Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky

This is a book that always makes me laugh whenever I read or think about it.  It is just that kind of book and so different from most ABC books for kids.

The premise is simple - a stage production of the alphabets letters.  Easy, right?  A is for apple, B is for ball, right on through the letter Z.  A letter for every place and a place for every letter.  What could go wrong?  Well, what goes wrong is Moose.  You will recognize Moose.  He's the one who is so enthusiastic that he keeps interrupting the director, Zebra, and asking if it's his turn yet.

See what I mean?

But then, when they get to M, it turns out that M is for Mouse.  What happened to M is for Moose?  If you want to find out, I guess you will just have to read this thoroughly amusing ABC book with equally amusing illustrations by Paul O. Zelinsky.

Still wondering if this is the right ABC book for you?  Well, have a look at the book trailer and enjoy a laugh or two while you make up your mind that you have to have this book.  Perhaps if I tell you there is a surprise ending you might be truly tempted.

Best of all - there's a guide for parents and teachers with activities and you can find it right here

This book is recommended for readers age 3+ and anyone who wants a good chuckle.

This book was borrowed from the Yorkville Branch of the NYPL 

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

One of my favorite books of 2012 is Jacqueline Woodson's Each Kindness, and now, I am happy to say, it has won the 2013 Charlotte Zolotow Award given by the Cooperative Children's Book Center.

The story begins one snowy, wintry day when a new girl named Maya is introduced to Chloe's elementary school class.  The first thing Chloe notices is that Maya's clothes are shabby and she has on spring shoes in winter.  Sitting next to Chloe, Maya makes one friendly overture after another but each time Chloe turns aways and rebuffs her.

Even in the schoolyard, whenever Maya comes over and asks Chloe and her friends to play jacks, jump rope, pick up sticks, they turn their backs on her and walk away.  Maya is different from everyone else, she's the girl with funny food, second hand clothes and shoes, not the kind of person they want to associate with.

Then one day, Maya doesn't come to school.  That morning the teacher gives her students a lesson on kindness. and the ripple effect our actions have in the world.  She tells the class the Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world.  Each child is give a stone to drop into a bowl of water to see its ripple effect and to tell of a act of kindness they have recently done.  Even small things count, the teacher tells Chloe, but sadly, she has not a single kindness to report and has to give up her stone.

After a few days absence, the teacher announces that Maya has moved and will not be returning to the class.  In the afternoon, walking home from school, Chloe has a lot on her mind, thinking about what the teacher had said about kindness and how she had missed her chance with Maya and now, it was too late.

But what about the future...?

What a powerful book this is.  Told completely from the point of view of the person refusing to be kind to a person who could really use some kindness, we see her thinking process.  Even though she doesn't say exactly why she turned away from Maya, the reader can see that she had judged Maya by the way she looked and not who she was - a lonely little girl who only wanted to be friends.

Set against the beautiful soft watercolor illustrations by E.B. Lewis, and using language to match, Woodson gives a hard cruel picture of what unkindness can look it.  What makes this a really powerful book, however, is that there is no sweet resolution at the end.  This may be hard for kids to take, but it should generate all kinds of discussion in school, at home or the library about Chloe's behavior as well as her regrets.  Chloe has missed her chance, Maya is gone.  The question that remains is what will Chloe do next time.

I can't praise Each Kindness enough.  What a very different world this might be if we all acted with kindness each time the opportunity presents itself.  And as we learn in Woodson's story, even small things count.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was borrowed from Webster Branch of the NYPL

This is book one of my 2013 Award Winning Reading Challenge hosted by Gathering Books.

I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Kadir Nelson

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr Day in the United States and what better way to pay tribute to him than to remember his life and his words.  And in Kadir Nelson's stunning book I Have A Dream, you can do that.

I got chills down my back when I first read this beautiful book, the same kind of chills I get whenever I hear Dr. King's moving speech.  Now, highlighting the last part of the speech, the dream excerpt, Nelson has given the words of Dr. King's perhaps most memorable speech delivered on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the thousands of people present for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom new life for younger reader to learn about this historic event and its leader.

The powerful words of the speech are complimented with lush, richly textured oil paintings by Nelson.  Nelson has really captured the meaning to the words so that the illustration and text reflect each other so well.  In the illustration below, with the words "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" it is hard to differentiate individual people, giving the sense of equality yet it also gives the sense of the sheer number of people.

