Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie

Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie
by Norton Juster
illustrated by Chris Raschka
Scholastic, October 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

This review goes out to the parents of all toddlers. Also, to the parents of all teenagers.

Nanna and Poppy, the grandparents who are visited by their granddaughter in the 2006 Caldecott winner, The Hello, Goodbye Window, are never sure whether it is Sourpuss or Sweetie Pie who's come to visit. She assures us that most of the time she really is Sweetie Pie, and she knows that Grandma and Grandpa don't like Sourpuss very much, but when it comes to who she'll be..."I don't know how it's going to be. It just happens."

One minute she's hugging, the next she's insisting on her way. One minute she's thinking of others, the next she's completely self-absorbed. One minute she's "YES!", and the next she's "NO!". Through it all, no matter what the mood, Grandma, Grandpa and Granddaughter listen to music, paint, play pretend, read books, and go for drives.

When Nana and Poppy put her (them?) to bed, they wonder who will be there in the morning...and for how long.

Raschka's bright and sunny Sweetie Pie illustrations contrast with the darker, stormy Sourpuss pictures, in a book that is sure to be a favorite of grownups and moody young ones alike.

Bear Hunt Alternatives

We're Going on a Lion Hunt

adapted by Margery Cuyler

illustrated by Joe Mathieu

Marshall Cavendish, available October, 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

Pirate Treasure Hunt!

by Jan Peck

illustrated by Adrian Tans

Pelican Publishing Company, available Sept. 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

Have you already taken your students or your story time participants on a bear hunt? Then it's time to go on a lion hunt! Join the teacher in the book -- put on your safari hat and use your imagination. Walk out the door of the school right into a safari. There will be all the usual things that you can't go over, can't go around, have to go through: mud, sticks, trees, water, tall grass, and finally, the obligatory cave. Hurry back through all the obstacles until you arrive safely back at school.

After the lion hunt, why not go on a pirate treasure hunt? You'll get to use your best "Talk Like a Pirate" voice. (Sorry I didn't have the book for International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19. ARRRRRRRH!) You'll get to insult your audience pirate style -- "Ye little bubble bath takers; ye little milk sippers; ye little tooth brushers..." And you'll get to go over, around and through all kinds of obstacles until you get to the obligatory cave. When you have to hurry back to the ship up, down, over, under and through all you went to get to the treasure, you open the chest and find...BOOKS! And the key to opening the treasure is "Reading, me hearties!"

Too Many Toys

Too Many Toys

by David Shannon

The Blue Sky Press (Scholastic)

available October, 2008

review copy provided by the publisher

Spencer had too many toys.  He had fleets and convoys and parades of toys.  He had zoos and armies of toys both big and small, loud and quiet, educational and not.

After Spencer's dad steps on one too many Lego pieces and Spencer's mom trips over one too many train tracks, Spencer receives the ultimatum:  "YOU HAVE TOO MANY TOYS!"  And he's going to have to get rid of some of them.

Spencer's mom doesn't know who she's up against, though.  First, Spencer is a dramatic sentimentalist complete with big sad eyes (like the ones Puss in Boots uses in the Shrek movies).  Then he's a crafty lawyer who knows when it's "in his best interest to agree."

Finally Spencer's mom has a box of toys that she can get rid of.  But while she's having a cup of tea and a short rest, Spencer discovers one toy he can't do without -- the BOX! 

If Animals Kissed Good Night

If Animals Kissed Good Night
by Ann Whitford Paul
illustrated by David Walker
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher



This is my new baby shower gift book.

Reading this book as the last read aloud of the night is bound to result in lots of snuggling and kissing. What a great way to end the day!

The book starts out, "If animals kissed like we kiss goodnight, Sloth and her cub in late afternoon's light would hang from a tree and start kissing sooo slooowwwww...the sky would turn pink and the sun sink down low." Peacocks kiss with a fan dance, snakes kiss like rope loosely wound, walrus calf and papa kiss with whiskery swishes, elephant give a kiss and then a shower, "and Sloth and her cub? Still...kissing good night." Land and water and forest and Arctic and human animals kiss their way through the rest of the book, and you can probably guess what Sloth and her cub are doing after the child is tucked in with all her stuffed animals around her!

