Read to me…
Views from a K-8 Library Media Specialist
Yet ANOTHER first novel! (I’m going to have to create a category!) A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban is straight up good writing. An excellent realistic fiction middler novel, at 211 small-sized pages it is not overwhelming. Chapters are often only a page or two long, so the pace is fast. Chapter titles such as “What’s Weird” followed by “What’s Really Weird” are kid-friendly. The story is uncomplicated and humorous and POSITIVE!
Urban is gifted at creating flawed characters for which the reader cannot help but be sympathetic. The mathematical work-a-holic mother is often absent, but shows up when it counts. The father is in charge of “domestic affairs”, has overwhelming apprehension when leaving the house, and seems to have “sucker” written in invisible ink on his forehead. (The invisible ink is clearly seen by zealous salespeople!) And Wheeler Diggs keeps following her home.
The narrator, eleven-year-old Zoe Ellis, has a dream to be a concert pianist (like Horowitz) and someday play Carnegie Hall. But when her dad is suckered into buying an organ instead of a piano, her la-dee-da dreams instead go boompa-chucka, boompa-chucka on the Perfectone D-60. But Zoe continually makes the best of things and ends up entered in the Perform-O-Rama. But even this opportunity is complicated by her parents and their quirks…and Wheeler Diggs.
I think President Barack Obama would like Zoe. She exemplifies the challenge he issued in his Jan. 20, 2009 Inaugural address.
“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”
Indeed it is Zoe’s optimistic, can-do attitude – her “all to a difficult task” - coupled with her quirky and humorous outlook that made the book enjoyable for this reader. Zoe is a character with character – I shall happily recommend this to my students. No book is perfect, but this is A Crooked Kind of Perfect!
The first thing my aide and I noticed when we unpacked the book shipment which 
included Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons was the girl on the cover. She looks amazingly like my aide’s youngest grandaughter! I included her picture so you can judge for yourself!
Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons is one of the 2009 Monarch Award nominees. Amy Krouse Rosenthal has created a clever book that presents life-defining vocabulary words such as cooperate, patient, optimist, pessimist, fair, unfair, compassionate and more through cookie analogies. Not cookie recipes, as you might expect, but recipes for living! “Trustworthy means, if you ask me to hold your cookie until you come back, when you come back, I will still be holding your cookie.”
As much as I liked the book and appreciated its distinctive approach to character education, I was skeptical about using it as a read aloud. I didn’t think my students would like it. But I was wrong – my students ate up this book! (Hah! Pun bad, but intended!) In each class they were exceptionally attentive; it gave them something to contemplate, and contemplate they did! After twenty-two years of reading aloud to K-3, my predictions about what they will or will not like are not often wrong. But the students still surprise me; I realize the older I get, the less I know! Which brings us to Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons final entry: “WISE means, I used to think I knew everything about cookies, but now I realize I know about one teeny chip’s worth.”
I enjoyed the many common old phrases which are sprinkled throughout this picture book from Betty Ren Wright.
- It won’t do a speck of good.
- Oh, my stars and garters!
- …every last one of you.
- …anyone in his right mind…
- I should think not.
- You’ve earned your keep.
- I couldn’t eat another bite if you paid me!
I prefaced the reading of the book by telling them about the big snowstorm of 1967 (Chicago area) when my husband and his sisters couldn’t get home because their school bus was stuck in the drifts. The bus riders were “farmed” out to the few houses on that stretch of the road and everyone “made do”. The next morning my father-in-law and the neighbor took a bulldozer and truck and plowed a road directly across the fields to reach their kids. The roads would remain sealed shut for days.
Before reading The Blizzard, I made sure the students understood that the setting for the story is probably 20 years before my 1967 story. The one-room schoolhouse for the country kids dates it pre-1950s, but the presence of a telephone in the farmhouse probably means 1940s. Preparing students to notice the unique features of the one-room school experience is helpful: the oldest boys helping with custodial tasks, all ages in one room, the unmarried teacher, sack lunches, and using an outhouse. Before we started reading I made sure they knew what an outhouse was! Porta-potty helps explain it, but the students enjoy further explanation!
