EGGS by Jerry Spinelli

Today, we have a guest review by Larry Swartz. This weekend, we had our Dublin Literacy Conference. This conference is a teacher conference put on by the Dublin City Schools run by a committee of teachers. We had lots of great speakers--children's authors, professional authors, teachers, and more! It was a great day. Larry Swartz was one of the speakers. 

Larry Swartz is an instructor in the Elementary Pre-service Program at OISE/UT and the Principal of Dramatic Arts Additional Qualifications courses at OISE/UT. He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with children's literature, classroom talk, and anti-bullying strategies. Here is his review of EGGS by Jerry Spinelli. I’ll start off by saying that I think Jerry Spinelli is one of the best authors for readers 10 – 13 years old. I would say that his books appeal to boys and girls. His characterization is always rich. The problems that he presents in his books connect to his readers because they can easily identify with them (i.e., peer pressure in Wringer, belonging in Loser, outcast in Star Girl, heroism in Maniac Magee). The stories have just enough of an imaginative twist to take readers into an imaginative world that is the stuff of fiction (Does a community exist that forces boys to wring the neck of pigeons?). Milkweed aside, there is a veneer of humour in Spinelli’s novel events, in the dialogue and in character quirks. A student teacher recently gave me an advance copy of his newest novel EGGS and since I was heading off on a plane, I was thrilled to have a new Spinelli to keep me company. A good read it was. As I was reading, I couldn’t help thinking about the novels that I recently read that featured characters whose parents have died. . Give me a fifth grade class and I would love to organize Literature Circles (when all titles are available in paperback) around THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY, JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE, WING NUT and EGGS, not only because one or more character has a missing parent, but because they get inside the skin and hearts of these kids who are coping with life’s rotten eggs and hoping to make omelets out of life’s dilemmas-large and small. Take David and Primrose. David lost his mother to a freak accident. His father is often away on business and so the young boy lives with his grandmother. Primrose only knows of her father from a photograph. She lives with a mother whose talent is telling fortunes and whose outlook on life is a little less mature than her daughter’s. David and Primrose are friends, despite an age difference of four years (Primrose is older). It’s very tempting to use an egg metaphor as a review of this book (hard boiled, scrambled, over easy, poached) but here I’ll pay tribute to the egg carton and offer a dozen reasons for admiring and respecting Spinelli’s new work. 1. Boy and girl protagonists. I’m a bit concerned about boy reads and girl reads. Yes, enjoyed the Newbery winner, but few boys are going to choose this book by the cover, by the title and because of its female protagonist. Spinnelli’s strength is in boy characters, but here he has a friendship between a boy and a girl. How clever too to make Primrose an ‘older’ friend. Without reading the book, can’t you imagine how a character named ‘Primrose’ might behave? 2. 224 pages. 42 chapters. Book is divided into sections (Eggs, The Waving Man, Nightcrawlers, Painted Windows, Who Cares, Only Children). I like / many kids like short chapters. 3. The “Ha Ha” factor. When David first meets, Primrose’s fortune-telling mother, she predicts his future by reading the soul of his bare foot. 4. The Gross factor. David and Primrose have a tug of war fight over a nightcrawler. Each wants to capture the twelve-inch worm to raise money. Primrose pulled. David pulled - Thp. Each then held six inches of flailing nightcrawler. Gross! 5. A moment to touch-your-heart factor. Memories of David’s dead mother linger throughout. On the day she died in a bad fall, David decided to never break any rules. David believe if he went long enough without breaking a rule. sooner or later his mother would come back and they would together see the sunrise, that she promised they’d see together. In one episode, David clings to Primrose, sobbing. “I’m not her you, she,” she whispered hoarsely. “I’m only me. Primrose.” He nodded against her. “I know.” (Goosebumps.) 6. Great dialogue… “Are we gonna be out all night?” “Yerp.” “You don’t even care. Do you? “Nerp.” 7. This-only-happens-in-books episode. David first meets Primrose during an Easter Egg Hunt. While on his search, he comes across the still body of a girl hidden amongst the leaves. He takes a yellow egg from the mouth of the body and asks, “Are you dead yet?”. The girl does not answer. Later we learn, that the body belonged to Primrose who was just playing a trick on the boy, just like Spinelli was playing a trick on the reader. This is not a murder mystery. 8. A quirky character (or two). Spinelli’s short descriptions of a character paint a wide portrait in a sentence or two. Refrigerator John, “who was neither as tall nor as wide as a refrigerator. “His own right leg had been withered since birth. When he walked, the leg flapped out sideways, as though he were shaking a dog loose. Madame Dufee. Her body was lost in a robe of flowers, birds, and dragons with flaming tongues. Golden hoops you could pitch a baseball through hung from her earlobes.” 9. Two characters, so different, so the same. They plot together. They argue. “What was with these two? The thirteen year-old girl, the nine year old boy. What brought them together? Sometimes they acted their own ages, Sometimes they switched. Sometimes they both seemed to be nine, other times thirteen. Both were touchy, ready to squawk over nothing.” (note to publisher: Terrific passage for a book jacket blurb). 10. The omelets-out-of rotten-egg factor. David and Primrose take the bad things that life offers and learn to make the best of them. They learn from each other. They need each other. They take care of each other. They’re going to be all right! 11. A touch of symbolism giving readers lots to think about. Eggs figure into the plot (early in the book, David goes on an Easter Egg Hunt, vandals splatter eggs against Primrose’s bedroom window, the sunrise is described as crisp and sharp and beautiful and smooth as a painted egg.). I would love to ask ten year-olds what the title makes them think about: Does it tell the truth of the story?Why six eggs on the cover? How are David and Primrose like eggs? What kind of egg dish might each character be? 12. Great cover. No boys. No girls. Just six eggs resting in a robin’s egg blue carton.