Join Hands! The Ways We Celebrate Life

Join Hands! The Ways We Celebrate Life
by Pat Mora
with photographs by George Ancona
Charlesbridge, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher


A year ago, I had never heard of the Malaysian poetic form pantoum.

Then last year, Tricia (Miss Rumphius Effect) used the pantoum for one of her poetry stretches. She explained the form, wrote an original, and shared the pantoums her stretch participants wrote.

This August, Kelly Fineman explored the pantoum for Poetry Friday.

Jone shared an original pantoum in April, and then came back at the end of August to a poem she worked on for Elaine's (Wild Rose Reader) and Janet Wong's challenge to write a ring/blanket/drum poem and made it into a ring/blanket/drum pantoum!

And now Pat Mora and George Ancona have created a single-pantoum picture book! I declare it The Year of the Pantoum! The pantoum is the perfect form for Mora's poem. She explains, "A pantoum is a repeating form written in four-line stanzas. The second and fourth lines in one stanza become the first and third lines in the next stanza. In the last stanza, the second and fourth lines are almost the same as the frst and third lines of the first stanza. So, like a group of friends joining hands, the poem becomes a circle."

In her poem, friends sing and dance, strut and ballyhoo, plan a masquerade and a parade, take a chance and begin to dance, and join hands in a "happy hoopla way." A fun book and a great invitation to children to explore the pantoum.

Monsoon Afternoon

Monsoon Afternoon
by Kashmira Sheth
illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi
Peachtree Publishers, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

The weather is changing, and the first fat raindrops of the monsoon are beginning to fall. No one but Dadaji has time to play with his grandson. Luckily, Dadaji remembers what fun he had as a child playing in the monsoon rains -- floating paper boats in the washtub, enjoying the smell and feel of the rain after a long dry season. Dadaji remembers swinging in the banyan tree, watching peacocks strut, and picking mangoes, and he shares these memories as he spends the afternoon with his grandson. He assures the little boy that he was once as young as he is, and, yes, someday the little boy will be a Dadaji, too.

In the author's notes at the end of the story, Sheth shares some of her memories of monsoon season from her childhood on the west coast of India.

Many of our students and their families have storm-related memories. In our beginning of the year writing workshops, we often ask students to write personal narratives. This book might prompt students to gather and write a collection of storm stories.

Kashmira Sheth's blog

Apples & Oranges: Going Bananas With Pairs

Apples & Oranges: Going Bananas With Pairs
by Sara Pinto
Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

This year, our staff is focusing on a few of the strategies in Marzano's CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION THAT WORKS.  One of the instructional strategies that has been proven by research to raise student achievement is identifying similarities and differences.

To launch our study of weather, we brainstormed all the weather words we could think of.  I recorded the words on the overhead, and the students at each table took turns writing the words on index cards.  Then I gave the groups this task:  sort the words into groups that you think make sense.

After this content work on similarities and differences, I shared APPLES & ORANGES: GOING BANANAS WITH PAIRS.  This book nearly put a couple of my students over the edge.  

Page 1: "How are an apple and an orange alike?"  Page 2: "They both don't wear glasses."    

"I don't get it!"  "It doesn't make sense!"  

Others, however, delighted in the playfulness and quickly were able to adapt to the BOTH DON'T format of the comparing.

Page 17:  "How are a spoon and a fork alike?"  Student Response:  "They both don't run away with the dish."  About half the class understood the literary allusion.  I was thoroughly impressed.  This is clearly a student to watch!  (Page 18:  "They both don't dance in the ballet.")

This seems like another book that would be fun to take down the grade levels to see how younger and younger students handle the BOTH DON'T format.  Or maybe a certain librarian could try it for me -- hint, hint Franki!  Or maybe you can try it in your classroom and let me know how it goes! 

The Words Don't Match the Pictures

There's No Such Thing as Ghosts!

by Emmanuelle Eeckhout

first American Edition, Kane Miller, 2008

first published in Belgium, 2008

review copy provided by Kane Miller

The unnamed little boy is not supposed to go near the strange old house on the corner in his new neighborhood because it's said to be haunted.  So...he promptly goes there because he wants to catch a ghost!

