A short list:

• Christy - Catherine Marshall
• Karen- Marie Killilea
• The Story of the Trapp Family Singers- Maria Augusta Trapp
• The Family Nobody Wanted – Helen Doss
• Follow the River – James Alexander Thom (haven’t had this one as long, but somehow ended up with three copies so it must be important!)
• The Hiding Place – Corrie Ten Boom
• Mrs. Mike – Benedict and Nancy Freedman
• The Story of My Life – Helen Keller
• Letters to Karen- Charlie W. Shedd
• Little House series – Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Anne of Green Gables series – L.M. Montgomery
• Little Women (and sequels) – Louisa May Alcott
• Light a Single Candle – Beverly Butler
• A Lantern in her Hand- Bess Streeter Aldrich
• On the Night of the Seventh Moon – Victoria Holt
• Heidi- Johanna Spyri
• Joy in the Morning – Betty Smith

Did these books shape me?  Or did I gravitate to these books because of who I am?

As I think through the common thread of the titles above I see women who were survivors – women who did the right thing in spite of tough circumstances – women with positive, make-the-best-of-it attitudes.  I think I have kept these books because they shaped me.  (I admit, the Victoria Holt title is stupidly romantic, but I adore that book.  I reread it recently and still adore it.)

I’ve owned most of these titles since I was in junior high (or before).  As a librarian for young adults I ask myself what titles are my students going to own and have on their book shelves in 30-35 years?  What is being published today that inspires them, molds them, makes them who they are?  I am a librarian – I have to believe that they are changed by what they read!  Not by everything they read – we all read stuff and move on – but some things will make a difference!

I’ve noticed that a majority of the books in MY list are biography or fictionalized biography.  (OK – not the Holt book.)  I can’t think of anything like them that has been published recently for my students.  So what are they finding in literature to impact their lives?  Will their reading shape their lives?

In my opinion the best of what is out there now tends to be fantasy.  Harry Potter is somewhat inspiring.  Patricia Wrede’s “Dealing with Dragons” has an inspiring heroine.  Wolf Brother, Ranger’s Apprentice…. the positive role models that come to mind are all in fantasy titles.  I can’t help but wonder if that is a reflection of our society?  Do we have REAL role models anymore or must we invent them? 

I’m over-thinking, I’m sure…  but if you read this and can suggest truly inspiring YA titles which you think will survive purgings and weedings on a current student’s personal bookshelves 35 years from now I would love for you to submit the title(s) in the comments section of this post.  Or share titles YOU have kept that impacted you and why.

And now… I’m going outside to take the dog for a long walk so I can lighten up…

Amanda and Leo have celebrated every birthday together, but at their tenth they had a falling out and have not spoken for a year.  With no joint party for year 11, neither of them is truly looking forward to it and it ends up as horrible as they expect.  Not only is it horrible, but they find they have to repeat the day again and again.  At first neither realizes that the other is having the same experience, but finally they team up to try and end the cycle of the repeating birthday.

This is an excellent offering for young middle school students.  I liked it much better than Mass’ previous books which I have read:  A Mango Shaped Space and Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life.  Mango had an interesting topic, synesthesia, but the writing was somewhat uneven in my opinion.  Jeremy Fink felt contrived in some parts of the narrative and was borderline didactic.  But in 11 Birthdays Wendy Mass has written a narrative that flows with enough action to keep a young reader engaged and enough surprises to keep a good reader guessing.  And the choices made by Amanda and Leo as they have the opportunity for do-overs demonstrate increasing maturity yet the premise of the repeating day makes any message seem natural. 

Worth reading.  Worth recommending to grades 4-7 and better third grade readers.

The joy in reading this book aloud is to allow the students to predict what polite response is required to the quirky situations:

You are picking dandelions and columbines
outside the castle. Suddenly a fierce dragon
appears and blows red smoke at you, but just
then a brave knight gallops up and cuts off
the dragon’s head.

What do you say, dear?

Of course… you say “Thank you very much!”  If the students responded with just “thank you” I encouraged them to think… The brave knight just saved your life!  Is a simple thank you, enough? 

It is important to find ways to validate each student’s response.  Students need to feel safe offering their guess of “What do you say, dear?”  If you simply tell them they are wrong or, worse, laugh at a response it becomes a negative experience.  I treat the answers more like brainstorming… saying something positive about their response, but guiding them all toward a better/best/correct response.  It is often necessary to remind them that we are searching for the polite response.  For many I told them their response would be a very direct approach, but we wanted a polite phrase.  How could they rephrase that very politely?