Censorship Revisited.....

Thanks to Pixie Stix Kids' post "Apparently it's not censorship if you don't like the book" for this link. A mother in Florida found her own way to get rid of books that she decided children shouldn't read. It appears that she didn't like the censorship process that was in place. So, she checked the book out and has decided not to return it...ever.

Next Read Aloud--Advice Needed

So, we are almost finished with RULES by Cynthia Lord. It has been a great read aloud. Lots of great talk around the book. Kids are doing great thinking in their notebooks as we read and chat. Many seem to be thinking hard about the characters in the book.

As I think ahead to our next read aloud, I am thinking maybe THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick. I haven't read much of it and I have always struggled with reading aloud books with graphics. And the graphics are almost half of this book. But with all of the new technology, I think I can project the pages onto a screen and we can think through it all together. Has anyone finished it? I would love to hear what anyone has to say about the appropriateness for grades 3 and 4 and whether it is worth reading aloud using a screen for the graphic pages. I think it could be a pretty fun experience if it can work. I think the technology piece can really expand the kinds of books we read together as a class.

Poetry Friday -- Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew
by Ron Koertge

Merely pretty, she made up for it with vim.
And she got to say things like, "But, gosh,
what if these plans should fall into the wrong
hands?" and it was pretty clear she didn't mean
plans for a party or a trip to the museum, but
something involving espionage and a Nazi or two.

In fact, the handsome exchange student turns
out to be a Fascist sympathizer. When he snatches
Nancy along with some blueprints, she knows he
has something more sinister in mind than kissing
her with his mouth open

Locked in the pantry of an abandoned farm house,
Nancy makes a radio out of a shoelace and a muffin.
Pretty soon the police show up, and everything's
hunky dory.

(Read on to find out what Nancy learned from this experience.)

Just Finished The Higher Power of Lucky

I just had my hair colored, weaved, cut--the whole thing. So, I had a little bit of extra reading time while I was sitting in the hair chair. What a lucky day! I was finally able to finish THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY, this year's Newbery Award. It is sad that when we can finally get our hands on a copy of this book, the only publicity it seem to be getting revolves around the author's use of the word scrotum.

THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY by Susan Patron is an amazing book. One of my favorite Newbery Award winners. When a book wins that I don't know about (which is pretty darn often), I am usually disappointed by the win, not seeing what the committee saw in the book. However, I am totally in love with THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY. What a great, strong girl character if we've ever met one. Lucky has some of all of us in her. She is unsure of the people that love her and is looking for that Higher Power that will make her whole. For me, Lucky was a combination of so many of the best females in great books--Claudia (FROM THE MIXED UP FILES), Comfort (EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS), Anna (SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL) Opal (BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE) Novalee (WHERE THE HEART IS). She is the best of so many characters that I love.

