Mines of the Minotaur

Mines of the Minotaur
by Julia Golding
Marshall Cavendish, May 2008
Review copy compliments of the publisher

Last summer I reviewed the first two books in this quartet, Secret of the Sirens and The Gorgon's Gaze.

Luckily, this week I had some airport and airplane time with all the requisite delays and reading opportunities. I gave myself permission to bring the books I WANTED to read rather than the ones I NEEDED to read. Work will wait.

Mines of the Minotaur opens with Connie Lionheart, the only universal companion in the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures, calling up a dangerous and violent storm. She's not doing this on her own. She suspects that her dark companion, Kullervo, is responsible.

Running from this dark side of herself takes Connie into the mines near her town and into the world of a damaged Minotaur and other damaged mythical creatures who are in hiding.

Connie must explore and learn to accept all the parts of herself, even the dark and angry and dangerous ones, in order to become whole, heal the damaged creatures, and lead the society.

The society, in turn, must learn to trust and accept Connie and work together with her rather than fear and shun her.

In a subplot that mirrors the hard decisions that Connie and the society are making, the non-society humans in Connie's neighborhood debate, accept, and erect a wind farm to capture the ocean breezes as an alternative energy source.

At the Companions Club website I took the Companion Assessment Test and learned that I am a member of the Company of Winged Creatures. "Congratulations, you are a member of the Company of Winged Creatures. All of us in this company love to take flight. As a High Flyer you will be mixing with creatures as dangerous as the sirens, or as miraculous as the phoenix. Only the most intrepid are selected to join us, so get ready for take off!" After answering a few more questions, I learned that "You have been chosen as a companion to the great eagles. A remnant of the forebears of our everyday eagles, these huge birds nest as far from humankind as possible. Masters of flight, they are so big that a person can ride on their backs or be carried in their claws. But beware: they can be cruel and deadly. Be cunning in all your dealings with your companion."

And at Julia Golding's website, I see that the final (her fans hope not) book in the quartet is out in the UK.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

It is not every year that readers get a book as wonderful as THE UNDERNEATH by Kathi Appelt. I knew after the first few pages that this was a book that I was lucky to be reading. I have had the same feeling when I read WALK TWO MOONS by Sharon Creech and THE GIVER by Lois Lowry. And I think I felt this way, years and years ago when I read THE SECRET GARDEN. Other people seem to be having the same reaction to this book—feeling the same way when they read a book that has been a lifetime favorite.

I even remember the talk around these books being similar to the talk I am hearing now about THE UNDERNEATH. Lots of my children’s lit friends are telling me that I need to read this book but they don't really say much about it. "It is just worth reading." You can’t really explain the book without actually reading it.

There is lots to this book to love and I am sure that it must be the talk of the current Newbery Committee. Kathi Appelt has woven together a brilliant story and she has crafted in a way that it is more than a story. The writing is powerful. She is able to weave several stories together in a way that tells an even bigger story.

This book is so much more than what the blurb on the front tells us. It is so much more than a dog book. So much more than a book about love and hate. It is so much more than a book about wisdom and innocence.

I am pretty sure that these characters will stay with me forever and that I will read this book again sometime soon. I think there are layers of meaning that I missed the first time through—I kind of thought about them quickly but was too invested in the plot to focus too much on the depth that Appelt has created with this story.

I am anxious to see how kids will respond to this book. I am thinking 5th grade is perfect. Maybe 4th or 6th. I have a few past students in mind who may read this and fall in love with it like I did. If I were teaching 4th or 5th grade next year, I would probably read this one aloud for sure. But I would save it for later in the year, once kids understand the possibilities in books, once they have learned to talk together about books. It would definitely be on my read aloud list but I would have to make sure to read it when they were ready for the depth and the emotion.

I’ve heard this book described as “dark”. I didn’t think so. I found some unpleasant things—some hate and some hateful characters, but the story is a hopeful one and one that I think will be around for a very long time.

This book is a MUST READ! Really, as you read it, you feel so lucky to have found such an amazing story!

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

I’m not afraid of animal stories that might make me cry. I’ve read and reread (with tears streaming down my face) Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, Little Britches, and Each Little Bird That Sings.

