Animal Books

It seems as though books about animals are more likely to become classics.  Charlotte’s Web, Black Beauty, National Velvet, Stuart Little, The Wind in the Willows…I’m sure you could continue this list for quite a while.  Maybe animals are more timeless than humans.  Animal books also seem to be frequently made into movies.  A recent example is Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, based on the book by Michael Murpurgo.  This book reminded me of Black Beauty, in that it is narrated by a horse, Joey.  Joey lives on a farm in England where he enjoys a close friendship with Albert, the farmer’s young son.  When Joey is taken away by soldiers to serve in World War I, he fears he will never see Albert again.  The story follows his adventures in the war, painting a grim picture of the horrific trench warfare of World War I.  And like Black Beauty, Joey nearly dies at the hands of humans before coming full circle to Albert and his original home.

Another historical fiction book featuring an animal is Saving Zasha by Randi Barrow.  13-year-old Mikhail’s family is struggling for survival on their farm in Russia at the end of World War II when Mikhail finds a dying man and his German shepherd.  After their brutal treatment in the war, the Russians hate all things German, including German shepherds.  Mikhail and his family grow attached to the dog, whom they name Zasha, but have to hide her from their neighbors if she is going to survive.  Mikhail eventually learns of a man in town who is trying to breed the perfect Russian dog and thinks he may hold the key to Zasha’s survival.

Two other historical fiction books deal with dogs helping during shipwrecks in 1912.  If you guessed the Titanic, you got one right.  White Star : A Dog on the Titanic by Marty Crisp tells the story of 12-year-old Sam, who likes to visit the dog kennels during his time on the Titanic.  When the ship sinks, Star, the captain’s Irish setter, helps Sam to survive.  Star in the Storm by Joan Hiatt Harlow features 12-year-old Maggie, a Canadian girl who is trying to protect her Newfoundland dog from her neighbor who believes Newfoundlands are killing sheep.  She hides her dog, Sirius, but when there’s a shipwreck off the coast of her village, she knows that her dog can play a key role in rescuing the hundred people onboard if she is willing to risk losing him.

How to Steal A Dog by Barbara O’Connor also features a girl hiding a dog, but under less heroic circumstances.  Georgina, her younger brother, and mother have all recently been evicted from their apartment and are living in their car.  When Georgina sees an old sign offering a reward for a lost dog, she gets an idea: steal a dog and wait for the owner to offer a reward, collect the money, and have a down payment for a new apartment.  Of course the plan backfires.  Georgina picks a woman she thinks is wealthy, but who isn’t, then ends up becoming friends with the woman who is desperate to get her dog back.  While there is humor in this story, it’s also unsparing in its depiction of a family in a tough situation.

Another glimpse into a variety of households is offered by Humphrey, the star of his own series by Betty Birney, beginning with The World According to Humphrey.  Humphrey is a classroom hamster.  The animal-lover teacher who purchased him has moved on, and he is now under the supervision of Mrs. Brisbane, who feels she has enough to deal with without a rodent to look after.  So she sends Humphrey home with a different student each weekend.  This allows Humphrey to see how the kids in the class live and explains why some of them behave the way they do.  This would be a good read-aloud in second or third grade, and had a number of sequels kids could enjoy on their own.

Warriors is a series for slightly older kids, or rather a series of series.  Focusing on a cat clans that fight for territory in the forest, there are at least 28 of these books–four 6-book series, plus four super editions.  This is one of these series that certain kids read obsessively and can write out the whole clan hierarchy at a moment’s notice.  I’ve only read the first one in the first series, but it’s easy to see how kids could really get into the story.  The books are written by “Erin Hunt”, a pseudonym for three authors and an editor.

For still older readers, try Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, which as a sequel, Ghost of Spirit Bear.  Cole, a ninth-grader, is a bully who beats up a classmate so badly he is left brain-damaged.  Cole is given the choice of going to a juvenile delinquent center or “Circle Justice”, a Native American process of living alone in the hopes of affecting some sort of transformation.  After Cole angrily burns down his shelter, he is left at the mercy of nature, and is attacked by a bear.  This part of the book is pretty tough to read, as he is near death and his minute-by-minute survival is described in excrutiating detail.  But it’s a great book to read with students, and brings up some interesting questions about how to deal with anger.  Kids who like Hatchet might really enjoy this book.

