#bookaday -- Mary Lee's Pile #5, #6

The War To End All Wars
by Russell Freedman
Clarion Books, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

Forge
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Atheneum, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher


#bookaday #3 (Sugar Changed the World), #5 and #6 have me thinking hard about myself as a nonfiction reader. I loved Sugar Changed the World, and hungrily read every word of the book. Okay, maybe "hungrily" is an adverb better used to describe how I ate the cinnamon rolls in the picture, and not so much how I read the book, but my point here is that I didn't read The War To End All Wars with that kind of eagerness. Truth be told, I mostly skimmed it. But why? Lack of background knowledge? I had about the same amount for Sugar. The chronological format? Maybe. The Red Flags of Textbook Reading may have been raised in my brain by the chronological telling in the first part of the book and I was not able to recover control when Freedman switched to topical chapters. However, I think what made the difference for Sugar Changed the World was that Aronson and Budhos worked so hard to link their information to the stories of real people -- first to their own family stories, but then to the stories of real people. Yes, yes, The War TEAW is filled with Real People, filled to the bursting with every important name of every important player in the whole shebang. And that's the difference. Names vs. Stories. And that seems to be the difference for me as a reader. I happily dug into Revolutionary War history with Laurie Halse Anderson's FORGE: Story.

On a separate note, as I look for big themes that connect my #bookaday reading, I notice that I have read two books that describe total train wrecks: Keeper and The WTEAW. I yelled (inside my head) at Kathi Appelt all the way through Keeper as disaster led to disaster, but I couldn't put the book down knowing that resolution of some kind would come by the end of the novel. Reading about how assassinations and misunderstandings and messages delivered too late resulted in the development and use of weapons of mass slaughter and the paving of the way towards the jittery ("Current Terror Level: Yellow/Orange") way we live now, was hard. Really hard. So maybe that's why we need Freedman's book now more than ever -- there's not just one author who can turn around this story of our country's/world's destiny. We all need to study what did and didn't work in the past and find a better path toward the future.

I was going to take a day off the heavy stuff today and read something a little bit lighter, but after writing the words in that last paragraph, I'm thinking I'll go ahead with my plan.  Next up for #bookaday #7 -- THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE KKK.

#bookaday--Franki at the Halfway Point

I am LOVING #bookaday started by @donalynbooks. Whether you are participating in the holiday version of #bookaday or not, following the #bookaday hashtag on twitter will give you lots of great books to add to your TBR pile.

We are on Day 6 of vacation and I have read 8 fabulous books! I thought I'd share these quickly before I move on to the 2nd half of the event. I am all about characters and read completely for character. I have to love the characters to love the book and you will notice that I love all of the new characters I've read about. Most of my #bookaday reading has focused on middle grade novels. I find that no matter how much I read, I can never keep up with all of the great books coming out for our 3rd through 6th graders. They are the readers I have always been most interested in and it has been nice to make time to catch up on some of the books I've been wanting to read. I am anxious to share them all with students when we get back to school.

PENNY DREADFUL by Laurel Snyder was my first #bookaday read and it was a great one. I loved the the characters. This felt a little like Polly Horvath but also a little like some of my favorite books from childhood--A LITTLE PRINCESS, THE SECRET GARDEN, etc. It is a quirky,upbeat kind of book with some unique characters. This is probably a book I'll share with 4th and 5th graders.A great fun book all around.

I was very excited to get an ARC of MARTY MCGUIRE by Kate Messner. This is the first in a series due out in May of 2011. I am always looking for great new books for kids newer to chapter books and Marty McGuire is a great book for those readers. Again, I love this character in this book. This is a great read for kids who love Judy Moody, Clementine, Roscoe Riley, etc. The story is told in first person by Marty and she is a character you love almost instantly. She is a spunky girl who knows how to solve a problem and be herself. I am looking forward to more Marty McGuire books!

There are not many books that would make great reads for ages 6-12, but I think LULU AND THE BRONTOSAURUS would be a great read aloud for grades 1-5. Kids of all ages will love this book. Mary Lee reviewed the book and I immediately moved it to the top of my pile. Judith Viorst is brilliant as always, and a fun feature of the book is the way that she chats with the reader throughout the story.

I am a huge fan of James Preller and finally had a chance to read his book BYSTANDER. This is a book about middle school and bullying. The storyline and the characters are believable and this would make a great choice for a book club or read aloud. The book provides lots to talk about in terms of how kids treat each other and how they handle difficult situations. James Preller has a good handle on this age group and that is important for this story.