I shared this book just before Easter break.  Our school serves a fairly homogeneous cornfield community, so it was comfortable to encourage the kids to think about polite behavior at the upcoming Easter dinners most of them would attend with extended family.  Instead of “I want more potatoes” or even, “I want more potatoes, please” this book allowed me to encourage them to say “would you please pass the potatoes”.  And to ask “may I please be excused” when finished. 

This is the beauty of books and read-aloud.  A chance to talk about something with kids in a way that is both meaningful and fun.

A word of caution – a couple of the situations in the book no longer seem politically correct.  (The bad guy has a gun to your head and wants to shoot you.  What do you say, dear?  You say, “No, thank you.” of course.)  But while not politically correct in our overanxious era, the kids don’t mind.  They find the whole thing hilarious.  Adults over-think – kids enjoy.  I heartily recommend this classic book.

So… what do you say, dear?

I intend to give this book to my father for his own reading.  I’ve often said that the good middler and YA novels of today are rich enough to satisfy adult readers and cannot be fully appreciated by young adults with their limited experience.  My Dad will fully appreciate this novel. 

You see, Cooper Jewett is a farm boy.  Although he is only 14, Cooper is a New Hampshire Dairy Man trying to keep it all together and get it all done.  As a retired Illinois farmer, my Dad will identify with this novel.  Although my father raised hogs himself, my grandpa kept dairy cows throughout my Dad’s childhood and mine.  (Actually, I think dairy cows keep you – they keep you tied down even more than other livestock which is why my father never had them!)

My Dad will approve of Cooper’s attitudes and values.  He will recognize and empathize with the struggles.  He knows about feeding the stock before you feed yourself.  He knows about balancing school work with farm chores for Dad taught school in addition to farming.  (Most farmers I know, and most of their wives, work elsewhere to support their farming habit!)  My father knows what it is like to have the barn burn to the ground in twenty minutes.  He knows what it is like to run into a burning barn to save livestock.  And he knows about good food, tacturn farm family members, and church folk and neighbors who will lift you up when you need it.

In addition to the richness of the rural setting and the unusual farm themed plot, Schmidt throws politics, mystery and intrigue into the mix for this novel.  The simple farm life is juxtaposed with the complications of dirty politics.  First Boy has enough action and drama to keep young readers turning the pages.  A less complicated narrative than Wednesday Wars or Trouble, I liked it just as much.  And I am happy that this is an offering from Schmidt which I can recommend to my less dedicated young readers.

So happy reading to you all - I recommend Schmidt’s First Boy.  And Happy Birthday to the “first boy” I ever loved - my dad.

Gary D. Schmidt (my new favorite author) has a new title – Trouble.  Out since April, I’m just now getting it read!  One thing I’m enjoying about Schmidt is that his books are each fairly distinct.  I love this one as much as I loved The Wednesday Wars, but it is like with my children – I love them both – but they are different.  Where The Wednesday Wars was often funny, Trouble was full of gut wrenching issues.  It will appeal and be most appropriate for an older audience, although there is nothing inappropriate for Junior High students. 

What I love, however, is how Gary D. Schmidt can weave a story.  Like those TV shows I admire for their tight writing, Schmidt never drops a thread.  Like warp and weft, the themes and subplots come together with color and texture in Schmidt’s narrative.  And in the midst of the heavy themes in Trouble – tragedy, guilt, sibling rivalry, death, grief, blame, forgiveness, prejudice, depression, cultural conflict, first love, slavery, refugees, and more – runs this quirky little subplot.  Henry and his best friend have an ongoing rivalry that always ends in blows.  I realize this doesn’t necessarily sound funny, but in the hands of Schmidt it provides humor because it is understated and repetitious.  I liken it to the scene in While You Were Sleeping where the paperboy, riding his bike in the early morning light, crashes and falls.  The scene is just there.  It relates to nothing.  But it surprises and provides a respite from the heavy drama.  (It is our favorite part of that movie, I’m ashamed to admit.  My mom was probably right; my brother and I shouldn’t have watched The Three Stooges!)

Trouble was criticised in some reviews for having one too many subplots.  But he dropped none!  I could not predict, while reading, how Schmidt would resolve the shipwreck mystery but he did it.  And it was NOT extraneous; indeed, I thought the shipwreck was symbolic of many of the themes within the novel.