No matter where he goes in the strange old house, he finds no ghosts. However, the reader can clearly see that behind him, or above him, or below him, or hidden in the bubbles of the bubble bath, there are clearly LOTS of ghosts.

Despite what the reader knows, the little boy declares, "There's no such thing as ghosts!"

The words don't match the pictures.


Minji's Salon

by Eun-hee Choung

first American edition, Kane Miller, 2008

first published in South Korea in 2007

review copy provided by Kane Miller

Minji's mother is at the beauty salon getting a new hairdo.  On the left side of the facing pages, the reader sees Minji's mother at her salon getting cut, colored, and styled. On the right side are the words Minji's mother might hear, along with a picture of Minji acting the words out on her dog.  

"The color must be mixed carefully.  (No tasting allowed.)" reads the text.  The stylist is mixing colors from tubes for mother's hair; Minji is choosing coloring ingredients from the freezer (mmmm, ice cream!) for the dog's hair.

"You have to be patient; beauty takes time," reads the text.  In the left hand picture, we see Minji's mother with eyes closed, serenely patient as the stylist colors and rolls her hair.  In the right hand picture, we see a wild-eyed dog smeared with ice cream, tongue in the container, bits of fur rolled up in crayons and pencils.

The words don't match (both of) the pictures.  (At least not until the end, when Minji says, "Mom will be back soon.  I think she'll be surprised.")

What are some other examples of books like these (books with parallel stories, books where the pictures don't match the words) and how do you use them in your classroom or library story time? 

New Math Literature

2 years ago, I purchased the book GREAT ESTIMATIONS and LOVED IT! The kids in my 3rd/4th grade class LOVED it! It had the feel of an "I Spy" Book but had so much to teach us about math. I know that books often help kids make sense of math concepts and this is one that can help all of us think differently about estimating. So, yesterday, I was thrilled when Beth at Cover to Cover showed me GREATER ESTIMATIONS-- a second book about estimating!

Bruce Goldstone (who I was happy to learn grew up in Ohio!) is quite the genius. You don't realize it at first, but these books are teaching books. Goldstone takes us through the process of learning to make good estimates. But you are so busy having such fun looking at the amazing photos and trying to make a good estimate, that it almost takes many reads to pick up all of the great things that you can do to make better estimates.

Bruce Goldstone chooses some pretty cool things to photograph and for us to estimate. He chooses a variety because he teaches us the different ways to estimate--clump counting, estimating length, etc. Readers spend time looking at rubber ducks, honeybees, skydivers, dominoes, hairs on a cat, and blades of grass.

Lots of interesting facts as well as humorous talking bubbles fill the pages. The author also includes a note at the end of the book. He talks about the fun of estimating, but also about how helpful it is in everyday life. He shares times when estimation is critical that I hadn't really thought about.

I had just assumed that Goldstone used computers to create these images but, from his author blurb in the back of the books that Beth pointed out to me, it seems that he spends hours and hours setting real things up for photographing! Very cool.

Goldstone has a fun website that includes info about him, his books and more. It also includes a fun game called "Estimatron" that allows you to practice those estimation skills!  If you like the ducks in the book, you'll be happy to see them again (and again) on the site!

Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears

Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears
by Emily Gravett
Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
On shelves September 9, 2008
Winner of the 2007 Nestlé Children's Book Prize Bronze Award and
the 2008 Kate Greenaway Medal
review copy provided by the publisher


What's it with book characters taking the pencil (or the red marker) and revising the author's work?!? Chester messes with Mélanie Watt's writing, and now Little Mouse is messing with Emily Gravett's -- writing and drawing on the pages, chewing on the pages, and more.

Ms. Gravett has created a perfectly good self-help book for those who have fears and phobias. It is intended to be a sort of workbook for the phobic to face his/her fears with writing, drawing and collage. And Little Mouse takes her up on this.