A LONG WALK TO WATER by Linda Sue Park was a very powerful read. I hadn't realized before I started that this story, about the lost boys of Sudan, was mostly true. I think it is hard to write about hard topics in a way that is accessible to middle grade and middle school readers but this book is done perfectly for this age. The two stories that Park tells come together brilliantly and the difficulty is clear. This is a book that will live with me for a long time and I think it would make an amazing read aloud for 5th or 6th grade.

I discovered Lauren Oliver, a great new YA author in early December. I received BEFORE I FALL in my ALAN box and read it in early December. Oliver has a new book coming out in February called DELIRIUM and I was able to borrow an ARC. I forgot how much I love YA and am thrilled to have discovered Lauren Oliver. DELERIUM tells the story of a society who has figured out a way to cure people from love. An interesting concept and great characters. Looking forward to reading everything that Oliver writes in the future. I don't have much time to read YA Lit but will make time to read anything that she writes.

THE RABBIT PROBLEM is a picture book by Emily Gravett. I love Emily Gravett and am not sure how I missed this book. This is a fun picture book around the Fibonacci problem posed hundreds of years ago. The book is set up in calendar form and Gravett includes many unique features and great humor as always.

I love every book by Lisa Graff so was thrilled to have some time to read SOPHIE SIMON SOLVES THEM ALL. This is a bit of a different book for Graff--meant for a bit of a younger audience. Sophie Simon is another character I love and the story is a great one for 3rd-4th grade readers. I haven't heard that this will become a series, but it would be great news if it did!

I love every book that I've read and recommend every one of them. I am so loving #bookaday! I am already looking forward to participating in Summer #bookaday.

#bookaday -- Mary Lee's Pile #4

Keeper
by Kathi Appelt
Atheneum, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

I want to reread this book right now.

How'd she do that? How did she layer the story like onionskin paper? Weave the story like pink ribbons? Make me care so deeply about Keeper and her people and her animals? Make me keep turning the pages of a train wreck of a story? Make me believe in mermaids? (I believe, I believe, whatever it takes to save Keeper and BD and to unite Signe and Dogie, whatever it takes to reunite Mr. Beauchamp and Jack, I BELIEVE!!!)



A review in threes by Travis at 100 Scope Notes (and links to other reviews).
An interview at The Brain Lair with Kathi Appelt that gives insight into the "props" in Keeper.

Today's #bookaday, for a total change of pace: THE WAR TO END ALL WARS. I think I'll follow it with FORGE on Wednesday.

#bookaday -- Mary Lee's Pile #2, #3

Half Upon a Time
by James Riley
Aladdin, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

This is my new favorite fractured fairy tale novel/series. Jack's (of the beanstalk) son meets a "princess" from the "real world" when she falls through a blue circle of fire that appears in midair. After that, it is nonstop Huntsmen, magic items, fairy tale characters (and even a Fairy who makes a nest in May's hair, and who does not have a tail, as Jack keeps pointing out to May).

I found this quiet moment in the middle of the book:

"These are challenges," Jack told her. "That's it. We are going to win. You know why? Because it doesn't matter if you're in a fairy tale or here in real life, doing the right thing still counts for something. We're going to win because we're good, decent people trying to accomplish something noble."

(Is it okay if I make a big poster of that quote for the teachers' lounge wall?)

But mostly the book is a quick-moving, adventure-filled page-turner with some pretty funny dialogue:

"Uh-oh," May said, backing away from the Mirror.
"That pretty much covers it, Jack agreed, yanking her back more quickly.

Sugar Changed the World
by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
Clarion Books, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

This is a fascinating story that spans the globe, the entire spectrum of humanity (slavery --> freedom), and several Ages of Man (The Age of Honey --> The Age of Science). It is a story that connects the families of the co-authors, a husband and wife team with ancestors that come from Russia and beet sugar on the one side, and the Caribbean and cane sugar and cheap labor for the cane plantations from India on the other side. India, where the first written record of sugar (from 1000 or so years BC) is found:

"The word for 'a piece of sugar' in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit is khanda, which, as it passed through Persian to Arabic to Europe, became candy."

This book encourages teachers to trust the ability of middle and high school students to grapple with the big ideas of slavery and freedom that are presented in this book. If you're going to think about the history of sugar and the labor that produced it, you'll also wind up thinking about the current overseas sweatshops that produce the cheap clothing we buy in our U.S. stores, and the U.S. government's immigration and citizenship laws that keep Mexican families who provide cheap labor from becoming U.S. citizens. And sugar consumption. And current trends towards obesity.

The book has multiple timelines in the back matter: A Master Timeline of Sugar in World History, plus timelines for England and Sugar; France, Sugar, Slavery; Haiti; British North America -- United States; and the Age of Science. There is a page of links to the more than 70 images in the book, as well as slave music and videos of slave dances at Sugar Changed the World. Aronson encourages teachers with SmartBoards to use these images, and also students looking for images for their own reports. "A book is one product of a research journey, but there is not reason why it should be the only one."

