Just Endure

Anyone associated with a school (teachers, students, support staff, administration, etc) will tell you that the last few weeks can be some of the most fun, but also the most challenging.  Students are expecting fun closing activities and teachers are expecting to accomplish real academic work-it doesn't take a genius to see these expectations don't match.  Students and teachers can easily adopt the mindset, just make it through-just endure.

When I first began Jennifer Armstrong's Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World I just wanted to make it through.  My regular readers will remember that I am typically not a big fan of non-fiction.  Once I delved further into the story I realized the crew of the Endurance were experiencing my same slogan-just endure.  This may seem like a dramatic comparison seeing as how Shackleton and his crew were shipwrecked at the bottom of the world, suffering from frostbite, forced to eat their sled dogs and surviving in a state of near hypothermia, but it was the only way I could relate to this story.

The story of Shackleton and his crew is an extraordinary tale of survival.  Shackleton and his crew of 27 men sailed through frozen oceans, survived the loss of their ship, found their way to land using lifeboats, and lived for 5 months on a virtually deserted frozen wasteland of an island.  The most amazing part is that everyone survived (this is not a spoiler since this was a true event people may already know about).

This real life experience could make an amazing story but the way it was presented was hard to read.  This would have been a gripping and powerful tale had it been presented as a non-fiction narrative.  There is a small percentage of students that would love this book as is, and I will keep this book in the back of my mind for those students.  However, the vast majority of the students I interact with are looking for stories-especially true stories.  I would love to find the story of the Endurance and their South Pole expedition written as a narrative.

Enduring...that's kids stuff.  

Favorite Authors

Sometimes you read a book for a challenge.  Sometimes you read a book because you have to.  Sometimes you read a book because everyone else is reading it.  And sometimes you read a book just because you like that author.   That's what I did with Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer's Between the Lines. 

At first I was shocked to see a Jodi Picoult book on the shelves of an 8th grade classroom. Not that her books are scandalous, but they are written for adults and therefore some of the subject matter is better suited for adults not tweens.  Between the Lines; however, is written for young adults and Picoult co-wrote it with her daughter.  There is a note at the beginning of the book that explains the process.  It was great to get a little sneak peak on how the book was written.

The premise is simple.  What if characters in a book were simply playing a role for the reader whenever the book was opened?  What if when the book was closed they lived their own lives much like the toys in Toy Story?  What if one of these characters wasn't satisfied with his life inside the book and wanted more?  What would happen then?

Of course I'm not going to tell you. You will have to read the book yourself.  I can tell you that it is most definitely worth a read.

This book is a fabulous premise, which is credited to Picoult's daughter Samantha Van Leer, with all the best features of a Picoult novel: plot twists, multiple perspectives, and rich characters.  Sometimes authors who typically write for adults struggle to write a quality YA book.  Picoult, with the help of Van Leer, have kept all the quality of Picoult's adult writing and put it into a story adults and teens alike will find appealing.  
 
Bringing a book to life...that's kids stuff.  

Saving the World

As I start to reach the end of the Reading Olympic's book list (Yes the competition has already happened and yes I am still going to finish the list) I realize that I have saved the books that seem less appealing for the end.  Many of these books are non-fiction.  Don't get me wrong, I know non-fiction is incredibly important and for some people-like my brother-the only type of book they want to read.  But for me, there's very little non-fiction that I have loved reading.

Barbara A Lewis' Kids with Courage is a non-fiction book with the potential to be great.  It is just what the title suggests, a collection of stories about children and young adults who have stepped up and shown great courage.  The book is divided into four sections: Kids Fighting Crime, Kids Taking Social Action, Heroic Kids, and Kids Saving the Environment.

Each story is indeed inspirational and there were many stories I felt were too short.  I wanted to know more about the extraordinary young person being described.  However, my main critique of this book is that it is dated.  Dated, you say?  This coming form the person who has reviewed and loved books from the 1920's?  Yes, coming from me I say this book is dated and that is bad.  It's bad because these aren't fantasies where time has no meaning.  These aren't stories so far out of the realm of everyday reality that time doesn't matter.  These are true stories that I worry modern readers will find unrelateable because they are from a different time.