I grew up going to a country church which had no indoor plumbing. There were two “three-holers” outside – one for Gentlemen and one for Ladies. Although a trip to the outhouse could provide an opportunity to waste a great deal of church time, I rarely asked to go there. Cold in the winter and wasps and spiders in the summer – not to mention the smell – limited the trip’s appeal.
With background and “my” stories out of the way, the narrative of The Blizzard flowed quickly. There were a few places worth pausing. Pa’s line “I’d say you’ve all earned your keep,” was fun to explain…and fun to ask them if they do enough work to earn their room and board at home. Asking them if they earn their keep is interesting! I also sang bits of the songs mentioned. (None of them knew Suwannee River”, although the 1st grade teacher who was a native of Florida shared it is Florida’s state song!) I recommend also pausing to allow the students to predict what last song Ma is choosing. If they need a hint, turn the page. The sight of the birthday cake will usually help them realize it will be “Happy Birthday”.
This is a warm and satisfying story… in spite of the blizzard.
A 2009 Monarch Award Nominee
To read more about the Blizzard of 1967
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-chicagodays-1967blizzard-story,0,1032940.story
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/events/chisnow1967.htm
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/winter_storms/witnesses.htm
There is no one better at making simple illustrations expressive than Mo Willems! The Elephant and Piggie books are top notch for emerging readers. Vocabulary is simple with words and phrases repeated for reinforcement and success. All narrative stems from the conversation bubbles in large font above each character’s head. The speaker is further distinguished for the emerging reader as the conversation bubbles are color coded – gray for Elephant and pinkish for Piggie.
As a rule, books for emerging readers do not make good read alouds, but Today I Will Fly is the exception! In spite of its deliberate simplicity, it is funny! The expressions Mo Willems gives the characters lead the reader to adding expression and inflection to the narrative.
Elephant: Yes, it was a big jump. But you did not fly.
Piggie: I will try again.
Elephant: I will go to lunch.
Elephant’s eyes on the “I will go to lunch” line are what make the line cynical and funny.
I reflect the character’s faces in my face as much as possible as I read.
“YOU WILL NOT FLY!” – bold print read loudly, of course
“She will not fly.” – look at the students like Elephant does as you read the line! (The students laughed aloud as I read this one.)
One of the 2009 Monarch Award nominees –
Today I Will Fly! Academically sound. Simply funny!
Known as a writer of science fiction and fantasy, this is Pat Murphy’s first diversion from those genres as well as her first children’s novel. They say to “write what you know” and based on the URL of the author’s website, I’m thinking Murphy must see herself as a “Wild Girl”. www.brazenhussies.net/murphy/
My only concern with the book was a bit of foul language early in the narrative. Murphy established her Wild Girls well without the swearing – she didn’t need to stoop to it. I was pleased that the language did not continue throughout the novel. (More on my thoughts on swearing in Middler novels coming soon…)
This is a heartfelt coming-of-age story about friendship, family conflict, and the power of story. Unlikely friends, “Fox” and Joan, coauthor a story which ends up winning a contest. But when they must read it aloud, they cover their fears by painting their faces with red lipstick before going on stage. “We were the wild girls who lived in the woods. We had won a contest, we had put on our war paint, and nothing would ever be the same again. We were the wild girls, and they did not know what we might do.”
In spite of the horror and embarrassment the “war paint” caused their teacher and Joan’s mother, Fox and Joan win for best presentation. This brings an opportunity to attend a summer writing class at Berkeley taught by the free spirited Verla. The writing exercises and assignments cause both girls to look at themselves, their parents, and their world in new ways…to view, examine, and reconcile their world through story.
The power of story has never been better explained or explored.
Gary D. Schmidt, my new hero, has a way with words. I laughed and I cried reading The Wednesday Wars. Not a comedy, but still funny in bursts that made me thankful I was reading alone so no one could hear the uncontrollable snorts that exploded as the humor caught me suddenly. And I cried, not in sobs, but in a constantly leaky sort of way. I leaked and snorted at the same time, actually, toward the end.
Gary D. Schmidt has a way with words. He has a way with Shakespeare’s words in The Wednesday Wars that makes me sorry I don’t know more Shakespeare. Schmidt obviously knows enough to subtly build a narrative around it, weaving in quotes that are unexpectedly relevant.