The Underneath came along at a time when my heart was a little wobbly with pet emotions – our ancient (20 year-old) cat passed away while we were in Europe, and we were in the midst of adopting a rescue cat who had been chewed on by a dog and shot with BBs.

And yet, The Underneath did not make me cry. I was drawn in immediately by the animal characters and completely repulsed by the human characters. I was captivated by the language. (This book is a poem. A long prose poem. I think it would make an amazing read aloud.) I followed the weaving of all of the stories mesmerized, as if in a dream. As the tension in the story built, I read urgently. I raced to the end, and yet when I finished I wanted nothing more than to read it again. Immediately.

There is no easy way to tell what this book is about. Good and evil, hate and love, the piney woods of East Texas, ancient trees and ancient spirits, hummingbirds, life and death. You just have to read it. You must read it. What are you waiting for? Read it!

Reviews with plot summaries and glowing praise abound. This is a book that’s Going Places. Be sure not to miss Kimberly Willis Holt’s conversations with Kathi Appelt here (part one) and here (part two).

T is for Tugboat

T is for Tugboat
by Shoshanna Kirk
Chronicle Books, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

There are now three books in this series by Chronicle Books. The first in the series is A is for Astronaut. About a year ago, Franki reviewed C is For Caboose. Now that I've had the chance to read one cover to cover, I'll probably have to buy all three for my collection of ABC books.

In T is for Tugboat, there are about three nautical words or phrases per letter, and the illustrations are a great combination of vintage (and vintage-looking) prints like the cover, historical and modern photographs, photos of artifacts, and diagrams. My favorite page is the the two-page spread for K -- 31 knots are illustrated! There's also a great labeled diagram of a sailboat, and the end papers are the International Code of Maritime Flags. Lots to look at and talk about!

Little Hoot

Little Hoot
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace
Chronicle Books, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

Little Hoot is by the same pair who brought us Little Pea a few years ago. Little Pea was the poor vegetable who was forced to choke down candy for dinner so that he could get to the part of dinner he really wanted -- the big bowl of spinach for dessert.

Now we have Little Hoot, the owlet who is forced to stay up late and play, when all he wants is to go to bed at a reasonable hour like his friends. At one point he grumps to himself, "When I grow up, I'm going to let my kids go to bed as early as they want."

Maybe reverse psychology works, maybe it doesn't. There are no guarantees that this book will get your kid to bed. What it might do, however, is defuse a tense situation with its humor and all of the owl puns scattered throughout. Give it a try. Let us know how it works!

POETRY FRIDAY: Potato Joe

Potato Joe
by Keith Baker
Harcourt, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

Shelve this book near Chicka Chicka Boom Boom -- it's a rhyming chant that counts up to ten and back down again using potatoes...and with guest appearances by a crow, some snow, Tomato Flo, and Watermelon Moe.

Here's a sample of the text: "One potato, two potato, hello, Joe! Three potato, four potato, tic-tac-toe!" Perfect for the three year-old in your life who has Chicka Chicka Boom Boom memorized. I'm thinking you might even want to get some potatoes out of the pantry and act it out -- easy props that can take some rough handling and still mash up for dinner!

A Birthday for Cow

A Birthday for Cow
by Jan Thomas
Harcourt, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

Your good friends work hard to do something nice for you for your birthday, but it's your TRUE friend who knows just what will make you happy. Pig and Mouse are making a birthday cake for Cow. Duck tries to get them to mix a turnip in, stir the batter with a turnip, or decorate the cake with a turnip. Pig and Mouse want nothing to do with the turnip. Can you guess what Cow's excited to see when she comes to the party? You guessed it, the turnip!

This is a bright, bold picture book with expressive characters and not much text. Young readers will love it, and it will make a fun read aloud if you don't mind your audience shouting, "TURNIP" along with Duck!

Poetry Friday -- Hate That Cat

The Bells*
by Edgar Allan Poe

I

Hear the sledges with the bells,
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

*first and second stanzas


This is one of the poems Miss Stretchberry uses with Jack's class in Hate That Cat, a book that made me cry.

I've tried to be upbeat and cavalier about the end of my eight-year run as a looping teacher. I did not choose to stop; the powers-that-be (the state's licensing of teachers) changed the way we do business in 5th grade at my school and looping no longer fit into the big picture. This book made a few fat tears run down my cheeks for what I've lost.

