unusual exploits, she reveals the insecurity that plagues most teenagers.

Book Hook

For more adventures of Georgia Nicolson, read On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, also by Louise Rennison.
If you want to read other funny books about English girls in boarding schools, try one of the Calypso Chronicles books by Tyne O'Connell.

Online Connections
Louise Rennison's website

YA classic: The Chocolate War

2009-09-14T18:26:00.001-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War. New York: Pantheon Books: 1974. ISBN 0394828054.

Plot Summary
Freshman Jerry Renault bucks the system by refusing to participate in his school's annual 'voluntary' chocolate fundraiser. Archie Costello, leader of a secret organization known as the Vigils, declares psychological war on Jerry, with the unspoken approval of the assistant headmaster.

Critical Analysis
Jerry Renault has a poster in his locker that reads, "Do I dare disturb the universe?" (123) His life has been recently turned upside down by the death of his mother, and now he wonders if has what it takes to change the universe. His universe, up to this point, hasn’t been very satisfactory. After his mom’s death, his dad retreated into himself. The only emotional moment they’ve shared in the last few months was at Mrs. Renault’s funeral (57-58). Now Jerry sees a chance to change the status quo, his own little universe, at Trinity Prep School by refusing to participate in the traditional chocolate fundraiser sale. Unfortunately, he comes up against an assistant headmaster, Brother Leon, who has more at stake during this chocolate sale than he’s caring to admit. Archie Costello, the unofficial leader of the secretive group known as the Vigils, is coerced by Brother Leon into ensuring that all the chocolate gets sold. Resenting Brother Leon’s assumption that the Vigils will help him, Archie decides to strike back at Brother Leon. He assigns the task to Jerry of refusing to sell chocolates for ten days (81, 110). But when the ten days are over, Jerry continues to refuse to sell the chocolates. When he announces this decision on day 11 of the chocolate sale, the class is stunned. “Cities fell. Earth opened. Planets tilted. Stars plummeted. And the awful silence (112).

At first, the other boys at school think it’s a great idea. One after the other, they discuss the possibility of refusing to sell the chocolates, just like Jerry. But Archie’s also got a lot riding on this chocolate sale. He takes Jerry’s refusal to sell chocolate as a rejection of himself, the school, and the Vigils. Brother Leon is also on Archie’s back, wanting to know why Jerry won’t sell the chocolates that Brother Leon so desperately needs to get rid of. Archie, the master con artist, decides to exert peer pressure against Jerry by making chocolate selling the cool thing to do. But Jerry won’t be allowed to participate. He is beaten up, his locker is vandalized, and he is made to feel invisible. He enjoys the few hours of anonymity the invisibility offers him, but it’s over way too soon. Somebody tries to push him down the stairs at school. Boys start harassing him at home also, making threatening calls and standing outside at night calling his name. All this psychological harassment takes its toll on Jerry. He is persuaded by Archie to try and get his revenge against the school by fighting the school bully, Emile. But in the end, Archie is ultimately victorious. Mob mentality takes over the student body, and Jerry ends up being to the hospital in an ambulance after realizing that he has been reduced to no more than an animal performing for Archie and the other Vigils. And like the real world, sometimes, good doesn’t triumph over evil. Brother Leon, who was secretly watching the fight between Jerry and Emile, refuses to discipline Archie or even acknowledge that there is a problem at the school. A hard lesson to learn at the age of 15, one that Cormier’s readers are left wondering who besides Jerry learned anything.

The characters are true to life. Incidental characters are depicted as normal high school aged boys. My favorite character sketch is of Kevin Chartier in Chapter twenty-one. Kevin has developed the ability “to translate whatever [his mother] was saying into gibberish. She could talk her head off now and the words reached his ears without meaning. A wild trick” (131). The other boys talk about sports, girls, masturbate in their rooms at night, ignore their parents, and just want to fit in with the cool crowd. Even Emile, the ultimate bully, dreams of being accepted by Archie (49),

Brother Leon is the archetypical villain. He is the one responsible for loading the students down with double the amount of chocolate from previous years. He doubles the amount of chocolate for personal glory, i.e. to show he is worthy of being named headmaster after the current Headmaster is taken ill. He uses cunning psychological force to ensure that the sale goes as he wants it to, and when Jerry is punished at the end of the story, he smiles in sick pleasure from Jerry’s fate and awards Archie for doing his dirty work for him by letting Archie go unpunished for any wrongdoing (250). That’s part of the appeal of this self vs. society novel to young adult readers. The adults ostensibly in charge of the teenagers are either helpless, like Brother Jacques (250) or abuse their authority over the young people in their charge (Chapter 16). This book shows the YA readers that sometimes bullies win no matter if they’re your age or adults.

The theme of this tragic story is that even when we stand up for what we believe in, the world may sometimes beat us down. Jerry learns this lesson in a brutally traumatic fashion.

The setting, in a New England Catholic boys’ prep school, is important to the story. In today’s headlines, we read story after story of Catholic priests who have molested young men in their charge. While there is no allusion to sexual abuse in the story, the mental and physical abuse rings true to today’s headlines, contributing to this book’s reputation as one of the most challenged books for young adults.

Awards and Honors
Best Books for Young Adults, 1974 Young Adult Services Divison of the American Library Association.
Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High, Eighth Edition, 1982 National Council of Teachers of English; United States
Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High, Sixth Edition, 1976 National Council of Teachers of English; United States

Review Excerpts
"The characterizations of all the boys are superb... This novel [is] unique in its uncompromising portrait of human cruelty and conformity."-School Library Journal, starred review

"The novel is cleverly written with a good sense of the realistic and a good ear for dialouge, qualities which will attract any reader."-Bestsellers

"Robert Cormier has written a brilliant novel."-Children's Book Revie[sic] Service -- Review (Amazon.com)

Discussion Questions

There are no main female characters in this book, partly because Trinity is a boys' school. Yet the Trinity boys often discuss girls. Jerry wishes he could talk to the girl near the bus stop. Janza watches girls as they walk by, and Archie won't let anyone touch him except certain girls. What function(s) do you think girls play in the novel?
Why do you think Archie is repulsed by human sweat? What do you think this says about Archie as a person?
Archie's greatest strength is in exploiting other people's weaknesses. Why do you think Archie does this? Why do you think he needs to manipulate every situation?
Discuss the significance of the title. Why is it a chocolate "war"?
Why do you think Jerry decides not to sell the chocolates even after his assignment is over? Have you ever dared to "disturb the universe"? What happened?
How do you feel about how Brother Leon treated Bailey? At the end of the class Brother Leon says that the students had allowed him to turn the class into Nazi Germany. Do you think this is a true statement?(Random House)
Why did somebody cleanup Jerry's locker after it had been vandalized? What was this a precursor to?
Why did the author have Jerry's mother die shortly before the book begins?

Sources
Amazon.com. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier/Editorial Reviews. Accessed 9/14/2009 from http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0440944597/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books.
Random House, Inc. Teachers@Random. Copyright 1995-2009. Accessed 9/14/2009 from http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780394828053&view=rg

YA award winning book: Copper Sun

2009-09-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

Bibliographic Data
Draper, Sharon. Copper Sun. New York: Atheneum Books, 2006. ISBN 9780689821813

Plot Summary
Amari leads a typical fifteen year old's life. She has friends, a beau, a loving family, and doesn't listen to her mother often enough. When Amari is kidnapped from her village and her family brutally murdered, Amari begins a life of slavery in America. She escapes with Polly, a 15 year old indentured servant, and Tidbit, the 4 year old son of another slave. Along the way, she encounters various people, both free and slave, who help her keep alive the hope that her brutal slavery existence will not be her ultimate fate in life.

Critical Analysis
The main character in this book is Amari and to a lesser extent, Polly. Both girls are 15 years old. One is black, one is white. One is a slave fresh from Africa, the other is a newly indentured servant. Neither girl has ever known a girl of the other color before. Over their months of sharing a cabin and duties, they come to realize that their differences are only skin deep. A friendship begins to develop and as it does, it changes both girls. Amari grows to realize that even if her previous life is dead and gone, there’s hope for a new, free life in America. Polly grows to realize “that being a fine lady didn’t necessarily mean finding joy” (144).

Minor characters also encourage Amari to not give up her hope for freedom. Afi, a woman who Amari meets in Cape Coast, is a surrogate mother to Amari up to the point when Amari is sold to Mr. Derby. However, Afi refuses to be a nurturing mother. Instead, she sees strength in Amari and wants to prepare her for most likely what lies ahead for the young woman. Her advice to Amari is to “Find strength from within… You will know when it is time to use that strength as your shield from what they will do to you” (55).

Teenie is another woman who comes into Amari’s life. She is the cook on the Derby plantation, and entrusts her small son, Tidbit, to Amari when Amari and Polly finally escape. She teaches Amari and Polly that as long as you remember something or somebody, nothing will ever really be gone (113).

Mrs. Derby is also a sympathetic character. She is white but secretly in love with her slave, Noah. The two of them grew up together, and she is actually pregnant with Noah’s child, not Mr. Derby’s. When the child is born obviously black, Mrs. Derby enlists some of the slaves to help hide the obviously black child from Mr. Derby. They commit the cardinal sin of lying to the Massuh, telling him that the child was born deformed and was already buried by the time he returns with the doctor. However, the child is found in the slave quarters, and Mr. Derby kills both the child and Noah.

Dr. Hoskins is yet another sympathetic adult. Although he lets Mr. Derby get away with the murders, he shows his distaste for the turn of events and slavery in general by helping the two girls and Tidbit escape from his wagon as he drives them away from the plantation to sell down the river.

The story also has its evil characters. Mr. Derby is shown to be a cold, sadistic brute by his murder of Noah and the baby. He inadvertently trips Amari when she is serving at the dinner table but blames her for the resultant mess. He administers a whipping then and there that is so severe, it puts Amari into a feverish delirium. He at first seems to care for his wife, but when her child is revealed as another man’s, Mr. Derby tells her that he won’t kill her, instead, he “shall refuse to let you die” (183), and forces her to watch the murder of both her lover and child.

Clay Derby is as bad as his father. Amari was purchased as a birthday present for the 16 year old Clay, and he takes full advantage of his role as Master over Amari. He thinks that Amari likes him even though she has no choice in participating in sex with Clay at his beck and call. He’s even more sadistic than his father, using Tidbit one day as ‘gator’ bait by throwing him into the plantation’s river for sport. He is the one who finds the baby in the slave quarters and brings her to Mr. Derby because he has always hated his stepmother.

Draper uses the omniscient third person narrator in this story, alternating sections between Amari’s and Polly’s thoughts. It’s interesting to read the contrast between the protaganists’ thoughts and the few words they actually dare to speak out loud. This omniscient point of view serves a dual purpose. Not only does it serve to show us just how repressed the slaves were – they were not only physically enslaved, but discouraged from being intellectually and emotionally free to express their thoughts – but it also serves to highlight the few dialogues there are between characters. Clay and Mr. Derby have discussions about their property, including the slaves, while the slaves have discussions about how to maintain their emotional freedom and gain their physical freedom. One of the few dialogues that does take place between Master and slave in this story is one night when Clay has called Amari to his bed:

               He lifted his head off his pillow then and spoke directly in her
          face. His breath smelled of spoiled food, and Amari had to force
          herself not to gag. “You like me, don‘t you?” The question was
          sudden and abrupt.
               Shocked at the question, Amari swallowed hard. If she said no,
          he might get angry. If she said yes, he might manage to
          misunderstand her hatred of him. So she pretended she didn’t
          know what he meant.
               “I asked you a question. I know you understand much more
          than you let on. You do like me, don’t you?” he implored quietly.
          To Amari, his voice sounded a little plaintive, almost as if he
          needed her to say she liked him.
               “Yassuh,” Amari whispered, cringing.
               Amari was amazed to hear him breathe a sigh of relief. “I had a
          feeling you cared about me,“ Clay said, assurance creeping back
          into his voice. (110-111)

Even indentured servant Polly is expected to speak only when spoken directly to, and never, never allowed to speak her own mind. This is evident from the very beginning, when Mr. Derby gets furious at Polly for reminding them that Amari probably already has a name, when he has just told Clay to name his new “acquisition” (85).