I picture students saying: Why did they have to go to the library?  Just use the Internet.  Why didn't they just use their cell phone?   Why have a bake sale when you can just set up a gofundme page.  These modern objections don't make the kids in these stories any less courageous, but it's harder to inspire a new generation of readers if these new readers can't connect to the story being told.  I would love for Barbara Lewis to make a new edition of this book showcasing the exemplary courage of kids from this generation.

Making a difference...that's kids stuff.  

It's a tragedy

Don't worry that's not a spoiler.  With a title like Flight #116 is Down all you have to do is look at the cover and know it's a tragedy.  While there is a lot of sadness in Caroline B. Cooney's novel it isn't all gloom and doom.

Patrick is a junior EMT who is longing for more excitement than his sleepy small town can offer.  Heidi is the daughter of wealthy and successful parents who seem to excel at everything.  Heidi, on the other hand, can't find anything she's good at.  When the 747 crashes in Heidi's backyard, Patrick gets more excitement than he ever could have dreamed.

I said it wasn't all doom and gloom, but Cooney does not shy away from the horror of the accident.  Modern readers can't help but have flashbacks to 9/11.  My students are too young to remember that day.  I wonder if the imagery in Flight #116 is Down  would hit them in the same way.

Cooney does an excellent job of balancing the horror of the crash with the bravery of the rescue workers all while weaving in background information on Patrick and Heidi.  While not my favorite Reading Olympic's book. it was definitely worth reading.  Students who are fans of action novels and realistic fiction will probably like this book.


Rescuing...that's kids stuff  

Kinda Creepy

Have you ever seen an antique china doll?  If you have you can understand that sometimes they look beautiful and delicate but other times they look kinda creepy.  If you haven't seen one here's a picture. 

Wait a minute, I thought this was a blog about books.  Why are you talking about dolls?  Great question.  It is a bone-china doll (like the one pictured above) that is the centerpiece for Holly Black's Doll Bones.  

In Doll Bones, Zach, Poppy and Alice spend their afternoons playing with doll/action figure type toys.  Now this may seem odd for middle school aged kids but this is no ordinary game they are playing.  Zach, Poppy and Alice have created elaborate back stories for each of their characters and "the game" is filled with quests and adventures.  'The game" is as well developed as any book or movie.  The central character in the game is The Queen, an antique doll who is kept locked in a cabinet.  

But for some reason Zach suddenly quits the game and that is when things begin to get, well...kinda creepy.  There may even be a need for a real-life quest.  But maybe not-no spoilers here.  

I will admit this book started a bit on the slow side but once I got into it I had to see how the story ended.  That being said the overall mood of the books was, for lack of a better word, creepy.  I can name a dozen students right now who would love the creepy factor of this book, but for me it's not my favorite.  

Making your own game...that's kids stuff.  

Motivation Monday

Makes Me Happy

Brace yourselves as this post may be a bit sappier and a bit preachier than I typically post.  Are you braced?  OK here's the sappy part.  One of the reasons I love books is that they help meet my burning desire to travel and experience new places that my bank account can't quite keep up with.  Don't get me wrong I think it is incredibly important to travel-my study abroad experience in college was one of the most formative times of my life, but the reality is we can't always get where we want to go.  That's why books are so great.
I read this book for free thanks to my schools library (for those of you who aren't teachers or students local libraries typically have a fantastic selection of all books but especially young adult literature-this is the preachy part-go to a library!), but even public libraries are free!!  Which is so awesome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, read, experience things, go to the library we get it-just talk about the book already.  Ok.  Gloria Whelan's Homeless Bird is one of those books that makes you feel like you have traveled to a distant land.  Through the eyes of the main character Koly I learn more about Indian culture and tradition than I could from any textbook (teacher note-textbooks have their place and are often important).  For the hour or so I spent reading Homeless Bird I wasn't sitting at my desk in Royersford, Pennsylvania, I was in India with Koly.