This story is a great story of hope and love and it is told brilliantly as we come to know, understand and love Lucky. The story is short but full of life. I don't want to give away the plot, but the plot isn't where the story is. The story is in Lucky and her relationships with herself and the other people in her life. It is about people and what they become for each other.

I am totally bummed that this book is becoming known for the word "scrotum" --which, by the way, is also a brilliant part of the writing--Lucky's curiousness and awe about life and the world around her. This book is truly deserving of the Newbery and I commend the committee for making such a wise choice:-) A book that children and adults of all ages can relate too. It is too bad that so many children could miss out on this book because of the decision of a few librarians. This book is one that is too good to miss!

Lucky/Newbery Controversy

So, I have been thinking and reading about this controversy over the word "scrotum" in THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY. It is interestingly sad to think that this is where we have come as a country. I remember a bit with the small controversies surrounding other Newbery winners. But, I don't ever remember librarians as the ones doing the censoring. It is the librarians that we count on to protect our rights to have access to a variety of books. I am not blaming the librarians who refuse to buy the books--I figure it is a sign of the times and they are getting hit and criticized as we all are.

As a teacher, I read books like this, trying to decide if and how I might include them as read alouds, as part of the classroom library, or just titles to have in mind when a child is looking for a good book.

I think teachers and librarians have always had a dilemma when deciding what to keep in the library. I remember a time when a parent of a young child was angry about a book in the library. But the book was very appropriate for 5th graders. When you are the librarian in a K-5 or K-8 school, how do you make these decisions? I am always aware, as a teacher, of the words and issues that come up in books. It is my job. But deciding not to read a book aloud to a whole class seems different from not allowing a book to be part of the library at all.

Where do we draw the line? Have we come to the point that we cannot realize that we can never know how a book will impact an individual reader? Are we going to allow the parents of perfect families dictate what is on our library shelves? That idea terrifies me. I have only read the first 20 pages of the Newbery book as I finally got my hands on a copy yesterday. But, if it is a story about a strong girl who has had hard times, I am appalled that it is such a controversial book that it made the front page of the NYTimes. I can't believe that we can't admit that some of our children/students could see themselves in Lucky. Or understand the world better because of her. I think we have to trust that a committee of well-informed librarians, and lots of great reviews in other journals prove this book to be worthy of a spot on the shelf. To negate the book for a single word--one that is the correct term for a body part--seems ridiculous.

Where are the voices of other parents like me, who want our children to have access to good, quality books. I know many, many parents who want their children to read as widely as possible. Books are the place where many of us learned about people and life. We want the same for our children. I know that my children will read books that do not necessarily align with my beliefs about life, but that is part of the world of reading--to go outside of the world you live in.

I guess this move by some librarians scares me because it becomes a dangerous first step in taking away our access to good books. I worry about what might be next. If the reason was different, I might not be as bothered. But keeping a book out of libraries for a word like "scrotum" seems very self-righteous.

Sorry for babbling. Just my opinion as a parent, teacher and reader.

I'm Seriously Offended, and NOT by the Word Scrotum

Most* of what I've read about the Higher Power of Lucky "scrotum kerfluffle" (or "uproar," if you prefer, or "controversy") focuses on librarians** and book buying and censorship.***

Now it's time for an experienced (borderline old) career-long teacher of 9-11 year-olds to have her own personal tantrum about being lumped together with sissy teachers who are too afraid? modest? unsure of the meaning themselves? weak in the knees? to deal with a child who might ask what a scrotum is! (It's like a librarian being told, "The education and correct upbringing of a child is the responsibility of parents and teachers, and not of someone who merely knows what Dewey is and can sort books accordingly." Makes your blood boil a little, doesn't it?)

Teaching is not for sissies! We're an integral part of the team (team, not village, and yes, I would include the librarians) who raise the children of our world. We're important because we're NOT the parents. Kids can talk to us in ways they can't talk to their parents, and we can answer them with an honesty parents sometimes can't manage. Recently, sitting around the "coffee table" in my classroom playing Scrabble with about half-a-class worth of kids, A Boy turned to me and asked, "Can guys get breast cancer?" (I've had it, I talk about it. Could that be why a 10 year-old boy could say BREAST right out loud?) Not only could I answer his question without skipping a beat (yes, they can), I could also point out that men do have breasts, albeit undeveloped/non milk-producing ones, and they have the nipples to prove it. Yes, I said nipples, yes, they giggled, and then the conversation went on in other directions. Over the course of my career, I have always insisted that babies are in their mother's uteruses, not their stomachs. When asked if my dog, who was visiting the classroom and who was rolled over on her back when the question was asked, is a boy or a girl, I pointed out that she does not have a penis, so obviously, she is a girl. Breast, uterus, penis, nipple, scrotum. All words for human body parts. They are not "dirty" words unless we refuse to say them or explain them or use them in their proper context.