The setting symbolizes Amari’s journey. The story begins in Amari’s village in Africa. She is young, in love, her whole life ahead of her. This setting is “fragrant with hope and possibility” (6). As Amari arrives in Cape Coast after watching so many of her friends die on the arduous journey, Cape Coast “smelled of blood and death.” (25). Onboard the slave ship, Amari is chained below in the daytime and taken on deck at night to be raped by whichever sailor gets to her first each night. “The air in this place seemed to have been sucked out and replaced with the smells of sweat and vomit and urine” (43).

Once Amari reaches the Derby plantation, the setting emphasizes the difference between Master and slave. The Derbys live in satin rooms with carpets and heavy drapes to keep out the heat (138). The slaves live in one room shacks, “barely large enough to turn around in” (92). Mr Derby works in a room filled with leather bound books. The field slaves work in knee-deep muddy rice paddies with no shade. Snakes and gators are a constant concern. During Amari’s first visit to the rice fields, one of the slaves is bitten by a copperhead and left to die because the slaves can’t stop working “just because of a little snakebite” (135).

The overall conflict in this story is self vs. society, as Amari and Polly find themselves in roles that they had not chosen for themselves, but were socially acceptable at the time. The story is not in how the girls learn to cope with their situation, but how they gain the moral and physical strength to change their circumstances. Their meetings with different people along their path to freedom show them that not all of colonial American society supports slavery. These chance encounters give them the emotional strength to continue on their journey towards freedom. At the end of the story, when Amari is free but learns she is carrying Clay’s child, she lovingly remembers the people who helped her get to this point and vows her child will never forget Amari’s journey either. Home is where the heart is, and Amari has found her home once more.

Awards and Honors
Coretta Scott King Book Award 2007 Winner Author United States
Heartland Award for Excellence in Children's Literature 2007 Winner United States
Ohioana Book Awards 2007 Winner Juvenile Literature United States
Society of Midland Authors Book Awards 2007 Finalist Children's Fiction United States
South Dakota Teen Choice Award 2008 Winner High School South Dakota
Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth, 2006 - American Library Association-Booklis; United States
Best Books of the Year, 2006 - School Library Journal; United States
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2007 - Bank Street College of Education; United States
Notable Books for a Global Society, 2007 - Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association; United States
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2007 -; National Council for the Social Studies; United States

Review Excerpts
Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Feb. 1, 2006 (Vol. 102, No. 11))
Draper's latest novel… begins in Amari's Ashanti village, but the idyllic scene explodes in bloodshed when slavers arrive and murder her family….So begins the account of impossible horrors from the slave fort, the Middle Passage, and auction on American shores, where a rice plantation owner buys Amari for his 16-year-old son's sexual enjoyment. Draper builds the explosive tension to the last chapter, and the sheer power of the story, balanced between the overwhelmingly brutal facts of slavery and Amari's ferocious survivor's spirit, will leave readers breathless, even as they consider the story's larger questions about the infinite costs of slavery and how to reconcile history. A moving author's note discusses the real places and events on which the story is based.

Claudia Mills, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Draper's riveting tale weaves together Amari's desperate quest for freedom with the equally compelling narrative of Polly, a white indentured girl who initially scorns the black slaves who work beside her but comes to pity their sufferings as she grasps their fellow humanity. Draper succeeds in making Polly's initial racism understandable, given her deep and ignorant prejudice; Polly's transformation proceeds gradually in a way that helps readers to understand both how racism begins and how it can be overcome.

KaaVonia Hinton, Ph.D. (KLIATT Review, January 2006 (Vol. 40, No. 1))
Draper charters territory few traditional slave narratives dared when she explores a consenting sexual relationship between the Derby mistress and her "bodyguard" that results in the birth of a black daughter, depicts the cook as more than willing to poison her owners when they threaten to sell her only child, and troubles the assumption that all white women were "free." Already being compared to Roots, this novel is best suited for mature YA readers, and accompanied by discussions about early African culture and sensibility, acts of resistance executed by slaves (alone and in partnerships with indentured servants), and abolitionist efforts.

Book Hook
Pair this book with Elijah of Buxley by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Online Connections
Sharon Draper's resource website for Copper Sun
Africans in America Resource Bank, from PBS

New semester

2009-09-01T20:56:00.001-07:00

Well, it's a new school year and a new literature class. This semester, I'm taking Advanced Young Adult Literature, with Dr. Vardell once again. It should prove an interesting term as we explore YA classics and award winners; realism, romance and censorship; fantasy and science fiction; history, biography, and nonfiction; and finally, poetry, drama, film and graphic novels. Sounds like fun!

graphic downloaded from: library.ppld.org/.../index.php?m=200703&paged=2 Accessed 9/1/2009.

Fantasy - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2009-08-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. Neil Gaiman. Ill. by Dave McKean. New York: HarperCollins Pub., 2008. ISBN 9780060530938.

Neil Gaiman has written a ghost story that is also a story about the power of family ties. Nobody Owens is raised by a cemetery of ghosts when his real family is murdered one night. He is given the nickname Bod along with the Freedom of the Graveyard, which enables him to pass through solid things, see the ghosts in the cemetery, and see in the dark. He is tutored by Silas, who although it is never explicitly stated, seems to be a vampire, and Miss Lupescu who turns out to be a werewolf. His ghostly mother and father love him, and he has the normal adventures any boy growing up in a cemetery would have. Despite his happy life, Bod still can't stop wondering what's outside the cemetery fence. Bod comes to realize that since he's still alive, he won't be able to stay in the graveyard forever. One day, he learns about the man who killed his family and is still looking for Bod. Unfortunately, venturing outside the fence brings Bod face to face with Jack Frost, the killer. He manages to use the Freedom of the Graveyard to escape Jack and his cohorts safely, but over the next few months, Bod comes to realize it's time for him to venture out into the world. The confrontation with Jack Frost gave him the confidence he needs to succeed in the outside world. Not only have his ghostly parents learned to let him go, but Bod has learned how to let go of them as well and venture out on his own.

One style technique of Gaiman's I especially enjoyed was how the ghosts have lived their mortal lives from ancient unknown times to about 80 years before the story takes place. They all use different colloquialisms and grammar appropriate to their lifetimes, and it's funny to read how Bod switches back and forth to address each ghost respectfully using his or her own criteria of what respect consisted of when he or she was still alive.

Awards and Honors:
• Battle of the (Kids') Books, 2009 Nominee United States
• Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2009 Honor   Book Fiction and Poetry United States
• Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and not-so-favorite) Books of
  the Year, 2008 Honorable Mention Best Novel for Young Readers That Adults
  Would Love If They Knew About It United States
• Cybils, 2008 Winner Fantasy and Science Fiction (Middle Grade) United States
• Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award, 2009 Winner United States
• Indies Choice Book Award, 2009 Winner Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book United
  States
• John Newbery Medal, 2009 Winner United States
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2008 Runner Up Young Adult Literature United
  States

Reviews:
Holly Koelling (Booklist, Sep. 15, 2008 (Vol. 105, No. 2))
Starred Review* While a highly motivated killer murders his family, a baby, ignorant of the horrific goings-on but bent on independence, pulls himself out of his crib and toddles out of the house and into the night. This is most unfortunate for the killer, since the baby was his prime target. Finding his way through the barred fence of an ancient graveyard, the baby is discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, a stable and caring couple with no children of their own—and who just happen to be dead. After much debate with the graveyard’s rather opinionated denizens, it is decided that the Owenses will take in the child. Under their care and the sponsorship of the mysterious Silas, the baby is named “Nobody” and raised among the dead to protect him from the killer, who relentlessly pursues him. This is an utterly captivating tale that is cleverly told through an entertaining cast of ghostly characters. There is plenty of darkness, but the novel’s ultimate message is strong and life affirming. Although marketed to the younger YA set, this is a rich story with broad appeal and is highly recommended for teens of all ages.

Nicola Turner (Children's Literature)
Gaiman, famous for his creepy and often scary tales, Coraline and The Wolves in the Wall, has created in his new novel something that is neither creepy nor scary, despite its chilling first chapter and spectral cast of characters. This is a story about the power of family--whatever form it takes--and the potential of a child who is raised with love and a sense of duty. Nobody Owens (Bod) is adopted by a couple of ghosts after narrowly escaping death at the hands of the mysterious man who murdered the rest of his family. After much debate, he is granted the “Freedom of the Graveyard” by its long dead inhabitants. His guardian, Silas, who is neither dead nor alive, brings him food and ensures he is educated in the ways of the dead and the living. Of course, life for young Owens is not all smooth sailing. Bod must face the ghoul gate, the ancient force that waits in the oldest grave, and the mysterious man who still searches for the boy he failed to kill. The story of an orphaned boy being hunted down by a secret society and protected by magic sounds familiar, but while the story of Harry Potter resonates here, the sympathetic, flawed, and ultimately very human character of Bod saves this from being merely a reshaping of Rowling’s epic tale. In fact, Gaiman’s title is an homage to Kipling’s The Jungle Book. I cannot help thinking, however, that this novel should be the first in a series. There are too many questions unanswered. While I never really believed that Bod was ever in any real danger in the graveyard, a boy who sets off in to the world of the living with his “eyes and heart wide open” can only be headed for uncertainty.

Connections:
1. This novel lends itself well to Readers' Theatre.
2. If possible, visit a nearby cemetery to make gravestone rubbings like Mr. Frost
    was doing when Scarlett first met him in Chapter 7.
3. How many diffferent Jacks in the story can the students identify? For example,
   Jack Frost, Jack of all trades, Jack Dandy. Can the students come up with any
   more Jack names that would work in this story, such as Jack Sprat?

Graphic novels - Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale

2009-08-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE. Written by Shannon and Dean Hale. Ill. by Nathan Hale. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008. ISBN 9781599902883.

Fairytale heroine meets the Old West in this hilarious graphic novel version of Rapunzel. When Rapunzel escapes from her tower, she runs into Jack, a loner with ideas of his own, including how to get his goose to lay golden eggs. Rapunzel uses her hair as a lariat to get her and Jack out of frequent scrapes, and in the end, Jack turns out to be none other than the Jack of beanstalk fame. Jack subsequently grows a beanstalk to rescue our fair heroine. But Rapunzel has everything under control. Or does she? When Jack plants a kiss on her at the end of the story, will there be a hapy ever after for this adventurous duo, or will more fairy tale adventures await them? Although it seems funny to hear Rapunzel and Jack using Old West jargon, the dialogue is short and sweet and fits perfectly with the setting. The illustrations are bright and vibrant, and it's almost possible to believe Jack and Rapunzel could be real.

Awards & Honors:
Cybils, 2008 Winner Graphic Novels (Elementary/Middle Grade) United States

Reviews:
Tina Coleman (Booklist, Sep. 1, 2008 (Vol. 105, No. 1))
This graphic novel retelling of the fairy-tale classic, set in a swashbuckling Wild West, puts action first and features some serious girl power in its spunky and strong heroine. Young Rapunzel lives a lonely life, never knowing what lies beyond the high garden walls of her mother’s royal villa until one day she climbs the wall to see what’s on the other side. When she finds that the world outside is a dark place oppressed by her mother’s greed for power and uncovers the real secret of her own birth, she is imprisoned in a magic tree tower. In her years of captivity, she learns a lot about self-reliance and care for her exceptionally long hair, and eventually she is able to escape, vowing to bring down her mother’s cruel empire. Hale’s art matches the story well, yielding expressive characters and lending a wonderful sense of place to the fantasy landscape. Rich with humor and excitement, this is an alternate version of a classic that will become a fast favorite of young readers.