I know we shouldn't laugh at others' fears, but this is a really funny book. Little Mouse's fears have literary references (Three Blind Mice and Hickory Dickory Dock), have real (Acrophobia) and imaginary (Whereamiophobia) names, and are so problematic to Little Mouse that his red pencil is a mere stump by the end of the book.

There are flaps, die-cuts, "chewed" edges of pages, "folded" page corners, and a VERY funny fold-out map of The Isle of Fright to keep the reader poring over the pages of this book. Every time you read it, you'll find a detail you had missed before.

I'm not sure this would be a therapeutic book for anyone with bonafide phobias, but the rest of us who have our share of fears and worries will completely empathize with Little Mouse, and in the end, with Emily Gravett.


Shelf Elf reviewed Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears last October. She must have gotten ahold of a British copy.
Visit Emily Gravett's website, where there's an activity for making your own collage of your fears, and a couple of page shots to give you a feel for the unique illustrations.

Chester's Back!

Chester's Back!
by Mélanie Watt
Kids Can Press
September, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

Mélanie Watt does her best to give us a new book starring Chester, the gigantic tortoiseshell cat with the equally gigantic attitude. But he's got his red marker in high gear and he hardly lets her get a word in edgewise. In the end, he lets down his guard and Mélanie gives him exactly what he asked for. Exactly. To his great dismay.

Both Chester and Chester's Back would make a great books for reader's theater for two voices. I get to be Chester, okay?

AMELIA MAKES A MOVIE by David Milgrim

As a kid who put on plays for my parents almost daily (painful for them, I am quite sure), AMELIA MAKES A MOVIE is quite fun! This new picture book is all about Amelia and her process of making a movie. She goes through the whole thing--script, lights, building a set, etc. It is quite exciting to watch the movie unfold with surprises along the way.

I love that this book takes into account the fact that kids have the capabilities of producing a movie on their own. The video camera and computer for editing are all a part of the illustrations and these kids are quite confident with all of the things needed to pull together a movie.

I also love the illustrations. Lots of talking bubbles, good colors, a graphic type look. The characters are quite likable--as are the pets who help out quite a bit:-)

A great book for all ages. I can see kids reading this one for fun, as a model for how-to nonfiction writing, and I can see teachers adding it to collections of books that help kids see a variety of purposes for writing.

Thinking about everything out there on 21st Century Literacies, this is a great book to show how the tools of the 21st Century just add to the same great thinking process of those who create!

Imaginary Menagerie

Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures
by Julie Larios
illustrated by Julie Paschkis
Harcourt, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher



You've seen this book around the Kidlitosphere:

7-Imp kicked off poetry month last April with it; at Big A little a, Kelly reviewed it for Poetry Friday, as did Charlotte, at Charlotte's Library, although her focus was a little more on the art; and Harcourt has a teaching guide that includes a coloring/activity sheet. (There may be more. If my blog search missed you, let me know!)

I'm sharing it again because I want to make sure it didn't slip off your radar.

Fourteen mythological creatures each get their own poem and a gorgeous, luminous illustration: dragon, mermaid, firebird, centaur, troll, cockatrice, hobgoblin, sea serpent, thunderbird, sphinx, will o' the wisp, gargoyle, naga, and phoenix. (Go to 7-Imp and Charlotte's Library -- links above -- to get a feel for these amazing illustrations.)

The book includes a table of contents, a little more information about each creature (including culture of origin, where possible), and some of the most gorgeous endpapers ever.

Are your students reading fantasy? They need this book! Are you studying mythology? Include this book! Poetry Friday, poetry unit, poetry month: gotta have this book!

Moxy Maxwell is Back!

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-You Notes
by Peggy Gifford, illustrated by Valorie Fisher
published by Schwartz and Wade (Random House)
hits the shelves TODAY, August 12, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

Moxy has one more day to write her Christmas thank-you notes. If she misses the deadline, her mom won't let her go to Hollywood to visit the father she hasn't seen for three years.

Only Moxy can make not writing thank-you notes so entertaining. Much of the not writing takes place in Ajax's office, and involves Ajax's new copy machine that he got for Christmas, and Ajax's La-Z-Boy chair, and Ajax's carefully organized piles that are everywhere. (Ajax is the "famous children's book writer" who married Moxy and Mark's mom. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Ajax is modeled after J. Patrick Lewis, Peggy Gifford's brother in-law.)