It seemed a little ironic to read this book on Christmas Day while I ate cinnamon rolls and lounged on the couch with my stocking full of candy...

...but I can't think too hard about that because I need to grab a plate of Christmas cookies to nibble for breakfast while I get started on #bookaday #4: KEEPER by Kathi Appelt.

Christmas Eve Poetry Friday Is Here!

A CHRISTMAS EVE WISH FOR YOU

May the lights be twinkley and bright,

cheerful and wish-upon-able.

May the treats be made,
given,
ample,
(and sampled).

May the day be filled with
all that you love,
all whom you love,
all kinds of wonder and joy,

and an abundance of poetry!

Schedule change reminder: Next week we'll be celebrating New Year's Eve with Carol at Carol's Corner.

Diane is in first with her trifecta of offerings: "Shoplifting Poetry" at Random Noodling, a Poetry Friday quote at Kurious K's Kwotes, and "The Donkey's Song" from Jane Yolen's HARK! A CHRISTMAS SAMPLER at Kurious Kitty's Kurio Kabinet.

Sally considers the bittersweet side of Christmas memories with a Victorian poem at The Write Sisters.

Amy (nice hat!) has poem #30 in her Friday series of poems about poems at The Poem Farm. (It's #269 in her poem-a-day challenge that she's kept since last April!)

Tabatha has a poetic tribute to Atlas at The Opposite of Indifference. And you thought the weight of the world was heavy on your shoulders...

Laura Shovan found the picture book that tells the family story behind Clement Moore's "A Night Before Christmas."  Perfect timing! Check it out at Author Amok.

Laura Salas sends us a holiday greeting in haiku at Writing the World for Kids, and also the week's 15 Words or Less Poems, inspired by "metal mountains."

Madigan reviews UBIQUITOUS at Madigan Reads.

Sally shares a Christmas carol at Castle in the Sea.

Elaine has a Christmas memoir poem at Wild Rose Reader and more Christmas memories at Wild Rose Reader.

Andromeda blesses us with some Rumi, a question to ponder, and a beautiful photo at a wrung sponge.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Carol for sharing two FABULOUS versions of the Hallelujah Chorus with us today. They both bring tears to my eyes -- the Holy brought down to Earth in the most unlikely but most Human of all places. The message of the day is at Carol's Corner (and follow the link to Cynthia Lord's place).

An e.e. cummings Christmas Eve greeting comes to us from Jules at 7-Imp.

We've got another carol of the season from Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town -- the original words to Hark the Herald, Angels Sing. Within this poem is Ruth's wish for Haiti this season.

Blythe has a star, a tree, a moon, the Solstice and a wish for the season at her place.

Jone shares an original shadorma at Check it Out.

Shari at Shari Doyle reviews Jane Yolen's Snow, Snow, and a great montage of holiday pictures, complete with cookies and cats!

Head over to Live. Love. Explore! where Irene has a vlog of a Christmas poem from her new book.

Jennie at Biblio File has got the birth of every blessed child on her mind in this season of birth and new beginnings. Sounds like there will be a new baby in her house come summer solstice! Congrats, Jennie!

Shelley's ongoing tale of "poems about the old days" -- the Dust Bowl days -- can be found at Rain: A Dust Bowl Story.

#bookaday -- Mary Lee's Pile #1

It's already a good first day of break -- I've finished my first #bookaday and I haven't even had a plate of Christmas cookies for breakfast yet!

I have to warn you that this review is going to be a little weird. First of all, because the book was (more than a little) weird, but also because this is one of those books where you can't help yourself, it's like being around people with a Texan or Swedish accent and all of a sudden you start talking with that accent yourself. This is all to say that my writing has been infected by M.T. Anderson's in

Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger (Pals in Peril series)
by M.T. Anderson
illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
Simon and Schuster (Beach Lane Books), 2010
review copy provided by the publisher (and an extra bit of thanks for WHALES ON STILTS -- I fell head over heels in love after reading two chapters, took it to school and read those two chapters to my fourth graders, and wound up sending home 6 books from the series (checked out from the well-stocked public library branch near my home [YAY, LIBRARY!] with readers who appreciate irony and humor to enjoy during the winter break))


Don't you think? (seriously infected writing style, in case you lost my original train of thought)

So, since it would be impossible to explain the plot of this book, which, I think, is part of the point of these books, let it suffice to say that the cover illustration gives a pretty good idea of the pace of the plot and some of its details. One thing you can't tell from the picture is that those are sentient lobsters. Yes, this is the kind of book that has sentient lobsters in it. And monks from a time in the history of Delaware (not the Delaware with which you're familiar) when there has been an embargo on vowels. And rivers in Delaware that conceal giant amoebas (which allows for a diagram of an Amoeba proteus supergiganticus labeled helpfully with front, back, inside, outside, and pie hole). And chase scenes through the sewers of Wilmington. (It's a spy thriller, you see.)