Laura Lehner (VOYA, October 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 4))
This version of the classic fairy tale Rapunzel is set in the old Southwest, complete with cowboys, coal mines, and coyotes. Rapunzel is a young girl living in a fortress with Mother Gothel, an enchantress who can make plants grow at her whim. Although their home is overflowing with fruits and flowers, it is surrounded by a wall that masks the desert and coal mines outside-Gothel owns everything, and the native people depend on her good will to keep their crops growing. When Rapunzel sneaks over the wall on her twelfth birthday, she sees the desolate world over which Mother Gothel rules, and she meets her real mother who was forced to give Rapunzel to Gothel at birth. To punish her curiosity, Gothel imprisons Rapunzel inside an enchanted tree that has only one window, far above the ground. Just as in the original version, Rapunzel's hair grows prodigiously. But this girl does not need a prince to climb up and rescue her. She uses her braid as a lasso to escape the tree and goes on many adventures that lead her ultimately to reunite with her mother and find true love in a boy named Jack, whose companion is an uncooperative goose. The Hale team creates an engaging heroine. Rapunzel gallivants across the unexpected setting, meets a cast of characters both humorous and threatening, and in the end comes to inherit the land that Gothel had stripped of life and returns it to the native people. This novel presents entertaining girl power at its quirkiest.

Connections:
Have your students write their own graphic novel representations of a fairy tale of their own choosing.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction: Jellicoe Road

2009-08-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

Marchetta, Melina. JELLICOE ROAD. New York: HarperTeen, 2008. ISBN 9780061431845.

Meet Taylor Markham. When she was eleven, her mother dropped her off on Jellicoe Road and never came back. Now she’s 18, a tough survivor, and trying to figure out the puzzling pieces of her life. Why did Hannah disappear and is the manuscript she left behind fact or fiction? Who is the mysterious Brigadier who seems to show up at the exact times when the last thing Taylor wants is adult interference? Is Jonah Griggs her future or her enemy? What secrets do Sergeant Santangelo and his son know about Taylor’s past? And who is the mysterious boy in the tree who persists in appearing in Taylor’s dreams? Told by Taylor in first person alternating with excerpts from Hannah’s manuscript, we follow Taylor on her journey of discovery as she and Jonah travel to Sidney to look for her mother and the answers to Taylor’s questions. Along the way, Taylor learns the joys and fears of loving somebody else and what it means to become a responsible, caring adult. The story is set in Australia sometime between the year 2000 and the present, and one of the recurring themes is how Taylor connects a song from the 80’s with the father she never knew. Some of the colloquialisms and slang are Australian, but understandable in context to American readers. The storyline is confusing at first for two reasons: First is this story realistic fiction or fantasy because of the boy in Taylor’s dreams? Second, the frequent switches back and forth between Hannah’s story and Taylor’s story are confusing at first, but once the reader understands what’s happening, this problem disappears. At that point, we find ourselves really caring about what will happen to Taylor when she finds her answers. What Taylor ultimately discovers about her past is totally unexpected, but it will help both Taylor and Hannah ultimately resolve the past.

Awards and Honors:
• Best Books for Young Adults, 2009; YALSA American Library Association; United
States
• Best Young Adult Books, 2008; Kirkus; United States
• Kirkus Book Review Stars, August 1, 2008 ; United States
• Cybils, 2008 Finalist Young Adult Novels United States
• Michael L. Printz Award, 2009 Winner United States

Reviews:
Daniel Kraus (Booklist, Nov. 1, 2008 (Vol. 105, No. 5))
Taylor Markham isn’t just one of the new student leaders of her boarding school, she’s also the heir to the Underground Community, one of three battling school factions in her small Australian community (the others being the Cadets and the Townies). For a generation, these three camps have fought “the territory wars,” a deadly serious negotiation of land and property rife with surprise attacks, diplomatic immunities, and physical violence. Only this year, it’s complicated: Taylor might just have a thing for Cadet leader Jonah, and Jonah might just be the key to unlocking the secret identity of Taylor’s mother, who abandoned her when she was 11. In fact, nearly every relationship in Taylor’s life has unexpected ties to her past, and the continual series of revelations is both the book’s strength and weakness; the melodrama can be trying, but when Marchetta isn’t forcing epiphanies, she has a knack for nuanced characterizations and punchy dialogue. The complexity of the backstory will be offputting to younger readers, but those who stick it out will find rewards in the heartbreaking twists of Marchetta’s saga.

Stephanie Petruso (VOYA, December 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 5))
Taylor Markham has been living at the Jellicoe School since her mother abandoned her at a gas station when she was eleven. Taylor's whole life is a mystery to her-from what happened to her mother and who her father was to why certain people in town are so interested in her well-being. As the Jellicoe School students begin their annual territory wars with the Townies and military school cadets, Taylor is thrown together with Jonah Griggs, the leader of the Cadets. Although they are sworn enemies, Taylor and Jonah have a history and find themselves drawn to one another. Together they begin to unravel the tragic story of the five teenagers who started the territory wars a generation before and how their lives are tightly linked with Taylor's own…. The interwoven lives of Taylor and the doomed teenagers from the past create a complex tale with some great twists that readers will not see coming. It is a great choice for more sophisticated readers and those teens who like multifaceted stories and characters.

Connections:
Since this book is recommended for high school level or above because of the intense themes, this would be an excellent choice to read in a high school health class to discuss the negative aspects of drug abuse and/or teen pregnancy.

Historical fiction - Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

2009-07-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

Curtis, Christopher Paul. ELIJAH OF BUXTON.

Buxton was a town established for escaped slaves from the US, just across the border from Detroit. Elijah is the first free-born child in the town of Buxton in Canada. A well-loved only child, he is naïve, carefree, and innocent. He gets taken in by the cons of an adult known as Preacher, but when Preacher steals the money that another resident, Mr. Leroy, had saved to purchase his family out of slavery, Elijah goes on a journey that will force him to grow up fast. He and Mr. Leroy follow Preacher, but Mr. Leroy dies shortly after reaching the US. Elijah continues on his own after Preacher. He finds Preacher, but only after Preacher has been tortured and killed by some slavers. In the barn where the slavers left Preacher’s body, Elijah also finds some chained up slaves who steal the pistol Elijah carries. Elijah learns that they plan on shooting themselves rather than returning to slavery. As Elijah tries to make sense of this “secret…growned up language,” he finally understands what it means to be a slave, what it means to be free, and what it means to grow up. He takes the young baby of one of the chained slaves with the mother’s blessing, and returns to Buxton with the baby to give her to a woman who lost her child and consequently became “touched in the head.” At the end of the book, Elijah is carrying the child, Hope Too-mah-ee-nee, back to Buxton, and welcoming her to Canada and freedom.

In Mr. Curtis’s Author’s Note, he explains how Buxton was founded, why it succeeded where so many other towns like it failed, and tells us how we can get more information on Buxton by visiting the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum.

Awards and Honors:

Coretta Scott King Book Award, 2008 Winner Author United States
IODE (National Chapter of Canada) Violet Downey Book Award, 2008 Short-List Canada
Jane Addams Children's Book Award, 2008 Honor Book Books for Older Children United States
John Newbery Medal, 2008 Honor Book United States
NAACP Image Award, 2008 Nominee Outstanding Literary Work-Children United States
Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award, 2008 Shortlist Young Adult/Middle Reader Canada
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 2008 Winner United States
TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, 2008 Finalist Canada

Reviews:

Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, Sep. 1, 2007 (Vol. 104, No. 1))
Starred Review* After his mother rebukes him for screaming that hoop snakes have invaded Buxton, gullible 11-year-old Elijah confesses to readers that “there ain’t nothing in the world she wants more than for me to quit being so doggone fra-gile.” Inexperienced and prone to mistakes, yet kind, courageous, and understanding, Elijah has the distinction of being the first child born in the Buxton Settlement, which was founded in Ontario in 1849 as a haven for former slaves. Narrator Elijah tells an episodic story that builds a broad picture of Buxton’s residents before plunging into the dramatic events that take him out of Buxton and, quite possibly, out of his depth. In the author’s note, Curtis relates the difficulty of tackling the subject of slavery realistically through a child’s first-person perspective. Here, readers learn about conditions in slavery at a distance, though the horrors become increasingly apparent. Among the more memorable scenes are those in which Elijah meets escaped slaves—first, those who have made it to Canada and, later, those who have been retaken by slave catchers. Central to the story, these scenes show an emotional range and a subtlety unusual in children’s fiction. Many readers drawn to the book by humor will find themselves at times on the edges of their seats in suspense and, at other moments, moved to tears. A fine, original novel from a gifted storyteller.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2008)
Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child to be born free in Buxton, a refuge for freed slaves established in 1849 in Canada. When a con man takes off with the funds Elijah's friend saved to buy his family out of slavery, the two pursue the thief across the border to Michigan. The book is an arresting, surprising novel of reluctant heroism.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, October 2007 (Vol. 61, No. 2))
Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman is the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, a community formed by Reverend William King in 1849 as a refuge for any slaves that could manage to make it there. The community has a strict set of rules and expectations, but that doesn’t stop the occasional snake from slithering his way in amongst the hard-working folk. The trouble is that naïve, good-hearted Elijah doesn’t recognize a snake when he walks on two legs: taken in by a con artist who calls himself the Preacher, Elijah narrowly escapes being sold to a traveling circus, though he really doesn’t seem to ever grasp his peril. When the Preacher steals all the money that another man has saved to buy his family out of slavery and crosses the border, Elijah feels obligated to go after him, since it was he who said that the Preacher could be trusted. Things go from bad to worse on his journey, and Elijah learns the hard way that the stories the escaped slaves tell are grounded in more horror than he can possibly imagine. Curtis’ storytelling style shines here; he establishes Elijah’s character through energetic first-person narration and fixes him in readers’ hearts through comic, sometimes even slapstick episodes. Only then does he open up the serious, at times horrific side of the story. Elijah spends a lot of time trying to figure out the ways of grown folk; in particular he tries to learn how to lie like a grownup, since that seems to him the way they get things done. This story does the best that children’s historical fiction about tragic times can do—it paints an unflinchingly honest picture of the past, while providing a glimmer of empowerment and hope through an engaging and resourceful hero. An author’s note with more information about the story and the Buxton settlement follows the text Review.

Connections:
1. Have the students construct diorams of what they think Buxton looked like.
2. Reader's Theatre - Have the students break up into small groups and each act out a different episode in the book.
3. Discuss how prejudice is still present in our world, just not as obvious. Have any of your students ever expereinced prejudice?

Historical fiction: Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

2009-07-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Kadohata, Cynthia. WEEDFLOWER. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006. ISBN 0689865740.

Sumiko is a 12 year old orphan who lives with her younger brother on her aunt and uncle's flower farm in California in 1941. Feeling different from her classmates because she is the only Japanese girl in her class, she consoles herself with dreams of owning her own flower shop someday. But then comes December 6th, and the events of Pearl harbor. Overnight, Sumiko's whole life changes again. Her grandfather and uncle are sent away to a prison camp for the crime of being born in Japan. Sumiko, her brother, cousins, and aunt are shipped to the internment camp in Poston, Arizona. There, her younger brother runs wild because there's no school. Sumiko starts growing a flower garden with her neighbor, Mr. Moto. She meets a boy, Frank, from the nearby Indian reservation and the two of them become friends, even though the Indians resent the Japanese, who don't want to be there in the first place. Sumiko's cousins joij the US military, to fight for a country that ostensibly doesn't even want them because of their ethnicity. Sumilo struggle sto make sense of all these conflicting occurences, scrapes away at the dirt of her flower garden and survives.

In an author's endnote, Ms. Kadohata tells us about how the internment camps actually improved life for the Indians, since they inherited the facilities once the Japanese internees began returning to return to their homes.

Awards and Honors:

Cybils, 2006 Finalist Middle Grade Fiction United States

Jane Addams Children's Book Award, 2007 Winner Books for Older Children United States

Reviews:
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 6))
Post-Pearl Harbor Japanese-American internment is seen from the eyes of a young girl who eventually manages to bloom after she is uprooted and planted in the Arizona desert. Twelve-year-old Sumiko and her little brother Tak-Tak live with their aunt and uncle on a flower farm in California. The only Japanese student in her class, Sumiko longs for friends and acceptance. She loves the fields of "weedflowers" and dreams of owning her own flower shop. After Pearl Harbor, Sumiko and her family are removed from their land and transported to an internment camp on an Indian reservation in Poston, Ariz. Surrounded by fields of dust, Sumiko's "dream was gone and she didn't know what would take its place," until she teams up with her neighbor Mr. Moto to make the desert bloom and escape the "ultimate boredom" of the camp. And when Sumiko meets Frank, a Mohave boy who resents the Japanese on his land, she finds an unlikely, but true friend. Like weedflowers, hope survives in this quietly powerful story.