Hate That Cat is a testimonial to the power of looping. It's a new school year, and Miss Stretchberry is Jack's teacher again this year. He gets to start right where he left off last year with his riffs on "Love That Boy" by Walter Dean Myers. He doesn't waste the first four weeks in that "get to know you" dance with a new teacher. And then we get to watch as Miss Stretchberry moves Jack and his class into Poe and Eliot and Tennyson and more of William Carlos Williams. She laid the groundwork in her first year with Jack's class for a more formal study of poetry this year, and we watch over Jack's shoulder as he learns about and fiddles with alliteration, onomatopoeia, similes, metaphors, symbols, and sounds. My favorites of Jack's poems are the two that he writes "Inspired by Mr. Edgar Allan Poe" ("The Bells") -- "The Yips" and "The Purr."

Besides knowing Jack as a student, Miss Stretchberry knows Jack as a person (how deeply the loss of his dog affected him last year). You can see this in the way she slowly and gently nudges him out of his hate of "that" cat by feeding him with a steady diet of cat poems, rather than continually suggesting he write about it; she knows he'll get around to that, and he does.

Jack grew a lot as a writer in his Love That Dog year, but Jack makes incredible growth as a writer in this Hate That Cat year. Incredible, but not unbelievable. Any child (all right, all right, most children) in a classroom with a strong writing workshop make amazing progress as writers in just one year. Mostly because they write a lot, but also because they age and mature a year in that year. (Most of them.) If the children from a writing workshop classroom are lucky enough to have a writing workshop again the very next year, then the growth and progress become incredible, like Jack's. Creech has gotten this perfect in Hate That Cat -- she grew Jack as a writer in a plausible way, and she matured him as a person in a very satisfying way.

Walter Dean Myers makes another cameo appearance, along with an appearance by his son, Christopher Myers. It's fun to have the familiar poets back to hang out with the new ones Jack meets. Every time he meets a new poet he asks (alive?) and you know he's got a hankering for a repeat of the author visit in Love That Dog, but Sharon Creech and Miss Stretchberry move him along to new challenges -- novels in verse and the sounds of poetry translated into the motion of signing for a deaf audience.

Whether you read this for the poetry, the teaching, because you read everything by Sharon Creech, or just to see what's up with the cat, you're going to love this book. Watch for it this fall.

Hate That Cat
by Sharon Creech
HarperCollins
on the shelf September, 2008
ARC compliments of Sally at Cover to Cover
(thanks for sharing!!!)

other reviews: Fuse #8, and welcome to my tweendom,



The Poetry Friday roundup is at A Wrung Sponge this week.

Two From First Second

Life Sucks
by Jessica Abel
First Second, 2008
ages 12 and up
review copy compliments of the publisher
Book #2 -- 48 Hour Book Challenge 2008

Dave Miller works the night shift at the Last Stop convenience store. Dave is a vampire and the Last Stop is a 24-hour convenience store for LA's vampire community. Dave has his eye on a cute goth girl who hangs out at the juice bar down the strip mall, but unfortunately, so does Wes, a studly blond vampire surfer dude.

Not a book I'll put in my classroom collection. This book was a stretch for me. Vampires and "who's going to get the girl" are not my things. I'll pass this book on to a teen who is into the Twilight series.


Three Shadows
by Cyril Pedrosa
First Second, 2008
ages 12 and up
review copy compliments of the publisher
Book #3 -- 48 Hour Book Challenge 2008

This is a scary book.

From the jacket flap:

"What price would you pay to save your child?

For the parents in this powerful, visually stunning graphic novel, the threat to their son is both real and frighteningly vague. Three shadows loom, and wherever the family flees, the shadows follow. Is escape impossible? Are parents even meant to try?"

Also not one for my classroom, but I'm glad I read it. Graphic novels never cease to amaze me. They can be light and fluffy, or they can be deep and thought-provoking. There's something for everyone in the graphic novel format!