Another animal book for good fifth grade readers is The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John.  When 11-year-old Martine’s parents are killed in a house fire, she moves from England to Africa to live with her grandmother, whom she has never met.  Her grandmother lives on a game preserve, where it is rumored a white giraffe has recently been seen.  This is the backdrop for Martine realizing her destiny, helped along by various Africans she meets, some of whom have seemingly supernatural powers.  Sequels include Dolphin Song, The Last Leopard, and The Elephant’s Tale.

Scholastic Arrow – February 2012

February is African-American History Month, as Scholastic reminds us on page 3 of this flyer, and the front cover features last year’s Newbery Honor book One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.  I haven’t read this book, but it’s the story of three sisters who go to California, where they are reacquainted with their mother, an active member of the Black Panthers.  It’s probably not the kind of book the average Billerica fourth-grader would pick up, but it looks like an interesting historical story.  For 95 cents, it may be worth it to get a copy or two.

Also on the front cover: The Fourth Stall, a book I’ve never heard of, but the cover’s takeoff on The Godfather gave me a good chuckle.

On page 2, the Dog Novel pack includes How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor.  10-year-old Georgina is living in a car with her mother and brother, while her mother works two jobs and tries to save enough money to get a new apartment.  When Georgina sees an old sign offering a reward for a lost dog, she hatches a plan to steal a dog from a wealthy person and collect the reward money.  The story is both funny and poignant, gives a pretty gritty look at a homeless child’s life, and ends happily, yet realistically.

I feel compelled to mention new book Glory Be by August Scattergood on page 3 because I worked with Mrs. Scattergood back in my teenage years at the Chatham, NJ public library.  She’s a good friend of my mother’s, and began writing after she retired as a librarian.  I haven’t read her book, but it’s a memoir of her Mississippi childhood, and how she was affected by attempts at integration in her community.  Also, if you have never read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, it really should be required reading for middle school history.  I didn’t read it until I was an adult, and if you grew up in any sort of middle-class white community, you will be appalled that the events happened in America, and not that long ago.  It’s like To Kill a Mockingbird told by a member of Tom Robinson’s family, and is probably a bit intense for elementary students.  Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, is a funny and interesting look at an African-American community in Flint, Michigan during the Great Depression.  Bud, an orphan, travels to Flint to look for the famous jazz musician he thinks is his father.

On page 5, you’ll find the latest book in the I Survived series by Lauren Tarsis.  These short historical fiction books have been very popular with third, fourth, and fifth graders.  They include stories of kids surviving World War II, the sinking of the Titanic, Hurricane Katrina, and now the San Francisco earthquake.  Also on page 5 is War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, a Black Beauty-like novel narrated by a horse who is separated from the boy he loves when he is taken to be used as an army horse in World War I.  It was recently made into a movie directed (or produced, I always get confused about that) by Steven Spielberg.  As was The Adventures of Tintin, which is for sale at the bottom of that page.  If you want to read Tintin, go back to the original comics by Herge.  The artwork is at least half the fun of those books, so a novelization is not going to cut it.

There are several books in the Rave Reviews box on page 6 that sound good, but I haven’t read most of them.  I did read Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko, which is a funny historical fiction book about a boy whose family, including his autistic older sister, relocate to his father’s new place of employment–Alcatraz.  Page 7 includes the Winning Season Collection, which I have never had much luck promoting, but which seem like good sports stories for kids who are not quite ready for Mike Lupica.

Don’t forget Newbery and Caldecott Award fans–the winners are announced tomorrow morning!

Newbery Award

On Monday, January 23, at 7:45 a.m., the American Library Association will announce the winners of the 2012 Newbery Award.  Chances are the winner will be a realistic, historical fiction book with a protagonist around 12 or 13 years old.  In the last ten years of award winners and honor books, 18 have been historical fiction, 9 contemporary realistic fiction, 8 fantasy, 4 non-fiction history, 4 poetry, and 1 folktale; the average age of the main character has been a little over 12 1/2.  Yes, it’s pathetic, but I did these statistics myself, mostly to prove to myself that my sense that the books chosen for the Newbery tend to be the kinds of books well-educated middle-aged women (librarians) would pick. 

Don’t get me wrong, I often enjoy the Newbery winners.  It’s just that I find the books don’t often appeal to the average elementary student.  They are quality literature, but this doesn’t always translate into readability for the 9-11 year old crowd.  I think most elementary students would struggle with a lot of the award winners, although they might enjoy them if they read them in a class with a teacher’s assistance.

Years ago, I attempted to read all the Newbery award winners.  While I did manage to get through the first winner, The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (surprisingly entertaining), I bogged down on 1924′s The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes.  Although I haven’t read all the winners of recent years, there are some that I’ve found have more kid appeal than others.