Claudia Mills, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Newbery Medalist Kadohata (Kira-Kira) presents another story of a Japanese-American family: Sumiko’s family are flower farmers in California; too poor to afford a glass greenhouse, they grow kusabana, or weedflowers, flowers grown in the open field, hardy enough to bear changing weather conditions. Sumiko and her family are forced to find a way to survive and flourish during the intolerably harsh conditions of relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Although this painful and shameful chapter of American history is now familiar to many readers, Kadohata excels in accumulating the heart-piercing details that make it all too vividly real: Sumiko’s excitement about finally being invited to a classmate’s birthday party, from which she is subsequently uninvited because of her race; farewells to a beloved horse and dog; the crushing heat, dust, and boredom of life in the camps, where Sumiko tries to grow flowers again in the barren, sandy soil. Sumiko’s emerging friendship with a Native American boy, resentful of the relocation camp’s presence on his reservation, adds another dimension to the internment narrative, which builds to an unsettled, but somehow still hopeful, conclusion.

Connections:
This book lends itself well to Readers Theatre. Some recommended chapters to start with are Chapter 4 where Sumiko gets turned away from her classmate's birthday party, Chapter 10 where Sumiko and her family leave for the internment camp, or Chapter 28 where Sumiko and her cousin meet with Frank and his older brother and find out that the Japanese and Indians have a lot in common.

Sonya Sones

2009-07-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

Sones, Sonya. STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999. ISBN 0060283874.

Sonya Sones’ debut book of poetry is a verse novel accounting of her own childhood experiences. For years, Sones buried her feelings about her big sister’s mental illness in her very private journals. Finally, according to her author’s note, she took a poetry class at UCLA taught by Myra Cohn Livingston, where this collection of free verse poems was born.

These poems contain many examples of poetic language: metaphors (“when the sun/licks through the gauze/fluttering at my window”), alliteration (“shrouded with a sheet”),and simile (“holding tight/like feathers to the wing of a bird.”). Sones uses an occasional ending rhyme (“I could have been the one./Run, Sister, run!”) or repeated phrase to emphasize her point (“Stop pretending./Right this minute./Don’t you tell me/you don’t know me.”). And even though they’re written in free verse, some of these poems have a very regular meter:
     “Suddenly I’m running, stumbling,
     Sister’s demons chasing after,
     Leering, laughing,
     right behind me
     lurching at my heels
     remind me...”
Other poems, because of their choppy, irregular rhythm, invoke the anguish that mental illness must bring to both the patient and those close to her:
     “’Isn’t that what Alice did
     in that Disney movie?
     Isn’t it?’ she demands. “Alice was the one
     with the ruby slippers. Wasn’t she?”
     Sister stomps her foot,

     Then she clicks her heels together three times
     and whirls and twirls
     like she’s caught in a cyclone
     until she collapses onto her bed,
     curling up into a tight fist.”

In her author’s note at the end of the book, Sones explains that her sister has led a productive life even though she has continued to need occasional hospitalizations, and has given Ms. Sones her blessing for sharing her experiences. Sones even provides a list of addresses and websites for readers who have further questions about mental illness or need help for themselves or a family member.

Like most of the genre of verse novels, this book is aimed at primarily high school aged readers. These poems can be read alone, but together they create an ongoing story of a family’s struggle with mental illness and a sister watching her beloved older sister’s illness and feeling totally helpless. The storyline moves from disbelief to anguish to finally cautious hope. My favorite poem is one of the very last ones:

     Tonight
     I’m tucked
     Between my mother and father,
     snuggling on the couch
     under the quilt that Grandma Ruthie made,
     watching an old movie on television,
     eating popcorn.

     And tonight,
     for once,
     it feels okay
     to just be

     three.

Awards, Honors, Prizes:
Christopher Awards, 2000 Winner Ages 12 and up United States
Claudia Lewis Award, 1999 Winner United States
Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 1999 Finalist Young Adult Fiction United States
Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry, 2000 Winner United States

Reviews:
Michael Cart (Booklist, November 15, 1999 (Vol. 96, No. 6))
One Christmas Eve, 13-year-old Cookie's big sister has a nervous breakdown…. Following this manic moment, the sister is institutionalized. This haunting novel, told entirely in Cookie's first-person poems, is the story of what happens in the wake of this emotional disaster…. The poems--some as short as five lines, none longer than three pages--have a cumulative emotional power that creeps up on the reader, culminating in a moving, unexpected line or phrase: "I blink / and there you suddenly are / inhabiting your eyes again. . . and I'm feeling all lit up / like a jar filled / with a thousand fireflies." Such small moments become large in the context of their promise of healing and their demonstration of life's power to continue. Based on Sones' own family experience, this debut novel shows the capacity of poetry to record the personal and translate it into the universal.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1999)
Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love. Collected, they take on life and movement, the individual frames of a movie that in the unspooling become animated, telling a compelling tale and presenting a painful passage through young adolescence. The form, a story-in-poems, fits the story remarkably well, spotlighting the musings of the 13-year-old narrator, and pinpointing the emotions powerfully. She copes with friends who snub her, worries that she, too, will go mad, and watches her sister's slow recovery.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2000)
When her older sister becomes mentally ill, an adolescent girl describes her own tumultuous feelings in a series of free verse poems. The simple verses are occasionally glib, but more often sensitively written, gathering cumulative power as they trace Cookie's feelings of loss, despair, and loneliness as Sister is institutionalized, undergoes shock therapy, and ultimately makes small steps toward recovery.

Marilyn Singer

2009-07-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Singer, Marilyn. IT'S HARD TO READ A MAP WITH A BEAGLE ON YOUR LAP. Ill. by Clément Oubrerie. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993. ISBN 0805022015.

Marilyn Singer has created a humorous collection of dog poems. Most of her poems go unnamed but can be identified by the breed of dog she’s writing about. There are also poems about mutts and mongrels, and the daily routines of dogs.

These poems all have a regular meter and rhyming scheme. There are couplets, quatrains, and limericks in this collection. Singer even includes four concrete poems. Some of her most amusing poems are the ones which describe specific parts of dogs, like Ears, Fur, and Tails, which are the only three poems in this collection which have titles.

Singer makes frequent use of alliteration (“have to hoot,” unnamed poem about a bulldog), consonance (“When a Rottweiler feels rotten,” unnamed poem about a rottweiler) and internal rhymes (“He stinks at rinks and also links,” unnamed poem about a dachshund). Oubrerie’s illustrations also add to the poetic imagery, as he extends the illustration for the dachshund poem over four pages, and alternates fence posts and dog in the Dalmatian poem. As a final touch, there’s a poem that has one line at the top of each page, sort of like a poetry version of a flip book, and is, ironically enough, about the many ways dogs wait.

My favorite poem from this book is Ears:

     Floppy
     Sloppy
     Standing high
     Springy
     Wingy
     Butterfly
     Speckled
     Freckled
     Goldilocks
     Feathery
     Leathery
     Mr. Spock’s

Reviews:
Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June 1993 (Vol. 46, No. 10))
... a collection of twenty-six silly dog poems.... Oubrerie's scratchy lines and mixed-media art emphasizes the variety in both dogs and poetry by depicting the protagonists sometimes in cartoonish exaggeration and sometimes in highly detailed realism..... always energetic. Kids won't exactly take these up as chants, but the tilted investigation of the doggy world has a giggle-provoking appeal.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1993)
Stalwart bulldogs, waltzing bloodhounds, plain old mongrels, and other varieties of man's best friend scratch, fetch, sleep, sniff, and romp through a volume of amusing canine doggerel. Mixed-media illustrations capture both the playfulness of the poems and the sometimes oh-so-human nature of the dogs.

My 13 year old daughter (July 7, 2009)
"Mom! Marilyn Singer's funny! Can we check out some more books by her?"

Connections:
1. Have a 'Bring your pet to the library" day. Serve dog treats, cat treats, and cookies
    in the shape of dog biscuits.
2. Have each child in your class illustrate and write a poem about his or her pet. If a
    child doesn't have a pet, have them use the pet they would like to have.
3. Connect this book to math. Conduct a class-wide survey of favorite pets, then
    have the class work in groups to plot this information into bar graphs and interpret
    the bar graphs. Have each group present their findings to another group.

Douglas Florian

2009-07-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

Florian, Douglas. DINOTHESAURUS: PREHISTORIC POEMS AND PAINTINGS. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009. ISBN 1416979786.

Douglas Florian, in his latest poetry book, has brought the long-dead world of dinosaurs to life. The collection begins with a poem that introduces the prehistoric epochs of Earth’s history (The Age of Dinosaurs) and ends with a poem asking the reader what he or she thinks happened to the dinosaurs (The End of Dinosaurs). In between are poems about the more commonly known dinosaurs such as Triceratops and Brachiosaurus, as well as dinosaurs I’d never heard of before such as Troodon and Minmi.

The poems have several different rhyming schemes. Florian makes use primarily of couplets (rhyming schemes of aabbccdd, etc), quatrains (four-line stanza with rhyming schemes of abcb, aabb, or abab), and sextains (six-line stanzas with rhyming schemes of aabccb or aaabab). For his rhymes, Mr Florian uses primarily ending rhymes. He also uses twists on the dinosaur names to end his poems, as in the following 3 examples:

     “But if one day Iguanadon
     I came upon, I’d wanna
     Ask that big IguanoDON:
     Where is IguanoDONNA?” (Iguanodon, lines 3-6)

     “When it was hungry or got into fights,
     It opened its jaws and took giga-bites.” (Gigantosaurus, lines 5-6)

     “I find it terrific
     That it’s T-rex-tinct.” (Tyrannosaurus rex, lines 11-12)

His meter is primarily iambic tetrameter, but there are also poems that have irregular meters and rhyming schemes, such as Micropachycelphalosaurus (abccdd).

Florian has chosen his words carefully. As an example, in his poem, Stegoceras, he repeats the word head 3 times in each line. Through Florian's emphasis of this word, we learn that Stegoceras had an unusually shaped head instead of having to read it in an ‘educational book.’ This masterful trait is characteristic of his other natural history poetry collections, as well.

Florian uses the arrangements of his poems to illustrate his point. For example, in Mimmi, the entire poem reads, “What’s Minmi’s BIGGEST claim to fame?/It has the smallest dinosaur name.” His use of imagery is very effective also. In the final poem, The End of Dinosaurs, one line reads, “The climate on the Earth grew c-c-cold,” You can almost hear the dinosaurs’ chattering teeth.

Florian has illustrated his poems with collage and crayon illustrations of the various dinosaurs. They appear together with modern day items such as computers, IPods, and newspaper clippings. The poems appear in no discernible order, but the ‘Glossarysaurus’ entries in the back of the book are listed in the same order the poems are presented. Florian also provides a list of ‘Dinosaur Museums and Fossil Sites’ and a ‘Selected Bibliography and Further Reading’ page. As reviewer Deborah Stevenson puts it, “This will serve equally well to liven up paleontology or to dinosaur up poetry” (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, February 2009).

Reviews:
Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Mar. 1, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 13))
Starred Review* Florian, whose previous picture-book poetry collections have covered the animal kingdom, from dogs and cats to lizards and pollywogs, takes a few evolutionary steps back in this exuberant verse roundup of prehistoric creatures…. Even as they are delighting in the lines’ silliness, children will absorb solid facts, as in a poem that introduces earth’s epochs: “The dinosaurs / First lived outdoors / During the time Triassic. / While most died out, / Some came about / Later in the Jurassic….” this is a standout title on a perennially popular subject that has inspired surprisingly few poetry collections for kids. Grades K-3

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2009 (Vol. 77, No. 2))
…. a set of dinophile-pleasing verses penned by a poet with a rare knack for wordplay and silly rhymes finds apt visual setting fronting playful images of monsters rearing up from extinction to grin toothily at young viewers…. closes with an informative "Glossarysaurus," plus museum and source lists. Spectacularly depicted (as is his frequent custom) on paper bags in crayon and collage, the poet's dinos are easily recognizable despite being freely rendered and, often, semitransparent. Collage elements add to the visual excitement, often to great effect—a skeletal, iPod-sporting T. Rex prepares to chow down on a heap of cut-out dinosaur bits....