Rapunzel's Revenge

Rapunzel's Revenge
by Shannon and Dean Hale
illustrated by Nathan Hale
Bloomsbury Children's Books
August, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher
Book #1 -- 48 Hour Book Challenge 2008

Rapunzel lives in a walled villa with lush gardens and the woman she thought was her mother. There is a friendly guard who teaches her rope tricks (this will become important later) and disturbing dreams she is told to forget.

On her twelfth birthday, she climbs to the top of the wall, sees what's on the other side, meets her real mother, and gets locked in this story's particular "tower." There's growth magic and plant magic involved, which explains why Rapunzel winds up with twenty (thirty?) foot braids.

She escapes her "tower" using her braids (no letting the hair down for the hero...yet), and after making short work of an air-headed Adventuring Hero who cannot recognize the "maiden in distress" standing right in front of him (probably because she's competently riding the wild boar she just lassoed and tamed using her braids), Rapunzel hooks up with a clever lad named Jack who's running from his past with a goose under his arm. The two manage to do good and right wrongs wherever they go (lots more effective use of braids as lassos and whips and ropes) as they make their way back to the villa and Rapunzel's ("Punzie's") real mother.

There is enough action, adventure, head-thumping and hog-tying to keep the story moving briskly along -- this is no sissy fairytale. Keep your eye open for guest appearances by other fairytale characters, and be ready for the humor tucked into both the illustrations and the text. In true fairytale form, there is enough "happily ever after" to go around in the end, even though Rapunzel ends the story with a pixie cut.

The publisher recommends ages 10 and up, but I think fairytale lovers as young as 8 or 9 would enjoy this story. It would also make a good on-the-lap read aloud for a parent-child duo.

THE MAGIC THIEF--OUT THIS WEEK!

In April, I was invited to a dinner sponsored by Cover to Cover Bookstore where I got to meet Sarah Prineas, author of the new book--out this week--The Magic Thief. If you are a fantasy reader, you'll want a copy of this book right away.

THE MAGIC THIEF is the first in a trilogy. It is a great fantasy that I think lots of my fantasy readers will love. (I had one of my Harry Potter fans read the first chapter online and she was immediately hooked!)

Since so many people have reviewed it, I'll send you to their reviews and then let you know my thinking as a teacher--who might love this book.

There is lots to love about the book. It is a great story about wizards and magic. There are good guys and bad guys. The characters are quite fun and you come to know them quickly. There is humor. The setting is magical-as would be expected.

As a teacher, I love some things about the format. It is a thick book but the print and page set-up makes it very accessible to kids. I am thinking grades 4-6 is perfect for this book. It has lots to it--it isn't watered down like some fantasies for kids, but has all of the things we love about a good fantasy. I am thinking of lots of kids who might like it--those who are new to fantasy and who are pretty skilled readers could read this as a first fantasy. I predict that those readers who love Harry Potter and other fantasies will love to know of this new fantasy series. And I think those readers who can't yet handle Harry Potter will be thrilled with this book. So many readers who will love it.

Tomorrow, we'll post an interview with author Sarah Prineas! And, if you live in the Columbus area, she will be at Cover to Cover bookstore on Saturday, June 7th at 11:00 a.m. She'll talk a bit and then do a signing. It is coming out right in time for Mother Reader's 48 Hour Read!

A great preview of the book is up on the Harper Collins website. You can preview and read quite a bit of it online before it is available. You can also have all kinds of fun playing games, meeting the characters and more on this fun site.

(By the way, Sarah is a member of the Class of 2K8--a group that I love. So many great new voices in children's/YA lit. I pay close attention to them and have found some great books--like this one! If you haven't checked out their site, it would be a VERY good idea to do so!)

Experimental Read-Aloud

THE BOOK:


Maybe A Bear Ate It!
by Robie Harris
illustrated by Michael Emberley
Scholastic, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher


THE STORY:
(Exceedingly cute) creature loves book, takes book and toys to bed, "loses" the book (it's right there under the edge of the bed). Creature looks for it, imagines that a series of animals ate, stomped on, ran away with, flew away with, swallowed, or fell asleep on the book. Creature goes looking for the book and eventually finds it and curls back up in bed with the book and the toys.

HYPOTHESIS:
Even kindergartners will see where the book is "lost" and will be able to infer that the animals the Creature blames for the book's whereabouts are actually the Creature's toys.