There is also a surprise return appearance by gold spray paint, even though readers of Moxy's experience with her summer reading in Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little might assume that Moxy had learned her lesson about spray paint.

Moxy's mom is again deserving of sainthood in this book, and although it's not clear whether Moxy will ever get her Christmas thank-yous written, she does indeed write the "first real thank-you note of her life."

Blue Vehicle Fables

Little Blue Truck
by Alice Schertle
illustrated by Jill McElmurry
Harcourt, 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

I grew up with a little blue train that accomplished great things through the power of positive thinking and a deep and unswerving belief in himself.

Fast forward a bunch of years and we have a little blue truck, who takes time to "Beep" at all the animals along the road. A big important dump truck roars through the story and promptly gets stuck. When the little blue truck tries to help, he gets stuck, too. But all it takes is one "Beep," and all of that networking pays off -- all the animals come to help the little blue truck help the big dump truck.

So now it's all about cooperation and collaboration? Self-reliance and independence are out the window (or out-of-date)?

Maybe there needs to be room on the shelf for both the blue train and the blue truck.

Two New Titles From Graphic Universe

Graphic Universe, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, is publishing graphic myths and legends faster than I can keep up. They currently have 27 titles, including Atalanta, Hercules, and Theseus, but also including Yu the Great, Amaterasu, and Sunjata, plus King Arthur, Robinhood, and William Tell. Here is a complete list of all the titles in the series so far.

I started to say that they are "churning out" graphic myths and legends faster than I can keep up, but then you might think these books don't deserve your attention. Far from it. As the website proudly points out, these books have useful text structures: map, table of contents, glossary, index, websites and books for further reading, and information about the research that was done to ensure the authenticity of each story.

One of the two newest is PIGLING: A CINDERELLA STORY. Add this Korean version of Cinderella to your collection and your fairytale unit!









MARWE: INTO THE LAND OF THE DEAD is an East African Legend about a girl who, with her brother, fails to keep watch over the family's bean fields, allowing the monkeys to eat the beans. She does not want to return to face her father's wrath, so when the strange circle appears before her, she goes through, only to find herself in the Land of the Dead. She is careful to eat nothing while she is there, so that when she has learned to be a caring and thoughtful person, she can return home. A classic coming-of-age story.

Into the Volcano by Don Wood

Into the Volcano

by Don Wood (Yes, that Don Wood, of Don and Audrey Wood fame.)

Blue Sky Press (a Scholastic Imprint)

October, 2008

appropriate for grade 3 and up

review copy compliments of Sally at Cover to Cover

This week I've reviewed some books that made me say, "WOW!" mostly (only?) because I know they will reach some of the readers in my classroom. And I've reviewed some very simple graphic novels that will give beginning readers an appropriate early experience with the graphic novel format.

Now it's time for a book (a graphic novel) that makes me say an unconditional, "WOW!"

A WOW in every way, shape and form.

A chin-drop, I'm-gaga sort of WOW.

Don Wood's Into the Volcano is visually stunning and has a story that is packed with action, adventure, mystery, and surprises.

Quick plot summary to set the stage: Two brothers are suddenly taken out of school by their father and told they must travel to a volcanic island to help an aunt they've never met. Once they get there, they are taken on an expedition that involves a boat ride into an erupting volcano and a journey through underground lava-tube tunnels. All the while, the volcano is shaking the entire island and rivers of lava are blocking the exits.

Background on how this book came to be (excerpted from the editorial director's "Dear Reader" letter in the front of the ARC, and Don Wood's bio in the back):

"Don and Audrey Wood left California seven years ago and moved to the jungle side of a Hawaiian Island...Don and Audrey introduced us [editor and her son] to the wonders of their jungle life: late-night hikes to see Madame Pele splash her molten lava into the sea; an awesome hike through a lava tube that was formed in the 1400s and was 60 feet below the surface of the land..."