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, February 2009 (Vol. 62, No. 6))
…Florian returns here with a score of new poems about the legendary great and gone of the animal world. Aside from the intro and closing poems, each verse is devoted to a particular species of dinosaur.… As usual, the poems are brisk, skilled, and entertaining, suitable for reading aloud or alone, and they offer dinosaur lovers an easily crossable bridge into the world of poetry while providing a sparkling overview for kids with limited interest in dead reptiles. The illustrations are remarkable even by Florian’s standards: he’s added more elaborate detailing, varying moods, and a more complex palette to his usual quirky mix of limpid watercolors and touches of lettering and found materials, resulting in a gleaming gallery of otherworldly prehistoriana. This will serve equally well to liven up paleontology or to dinosaur up poetry. End matter includes a glossary—excuse me, “glossarysaurus,” a list of dinosaur museums and fossil sites, and a brief, accessible bibliography. A book of special distinction.

Connections:
1. If your school is close enough, plan a field trip to one of the museums or fossil sites listed in the back of this book.
2. Contact your local natural history museum and ask a paleontologist (a scientist who specializes in dinosaurs) to come speak to your reading club or class.

Book Review: Cinderella from around the world

2009-06-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Wilson, Barbara Ker (retold by). WISHBONES: A FOLK TALE FROM CHINA. Ill. By Meilo So. New York: Bradbury Press, 1993. ISBN 0027931250.

According to the book jacket, this story is the oldest version of Cinderella. It has a motherless girl, a clueless but loving father, a wicked stepmother and stepsister, and a magical being that sends the heroine, Yeh Hsien, to the Cave Festival after her stepmother has made sure she stayed home. There is a lost slipper and a young king who searches for the slipper’s owner in order to marry her. Since this is an Oriental tale, though, the story varies slightly from the European version. The magical being that sends our heroine to the Cave Festival is not alive. Instead, it is the bones of Yeh Hsien’s pet fish which the stepmother killed for dinner, and Yeh Hsien fished out of the dungheap and wished upon (the “Wishbones” of the title). There is also an extra twist at the end. Instead of living happily ever after, Yeh Hsien’s husband uses up all the magic and the Wishbones stop granting wishes. Yeh Hsien and her husband bury the Wishbones in the beach where they are washed away into the sea, and the formulaic ending is “They have never been found to this day.”

From the very first lines, we know that this story took place “thousands of years ago,” and this is driven home when we learn that the people live in caves. The text and illustrations show a primitive society, with water drawn from “a mountain pool,” and Yeh Hsien being sent off “into the hills to gather herbs.” Transportation is by horse and wagon, even if the horses are decked out in finery. At the Cave Festival, Yeh Hsien is blinded by “the lights of a hundred lanterns.” All of these add up to a long ago time and place.

Meilo So’s illustrations add depth to the story, as we view the cave in which the family lives and the fine clothes of the stepmother and stepsister vs. the heroine’s patched and ragged jacket. So’s pictures of the magic Wishbones occur over and over, and in brilliant red and blue colors that jump off the page at us. On the very last page, not only does the text tell us that the Wishbones have lost their magic, but they have also lost their bright colors - the skeleton is only bleached white now.

This version of the age-old dispute between daughters and stepmothers has its normal assortment of archetypes. We have the innocent child, symbol of all that is good. We have the bully, symbol of all that holds us back from what we want or desire. Finally, we have the magical being, the Angel archetype, who answers our prayers or wishes (Meta Religion).

The story of Cinderella/Yeh Hsien has a global theme. If we live a good life, we will earn our reward despite what obstacles or people try to stop us. This universal theme is why so many diverse cultures have their own versions of a Cinderella story.

Reviews:
Dr. Judy Rowen (Children's Literature)

A Chinese folk tale, this is one of the oldest versions of the Cinderella story. Vibrant, colorful paintings enhance the story.

Jan Lieberman (Children's Literature)

This is a picture book version of the Chinese Cinderella. The title refers to the magic fish who is cruelly killed by Yeh Hsien's stepmother but the girl discovers that those bones will grant her every wish. The illustrations depict the text yet provide room for children's imagination. This is a good version for primary grades.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1993)With the help of magic fishbones, Yeh Hsien, the Chinese Cinderella, dresses herself in finery to attend the Cave Festival. The inadvertent loss of her slipper results in her marrying the king. Rich in color, humor, and authentic details, So's brilliant illustrations give the old tale a refreshing and effective interpretation.

Connections:

Show your students some other international versions of Cinderella. See if they can identify the common characters and elements in each story. Keep a chart or write their answers on the board for them to see as they go through the different versions.

Sources:

Meta Religion. 2007. “A Gallery of Archetypes.” Accessed June 27, 2009 from http://meta-religion.com/Psychiatry/Analytical_psychology/a_gallery_of_archetypes.htm

Book Review: Daniel San Souci

2009-06-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

San Souci, Daniel. IN THE MOONLIGHT MIST: A KOREAN TALE. Ill. By Eujin Kim Neilan. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Boyds Mills Press, 1999. ISBN 1563977540.

In this Korean story, a humble woodcutter saves a deer from hunters. In return, the deer tells him how to find a heavenly maiden to marry. It instructs the woodcutter to hide her clothes when she bathes in the moonlight to keep her earthbound. But the deer also warns the woodcutter to not give her clothes back until their second child is born. The woodcutter and the maiden marry and have a child, but the wife becomes homesick for heaven. To make her happy again, the woodcutter gives his wife her heavenly clothes back. The heavenly clothes possess the wife. She grabs their baby and returns to heaven. In despair, meets the deer again. This time the deer tells him how to get to heaven to rejoin his wife and daughter. Out of filial love, the woodcutter sends his mother to heaven instead of himself. The heavenly king hears about the woodcutter’s generosity and lets the woodcutter come to heaven where he joyfully rejoins his mother and family.

There is no overwhelmingly ‘bad’ character in this tale. The woodcutter and the heavenly maiden both at times do things that are wrong, such as the woodcutter hiding the maiden’s clothing, or the wife taking the baby back to heaven with her. But they love each other. The wife and her husband both work hard and care for the husband’s mother. In short, the 2 main characters have both human flaws and strengths. There is also a strong good character, though. The heavenly king makes a very short appearance to reward generosity and kindness. There is a universal theme at work here. No good deed goes unrewarded. The heavenly king, or whatever deity or power we believe in, will award us ultimately for our kind acts toward others.

Daniel San Souci maintains the traditional storyteller flow of this tale by telling his story through dialogue primarily, with over half of the text being dialogue. The dragon at the end of the story is a specifically Asian motif, since Asian dragons, unlike European dragons, bring good fortune and good luck. There is also the internationally traditional magic being who grants a wish in return for a favor.

In some rural areas, Koreans still wear the same traditional everyday and dress outfits as in this story, which makes it timeless. The landscapes are also ordinary. Combined with the text, however, Eujin Kim Neilan portrays uniquely Asian settings. The mother’s cook pot, the yard outside the couple’s house, the son’s devotion to his mother, and the rocks rising out of the water are all poignantly Asian. Even the dragon who conveys the woodcutter to heaven is painted as a Korean dragon. Having personally lived there for a few years, I experience a sense of homesickness for Asia when I view Neilan’s paintings.

Best Books:
Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K-Grade 6 13th Edition, 2002 ; National Council of Teachers of English; United States

Reviews:
Jeanne K. Pettenati, J.D. (Children's Literature)

"The timeless message in this beautifully told story is that God, the "heavenly king," watches over all of us and that those who live for others will ultimately find joy. The illustrations are finely wrought. Faces are quite expressive; some haunting in their sadness. Hands are prominent in the illustrations--reaching, caressing, holding and explaining. The book's universal story is filtered through Korean eyes. It provides a window into the Korean culture and sensibility."

Janice Harrington (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April 1999 (Vol. 52, No. 8))

"The lengthy narrative opens with an extended introductory subplot, but the pace is fairly rapid, and patient readers will be carried along by the magical and romantic elements. Neilan’s acrylic paintings are a strong inducement for readers. The subtle tension between warm and cool colors and the balanced choreography of double-, two-thirds, and single-page spreads combine with eyecatching points of view and compelling compositions to provide a strong sense of movement and drama. Human and animal figures are well-drafted and realistically expressive; brush strokes, almost scraped across the illustrations, add texture and depth. Jacket notes refer to the story as “ancient” and “one of Korea’s most beloved,” but no specific sources are provided."

Connections:

1. Have a Korean tasting party, Kimchi (pronounced kim-chee) is similar to sauerkraut. Bulgogi (pronounced buhl-go-gee) is similar to a sweet beef teriyaki. Mandu are Korean dumplings, similar to wontons or pierogi. Make sure that the children take only a very small portion of the kimchi, since this dish can be very spicy. All 3 of these common dishes can be purchased from Korean restaurants. Making kimchi is a very complicated and time consuming process, mandu only slightly less complicated, but bulgogi is easy to make in a home kitchen.

2. Yut is a very popular Korean board game. If possible, find a version of Yut and have it and the rules available for your students. For more information on Yut, see this website.

Book Review: Horse Hoovers and Chicken Feet: Mexican Folktales selected by Neil Philip

2009-06-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Philip, Neil, editor. HORSE HOOVES AND CHICKEN FEET: MEXICAN FOLKTALES. Ill. By Jacqueline Mair. New York: Clarion Books, 2003. ISBN 0618194630.

This book is a collection of traditional Mexican folktales. Neil Philip, the editor of this anthology, collected these stories from Mexico, Colorado, and New Mexico. Like Mexico, these stories owe a large part of their origin to tales from Spain, which in turn can be traced back to Moorish tales such as the Arabian Nights. The Endless Tale is a direct descendant of Scheherazade and her “One Thousand and One Nights.” Although many of the stories share themes with other folktales from around the world, these folktales have a uniquely Mexican twist to them. Mexican folktales have 2 special characteristics: 1) the ever-pervasive background presence of Roman Catholicism, and 2) Just like African folktales, these tales are filled with tricksters and storytellers.

Since Mexican culture is steeped in Catholicism, the traditional characters in these stories are Catholic – instead of a fairy godmother in the Cinderella version (The Two Marias), you have the Virgin Mary. In The Priest Who Had a Glimpse of Glory, the main character is a Catholic priest. Pedro the Trickster bargains with the Lord, St. Peter, and the Devil. As well as Catholic concepts, Mexican folklore contains many strong female characters. Death is portrayed as female. The protagonist of The Brave Widow is a mother who fights Judas, king of the underworld, for the sake of her son’s future. And in The Endless Tale, it’s the girl who tells the boy what to do to win her father’s contest.

The stories have very little in the way of setting. They take place in ‘a house,’ ‘a cantina,’ Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory, ‘the plaza,’ ‘the ship,’ and other very broad, general locations. The action could really take place anywhere, so the setting is irrelevant to the plot.

These stories have universal themes. In the title story, Horse Hooves and Chicken Feet, the theme is being alert since you never know where you’ll find evil. Other stories illustrate the theme of good ultimately conquering evil. There’s a Mexican flavored theme in Pedro The Trickster, of how persistence can win you heaven. In the story, The Priest Who Had a Glimpse of Glory, the theme is God’s might is more powerful than us puny mortals. It reminds me of a a story in a German book of my mother’s from when I was a child, of a monk who falls asleep in a garden one afternoon while reading the Bible. When he wakes up, a thousand years have passed because he was reading 2 Peter Chapter 3, verse 8 when he fell asleep: “But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Jacqueline Mair’s illustrations don’t add to the stories, but instead complement them. Almost every page number is accompanied by a red chili pepper. There are motifs of animals, dancers, cacti, Mexican feasts, traditional Mexican clothing, the sun and moon, and Día de los Muertos altars. They highlight the Mexican flavor of this anthology. Just like traditional Mexican folk art, the colors are bold and bright, and the drawings are primitive.

In his introduction, Philip explains how most of his stories came from storytelling sources. As such, the sentences are short and to the point, while packed with action. The Devil, magic, witches, and bargaining are prevalent elements throughout the stories. Unlike European traditional literature, the traditional opening of Mexican folktales is “Once there was a ____” or “There once was a ____.” During the course of the story, these phrases repeat themselves to introduce new main characters. However, each story ends differently, without a closing common statement such as “They lived happily ever after.”