REALITY CHECK:
I showed the book to a couple of our kindergarten teachers and they said, "Um...no, Kinders probably won't be able to get that on their own."

EXPERIMENT:
I read the book to my fourth graders. They got it.

I read the book to a group of fifth graders. They got it, they got it remarkably quicker than my fourth graders, and they talked about it with greater clarity and depth than my fourth graders. Hmmmm...age is appearing to make a difference.

I read the book to a third grade class. They got it, but I seem to be letting them look at the pictures longer and I'm encouraging more talk and thinking as we read.

I read the book to a second grade class. Again, I supported them more as readers, but they got it on their own.

I read the book to a first grade class. We're down to about one student who sees the book under the edge of the bed, and one who comes up with the word "imagination" to describe what's happening with the animals. Is one who gets it enough to say that first graders get the book? I'm saying it is. That one kid ramped up the whole class and brought them along. (Thank goodness for The One, right, teachers?!)

I read the book to our special-needs/typical-peers preschool class. They loved it. They found the "lost" book with a lot of help. They were pretty sure the animals were real. Imagination didn't seem to be on their radar. In speaking with the teacher later, I found out that most of them, indeed, do not yet engage in extended imaginative play. Most of them are the oldest child in their family and they simply haven't had any role models for that kind of play/thinking.

Then I read the book to the kindergartners. They loved it. They found the "lost" book. A bunch of support got one child to the idea that the Creature was imagining that his toys were responsible for the "loss" of his book, but the rest of the class did not come along they way they had in first grade.

CONCLUSION:
1. Trust Kindergarten teachers. (Corollary: Kindergarten teachers know their kids better than you do.)

2. Making inferences and using imagination are developmental.

3. It doesn't really matter if your audience doesn't "get" the book in the way you intended, as long as you all have fun reading it!

The Calder Game

The Calder Game
by Blue Balliett
illustrated by Brett Helquist
Scholastic, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

This is my favorite of the three art mystery books Blue Balliett has written (the others are Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3) about Calder Pillay, Tommy Segovia, and Petra Andalee. I want the literature circle back that read Chasing Vermeer as their first book in fourth grade and The Wright 3 as soon as we could get multiple copies from the library when they were in fifth grade. They would love this book!

The Calder Game is packed, layered, and balanced with so many different elements. It is about art and the response to art. It is about balance, social class, finding patterns (especially of 5), symbols (ancient and modern), mythology, and language. Oh, the language! The ways Balliett finds to describe with words the way Alexander Calder's mobiles balance, turn, change, and affect the viewer. The word mobiles that the characters create -- five words that balance, turn, and change depending how you look at them (NO-MINOTAUR-ONLY-WISHES-HERE becomes NO-WISHES balancing along with MINOTAUR-HERE or maybe MINOTAUR-WISHES).

It's about how bad teaching kills a student's urge to learn and about how much trust good teaching requires. I didn't really believe that the three protagonists' teacher could go from such a bad teacher to such a good teacher, but the book is also about the power of art to change people, so okay, I'll believe it.

The book opens with a class field trip to an Alexander Calder exhibit of mobiles at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Then Calder Pillay is lucky enough to be able to accompany his father on a trip to Oxford, England. He and his father stay in the nearby town of Woodstock, which is near Blenheim Palace and a real hedge maze made of symbols. Lots for Calder to explore while his dad is at meetings. The biggest surprise awaits them, however -- a Calder sculpture in the courtyard in front of the bed and breakfast where they are staying. And then the theft of the sculpture. And then the disappearance of Calder Pillay. Tommy and Petra come with Mrs. Sharpe from Chicago to help find the boy Calder, but his fate is linked with the Calder sculpture, and all of the characters must shift and re-balance their relationships in order to solve the mystery.

Speaking of characters, the three kids meet a girl who is named after Georgia O'Keefe. Plans are made for her to visit Chicago and stay with Mrs. Sharpe. I'm certain we will be seeing more of her in Balliett's next book...which I am anxiously awaiting!


Shelf Elf has a review with some cool bonus links.
Bill, at Literate Lives, has a review with some cool Calder pictures.