One recent winner that I really enjoyed, although it’s gotten mixed reviews, is 2010′s winner When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  Set in 1977, it’s the story of  12-year-old Miranda who starts getting mysterious notes that predict the future, including her mother’s victory on the TV show $10,000 Pyramid.  It seems realistic, but there’s an interesting time-travel element, and one of the characters is not whom he appears to be–or rather, he is that person, plus he’s another person from the future.  Miranda’s favorite book is the 1963 Newbery Medal winner A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, so kids may be inspired to read these two together.  When You Reach Me is a bit complicated, and would probably be best for very good readers, or for reading as a class.

Going back a few years to 2007, Rules by Cynthia Lord was an honor book (the runner-up category for Newbery, winner of the silver medal) that’s proven fairly popular.  12-year-old Catherine narrates her experiences with her autistic younger brother.  She’s a compassionate older sister, but she’s also a 12-year-old and worries about what others will think of her brother’s behavior, so she makes up rules for him to follow to try to fit in.  When she goes along to his therapy appointments, she meets a boy her age who can’t walk or talk, and the two learn to communicate and become friends.  But once again, she finds it difficult to navigate this friendship along with friendships with more “normal” kids her own age.

The year before that, Whittington by Alan Armstrong was an honor book.  I was sure this book was going to be Charlotte’s Web for the new millenium (fun Newbery fact: Charlotte’s Web was only an honor book, losing out to Secret of the Andes in 1953, probably the worst Newbery decision ever.)  Whittington takes place in a barn, with talking animals that only the farmer’s grandchildren can understand.  A cat named Whittington appears in the barn one day, claiming to be a descendent of Dick Whittington’s cat.  The story moves between the cat’s retelling of Dick Whittington’s tale and the present struggles of the grandson to learn to read.

Another somewhat overlooked award winner is A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park.  I’ll admit that a book about pottery making in 12th-century Korea is a hard sell, but it’s a nice story of courage and perseverence, as well as an introduction to a distant time and place.  10-year-old Tree-Ear is a homeless boy who becomes fascinated by the work of local potter Min.  Min reluctantly takes him in as a helper, and eventually sends Tree-Ear on an important mission to present his pottery to the royal court in hope of a commission.  When bandits attack Tree-Ear and smash his pottery, he has to persevere to prove his worth to Min.

Other Newbery Award winners are definitely appealing to elementary kids, including The Tale of Desperaux and Because of Winn-Dixie, both by Kate diCamillo, Holes by Louis Sachar, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen,  Bud, Not Buddy and The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 both by Christopher Paul Curtis, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, and Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli.  I would say almost all of these would be more enjoyably read with a teacher’s guidance, either to give historical context or sort out a complicated plot or emotion.

I’d recommend reading any Newbery book you plan to use with a class.  2007 winner The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron was the subject of a phenomenal (to me) amount of controversy because of the word “scrotum” on page one.  And while I’m sure The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman’s 2009 award winner is an outstanding book, I can never get beyond the first chapter in which a toddler escapes from a man with his knife who has just murdered his entire family.  I know this would have been disturbing to me as an elementary student, and I’d be reluctant to recommend it to a student much before middle school.

I’ll conclude by saying that I’ve never yet predicted the Newbery Medal winner, but I’ll take another stab at it this year:  Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt.  It’s already won the National Book Award, plus it’s about a 14-year-old growing up during the Vietnam War era.  Find out if I got it right on January 23.

Holiday Books

I don’t claim to have done exhaustive research on holiday books, but one thing that always surprises me is how few there are that I have really enjoyed.  For instance, I don’t have a particular favorite Christmas picture book to read aloud.  Call me Ebeneezer, but The Polar Express has never really done it for me.  The pictures are gorgeous, but the story seems a bit lacking to me.  Same with Jan Brett’s Christmas books like Christmas Trolls and The Wild Christmas Reindeer.  The one holiday book I can read multiple times each year and still love is Hershel and the Hannukah Goblins by Eric Kimmel.  If you have even a hint of the dramatic, you will enjoy making up different goblin voices as you read this, plus you can introduce some of the basics of Hanukkah.

As far as chapter books go, a series that continues for any length of time sooner or later will have a holiday book thrown in, like Christmas in Camelot for the Magic Tree House or Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, P.S. So Does May for Junie B. Jones.  But among stand-alone books for slightly older readers, the pickings are pretty slim.  Surprisingly, two of my favorites are mysteries.  Who Is Stealing the Twelve Days of Christmas? by Martha Freeman is narrated by Alex Parakeet, a boy who lives on a street that’s decorated every year to represent the twelve days of Christmas.  When some of the birds from the displays go missing, he and his best friend Yasmeen from next door team up to solve the mystery.  Alex has a humorous touch in his storytelling, and the mystery has enough twists and turns to be satisfying.  The author has followed up with other holiday mysteries, Who Stole Halloween?, Who Stole Uncle Sam? and Who Stole Grandma’s Million-Dollar Pumpkin Pie?