As tales transcribed from storytellers, these tales can be read by both adults to children or by the children themselves. Some of them will be familiar, some will not, but all of them will be enjoyable even if you’re not of Mexican descent.

Best Books:
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2004 ; Bank Street College of Education; United States

Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, Supplement, 2004 ; H.W. Wilson; United States

Children's Catalog, Nineteenth Edition, 2006 ; H.W. Wilson; United States

Children's Literature Choice List, 2004 ; Children's Literature; United States

Notable Books for a Global Society, 2004 ; Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association; United States

Notable Children's Books, 2004 ; American Library Association-ALSC; United States

Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2004 ; National Council for the Social Studies; United States

Awards, Honors, Prizes:
Aesop Prize, 2003 Winner United States

Storytelling World Awards, 2004 Honor Storytelling Anthologies United States

Reviews:

Todd Morning (Booklist, Oct. 15, 2003 (Vol. 100, No. 4))

"…A solid collection that may also find an audience among readers who are older than the target audience. "

Joanna Wiley (Children's Literature)

"As Hispanic culture weaves itself into the American landscape with an ever-increasing saturation, this book of Mexican folktales proves to be a vibrant addition to the folktale genre to which children today are so rarely exposed. Philip has created a wonderful book that not only offers its readers an enjoyable fantasy experience but also insight into the imagery and symbolism utilized within the Hispanic community. While children may be familiar with the basic types and motifs of some of the stories in this collection, such as boy-eating giants, evil step-mothers and wicked witches, the overall presentation and detail included within these rich texts exhibit a distinct Hispanic flair. Particularly, the use of religious imagery proves to be a prevalent motif throughout the book. Mair’s illustrations are exceptionally alive with rich color and illumination. Her depictions of familiar Hispanic images such as the Lady of Guadalupe, the open-mouthed devil and even the chili pepper further enhance the cultural connections of each of these stories. At the end of the book, Philip provides details of each story’s origin and history."

Elizabeth Young (Children's Literature)

"Here is a delightful smattering of folktales from our neighbor to the south. These Mexican tales are enhanced by the exuberantly colorful illustrations of Jacqueline Mair, which are crafted cleverly enough to conceal details of each folktale. While it is evident many of these folktales are based on the country's solid Catholic faith, one needn't be Catholic to enjoy them, though it probably helps. "The Priest who had a glimpse of Glory" and "The two Maria's" are prime examples of their religious foundation. The title of this work refers to the symbolism for witches as described in the tale of the same name, blending deceiving beauty and attractiveness with evil and the demonic. Following the tales are notes on each story, complete with AT number classification. The notes include what source these folktales were taken from and any title variations. Though written for nine-to-twelve-year olds, folktales are ageless and appropriate for every age. Come and partake of another tradition and experience the wealth of another culture."

Connections:
1. After reading the stories and seeing Mair’s illustrations, have your students illustrate one of these stories. Provide bright pastels, construction paper, and scissors.
2. Bring a piñata in to your class or library. Clear the desks away from the center of the room and let the kids take turns blindfolded trying to break it open.
3. Have your students either perform Readers' Theatre or take turns telling one of these stories in their own words.

Book Review – creators of children’s picture books

2009-06-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Talking With Artists by Pat Cummings

1. Bibliographic information: Cummings, Pat. 1992. TALKING WITH ARTISTS. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0027242455.

2. Plot: Cummings interviews 14 children's book artists. Following a "My Story" written by each artist, she then asks each artist the same 8 questions. Each artist presents him or herself in a totally unique style, just like their artwork. There are samples of childhood works and illustrations from their adult careers. At the end of the book is a glossary of art and publishing terms and a list of books by the artists.

3. Critical analysis: As an illustrator of children’s books herself, Pat Cummings understands the lifestyle of creating picture book illustrations. In her introduction she mentions that she visits elementary schools. She knows what kind of questions children ask, and these are the questions she poses to the artists interviewed. Readers of this book learn that it’s possible to enjoy your adult career, and make a living off a hobby (even obsession) to these artists since their childhood.

Each chapter is organized the same – first the artist speaks, in a 2 page article titled “My Story.” There are photos of the artist as both child and adult, then Cummings asks each artist 8 questions:

Where do you get your ideas from?
What is a normal day like for you?
Where do you work?
Do you have any children? Any pets?
What do you enjoy drawing the most?
Do you ever put people you know in your pictures?
What do you use to make your pictures?
How did you get to do your first book?

Interspersed throughout the 8 questions and their answers are childhood artistic creations and adult artistic creations.

Since each artist has his or her own style, each chapter is a different style. The artists' persoanlities come though, especialy Lane Smith, whose very tongue-in-cheek answers and illustrations drawn especialy for his "My Story" section are hilariously funny. Check out the drawing of 'this thing' that Smith says all children go through as a stage in their drawing, on page 73.

4. Awards and Review Excerpts:

ABC Children's Booksellers Choices Award 1993 - Winner Non-Fiction United States.

Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. 1993 Honor Book United States

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1992)

Fourteen well-known children's book illustrators respond to questions about their lives and work in a lively interchange of ideas.... An inspired concept, executed with class.

Betsy Hearne (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April 1992 (Vol. 45, No. 8))

As inspiration for building artists or information for reports, this will make a natural companion to picture books by the award-winning subjects...

5. Connections: Any of this series would make a perfect gift to an art teacher or budding young artist. Give a set of paints, brushes, pastels, and paper along with the book.

Book Review - Illustrator Kadir Nelson

2009-06-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hewitt Anderson's Great Big Life written by Jerdine Nolen and illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Bibliographic Data: Nolen, Jerdine. 2005. HEWITT ANDERSON’S GREAT BIG LIFE. Ill. By Kadir Nelson. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0689868669

Plot: Even though Hewitt Anderson’s parents are giants, Hewitt can fit into the palm of his father’s hand. His parents decide to give him lessons on how to survive in their giant world. But the lessons invariably go haywire until finally one day, Hewitt rescues his parents and a visiting doctor from a locked room by climbing through the keyhole. In doing so, Hewitt finally convinces his parents that even if he’s small, he’s just the right size for him.

Critical Analysis: Hewitt has a difficult time persuading his loving parents that his size is not a deterrent to him being able to survive in their world. This story of a boy proving himself to a world where he seems too small to be safe will appeal to small children whose world must sometimes appear almost as giant as Hewitt’s world.

The Anderson family lives a simple lifestyle. Mrs. Anderson does her own cooking and cleaning, and their family outings consist of singing sessions, morning, or afternoon walks. In keeping with their simple lifestyle, their clothing is simple, even when company comes for dinner. Ironically, we learn when their company comes over that the Anderson family has a collection of golden eggs of all sizes. It’s not that they can’t afford to live an expensive lifestyle, they just choose to live simply instead.

This story about a family of (almost all) giants has many indirect reference in it to “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Nolen mentions golden eggs and climbing up and down beanstalks but never anybody named Jack. Nolen does mention Mr. Anderson’s great-great-great grandmother Ida, who came to the valley “after that business with the beanstalk.” All of these references serve to give the story a hidden depth.

Nolen frequently uses words such as enormous, impressive, vast, and gargantuan and then contrasts them with words such as teeny-weeny, pint-size, and miniature to contrast Hewitt’s size with his parents’ sizes.

Nolen also mentions repeatedly how much the Andersons love Hewitt. Not only is this shown by Nolen’s words, but Nelson’s depictions of Hewitt’s mother constantly smiling at him (well, except for the day Hewitt fell into the flour vat).

While Nolen’s storyline has scattered mentions of the Jack in the Beanstalk story, Nelson’s illustrations reinforce these elements by having a giant beanstalk growing in the middle of a field on the dedication page. The first page shows that beanstalk again, but now we’re at the top of the beanstalk which is growing right next to a cottage on top of a hill. The cottage appears fairly normal, with a town far off in the distance. But as we look closer at Nelson’s illustrations, the trees lining the front walk are smaller than the front door. And there’s a gargoyle on the top of the house. In another illustration, we see a room filled with golden eggs and a harp at the back of the room. Nolen never mentions a harp, but there it is in Nelson's illustrations, connecting this tory even mor ewith Jack and the Beanstalk.

When we first meet Hewitt and his parents, Hewitt is standing in his father’s palm, right under an anchor that is serving as Mr. Anderson’s suspenders button. Nelson uses perspective here to show us Mr. Anderson’s size – he is so big that his head appears very small in proportion to his hands, giving the illusion that his head is a very long way off indeed.

My favorite illustration is the one of Hewitt taking a nap. He’s sitting, apparently stark-naked, in the middle of a pillow that, in relation to Hewitt, is the approximate size of a small bedroom. Hewitt is grinning from ear to ear. According to Nolen’s text, “To Hewitt the world was big and wonderful and wide.” The text combines perfectly with the illustration on this page to show that Hewitt is a boy in love with life.

There are many themes in this book. Some of them include the love of family and the unimportance of having money to be happy. The strongest theme though, and the one that will appeal most to younger readers, is that no matter how big or little you are, no matter what you look like, you’re just right.

Awards and review excerpts:

Best Children's Books of the yEAR, 2005: Bank Street College of Education; United States

Capitol Choices, 2006: The Capitol Choices Committee; United States

Children's Catalog. Nineteenth Edition, 2006: H.W. Wilson; United States

Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2006: National Council for the Social Studies NCSS; United States

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 24))Low on suspense but high on sheer feel-goodness…. Nelson's burly, monumental, brown-skinned giants positively glow with beneficence, and Nolen writes, as always, with a distinctive mix of humor and formality… Here's proof that, when it comes to heart, physical size isn't the whole story.

Timnah Card (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 2005 (Vol. 58, No. 6))This tall tale is told in warm, intimate tones sure to make listeners feel a part of the family. Recurring images in the text and the illustrations of little Hewitt being lovingly cared for by his oversized parents build an impression of security, while the sheer size of Hewitt’s surroundings creates an intoxicating feeling of freedom.

Connections:
Read this story along with Jack and the Beanstalk by Paul Galdone.

Book Review – Caldecott award winning book

2009-06-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback

Bibliographic information: Taback, Simms. 1999. JOSEPH HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT. New York, NY: Viking. ISBN 9780670878550.

Plot: Joseph’s overcoat is too worn to use as an overcoat anymore, so he puts it to good use over and over again until there’s nothing left of it but the memory of his frugality. As Joseph’s overcoat grows smaller and smaller, the reader is left to wonder what will happen when the overcoat is finally too worn to cut down anymore. True to character, Joseph still finds use for what’s left of the overcoat – He puts those memories to good use also by creating a book about them.

Critical analysis: Joseph and his overcoat live in a Jewish Eastern European farming community. Even though the pictures are filled with colorful details, the fields and town, as well as Joseph and his neighbors have a simple look to them. As Joseph goes about his daily activities and interactions with others in his town, we get a glimpse of a simpler time of life when items weren’t discarded at the first sign of wear because it was too wasteful and material goods cost dearly. Joseph and his neighbors dress colorfully but simply. Joseph is shown in the town, in his synagogue, going about his farming duties, and in his house. His house is warm and comforting with pictures on the walls of other famous Jews, and books and newspapers with Jewish themes - more than one of them a sly reference to the movie “Fiddler on the Roof.” Joseph’s lifestyle is very close to the lifestyle portrayed by “Fiddler on the Roof.” Scenes of a Jewish wedding, Sabbath synagogue worship, and Joseph’s homespun clothing and household furnishings all contribute to the feeling of authenticity of Taback’s portrayal of the Yiddish culture of approximately a century ago.

Taback’s bold colors and simple lines add to his simple storyline by the lack of chaotic detail. Since the story is set in a time when life was also less chaotic but still colorful, the illustrations enhance the story. The background details such as the cobblestone streets and the crops in the fields contribute to the setting while not detracting from the storyline. The background also contains portraits, books, and newspapers which appeal to the adult reader since younger children would probably not catch the allusions in these, such as the previously mentioned references to “Fiddler on the Roof.”