The setting is Camillo Junior High, Long Island, New York in 1967: diagramming sentences, the first “bubble tests”, coat rooms, the Monkees, the Beatles, VW Bugs, flower power, nuclear bomb drills, the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite, Lyndon Johnson, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. I loved the setting. I lived the setting. But while the setting is strong, it isn’t the true strength of this novel.
The strength of The Wednesday Wars is the character. The characters themselves are clear and strong – Holling- the hero (and the lone Presbyterian stuck at school every Wednesday while the Jewish and Catholic kids go to religious school), Mrs. Baker the teacher (who hates Holling and is stuck with him each Wednesday), Doug Swieteck and his brother the bullies, Danny Hupfer the best friend, and an incredible supporting cast. But more than the characters, it is THE character of the book that is pillar. Each character surprises you with unexpected depth. Strength and hope and wisdom and faith rise a bit higher with each round of challenges and disasters.
An honor book is not enough – The Wednesday Wars should have won the Newbery!
I’ve told you everything… and nothing about this wonderful work. Like First Light, I want you to read it for yourself. And I want you to recommend it to students again, and again. The Wednesday Wars is about drawing together … and rising above in faith and hope and love. Yes, we can!
Another first in a planned series, Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure is an interesting blend of fantasy, magic and history. P.B. Kerr has chosen a unique main plot – the world of djinn. Djinn (vulgarly known as a genie) are the third of the higher intelligent beings on earth along with angels (made of light) and humans (made of earth – ie “dust to dust”). Djinn, of course, are made of fire. (Major Nelson never discovered THAT on “I Dream of Jeannie”.) Moreover, there are good djinn and bad djinn abroad in the world.
Main characters John and Philippa are just reaching adolescence, and with it comes a huge surprise. They are djinn. (Be careful what you wish for around them!) Their uncle explains their powers and challenges and helps develop what their parents will not… and the adventure begins.
While this is not top notch literature, this is fun and well-paced. There is plenty of kid friendly action. Often bordering on silly (a crabby character named Groanin!), this truly is a book for juveniles. The Egyptian setting and the background on modern Cairo and Ancient Egypt give the book substance. What more could a juvenile reader wish for?
Rebecca Stead has crafted an incredible first novel with First Light. This completely unique and tightly woven narrative is compelling – I could not put it down! Two uniquely separate narratives weave through the book; Peter of New York City and Thea of Gracehope. Never is this novel predictable. Stead so skillfully incorporates foreshadowing that the reader only recognizes it when the narrative is complete. I hesitate to discuss it further, for I want you to read this for yourself!
First Light will satisfy readers of science fiction, fantasy, OR adventure. It also has pure science incorporated – Peter’s parents are scientists studying global warming. At 328 pages of fairly large font, it is an accessible science fiction offering for older challenged readers. I will be recommending this one to many, many of my students!
Book One – Septimus Heap : Magyk by Angie Sage unfortunately is not magical reading. It was a heap of characters and plots, but a magykly wonderful narrative it was not!
I wanted to like the book as there were a number of good elements – the basic plot line, for example where an ordinary wizarding family finds they’ve raised the princess. And unlike Paolini’s Eragon which borrowed so heavily from Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, Magyk had many unique features: the telltale green wizard eyes, the long buried dragon boat, and the Message Rats for example. And I love the name Septimus for the seventh son of the seventh son!
But while the basic plot was interesting, the myriad of unresolved subplots and characters was overwhelming. (Sally Mullins, Morwenna, Simon and Lucy, Linda Lane, etc.) The narrative would have benefited from much, much, much tighter editing. Obviously this is only book one, but as a good reader I was often confused. More often I was just annoyed that a subplot was not played out such as how Sally Mullins escaped her fire. Some of the magical words seemed to be in a bold print in the paperback edition I read, but there was no supporting glossary.
Only dedicated readers of fantasy and magic will stick with this narrative. Or should I say dedicated readers of Phantysy and Magyk.
You can read about the sequels, Flyte, Physik, and Queste at the Septimus Heap website.
Happy New Year 2009! What a blessing that we live in a society that can afford to write, publish, and purchase books for children and young adults. I sit here in a warm home, with more food than I need, using a laptop for which I paid cash, and writing about reading. No Magyk there – just incredible blessings!