 Another good mystery with a holiday theme is Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf by Wendelin Van Draanen.  Sammy is a seventh grader who lives (illegally) with her grandmother in a 55+ housing community while her mother is in Hollywood pursuing her dreams of stardom.  The Runaway Elf is the fourth mystery featuring Sammy who is smart and funny.  It would make a great holiday read-aloud, as it could well hook kids on this series which they could enjoy well into middle school.

Those who have read my other posts won’t be surprised by my recommendation of the Candy Apple book Confessions of a Bitter Secret Santa by Lara Bergen.  When Noel’s seventh grade class picks Secret Santas, she grows increasingly bitter as she watches her friends open great gifts while the ones she receives consistently miss the mark.  Noel is a pleasantly sarcastic narrator, and her classmates are believable and have great taste.  Great literature?  Hardly, but fun for girls in grades 3-5 (and middle-aged librarians).

Another middle schooler gets a holiday workout in The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements.  Hart, forced to sing in the school chorus, comes up with ways to make mischief during rehearsals, such as shooting a giant rubber band at Mr. Meinert, the chorus teacher.  Turns out Mr. Meinert has just learned his job has been cut, and he is out of patience with his sixth-graders.  So he quits, turning over holiday concert preparations ot the students, while he reads magazines at his desk.  The kids take a vote, and Hart is chosen to direct the concert.  Can he pull it off?

I’d love to know about more great holiday books.  Any other suggestions?

Sports

            When I was growing up with an older sister, I sometimes wondered what boys read.  I eventually concluded the answer was “Matt Christopher books”.  This amazingly prolific sports writer, who continues to crank out books almost 15 years after his death, is still enjoyed by both boys and girls.  Over the years he’s been joined by other excellent sports authors—fortunately for kids and for Mr. Christopher, may he rest in peace.

            Mike Lupica writes with a bit more depth than Matt Christopher, not only giving exciting descriptions of sports events, but adding a compelling story.  His Million Dollar Throw will have local interest, since the protagonist, Brady, gets a chance to try to win a million dollars by throwing a touchdown pass for the Patriots at Gillette stadium.  The books are written at a pretty high level; it would take a good fourth grade reader to enjoy most of them. 

            Lupica’s Comeback Kids series books are shorter, about younger kids, and could probably be handled by a good third grade reader.  The newest one, Shoot Out, is the story of Jake, a 12-year-old soccer star who moves fromGreenville, home of the 11-year-old soccer championship team, toBelmont, home to a…well, a soccer team of sorts.  Jake struggles with going from first to last place in the league while befriending a boy whose mother recently died.  Good luck staying away from the Kleenex when Jake helps Kevin score the decisive goal in the biggest game of the season.

            Tim Green is another good sports writer, writing at about the same level of Lupica.  A former Atlanta Falcons linebacker, he has a series about Troy, a 12-year-old boy who has a gift for predicting what the next play will be in any football game.  In the first book in the series, Football Genius,Troy’s mother gets a job with the public relations department of the Falcons, andTroy tries to find a way to let the team know of his powers.  Despite the fact that I spent 8 years attending almost every high school and college football game as a member of the marching band, and my husband is a huge Patriots fan, I’ve remained pretty much immune to any real understanding of the rules of football.  I’ve enjoyed these books anyway, even with their detailed descriptions of both the Falcons games andTroy’s championship team’s games.

            Speaking of sports I know nothing about, lacrosse is one that has grown enormously in popularity in recent years.  Joseph Bruchac has an interesting perspective on the game in his book The Warriors.  Bruchac is an Abenaki Indian who has written many stories about Native Americans.  In The Warriors, he tells the story of Jake, a boy who has grown up on the Iroquois reservation, playing their version of lacrosse, which has a sacred side to it.  When his mom takes a job inWashington,D.C., he goes to boarding school there where he learns to play a different kind of lacrosse.  As he works through his culture shock, he learns to play the new way and is able to contribute from his own heritage to his new team.

            There are so many baseball stories, I am going to leave them for another time.  Maybe in time for opening day at Fenway.