Trouble is for a different audience than previous books by this author.  All his books have fairly serious themes, but this one requires more thought and deals with some serious drama.  But despite serious themes, all Schmidt’s books have an undercurrent of hope and redemption, and Trouble has the heart AND soul which I relish in Gary D. Schmidt’s novels.  If you haven’t read Schmidt’s work I suggest you read them in publication order.  You will enjoy, as I have, watching his writing just get tighter and tighter.

I look forward to the next offering by Gary D. Schmidt.  I wonder what audience it will be for? 

Just keep ‘em comin’, professor! 

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.”

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!

The Way

Cody LeBeau, the main character in The Way, truly develops as the narrative progresses. As his uncled begins teaching him native AND martial arts philosophy – “The Way” – he learns that we are all connected to the earth and to each other. Cody learns that changing his own attitude can change everything. Bruchac doesn’t use one of my favorite bits of wisdom, but he well could have with Cody: “You can’t change the actions of others, but you can change your reaction.” When Cody begins to develop focus and self-confidence he sees not only himself in a new light, but his enemies as well. And his enemies respond to the change. The book has a riveting finish, as Cody’s fantasies of being a martial arts hero are confronted with the challenges of real heroism.

Without being moralistic in tone, The Way contains great insight and wisdom. I’ve made similar comments in previous posts on Bruchac’s books, but I’m impressed over and over. Books should entertain and capture the interests of our students. This one does. But books can also broaden our minds and leave us better people for the reading. This one does.

One of the distinctions in Bruchac’s books is that while the adult characters are flawed and human they are important and active participants in the life of the protagonist. The adults are not all evil or ineffective as in so many YA novels; most of the adults in Bruchac’s books are respected and seen as an important resource in the young adult’s life…despite their personal flaws.

Another Bruchac strength is he doesn’t write books about Native Americans, he writes books with characters who are Native American. There are legitimate concerns within the children’s literature world that students will think of Native Americans as historic only. Bruchac’s books have no apparent political agenda in this vein, yet they unassumingly portray modern young people who happen to have a native heritage. No agenda. Just people. This is “the way” it should be.

]]> http://read2me2.edublogs.org/2008/09/24/the-way-books-ought-to-be-bruchac/feed/ 0 http://read2me2.edublogs.org/2008/08/06/arrow-over-the-doorchildren-of-the-longhouse-bruchac/ http://read2me2.edublogs.org/2008/08/06/arrow-over-the-doorchildren-of-the-longhouse-bruchac/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:00:03 +0000 mbrandt http://read2me2.edublogs.org/?p=70 Arrow over the Door and Children of the Longhouse are well researched, sensitive, and balanced looks at Native Americans through historical fiction.  While not among Bruchac’s scary stories which I love to promote to kids, they are worth recommending to children based on their own strength – Bruchac’s credibility and his easy-to-read, flowing narratives.

Arrow Over the Door, based on a real incident during the revolutionary war, explores the mutual fears and ignorance of a group of Quaker Friends and a war-bound band of Abenaki men.  Told through the eyes of two young men – one Quaker, one Abenaki – this hopeful tale illustrates that peace is possible.

Children of the Longhouse explores the daily life of the Iroquois people through the eyes of a Mohawk brother and sister – Ohkwa’ri and Otsi:stia.  Students will identify with the moral dilemas Ohkwa’ri faces as he deals with a bullying gang of boys within his tribe.  Bruchac deftly interweaves Mohawk culture (and stories!) throughout the narrative, including some wonderful scenes with the game of lacrosse.  I found this particularly interesting since my nephews play lacrosse competitively.  Students will be fascinated, too, so make sure you have a non-fiction title on lacrosse ready to hand to them next!

When Joseph Bruchac was asked, in a conference session (IRC, March 2007), whether he preferred the term Native American or Indian he indicated it didn’t matter to him.  Just call him “Joe”, he quipped.  But then he added that to be truly accurate he should be referred to as Abenaki.  Native American is an umbrella term that truly isn’t any more suitable than Indian, according to Bruchac.  Bruchac’s many novels reflect this as each one explores a varied people group, helping students understand the vast differences between tribes and regions. 

Nobody does Native American like Bruchac!  Make sure you’ve weeded out of date materials on Native Americans so there is room on your shelf for books by Joseph Bruchac!