Koly is 13 years old which means it's time to get married.  Her parents arrange a marriage with a, they believe..., suitable match and after a brief engagement Koly is married.  She leaves the only home she has ever known and moves in with her in-laws.  Life there is nothing like Koly expected and circumstances beyond anyone's control take her places she could have never imagined.

This was just a great book.  I could have written a whole post about experiencing different cultures, or the overarching message of empowerment and all of those things are in the book.  But when I finis
hd this book I felt happy-and that's really the highest praise I can give it.

I think today people get caught up in the hype around a major series or a book that is becoming a movie, or something really flashy.  And those books can be great-I've posted about and genuinely enjoyed many of those books.  But I worry that with all the flashy books out there small, simple, but so profound and enlightening books like this will be overlooked.  Homeless Bird  is definitely a book I will be recommending to students.

Experiencing new cultures...that's kids stuff.  

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Tyler McAllister felt like a lemon.  How was he supposed to feel like anything else when his mother and brother were famous movie stars and he was left getting into fights, bouncing from school to school, and visiting more allergy doctors than he could count.

In Daniel Hayes' The Trouble With Lemons, Tyler is doing ok now that his family has relocated out of the city and into a more rural area.  He loves his housekeeper and his mom and brother visit as often as they can.  He even made a new friend Lymie.  Things could really turn out ok here..that is...until they find the body.  That's right, self-confessed lemon finds a dead body.  Now what?

Well of course I'm not going to tell you.  You'll have to read the book and see what happens.  But before you crime aficionados get your hopes up you do find out what happens with the body but this is not a "crime drama."  This is the story of Tyler as he tries to become more than just a lemon.  I'll admit I didn't love this book at first, but once I got into the story I just had to find out what happened.

Making lemonade...that's kids stuff. 

You Ugly!

People don't typically like being described as ugly....but what about dogs?  Sometimes it can come across as a term of endearment, "that scraggly mutt is nothing but ugly, but he's mine."  Even though he claims he meant it as an insult, I think this was the spirit in which Jake took to calling the family dog Jim Ugly.

Sid Fleischman's Jim Ugly is the story of Jake and his dog as they try to understand the mysterious circumstances surrounding Jake's father's "death."  Don't freak out over the quotation marks, this book is a mystery, my treatment of the word death gives you no more information than you would get simply by knowing the genre.  Along the way Jake gets swept up into the company of actors and starts to fall in love with life on stage.

Jim Ugly is a on the Reading Olympics book list for this year and after reading it I must say I am a little surprised.  It's a great story but a very easy read.  Now don't get yourself all in a huff I am a HUGE fan of easy reads.  In fact I am OVERJOYED that this is an easy read because it is almost impossible to find books that are socially appropriate (aka something that an 8th grader would actually want to read) but easy enough for a struggling reader to understand.  However, the Reading Olympics program tends to target the advanced readers and I fear they may not appreciate the simple nature of the story.

More appropriate for Reading Olympics would be one of Fleischman's other works Escape The Story of the Great Houdini.  This piece of non-fiction is packed with information, primary sources, and masterfully spins the tale of the great magician's life.  Houdini was a name I recognized and knew was a magician, but thanks to this book I am now fascinated by this man who lead such a (at the risk of sounding corny) magical life.  Not magic in the sense of a kid's birthday party performer but a true illusionist always searching for the next best trick.

In Jim Ugly the reader gets to know exactly what happens (still not a spoiler), but in Escape I still have to wonder how Houdini pulled off all of those stunts.

Figuring it out...that's kids stuff. 

PS If Fleischman sounds familiar it's because he's a Newbery winner.  This will jog your memory.

Roar

"Good readers are always thinking about and connecting to what they are reading."  This is a strategy that I constantly tell my students, though since I teach 8th grade it typically comes out more like, "come on guys, this character relates to your actual life-why?  What's familiar? "  Even though Kristin Levine's The Lions of Little Rock is set in 1958 Arkansas, I thought that Katy Perry's new (ish) song Roar should be title track to this book.  