SNEAK PEEK: Beneath My Mother's Feet

Beneath My Mother's Feet
by Amjed Qamar
Simon and Schuster
in bookstores June 17, 2008
Ages 12+
ARC provided by the author



We don't typically review YA books at A Year of Reading. We also don't typically meet authors of new and already highly-acclaimed books in the hallways of our school! When Amjed introduced herself to me and told me a little bit about her book, I knew I had to read it. I curled up on the couch with it on Mothers' Day and I was hooked immediately. It turned out a little ironic to read it on Mothers' Day (see review for details), but I am convinced that this book deserves every bit of praise it has already garnered. This is a book you must read, and Amjed Qamar is a new author to keep your eyes on.

Nazia is a modern-day Pakistani girl living in Gizri colony, a working class neighborhood in southern Karachi. She is 14 years old, loves school, and is promised in marriage to her cousin back in the village where her father's family lives. Nazia's mother is focused on preparing Nazia's dowry for her wedding, and Nazia's friends tease her for being "a good beti, a dutiful daughter." These traditional mother-daughter roles are soon put to the test when Nazia's father is injured in a construction accident and Nazia's mother takes her out of school to help earn money by cleaning houses.

Things go from bad to worse when Nazia's dowry is stolen, her father loses the rent money, and the family winds up homeless. This shift of fate gives Nazia (and the reader) the opportunity to meet strong and capable women whose lives expand her understanding of the power that women have, even in a culture that seems to be all about the fathers, uncles, and brothers.

Through it all, Nazia's mother works to keep her children with her and to keep Nazia's wedding on track. Nazia, in helping another servant child attempt to escape his fate, discovers the inner strength she needs to choose her own path as well.

This is a well-paced story filled with the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors of a variety of levels of status in modern Pakistani culture. However, Nazia's struggle to choose her own path in life is, at its core, the common story of every girl on the brink of her future, every girl who must break her mother's heart by choosing a way of her own and not the one her mother has hoped and planned for all her life.

Beneath My Mother's Feet has received much early acclaim:

• Kirkus starred review (May 15, 2008 issue)
• Junior Library Guild Selection (April-September 2008 catalog)
• Book Sense nomination
• Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick (Fall 2008)

This is Amjed Qamar's first book. She lives in Dublin, Ohio with her husband and two children. Tomorrow, we will feature an interview with Amjed.

The Fish Who Cried Wolf

The Fish Who Cried Wolf
by Julia Donaldson
illustrated by Axel Scheffler
Arthur A. Levine, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher


Awhile back we read a bunch of "cry wolf" variations, so I had high hopes for this book.

This is the story of Tiddler, a plain little fish who tells very colorful tall tales. He's late for school almost every day, but he has a great excuse each time. One day, he's so distracted thinking of his new story that he fails to notice the fish net that scoops him up. The fishermen throw him back because he's just a "tiddler." Tiddler is lost in the ocean, but he follows the trail of his stories to get back home again. Not quite a "cry wolf" story, but thought I'd withhold judgment and see what the kids thought.

They couldn't get over how similar the book is to the movie "Finding Nemo." The characters, the plot line, everything. I don't know the movie, so I asked, "Coincidence-similar, or plagiarism-similar?" Similar enough to feel like plagiarism was the verdict of the 10 year-olds on the jury.

And then someone said, "And there isn't even a wolf in it!" *sigh* We had to have yet another discussion about idioms and figures of speech. After we cleared that up, they went on to express their dissatisfaction that the story bills itself as a "cry wolf" story with the title, but it doesn't really follow the formula. (Whew! It wasn't just me!) Then we started brainstorming better titles. The winners were: Tiddler's Tall Tales, The Tale of Tiddler, and (although it was suggested rather sarcastically I think it does reflect their irritation with the apparent extravagant borrowing from "Finding Nemo") Lying Nemo.

So here's a book with great potential that was a bit disappointing, but still sparked a lively conversation!

What To Do About Alice?

What To Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt broke the rules, charmed the world and drove her father Teddy crazy!
by Barbara Kerley
illustrated by Edward Fotheringham
Scholastic Press, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher



Barbara Kerley's website
Classroom activities for What To Do About Alice

***
Check out reviews at:
Big A little a
Becky's Book Reviews
Wild Rose Reader
the excelsior file
7-Imp

***
The topic of my minilesson in reading workshop was "Pay Attention to the Way the Character in Your Book Changes." I led off with Crash, by Jerry Spinelli, and my already-familiar story of staying with that book only because I knew Jerry Spinelli HAD to make Crash, one of the most despicable characters (my opinion) in children's literature, change by the end of the book, and I wanted to be there to see it.

