This will be the first year in almost 18 years that I will have access to a public library!  We lived in a lovely small town before we moved four weeks ago, but it did not have a public library.  I can’t wait!  And it is a testament to how busy I’ve been that have not been over there to get my library card yet.

Regardless of library access, however, I am still bringing home stacks of books for summer reading.  I need to reread all 20 of the 2010 Caudills in order to write questions for our Reading Counts program.  Scholastic in their infinite wisdom decided their customers should get subscriptions per student and have access to all of their library of tests.  However, I don’t want all of their tests.  I just want the 20 award titles… and selected others.  So, while I own the software and the right to use it, I am no longer their customer I guess.  This means I am writing 30 questions per book and I know from experience how difficult this will be.  But at least I get to reread the books.

The rest of the stack I have to make tomorrow, assuming I get done with all of my work on the last day of school.  Since this has never happened, it will probably be Wednesday.  So… see you Wednesday with my list!

Hooray for stacks of books home for the summer!  You’ll find me on my new patio!

Cynthia Kadohata has written her best novel yet in Cracker! Best Dog in Vietnam.  (Sorry Ms Kadohata – in spite of the Newbery Award, I did not like Kira-Kira.)   The 2009 Caudill Award has a nominee on the subject of war dogs in Vietnam, but while they are on the same topic each approaches it in distinct ways. 

Letters from Wolfie (by Patti Sherlock) is a good introduction to the topic of war dogs, but its focus is primarily on the home front.  It provides an excellent overview of both the pro and con attitudes toward the Vietnam war.  (It rang true with my memories of those days!)

Cracker! puts most of the book’s action in Vietnam.  Readers who like war stories will be more than satisfied with the well-researched details and action included.  Cracker! breaks your heart right from the start with the original owner, Willie, giving up his dog – not for particularly patriotic reasons, but because he can’t keep him under the family’s reduced circumstances. Unfortunately the ending was a bit contrived and unrealistic.  The tragedy of the war dogs in Vietnam was that not one of the dogs returned to civilian life.  (http://www.uswardogs.org/id10.html).  Kadohata obviously felt compelled to give readers an unrealistic happy ending.  Rather than making this more suitable for YA readers, because the happy ending is misleading, I find it less suitable.  YA readers of historical fiction deserve the truth – at least in an author’s note.

A unique and very appealing element of the book is the voice which alternates between the handler, Rick and the dog, Cracker.  Unlike the usual approach, the voices are not in alternating chapters but embedded into the narrative.  This, amazingly, does NOT appear contrived and the narrative flows in an natural way between the two voices. 

It is about time we begin to see the Vietnam Era in books for YA readers.  Wolfie, by far, has the broadest appeal:  it works for dog lovers and/or history lovers.  Cracker! is quite a bit grittier and thus more appropriate for the dedicated readers of war stories.  In spite of it’s more narrow audience appeal, Cracker! is by far the better written book on war dogs in Vietnam. 

Cracker! Best War Dog in Vietnam = Cracker! Best war dog book on the shelf!

To read more on war dogs, their handlers, and the memorials see the resources on the Caudill web site.

Ooops.  What happened to October?  Bookfair, Marching Band and a fatal car accident for one of my daughter’s friends happened to my October.  Here is hoping November is more peaceful.

Jordan Sonnenblick is coming to the ISLMA conference this weekend.  One of the joys of being Awards Chair for the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award is hosting the winning authors.   In preparation I have reread the winning title, Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie.  This second reading made me remember why it won.  Sonnenblick is hitting on all points for YA readers – appealing to their interests and emotions in equal measure.  The narrative flows in a natural flow-of-consciousness voice from the main character Steven.  This is yet another strength for attracting today’s YA readers! 

I had a complaint from a parent last April regarding Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie.  (It was interesting timing, since the book had just been named the Caudill winner.)  The mother’s complaint focused on the book being inappropriate for her son.  I had to agree – her son was a fourth-grader with a below average reading ability and maturity to match.  This was not the book for him (as I tried to persuade him when he checked it out).  Since I was in agreement with the mom, her complaint died a quick death and I was able to turn the conversation to convincing her to persuade her son to take our reading recommendations more seriously. 

I successfully sidestepped it, but the mom wanted to complain to me about the book’s apparent focus on “hot girls”.  If this mom had read past page two (which does mention “hottest girl” three times!) she would have discovered wonderful depths in the book.  But she didn’t read long enough to discover that Steven outgrows his obsession with ”hot girl, Renee Albert”.  If she had kept reading she would have seen Steven discovering Renee as a person… and she would have seen him developing a more healthy relationship with Annette.  But she missed it…  (Her loss.  Huge loss.)  Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie is NOT a book for less mature readers, not because of any truly inappropriate content but because it is too rich for them.  This title is best for readers grades 6-12.