I have to admit I was not excited about reading this book at first.  Far too many historical fiction books from this time period come off as preachy.  The Lions of Little Rock wasn't like that at all.  The story was real, it recognized that the decisions made in that time period weren't easy, they didn't go in a nice straight line, things were messy.  Told from the perspective of twelve-year-old Marlee her personal transformation mirrors the transformation of her town.  

When I was in preschool the teachers were concerned that I didn't talk much.  It wasn't that I couldn't talk, I was just shy-painfully shy.  So I really related for Marlee and I rooted for her every step of the way.  I understood the courage it took her to force herself to talk even when it felt so unnatural.  She realized that there was something worth speaking up for.  And as a reader you couldn't help but be proud of her. I be that if Marlee had an ipod she would have Katy Perry's Roar on repeat. 

This was one of those books that once I started I just couldn't put it down.  I will definitely have to put Kristin Levine's other books on my list.  

Speaking up and speaking out...that's kids stuff.  

Motivation Monday

And if you are lucky enough to have beautiful weather, read the book outside!! 

Gold

And how great is this cover?! 

Another one of my travel books was David Meissner and Kim Richardson's  Call of the Klondike.  As you can probably guess from the title this is the true story of two young prospectors who travel to the Klondike during the first year of the gold rush.

This is the best type of non-fiction book.  It reads just like a narrative but it is supplemented with period pictures and other primary sources such as letters and diary entries.  Readers of this blog will know I am not the biggest non-fiction fan; however, books like this are changing my mind.  It was the perfect length, I didn't feel bogged down with information and I was engaged in the story.

Books like these will inspire students to read more non-fiction and learn more about history.  I think the best cross-curricular exercises involve books like this.  I must admit I knew virtually nothing about the Klondike gold rush before reading this book and I walked away with the satisfied feeling of having learned something I never knew before. I also felt very grateful for modern amenities and to live in a climate where peoples toes don't freeze off on a regular basis.

Learning new things...that's kids stuff.  

Modern Technology: Double Feature

Sorry for the delay in posting.  I have been off having adventures.  Most notably watching my little brother become a Marine Corps pilot and get his wings! This will be a nice looonng post to make up for my absence.

Not so little anymore

What does this have to do with books you ask?  Well the ceremony was in Pensacola so with 4 plane rides and 4 different airports I had plenty of time to read on my journey south.

The first book I read was Eve Bunting's SOS Titanic.   Side note-it is probably not a good idea to read

 a book where the supposedly safe vehicle sinks and hundreds of people die right before you get on a plane.  The book was a wonderful story and very well told.  Barry O'Neill must leave his home in Ireland, where he has been living with his grandparents, to join his parents in New York City.  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Barry gets a first class ticket and a gentleman to watch over him on the journey while everyone else he knows from Ireland travels in steerage.

The Titanic is a very popular subject in both literature and movies, but Bunting's book provides a fresh perspective.  Barry is a smart, perceptive, and driven young man who meets host on interesting characters on his journey.  Overall an excellent read...just not before you take a trip.  It made me thankful that I could take  plane (but I will admit I was more nervous than usual during take off).

Next up was Richard Peck's The Teacher's Funeral.  It was very strange to be reading a book set in 1904 where the characters are awed by the appearance of a car in their small town (first time they had ever seen one) as I was 10,000 ft in the air, enjoying a modern technology Russell Culver and his friends probably never even dreamed of.

Some books you need to read the whole thing to understand the title.  Not so with The Teacher's Funeral.  You find out in the very first sentence that Russell's teacher has died.  Like many young scholars he is excited at the possibility that they may not find a new teacher for their rural one room school house (8 students in total) and the school year may be delayed or even cancelled!   All of that hope quickly turns to dismay when he finds out that the classes will be taught by none other than his older sister.  Anyone with a sibling can guess how that went.

The Teacher's Funeral really is a comedy in three parts.  Not a laugh out loud comedy modern readers are used to, but a comedy in the classic sense of the world meaning things turn out well for the main characters.  But don't worry, you will get some good laughs along the way too.

Traveling to new worlds (literally and figuratively)...that's kids stuff.