Then I showed them the way Pam Muñoz Ryan clues the reader in to her main character's changes in Paint the Wind by making each section of the book a faster and faster gait of a horse, beginning with walk and ending with gallop. I told them that both of the main children characters in Ryan's book are not very nice to begin with, but that the author shows you their family situations and you understand why they are like that. And they both do change.

Next, I shared The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, which I was in the midst of listening to at the time. I told them about the annoying character Constance Contraire, whose very name even means "always irritating," and how the characters in the book are in the same place as the reader in wondering why she's that way and when she's going to change. (She never does change, and for myself and all the other readers like me who didn't put together the numerous clues we were given, the author explains why at the end of the book. Clever author!)

I ended the minilesson by sharing the story of an amazing, strong-willed, unusual character who doesn't change: Alice Roosevelt, in What To Do About Alice, by Barbara Kerley. We wondered at this remarkable woman's life-long resistance of the status quo, and were amazed by how fully she lived her life from childhood through old age -- always on her own terms.

Then I sent them off to read and to pay attention to the ways their characters did and didn't change.

Later that day, during read aloud (Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor), the topic of characters who change and don't change came up again. But that's another story for another post. Stay tuned.

Cardboard Genius

Star Jumper: Journal of a Cardboard Genius
Gravity Buster: Journal #2 of a Cardboard Genius
Time Twister: Journal #3 of a Cardboard Genius
all by Frank Asch
all from Kids Can Press
(2006, 2007, and 2008 respectively)
all copies compliments of the publisher

Alex is a genius inventor whose journals will someday be worth billions, or so he says. His inventions are all made of cardboard and silver duct tape and stuff he collects "from the street on garbage day" and keeps in plastic bins under his bed. Best of all, most of his designs require only the amount of energy in two AA batteries.

The most amazing thing about this series is that you completely believe in Alex and his inventions. How could you not? He throws around science facts about string theory, creates complicated equations, draws detailed diagrams of amazing inventions like a space ship, a duplicating machine, an oxygen generator, and an Atom Slider (so his cardboard spaceship can pass through the spaces between atoms).

It's almost as much fun to believe in two kids from Frogcreek, PA who have a Magic Tree House as it is to believe in Alex and his inventions. It's MORE fun to believe in Alex and his inventions than it is to believe in Harry Potter -- what's the big deal about a character who can learn spells and swing around a wand? That's pure magic. All fantasy. Alex is a character from our world who has a pesky little brother, a little bit of a crush on Zoe Breen, and, oh, yeah, the most incredible scientific mind in the history of the human race.

In the three books of the series so far, Alex has created Star Jumper, a spaceship; a new, improved version of the Star Jumper which includes a Gravity Buster anti-gravity device so it won't get sucked into black holes; and a Time Twister to take care of the space-time warp that Einstein explained in his Theory of Relativity.

What's next for Alex? Well, when we leave him at the end of book three, Jonathan and the castle he made have been Micro-Blasted and are sealed in a mayonnaise jar that has holes punched in the lid (and it appears that Jonathan was not making up an imaginary playmate named Merlin!). Alex has defeated the Time Cops of the future by using a time paradox to his own benefit, and Alex and Zoe (and Jonathan in his jar) have been in outer space for 9 days looking for a suitable planet on which to land the Star Jumper.

These books would be perfect for 3rd-6th graders who are doodlers and inventors and superhuman geniuses in the disguise of a normal kid. There are about 144 pages in each book, with words like "prototype" and "parallel universe" and "genius of my caliber," and small but important illustrations every few pages.

New Baby Shower Favorite

In a Blue Room
by Jim Averbeck
illustrated by Tricia Tusa
Harcourt Children's Books, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher



I've never had the joy nor the frustration of coaxing a child into sleep. Never raised one from the ground up, as it were. I have chosen to work with 9 and 10 year olds during the daylight hours of their 4th grade year of school. I leave all the rest of the hours of every day to their parents and the rest of the years of their school lives to teachers with more patience for tots and/or teens than I have been dealt.