"Don Wood...lives surrounded by tropical jungle, not far from one of the longest lava tubes in the world. As the nearby active volcano pours rivers of lava into the ocean, Don and his wife, bestselling writer Audrey Wood, frequently hike at night across newly formed terrain to watch molten lava enter the sea. Don and Audrey hand-cleared a space int eh jungle themselves to build and off-grid house overlooking the ocean. A surfer and sailor, Wood also dives and kayaks around the island, and enjoys hiking through ancient lava tubes."

I had to tell you all of that so you would know why the art in this book is so stunning -- Wood didn't imagine it, he's lived it. And best of all, he takes us places and shows us sights we would never in all of our lives be able to see in person: waves (small gentle, huge crashing, gigantic washing-over-the-boat, and perfect-for-surfing waves), beaches of green sand, lava flowing, lava hitting water, a pod of whales blowing under a moonbow, untamed jungle. And we get to experience it through the characters the way he has: boating, climbing, spelunking, and surfing.

As important as the setting is in this book, Wood does not neglect character. The main characters are complex, and they change in satisfying ways. The supporting cast is a bunch of characters. Literally.

This story is perfectly suited to the format of graphic novel. There is no way it would have worked as a text-only novel and the story is too mature for a picture book. This book is not to be missed.

Early glowing review at Educating Alice is what caught my attention.

Books That Make Us Say, "WOW!"

Robert Gould's Time Soldiers ® series
Published by Big Guy Books
Kathleen Duey, the co-author of the series with Robert Gould (Duey's blog here), was a National Book Award Finalist and a had a Cybils Short List book in 2007.
The books, created and photographed by Robert Gould, are digitally illustrated by Eugene Epstein.
Review copies (Book #1 Rex, Book #2 Rex2, and Book #3 Patch, all copyright 2005) were freebies from Sally at Cover to Cover. Looking at Powell's and Amazon, it would appear that there are 7 or 8 in the series now.

Every book you read, you read through a series of filters: your knowledge of the topic, your experience with the author, your mood that day, your purpose for reading, your age, your reading preferences and/or ability.

One filter we use every time we read a children's book is the Teacher Filter. We imagine every book we read in the hands of a child, or in the hands of an adult reading with a child (or group of children).

So when I tell you that these Time Soldiers books made me say, "WOW!" when I first opened them (and consequently had the same effect on teachers of both older and younger students than I teach, as well as on a Literacy Principal), please understand that this WOW is not the same kind of WOW that The Underneath has elicited from both of us.

Every page of these books is illustrated with photographs that make you feel like you're watching a movie or TV show of the book. In Book #1, Mikey and his big brother Rob discover a funny-looking spot in the woods through which they can see a dinosaur. Their father doesn't believe them, so they gather their four friends and the video camera and they walk through the funny-looking spot and into a prehistoric dinosauric adventure. They film what they see so they can take the evidence home to Mikey and Rob's father. Lots of the illustrations appear to be the view through the video camera's viewfinder. (Readers who love to spot details in the illustrations will keep track of the duration of the adventure in the viewfinder's time stamp, as well as the shrinking battery power of the camera.) By page 52, the kids have decided that they have come through a Time Portal. When they get back home, they agree to wait until the next day to show the video tape to their parents. Then, at the end of the book, "In the silence of the night..." a man in a black suit and black sunglasses steals the tape from the video recorder. (cue the "uh-oh" music -- duhn-dhun duhn...)

These books are not Great Literature. They will never be considered for either the Newbery or the Caldecott. Here's what they WILL do:

• I'm predicting that they will be wildly popular with my students.
• They will hook reluctant readers.
• They will support developing readers.
• They will lead readers to other books in the Time Travel genre.
• They will inspire writers to tell stories with digital media.

Wow.

ELEVEN by Patricia Reilly Giff

eleven
by Patricia Reilly Giff
Wendy Lamb Books (Random House), 2008
review copy compliments of the publisher

What could possibly motivate an eleven year-old, who doesn't yet read, to want to become a reader?