As I go through all the pages I have tabbed down, places where I laughed out loud (the restaurant named the Friar Tuck-In; the monks who don't mind endless songs like "The Song That Never Ends" because it's kind of like their chanting, anyway; the defense of librarians on page 150 [you might need to look that one up and read it yourself]; the spy-based reality television show at the end...) I realize there's nothing for it except to say,

READ IT YOURSELF!
and
WHAT IS IT WITH M.T. ANDERSON AND THE STATE OF DELAWARE???? (partial answers might or might not be found at this amazing website)

Happy #bookaday! I'm off to eat that plate of Christmas cookies for breakfast!

Lulu and the Brontosaurus

Lulu and the Brontosaurus
by Judith Viorst
illustrated by Lane Smith
Simon and Schuster/Atheneum Books, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher


Publishers Weekly didn't like this book too much, but I'd venture to say that they didn't read it aloud to a roomful of living, breathing children! If they didn't read it aloud, they have no idea how infectious Lulu's song is, or how much fun the chatty narrator is.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The audience at hand (4th graders) was hooked on the first paragraph of chapter one: "There once was a girl named Lulu and she was a pain. She wasn't a pain in the elbow. She wasn't a pain in the knee. She was a pain -- a very big pain -- in the b u t t ." And she is -- Lulu gets whatever she wants by screeching until the lightbulbs break. However, when she wishes for a brontosaurus for a pet, her parents refuse.  For 12 days they refuse, until finally Lulu packs her suitcase and goes to get a brontosaurus for herself, singing,

"I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna gonna get

A bronto-bronto-bronto

brontosaurus for a pet."

Lulu bullies her way through the forest, dispatching a snake, a tiger, and a bear, until she finds her brontosaurus. But lo and behold, Mr. B refuses to be her pet. He wants Lulu for HIS pet! Mr. B is so kind and nice and polite and patient in his refusal to let Lulu go and his insistence that she will be his pet, that Lulu stops screeching and starts asking nicely. She even uses the "P" word. (please) 

But has she really changed? You decide -- think about how she runs away from Mr. B at her first opportunity.  But think about how she mends her relationship with the snake, the tiger and the bear. And think about each of the three alternative endings -- which one is too sour, which one is too sweet, and which one is just about the way life really works, give or take the part about the brontosaurus?

This is a very fun read aloud. Very fun. To the reader of our blog who recently asked for chapter books to read aloud to Kindergarten -- this one receives my endorsement! And I heartily recommend that it be read aloud to first, second, third, fourth and fifth graders, too!   

other reviews:  Creative Literacy, Kids Lit, Brimful Curiosities

the public library says its subjects are: Behavior -- Juvenile fiction., Apatosaurus -- Juvenile fiction., Pets -- Juvenile fiction., Birthdays -- Juvenile fiction.

Happy Holidays!

Here's our traditional holiday greeting. Regular readers of A Year of Reading are waiting on the edge of their seats for this (or so we're told)...

Enjoy!

#bookaday -- Mary Lee's Pile

Half Upon a Time by James Riley
Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
Keeper by Kathi Appelt
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson
Pals in Peril: Agent Q or The Smell of Danger by M.T. Anderson
Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes
Noonie's Masterpiece by Lisa Railsback
Trash by Andy Mulligan
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
They Called Themselves the KKK by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Sugar Changed the World by Marc Aronson
The War to End All Wars by Russell Freedman

12 days of vacation...12 books to read...beginning Thursday. (Who voted for this calendar, anyway?)
Stay tuned for daily updates....beginning Thursday.
Fluff the pillows on the couch, bring over the fuzzy throw, get my mug ready for tea...ready for Thursday.

Blow, blow thou winter wind

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

Act II, Scene 7 from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1600)


Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember’d not.
Heigh-ho! sing, &c. 




I have just one word for the weather we've had for the past few weeks: BRRRRRR.


I'll stop complaining and put on my boots, hat, mittens, snow pants and down coat so I can head over to Amy's place in upstate New York. I have a feeling that we don't really know what cold is compared to the cold they have there!  The Poetry Friday roundup is at the Poem Farm this week!

The schedule of roundup hosts for the first six months of 2011 is almost completely filled. Hosts are still needed on

• December 31, 2010  TAKEN!!  Thanks, Carol!
• January 21, 2011    TAKEN!!  Thanks, Tara!
• February 25, 2011  TAKEN!!  Thanks, Sara!

If you'd like to host the roundup on one of those dates, comment on this post, please.