Scholastic – Arrow November 2011

I have to admit there are not a ton of books I have read in this month’s flyer.  However, there are a few!  So here goes:

I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 by Lauren Tarshis is the latest installment of a popular historical fiction series (the other three are on page 4).  I’ve read the shark attack one.  It was pretty fast-paced and a fairly easy reading level; they’ve been getting checked a lot to both girls and boys–the words “Titanic” and “shark” are usually a pretty big draw.

Brian Selznick has a new book out, Wonderstruck, about which I know nothing.  His The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the only 544-page book to ever win the Caldecott Medal (for best illustrations) is coming out as a movie directed by Martin Scorsese.  The book was a lot like a movie, and has always been popular (especially for use in the 2000-Page Challenge).

One of my favorite holiday books, Who Is Stealing the Twelve Days of Christmas? by Martha Freeman, is for sale on page 3.  It’s a fun mystery with a very funny narrator, and was followed up with mysteries for Halloween, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving.  It would make a good classroom read-aloud in December.

The titles of the three books by Lee Wardlaw on page 4 are enough to get kids interested: 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents, 101 Ways to Bug Your Teachers, and now 101 Ways to Bug Your Friends and Enemies.  I have not read them, but a lot of kids have!

In the non-fiction department, take a look at Who Was Anne Frank? on page 6.  This is part of a fairly huge biography series which is one of the best I’ve ever seen.  They’re so readable that kids often check them out for pleasure reading instead of waiting for the book-report assignment.  They are on about a third grade reading level but include enough information to be useful through fifth grade.  When my daughter was much younger, she saw the Helen Keller one, and said “Who was Helen Keller?  A woman with a really big head.”

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

     Red alert:  the latest installment of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid comes out in just about a month.  Cabin Fever is due to be released November 15, 2011.  I confess I haven’t ordered a copy for the library yet, rationalizing that 90% of the school’s population has already put in their advance order to Scholastic. 

     I read the first Diary back before it was popular.  I picked up Greg Heffley’s Journal thinking it looked like something that might appeal to my daughter.  It didn’t.  I read it myself, and with the thought, “I haven’t seen this much apathy since the Reagan administration,” stuck it in the library collection.  The rest is history, as the series has blossomed into the most popular one in my decade-long career as a school librarian.

     Not that I don’t enjoy seeing kids clamor for a book, but I for one am ready to move on.  So if you’d like to expand your kids’ horizons, you can do so incrementally by offering something similar to Diary that might pique their interest. 

     There are a few humorous middle-school diary series out there that might appeal to the hard core Diary readers.  Dear Dumb Diary by Jim Benton came out three years before Jeff Kinney’s series.  It follows the life of middle-schooler Jamie Kelly through her diary.  There are now about a dozen books in the series, which seem to have gained in popularity recently. 

      Even more popular, according to my observations, is the relatively new Dork Diaries series by Rachel Renee Russell.  Like the other series, it’s a middle school diary, this one belonging to eighth grader Nikki Maxwell.  Nikki’s a talented artist who goes up against the most popular girl in school in an art contest.  Consequently, the illustrations are a step or two above the wimpy kid’s.  So far, there are only three in this series, but they seem to be giving Greg Heffley a run for his money.

     A series that I liked better than any of these was The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow.  In the first book, fifth graders Julie and Lydia carry out an experiment to figure out how to be more popular.  Lydia’s the writer, with Julie adding some observations of her own as well as illustrations.  There’s a bit more depth to these characters–Lydia, for instance, is the adopted Chinese daughter of two fathers–and a little less mean-spiritedness.  Happily, they conclude that being true to themselves is more important than being popular, and their friendship survives the rocky road of fifth grade.

     My Life As a Book by Janet Tashjian looks a lot like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but there’s a bit more to it.  Derek hates school and reading, and expresses this with a pretty good sense of humor.  The story takes a more serious turn, though, when he discovers an old newspaper article in his attic about a teenage girl who drowned several years ago.  Although his mom tries to hide the truth from him, he knows this article has something to do with him, and his search for what happened leads him to some interesting self-discoveries.  Tashjian is able to create a character who grows in the book without making it too contrived to be believable.  Her son did the pictures, which are illustrations of Derek’s vocabulary words.  They are cute, but seem superfluous to the story.  The sequel, My Life as a Stuntboy comes out this week.  I hope to polish it off before Cabin Fever hits the shelves.

     I know I already raved about Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger, but I just have to mention it and its sequel, Darth Paper Strikes Back as two of my favorites that I think many wimpy kid fans would warm to as well.  So I mentioned them.  There, I feel better.