Okay. I'm done. Now I'm going to go read the book.
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*Do a blog search yourself. (I recommend you filter it.) There are pages and pages and PAGES of posts on the Great Scrotum Debate of 2007. I only read the ones posted in the last 8 hours.
**An author makes it clear that authors do not sneak. (Roger hates that part, too.)
***This is the smartest rant I found****.
****See * above.

Book Lists and the Kitchen Utensil Drawer

Liz, over at Liz in Ink, has taken book lists and book categories to a whole new level: She explores which books are her forks, knives, and spoons.

Then, tantalizingly (is that a word?) she ends with:

Really, wouldn't it be torture to have to work with one single utensil for the rest of your days? (And I haven’t even gone into my chopsticks here, or egg slicers!)

Okay, Liz. Here goes:

Books that are my chopsticks:



No negative stereotyping intended. It's just that I'm feeling very clumsy (like when I use chopsticks) and ignorant (and OLD) as I try to make sense of these books (Kingdom Hearts). I used Wikipedia to help when my first reading fell flat on its face, and there I learned that I had a serious chunk of background knowledge missing: more than these are books, apparently they are video games. I'm going to try them again, and maybe with more practice I won't be so clumsy. Watch for a review in the coming days.


Books that are my egg slicers:
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is my audio book in progress. This means I get to "read" it in neat, 20 minute slices during the commute back and forth to work. I LOVED Cloud Atlas (also by David Mitchell) as an audio "read," and I'm pretty sure there is no other better way to experience Black Swan Green. Kirby Heyborne, the reader, has the requisite (and I assume, authentic) British accent, but his Belgian accent for Madame Crommelynck ("...go to the hell!") is perfect!



Books that are my whisks:
Manga and graphic novels are stirring things up so much in my classroom, that they have to win the designation of whisks. I bought volume 2 and 3 of Hikaru No Go yesterday at Waldenbooks and asked to use my teacher discount. The clerk gently informed me that I could only use my teacher discount on books that I would be using in my classroom. "I AM going to use these in my classroom!" I informed her. "Really?!! WOW!" she replied, and I zoomed up to super teacher status in her eyes.

Cybils Ordered

Well, I just placed an order on Amazon. I usually buy books from my favorite independent children's bookstore, but I thought Jen Robinson had a great idea about making an impact in sales by ordering the winners online this week. So, I ordered PTOLEMY'S GATE even though I haven't read the other two. I also ordered AMELIA RULES #3 (and may love it so much, I'll get the others!). I ordered AMERICAN BORN CHINESE. I have been debating reading it but it has won so many awards, I can't resist. I also ordered FRAMED. I have already read the winner of middle grade fiction so I chose this one from the short list, based on Jen Robinson's review. Looking forward to reading all of them.

I highly recommend ordering some of the Cybils books. A huge support of the award and also a little gift to yourself. I think these are some of the best books out there this year and am excited to have such a list to shop from:-)

Has anyone been tracking the amazon numbers? Is the world buying lots of the Cybils winners?

If you haven't stopped in at the Cybils site lately, there are great links to all of the places that have been celebrating the Cybils with us! There are also some interesting facts about the Cybils.

Poetry Friday--BRRRRrrrrrr!

Walking the dog in the pre-dawn below-zero windchill the last few weeks, I've felt a bit like Sam McGee in The Cremation of Sam McGee (by Robert Service):

Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;

And like Sam, there are some mornings (like today) when I think I won't warm up unless I crawl right into the furnace. This is what the speaker in the poem witnesses when he finally has the nerve to see how it's going with Sam's cremation:

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked;" ... then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm-
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

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Links:
Robert Service reciting The Cremation of Sam McGee
Johnny Cash reciting The Cremation of Sam McGee
Spooky reading on YouTube