That said, I do love to give books at baby showers that I hope are destined to become sleep time favorites -- usually Mem Fox's Time For Bed, or the old standard, Good Night Moon.

In a Blue Moon is my new baby shower favorite. Slowly and gently, page by page, Mama settles Alice until it's time for the light to be shut off and the room to turn blue in the pale light of the moon. The book begins with Alice jumping on her bed and ends at a whisper with only a few words on each page. The book is what it needs to do -- soothing, quieting, calming. I daresay Mama is feeling much better by the end as well.


*****
Author interview at Tales From the Rushmore Kid
Reviews at ShelfElf, and 7-Imp.

Nonfiction Monday -- Sisters & Brothers

Sisters & Brothers: Sibling Relationships in the Animal World
by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
Houghton Mifflin, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher



We've been paying close attention to the ways nonfiction texts are organized. Some present the information by comparing similarities, while others contrast differences. Some use a time line to lay out the facts in chronological order. Most use some form of topic (usually the title or subject matter of the book) -- subtopic (often page-by-page) -- and detail (more and more the details are found in the back of the book) structure.

"Sibling relationships in the animal world" is the topic of Jenkins and Page's newest collaborative venture. The illustrations are classic Jenkins -- gorgeous and captivating cut- and torn-paper collages. Each page or spread has a sort of tab of torn paper, either at the top or bottom, on which can be found the subtopic for that page. In addition, each page has a statement, phrase, or question in large font near the illustration that summarizes the details or draws the reader into the paragraph of details about that animal's sibling relationships. For example, on the page with the New Mexico whiptail lizards, the tab is "Sisters," and the large font phrase reads, "Girls rule!" The reader is hooked into learning about an animal species that is entirely female. Only girls are born in New Mexico whiptail families, and the species reproduces without males.

In the back of the book is a paragraph of general information about each animal featured in the book: its size, what it eats, and where it lives.

This is a great book for any classroom or collection serving animal lovers, and an excellent mentor text for a study on the organization of nonfiction text, both for readers and for writers.



The Nonfiction Monday round up is at Picture Book of the Day.

ALIA'S MISSION:SAVING THE BOOKS OF IRAQ

As you know, I am not much of a graphic novel reader. You are probably shocked that I am actually reviewing a graphic novel since Mary Lee is the blog expert on these! But I am trying. I have my favorites--To Dance, Babymouse, Jellaby. I just received a copy of ALIA'S MISSION by Mark Alan Stamaty and will add it to the list of graphic novels I am glad I read. It is the story of the library who saved the books of Basra. I have read the story before but I must say that the graphic novel form fits the story well. It is definitely a story that is better told with graphics and art together with text. The black and white illustrations add to the tone of the book and the history. The graphic novel tells the heroic story and the graphics do a great job of showing the emotions that went along with getting the books out of the library. It is a very powerful book and I am starting to see myself as a reader of graphic novels.

I am becoming more and more interested in this genre. (Mary Lee has helped me along with that.) As a teacher, I want my students to understand that graphic novels are more than Superheroes. I think that is why I am always so intrigued by these books on true and serious topics.

I think graphic novels provide a great "in" for kids who are reluctant readers. For years, all these kids had when choosing this format were comic books about superheroes or cartoon characters. Now, graphic readers can read a variety of genres and topics--and the number of these books for younger children are growing. That is all good news!

This is definitely one I'll add to my 3rd/4th classroom library. The topic of war is a hard one but it is well done. It probably isn't appropriate below 3rd grade and I can certainly see it being read through middle or high school. A great addition to any collection.

I am being more interested in using graphic novels in my classroom. After hearing speaker, Terry Thompson, I am going to work on collecting and using these in smarter ways. Terry Thompson is the author of the upcoming Stenhouse book for teachers, ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA: USING COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS TO TEACH COMPREHENSION 2-6 which will be out soon. He is brilliant and a huge resource for ways to use these books to support our students as readers. (I'll review the book as soon as I get a copy but this is to let you know that it will be a good one--especially for those of us who don't know where to begin with graphic novels.)