One of the unique features of this book is its die-cutouts. On each 2 page spread, there’s a die-cut. Each time Joseph’s coat gets smaller, the die-cuts get correspondingly smaller. As the reader turns each page, the die-cuts are then revealed to show Joseph’s new use of his ‘overcoat.’ Searching out the die-cuts on the pages before they are revealed as the next item in Joseph’s wardrobe is challenging and offers a hands-on activity to the younger (and older!) reader. The back cover of this book is a photograph of buttons, all types, shapes and colors, and as far as I could tell, each one unique from the others.

The last 2 page spread clearly states the theme – You can always make something out of nothing. Taback leads up to this theme by having his character repeatedly find many simple ways to make something out of what in today’s profligate society might be discarded as trash. This book is based on a favorite childhood song of Simms Taback, “I Had a Little Overcoat,” words and lyrics of which comprise the last page of the book. Joseph’s simple lifestyle, the bold lines and colors of the pictures and the repetitive nature of the storyline all contribute to the appeal of this book.

Awards and Review excerpts:
National Jewish Book Awards, 1999 Winner Illustrated Children’s Book United States
Randolph Caldecott medal, 2000 Winner United States
Sydney Taylor Book Awards, 1999 Honor Book Younger Readers United States

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2000)The Yiddish folksong about resourcefulness and resilience is brought to life in Simms Taback's wonderfully inventive watercolor, gouache and collage illustrations. Taback cleverly uses die-cut pages to show each bit of the garment in its new form and style. Set against the backdrop of an Eastern European village, the paintings are filled with Yiddish cultural references that add depth and humor to the story overall.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2000)Clever, humorous, visually engrossing, poignant, this tribute to a vanished way of life is worth holding on to.

Connections: Preschool children love matching activities. After you are finished reading the book, bring out a button collection and have the children match the buttons to the colors inside the book. Then have them try to match the buttons to the back cover buttons.

You can also encourage logical thinking by having the children guess what Joseph does next based on the shape of the die-cutouts.

New semester, new class

2009-06-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

OK, I've taken a month off from school and now it's time to get back to work again!

This summer semester, I'm taking another class at TWU with Dr. Sylvia Vardell. The class is LS 5603, Literature for Children and Young Adults.

For those of you who have been following my blog, I've had to use a new template because the old one stopped working for some reason - hence the new look.

LS 5663 Poetry Blog Bibliography

2009-04-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

Bibliography

Agard, John.; Skipping rope Spell. A Poke in the I.
     Edited by Paul B. Janeczko. Hong Kong:
     Candlewick Press. 2001. 12.
Carola, Robert. Stoway. A Poke in the I. Edited by
     Paul B. Janeczko. Hong Kong: Candlewick Press. 2001. 9.
Collins, Bill. untitled. Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems
     by Young Poets. Edited by Naomi Shihab Nye. Hong
     Kong: Greenwillow Books, 2000. 66.
Döhl, Reinhard. Pattern Poem with an Elusive Intruder.
     A Poke in the I. Edited by Paul B Janeczko. Hong Kong:
     Candlewick Press. 2001. 32.
Fleming, Maria. Groundhog. Days to Celebrate: A Full
     Year of Poetry, People, Holidays, History, Fascinating
     Facts, and More. Edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Hong
     Kong: Greenwillow Books. 2005. 19.
Florian, Douglas. Hello, My Name is Dracula.
     Laugh-eteria. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.
     1999. 133.
----- Pluto. Comets, Stars, The Moon, And Mars.
     Orlando, FL: Harcourt Inc. 2007. 37.
----- Sometimes Spring. Handsprings. New York: Harper
     Collins Publishers. 2006. 46.
----- The Salmon. A Poke in the I. Edited by Paul B.
     Janeczko. Hong Kong: Candlewick Press. 2001. 22.
Foxworthy, Jeff. Butterflies. Silly Street. New York:
     Harper Collins Publishers, Inc. 2009. 16.
----- House of Clocks. Silly Street. New York: Harper
     Collins Publishers, Inc. 2009. 13.
George, Kristine O’Connell. SNOB. Swimming
     Upstream: Middle School Poems. New York: Clarion
     Books. 2002. 41.
Huff, Barbara A. The Library. The Random House Book
     of Poetry for Children. Edited by Jack Prelutsky.
     New York: Random House. 1983. 220.
Hughes, Langston. Theme for English B. Poems for
     Young People: Langston Hughes. Edited by David
     Roessel and Arnold Rampersad. New York: Sterling
     Publishing Co., Inc. 2006. 42.
Kulling, Monica. Tennis Anyone? A Poke in the I.
     Edited by Paul B Janeczko. Hong Kong: Candlewick
     Press. 2001. 30.
Kuskin, Karla. Lewis Has a Trumpet. A Jar of
     Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets.
     Edited by Bernice E. Cullinan. Honesdale, PA:
     Boyds Mill Press. 1999. 23.
Lady Huarui. Poem of My Lost Country. A
     Thousand Peaks: Poems from China.
     Translated by Siyu Liu and Orel Protopopescu.
     Berkeley, CA: Pacific View Press. 2002. 14.
McLoughland, Beverly. The Whippoorwill Calls.
     Lives: Poems About Famous Americans.
     Edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins. New York:
     Harper Collins Publishers, 1999. 10.
Raschka, Chris. Cat Chair. A Poke in the
     I. Edited by Paul B. Janeczko. Hong
     Kong: Candlewick Press. 2001. 6.
Reposa, Carol Coffee. Alamo Plaza at Night.
     A Students’ Treasury of Texas Poetry.
     Edited by Billy Bob Hill. Fort Worth, TX:
     TCU Press. 2002. 166.
Solt, Mary Ellen. Forsythia. A Poke in the I. Edited
     by Paul B Janeczko. Hong Kong: Candlewick Press.
     2001. 25.
The Erie Canal. Apple for the Teacher: Thirty Songs for
     Singing While You Work. Edited by Jane Yolen. New      York: Harry N. Abram, Inc., 2005. 19.
Wong, Janet S. Three Way Stop. Behind the Wheel:
     Poems About Driving. New York: Margaret K.      McElderry Books. 1999. 39.
Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. Maple Street. Sketches From a
     Spy Tree. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company,      2005. 12.
----- Names. Sketches From a Spy Tree. New York:
     Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 43.
----- Potential. Sketches From a Spy Tree. New
     York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 56.
----- Self-Portrait. Sketches From a Spy Tree. New
     York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 62.
----- The Kiss. Sketches From a Spy Tree. New York:
     Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 30.
----- The Twins. Sketches From a Spy Tree. New York:
     Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 10.
----- Flight Attendant. Steady Hands: Poems about
     Work. New York: Clarion Books. 2009. 31.
----- Librarian. Steady Hands: Poems about Work. New
     York: Clarion Books. 2009. 29.

Poetry Break - A serious poem about a sensitive subject in teens’ lives

2009-04-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

Introduction: Road Rage – who hasn’t felt it? Young adults can be especially susceptible to it – they just went through drivers ed and they now know how to drive (unlike some of the other idiots on the road!)

Three Way Stop
By Janet S. Wong

The old lady got there first,
and you got there second,
but here he comes, that jerk in his truck, trying to push his way through—
So you charge to block him off,
you charge, by golly, to stick up for what is right—

and you crash,
ding his tail,
smash your light.

(From BEHIND THE WHEEL: POEMS ABOUT DRIVING by Janet S. Wong. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1999)

Extension: Teenagers don’t have the life experience yet to cope with road rage. In a driver’s education class, this would be a perfect poem to introduce a discussion of this dangerous aspect of driving and the responsibility to other drivers.

Graphic from: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Behind-The-Wheel/Janet-S-Wong/e/9780689825316/?itm=1 Accessed 4/24/2009

Poetry book review: Paul B. Janeczko

2009-04-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

A POKE IN THE I. selected by Paul B Janeczko. 2001. Illustrated by Chris Raschka. Hong Kong: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 0763606618.

This book of concrete poems is filled with little gems. A concrete poem is a poem that takes a shape that explains what the poem is about. Because of concrete poem's unusual shapes, sometimes this style of poetry has to be read very carefully. Here’s an example from this book. WARNING: It may take you a couple of tries to read it correctly!

The Salmon
by Douglas Florian

                                             Could do with legs!
                                        Just think what we
                                   Our pearly eggs.
                              Upstream we spawn
                         We somersault!
                    We vault!
               We jump!
          Our leaps astound!
     We bound!
We spring!

Unfortunately, concrete poems are also difficult to transpose onto a blog because of their shape. Some of my favorite poems from this poem are impossible to reproduce here, for example, “Pattern Poem with an Elusive Intruder” which is in the shape of a worm-bitten apple. There are also popsicle shaped poems, lightbulb-shaped poems, and poems that are collapsing from the sheer weight of the words. There are also one word poems, such as “Cat Chair” by Chris Raschka which contains the word ‘cat’ buried deep inside a vibrant red chair and “Stowaway” by Robert Carola, which shows the word ‘stowaway’ way deep at the bottom of a ship.

Janeczko has amassed an amusing collection of poems guaranteed to appeal to any child – in fact, when I pulled this book out of the stack of library books to review, I had to keep taking it away from my 13 year old daughter long enough to get this blog posting done.

Chris Raschka’s whimsical illustrations, from torn-paper scraps and paint, help illustrate the poems perfectly. “Skipping Rope Spell” by John Agard shows children in dancing, playful poses around the various ‘stanzas’ of the poem; “Forsythia” by Mary Ellen Salt shows barbed wire under the forsythia bush of the poem, invoking a childhood memory of an isolated bush out in rural farmland. And then there’s the illustrations for “Tennis Anyone” by Monica Kulling. The illustrations are identical on the two page spread, just facing in 180 degree opposite directions, while the words take you from one far side of the two pages to the other far side of the two pages. By the time you’ve finished reading this poem, you feel like you’ve just watched a tennis match, not read a poem about one, just like Raschka’s illustrated people for this poem.

Graphic from : http://www.amazon.com/Poke-I-Paul-B-Janeczko/dp/0744589401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240624248&sr=1-1 Accessed 4/24/2009.

Poetry Break – Poetry written by a child

2009-04-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

Introduction: Ah, the innocence of childhood. Remember when no matter what your mother did, she was the font of all knowledge? This poem, written by a young boy, brings back that feeling of nostalgia when our parents knew everything...

Untitled
By Bill Collins

When I used to go to the beach
my mother would take a saltshaker
and make the water salty

With great expertise
she would taste, salt, taste
and salt again
five minutes or so
until she decided it was right

Then I would go swimming
thinking my mother
salted the whole ocean
however large it was

I now know
my mother isn’t responsible
for the salty ocean

It takes some of the fun
out of going to the beach

(From SALTING THE OCEAN: 100 POEMS BY YOUNG POETS selected by Naomi Shihab Nye.Greenwillow Books, 2000)

Extension:
Science: What really makes the ocean salty? Are some oceans more salty than others? If so, why? Ask your students these questions, and if possible, schedule a field-trip to explore tide pools.
Geography: Have your students label all the world oceans on a large map, either wall-sized or individual handouts. (Here is a table containing a list of all the world’s oceans and seas.)

Graphic from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/beach%20AND%20salt-shaker/kwharbour/SaltShakerFixed.jpg

Poetry Book Review: Jeff Foxworthy

2009-04-10T16:53:00.001-07:00

SILLY STREET. Jeff Foxworthy. 2009. Illustrated by Steve Björkman. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-171918-9.

A little ditty is going through my mind:
The redneck’s a poet
And he sure does know it!

Jeff Foxworthy of “You know you’re a redneck if…” fame, has written his second children’s poetry book. These poems are designed to tickle the funny bone of ages 4-8. The illustrations bring the poems to life and fit in perfectly with the silly poems.

The poems feature hilarious situations and stores along Mr. Foxworthy’s Silly Street. There are bubblegum trees, a magician who made his whole store disappear, a marble shop that just might sell you a glass eyball instead of a marble, the best sandbox ever, and a different kind of petting zoo (Björkman’s illustration for this poem features a skunk in a flowered dress and a cow that says, “Quack!”). All of these poems are guaranteed to get any group of children giggling with the sheer nonsense.