Tonight I also finished Sonnenblick’s most recent title Dodger and Me.  In contrast, THIS title IS for 4th and 5th grade readers!  More simple and silly, never-less it has the same great flow in the narrative. As a fifth grader, Willie doesn’t see girls as “hot”‘; he sees girls, Lizzie in particular, as annoying.   Like Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie, though, our hero eventually sees the girl as a person of value.  A friend.  And, like Drums…, it also seems to echo Sonnenblick’s favorite theme:  “give your parents a break, they’re just people, too!” 

Dodger for President comes out in spring 2009.  A sequel is also appropriate for fourth and fifth grade readers who can’t get enough of whatever good thing they are hooked on reading.  Series and sequels suit their reading development needs, so bring it on!  With the election tomorrow and (*sigh) no one running I wish to vote for… perhaps Dodger is the answer!

Like Linda Sue Park’s book Keeping Score, Jennifer Holm’s Penny from Heaven is set in 1950s Brooklyn, New York.  Also like Park, Holm is writing what she knows, for the narrative is based on her mother’s large Italian-American family.  Both Park’s Maggie and Holm’s Penny are Brooklyn Dodgers fans, but Holm’s narrative is historical fiction and the Dodgers are only part of the well detailed 1950s setting. 

Penny’s father is deceased, but she has daily contact with his loud, loving, and unusual Italian-American family.  It is the summer of 1953 and Penny bumps through it:  adventures with her trouble-making cousin Frankie, heart to heart talks with her eccentric Uncle Dominic (who lives in his car!), a hospital stay after she is injured, and an adjustment when her widowed mother begins dating the milkman.  Along the way Penny is trying to gain answers to how her father died.  No one will tell her.  Perhaps someone should have told Penny the old maxim “be careful what you wish for or you just might get it”. 

This books is rich.  There is much more plot and action than in Park’s Keeping Score.  I prefer this book to Park’s Keeping Score, but I like history better than sports.  Read both and see what YOU think…

A Newbery Honor book from 2007, Penny from Heaven is on the current 2009 Rebecca Caudill list for Illinois. 

British author Michelle Paver has a winning fantasy series in Chronicles of Ancient Darkness .  The series begins with Wolf Brother followed by Spirit Walker, Soul Eater and the recently released The Outcast. 

The first book, Wolf Brother, is on this year’s Rebecca Caudill list.  (The Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award is for Illinois students in grades 4-8.)   As a member of the RCYRBA steering committee and as a K-8 librarian who promotes the award heavily in my three schools, I predict that Wolf Brother, a fast paced and likeable survival story, is going to be a very popular title among this year’s 20 nominees. 

The action in Wolf Brother starts immediately as the main character, Torak, and his father encounter a demon possessed bear.  Torak is quickly (and unwillingly) thrust into a preordained quest to defeat this bear as it begins threatening all the clans.  Torak rescues a wolf pup who becomes his friend and, perhaps, spirit guide.  Bits of the narrative are from Wolf’s perspective as Wolf tries to understand Torak whom he calls Tall Tailless.  Indeed it is Wolf’s views of the world along with the prehistoric tribal setting that makes this series very fresh and unique.  With a fairly uncomplicated plot and characters, this is fantasy light for young readers. 

Paver is smart!  The setting and situations feel like North American Natives in ancient Norway to me… but it is purely from Paver’s imagination.  This series, as pure fantasy, is not subject to criticism by any people or culture group.  Again, smart author!

Because I read so much YA fiction in my profession, it is rare that I read adult novels.  It is also rare, because of my terribly sequential brain, that I will read more than one book at a time; I always read a book and finish before moving on to the next.  But friends convinced me, since I recently completed a graduate degree, that I should reward myself by diverging and reading the adult novel, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.  I did enjoy it (although it made me feel like I need to return for a degree in English Literature) and I happily began the second in that series.  However, a couple of nights ago at bedtime, too lazy to retrieve my Fford book from the living room, I broke my “one-book-at-a-time” rule and started reading Paver’s Soul Eater (more conviently located in my bedside to-read stack).  What is it about YA fiction that makes it impossible to put down?  And why don’t adult novels share it? 

Spirit Walker was just as action packed as Wolf Brother.  Torak reminds me of the young Luke Skywalker; both have determination, strength of character, and unexplained (and unexplored) powers along with a destiny that is slowly being revealed through the series.  Fforde is fforgotten as I now must ffinish The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness!  Thursday Next may or may not be next in the to-read stack…