Sam puts his time in every day in the resource room (when he hasn't sneaked outside instead). Anima reads aloud to him every night, "If he can't read yet, one thing we can do while we try to help him is to give him the world of books." Mack teaches him that the ability to "read" wood, to repair wood and to build with wood, is a rare and valuable talent. Still he doesn't read.

It's Sam's eleventh birthday. He's looked everywhere for hidden presents. Everywhere except the attic. He doesn't find any presents in the attic. Instead, he finds a mystery -- a newspaper clipping that shows a picture of him as a three year-old. The only word he can decipher from the headline is "missing." What does this mean? Does he not belong with his grandfather? Who is his family? What do the dreams and memories that have begun to haunt him mean? Who can he befriend at school who will help him solve this mystery?

Patricia Reilly Giff has woven a beautiful story of family, friendship, dreams, and longing. We have all had a Sam in our class. With this book, Giff reminds us to be patient, to try every approach, to encourage every talent, and to realize that it may, in the end, be nothing that we, as teachers, do that will lead our Sams to reading.

Reviewed by Jen Robinson as part of MotherReader's 48 Hour Read in June and at Charlotte's Library.

Out of the Wild...again

Perhaps it's getting a little tedious when Franki and I both post on the same book. At least this time it's not back to back like our reviews of The Underneath (mine, hers).

Franki was lucky enough to snag an ARC of Out of the Wild (her review here); I bought mine at Cover to Cover.

OUT OF THE WILD
by Sarah Beth Durst
June, 2008
review copy purchased at my favorite independent children's bookstore: Cover to Cover

I laughed out loud -- literally shouted a "HAH!" -- at the end of the first book, Into the Wild, when the identity of the "villain" (the one who caused The Wild to grow) is revealed. Durst hid her villain in plain sight.

In the second book, Out of the Wild, I started laughing out loud from the very beginning. Reading this book is like being on the magic carpet with Julie -- a roller coaster ride of twists and turns and near-misses and surprises. With lots of laughs all the way. The story begins when The Wild eats one of the Three Blind Mice and then, when Julie demands, "Give him back!" The Wild instead delivers her father, the 500 year-old prince of Rapunzel, Julie's mother. Chaos begins immediately, when Prince (Julie's father) takes off to rescue a princess and The Wild begins to grow with a vengeance. And the laughs come one right after another.

On creating an identity for her father, who has appeared out of nowhere: "Who knew that miracles came with paperwork problems?"

On the experience of flying cross-country on a bath mat turned magic carpet: "This, she thought, is like some bizarre dream. She shouldn't be flying past DC on a bath mat."

When Julie comes up with a plan, her impulsive, charge-in-and-save-the-world father says, "It is a good plan. You are your mother's daughter." This causes Julie to think, "Well, it wasn't a save-the-world sort of plan, and it had the potential to be mind-bogglingly humiliating, but it was (moderately) better than charging in, sword raised."

When Julie climbs the beanstalk out of the Grand Canyon: "She told herself that she shouldn't be surprised. After all, if Grandma's broomstick could fly in the real world, if Bobbi's wand could change people into pumpkins, and if the wishing well could grant wishes, then why shouldn't magic beans work too? And no matter where they were, magic beans always grew into beanstalks that reached the giant's castle in the clouds. But still, a castle over Arizona...wow."

Pondering how her new friend Henry is coping: "She thought about Henry, finding out for the first time that his father was a fairy-tale character one moment and then being carried away by a dragon the next. He was, she thought, having a much worse day than she was."

On the nature of evil: "Linda still looked like the [description withheld because it's a total spoiler] that Julie had grown up knowing. She had plain brown hair and an ordinary round face with chipmunk cheeks. She wore a preppy brown sweater set and charcoal gray pants. What kind of villain wore a sweater set?"


Great tri-review at 7-Imp (with Tadmack of Finding Wonderland fame).

Other reviews at
Becky's Book Reviews
Dare to Be Stupid (Tamora Pierce's blog)

And here's Sarah Beth Durst's blog, where she tells about her upcoming visit to the Northboro, Massachusets Library -- the real one where she grew up as a reader and "learned to love books" -- the one that is, along with the town, the setting of both of her books. How fun would that be?!?!