It would be hard to choose between my favorite poem in this collection, but if I had to narrow it down to 2, they would be “House of Clocks” and “Butterflies”

House of Clocks

At Mel’s House of Clocks
They only sell socks,
Which makes me ask,
“What was Mel thinking?”

He says, “Socks are the thing
That makes the world sing
Cause they’re warm and keep
Your toes from stinking!”

Butterflies

One thing you must see
Is the butterfly tree
Where thousands of butterflies light.
Their wings look like leaves
As they flap in the breeze.
When they leave, it’s a rainbow in flight.

For a stand-up comedian these poems show great poetic style. They have regular meter and rhyming patterns, and his use of symbolic language, especially in “Butterflies,” is first rate. His imaginary and funny poems appeal to the imaginatioin as well. I highly recommend this book for early elementary school teachers to read in their classrooms.

Graphic from : http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061719196/Silly_Street/index.aspx Accessed 4/10/2009.

Poetry Book Review

2009-04-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

STEADY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT WORK. Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, 2009. Illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 978-0-618-9035-1.

I had the pleasure of meeting Stacie Vaughn Zimmer last week at the Texas Library Association’s annual conference in Houston. She autographed her latest poetry collection, Steady Hands: Poems About Work, with these words: “Lynda, May your steady hands always find poetry in them!”

The poems in this book cover a gamut of professions, both blue collar and white collar, and there is no stereotyping since Ms. Zimmer intermingles the masculine and feminine pronouns in her poems. There are a few surprises – the dog walker suffered a nervous breakdown in his previous profession of attorney, the organizer conducts her own interviews instead of being interviewed, and the cafeteria cook looks like Elvis.

The first poem is titled “Morning,” and describes the frantic pace of getting ready on a normal workday. It ends with the lines “Engines hum/heels click/and doors thud/behind ambitions.” The last poem is titled, “Night,” and ends with the lines “Then the moon/unlocks the door/for the night shift.” The illustrations for both these poems depict the exact same little boy in his bed; the few things that are different are the lighting in the room, the time on the alarm clock, whether he’s pulling the blanket off or on, and the sky in the window behind. Otherwise, the same little boy gazes at the camera in silent contemplation of his future – which job will HE choose?

The illustrations in this book are by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy and include a multiple of media, such as collage; ink-line, pastels, and water color drawings; and photography. My favorite illustration is the one that accompanies the poem “Flight Attendant.” It shows a little boy about 7 or 8 on his bicycle, smiling up at 3 airplanes flying overhead in a pastel blue sky. This illustration matches the last 6 lines of the poem perfectly:
    “where, as a child,
    he would stop
    (even on his bicycle)
    and dream
    about the planes he saw
    Skimming through the clouds.”

Of course, my favorite poem in this collection is “Librarian.”

Logging onto his blog,
the librarian reviews
a graphic novel he scored
at a conference in Toronto.
He edits
a podcast interview
with a new voice
in the poetry slam scene,
adds friends to the teen library
Internet café.
Then he grabs some sodas and bags of snacks
and heads downstairs
to open the all-buy book club
that meets just after school.

Graphic from: http://www.amazon.com/Steady-Hands-Poems-About-Work/dp/0618903518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239403833&sr=1-1 Accessed 4/10/2009

Poetry Break - Poetry with a refrain

2009-04-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

map of the Erie Canal

Introduction: When my children were very young, their book-of-the-month club sent us a copy of The Erie Canal (Illustrated by Peter Spier. North Country Books 1999.). Unfortunately out of print now, this wonderful poem picture book has memorable water-color illustrations that portray life and activity on the Erie Canal in the 1800's. The last page is the poem with the musical accompaniment. The book is buried in a box in my garage somewhere to save for my grandchildren someday, but it was one of my children’s favorite bedtime books. I was able to find the poem in a more recent book also. This poem/song is unusual in that it has a refrain within the verses along with a separate refrain.

The Erie Canal
Author unknown

I’ve got a mule, her name is Sal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
She’s a good ol’ worker and a good ol’ pal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
We’ve hauled some barges in our day
Fill’d with lumber, coal, and hay,
And we know every inch of the way
from Albany to Buffalo.

(Refrain)
Low bridge, everybody down!
Low bridge, for we’re comin’ to a town.
And you’ll always know your neighbor,
You’ll always know your pal,
If you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

We better get along on our way, ol’ gal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
‘Cause you bet your life I’d never part with Sal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
Git up there, mule, here comes a lock,
We’ll make Rome ‘bout six o’clock,
One more trip an’ back we’ll go,
Right back home to Buffalo.

(Refrain)
Low bridge, everybody down!
Low bridge, for we’re comin’ to a town.
And you’ll always know your neighbor,
You’ll always know your pal,
If you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

(From APPLE FOR THE TEACHER: THIRTY SONGS FOR SINGING WHILE YOU WORK collected and introduced by Jane Yolen. Harry N Abram, Inc., Publisher 2005)

Extension
History: The Erie Canal played a major role in the settlement of the Northern United States in the early 1800’s. It established a waterway between Lake Erie and the Hudson River, opening the area up to increased settlement and transportation of goods. When studying US history, teach the students this song and show them maps of how this area was opened to expansion by this milestone in American ingenuity.
Geography: The 5 themes of geography are depicted very well in a study of the Erie Canal. Location and place include making Lake Erie and the Hudson River accessible to each other. Movement and area are shown by the way the Erie Canal opened this region up for settlement and commerce. Human-environment interaction is illustrated by the way the Canal was dug and constructed through the mountains.

graphic from: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/mapcenter/map.aspx?refid=701512334 Accessed 4/10/2009.

Poetry Break: Signs of Spring

2009-03-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

Introduction: My daughter loves daffodils. Instead of robins, she looks for these brightly colored flowers to tell her when spring arrives.

Sometime Spring
by Douglas Florian

Sometimes sun
And sometimes rain--
Spring is just one big daisy chain.

Sometimes warm
And sometimes chilly--
Spring is silly daffodilly.

(from HANDSPRINGS written and illustrated by Douglas Florian. Harper Collins Publishers 2006)

Extension:
1. Provide your class with drawing materials and have them illustrate this poem with their signs of spring.
2. Compare this poem to William Wordsworth's (1770-1850) "Daffodils."
3. Take your class out to a nearby field and make daisy or clover chains to celebrate spring!

graphic from: http://vkelim.smugmug.com/gallery/261105_roTWX/1/10283057_8QVve#10283057_8QVve-L-LB Accessed 3/27/2009

Poetry Break: Biographical Poem

2009-03-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

Introduction: When I was in grade school in New Jersey, our class took a field trip to a Civil War era house that had been a station for the Underground Railroad. I still remember looking down into that small hole in amazement and wondering what kind of life a person would be escaping from to be willing to hide in such a tiny, dank hole in the ground. When slaves were ready to escape, they’d hang a quilt outside their slave quarters, and that night, as the other slaves heard a whippoorwill call from the fields beyond, they would silently bid farewell to the soon-to-be ex-slave escaping with Harriet Tubman. Harriet and her followers would follow the North Star, which was part of the Big Dipper constellation – slaves referred to this as the Drinking Gourd.

That same history unit, I learned more about Harriet Tubman and her amazing life. Her part of the Underground Railroad was the path from Maryland to Philadelphia. Harriet was never caught and neither were any of the slaves she led to freedom, despite frequent episodes of narcolepsy caused by a beating inflicted during her slavery childhood. That same beating created a large indentation in the side of her head, so she always covered it with a head scarf.

The Whippoorwill Calls
By Beverly McLoughland

No one hears her
Coming
Through the woods
At night
For she is like
A whippoorwill
Moving through the trees
On silent wings.

No one sees her
Hiding
In the woods
By day
For she is like
A whippoorwill
Blending into leaves
On the forest floor.

And one night
The whippoorwill calls
And the warm air
Carries the haunting sound
Across the fields
And into the small dark cabins.

And only the slaves know
It is Harriet.

(From LIVES: POEMS ABOUT FAMOUS AMERICANS selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Harper Collins Publishers 1999)

Extension:
1. Integrate social studies and math by having your students look up the average walking pace of a human, then. Look up the map of Harriet’s route and calculate how many miles it is, then estimate how many days it would take to walk from Maryland to Philadelphia along that path.
2. Integrate social studies and art by showing students various websites and images of Underground Railroad quilts. Provide drawing materials and graph paper for students to design their own quilt blocks. Or you can use the interactive website, " Make Your Own Secret Quilt Message."
3. Performance and Poetry – Have your students act out this poem. There are also other poems about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad that lend themselves well to performance, such as “Harriet Tubman” by Eloise Greenfield and the folksong, “Follow the Drinking Gourd.”

graphic from: www.stmarksbridgeport.org/newsletter2.html Accessed 3/25/2009

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Poetry Book Review

2009-03-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

COMETS, STARS, THE MOON, AND MARS: Florian, Douglas, 2007. Illustrated by Douglas Florian. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc. ISBN#978-0-15-205372-7

Douglas Florian has done it again! In this, one of his most recent books of poetry, he has written poems for each planet (including Pluto!), the sun, our moon, and other interesting objects found out beyond our atmosphere. Each poem is accompanied by an illustration of paintings, collage, or rubber stamps. There are strategically placed cutouts within some of the illustrations too, giving a tantalizing hint of what lies beyond, or on the next page for us earthbound types.

My favorite poem is "Pluto:"

     Pluto was a planet.
     But now it dosn't pass.
     Pluto was a planet.
     They say it's lacking mass.
     Pluto was a planet.
     Pluto was admired.
     Pluto was a planet.
     Till one day it got fired.

I've always felt sorry for Pluto - here it was minding its own business and just being itself, until suddenly one day some scientist decided it couldn't be a planet anymore. Mr. Florian expresses that same sentiment, albeit so much better than I ever could!

Mr. Florian also provides a "Galactic Glossary" and helpful bibliography at the end of his book. The glossary provides factual, helpful information useful to teachers who want to incorporate poetry into their astronomy lessons. One example is his entry for the minor planets:

         "The minor planets, also called asteroids
          or planetoids, are pieces of rock
          orbiting the Sun. The largest is Ceres,
          which is approximately 180 miles
          across. The greatest concentration of minor
          planets is found between Mars and Jupiter
          in an area called the asteroid belt, where
          they likely number in the millions."

graphic from: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=9780152053727&ourl=Comets%2DStars%2Dthe%2DMoon%2Dand%2DMars%2FDouglas%2DFlorian accessed 3/24/2009.

Poetry Break Review - Poetry that does not rhyme

2009-03-06T10:43:00.001-08:00

Introduction: One of the very first things I did when I moved to San Antonio was visit the Alamo. You walk through a greenery covered breezeway to enter the grounds. As soon as you enter the gardens behind the Mission itself, it's as if all sound is cut off - this is hallowed ground. This silence can be felt in the daytime as well as the nighttime. Do the tourists feel the reverence, or are they too busy being tourists?

Alamo Plaza at Night
by Carol Coffee Reposa

Even now, tourists come
To gaze up at the chipped facade,
Weathered double doors
Oaks twisting into dark, floodlights
Trained along their branches.
Cameras flash agaist white limestone
Pocked with centuries
And gunshots long ago.

Within the walls
And Roman arches
Heavy with their bars
Are tidy gardens:
Boston fern droops langidly
Toward fresh-cut grass
and copper plants.
Goldfish wallow in their quiet ponds.

Outside people talk about the mission,
Where to go, what to eat.
Visitors brood over maps
And time-lapse shots, children peering
At old plaques, words lost
Within a diesel's whine, the clop-clop
Of a horse's hooves, wind rising
In dark trees, voices gathered
Finally
Into the stones.

(From A STUDENTS’ TREASURY OF TEXAS POETRY by Billy Bob Hill, Editor. TCU Press 2002)

Extension:
1. Read this poem as an introduction to the Texas Revolution in a Texas History class.
2. If you have the misfortune to not live in Texas, this poem could be read as an introduction to the Texan Revolution in an American history class.
3. Every culture has its special places – the Alamo, Arlington Cemetery, Osaka castle, and Tiananmen Square; just to name a few. In a high school world history class, read this poem, then lead a class discussion on why cultures need those special places.

Graphic from: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1573869.jpg accessed 3/6/2009