The dream section of the speech is very much about the country's youth and a few pages later, we see the faces of children in great detail catching the very essence and emotion of the I Have a Dream speech - that children are the future of the United States and we will be a better nation if we work together instead of against each other.

  

This is a inspirational book for kids, kids who were born long after Dr. King's death and for whom he may only be a figure in history and a day off from school.  But Nelson's lovely book brings him to life for today's reader and hopefully will instill a new appreciation for the valiant, often dangerous work that was done during the Civil Rights Movement by Dr. King and others. There is a reprint of the entire I Have A Dream speech at the end of the book and a CD of Dr. King giving the speech so readers can hears it has it happened.

But I Have A Dream is also a book for adults, a reminder of the turbulent history of the 1960s and how people can come together as they did in 1963 and bring about change even in a country that sometimes seems as big and as divided as this one can be.

Appropriately enough, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the I Have a Dream speech and I can't help  but wonder what Dr. King would think as the nation swears in its 44th president, Barack Obama, for a second term in office on the same day we honor Dr. King's life.

This book is recommended for readers age 5+ but really appropriate for everyone.
I received this book from the author at BEA 2012.

Nonfiction Monday is hosted by The LibrariYAn

This is Book 1 of my 2013 Nonfiction Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

I grabbed The Lions of Little Rock from the top of my TBR pile and stuck it in my purse to read on a long subway ride.  But, once I started it, I apparently didn't want to put it down because I missed my stop and had to backtrack.  I was literally a captured audience by the end of the first paragraph.  I had, of course, read the NY Times Review of this novel, but even that glowing review didn't prepare me for what I found.

Some background: In September 1957, nine African American students were the first to enroll in Little Rock Central High School.  Enrollment was carried out under the protection of federal armed guards.  Known as the Little Rock Nine, these students were subjected to all kind of physical and verbal abuse by some of the while students.  In September 1958, the Governor of Arkansas took matters into his own hands and, together with the school board, ordered four public high schools closed rather than allowing them to be de-segregated.  The high schools stayed closed for a year, the so-called Lost Year.  As a result, race relations and tensions were running high.  It is against these momentous events that The Lions of Little Rock unfolds.

In the last few years, a number of really excellent books about the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas have come out, bringing a new awareness of this courageous struggle to a new generation of readers and maybe even a few older generations readers.  I knew about the Little Rock Nine, but I didn't know about the subsequent Lost Year.  Now, in The Lions of Little Rock, Kristin Levine explores how that Lost Year affected the lives of two Junior High School girls during that year.

Marlee Nesbit is a painfully shy girl, unable to speak to almost anyone outside of her family and who, because she can't verbally defend herself, is pushed around by other people, including her so-called best friend Sally, or is taken advantage of by others.  In contrast, Liz Fullerton is confident, outgoing, seemingly afraid of nothing and no one.  Both girls are intelligent, good students who want to do well.  So when Liz talks Marlee into doing a joint school project together, their first task is to teach Marlee how to speak in front of the class.  And Liz comes up with a clever plan.  Knowing Marlee's love of math, she promises to give her a book about Magic Squares if she succeeds.  Meeting in front of the lion's cage at the Little Rock Zoo, a safe environment for Marlee, they practice and practice ways to get  Marlee to speak.

But, after all that hard work, on the day of their presentation, Liz doesn't show up for school.  Rumors are rampant that Liz is really a Negro, a black girl passing for white in an segregated school.  Marlee is devastated by the news, but decides to do the presentation anyway.

Liz helps to change Marlee's life by helping her find her voice, but she also forces Marlee to really look inside herself and examine her own feelings about blacks and segregation and integration.  For Marlee, having a voice also meant some soul searching.  Passing for white was a mighty dangerous thing to do in 1958 Arkansas, but Liz had to courage to try in order to get a better education than what was otherwise available to her.  Understanding this, Marlee realizes it is time to act in order to reopen the public schools for everyone:

"I cared.  Helping Liz and leaving notes for Mother and sending candy bars to Judy was nice, but it wasn't enough.  Not when there might be more that I could do."  (pg 132)

Can one 12 year old girl make a difference in the very volatile issue of discrimination?

And yet, The Lions of Little Rock is not a story about a white girl who comes out of her shell in order to make things OK for the black people in her life, not matter how much she likes them.  This is a story about a friendship set in a turbulent historical period and of how a true friend can sometimes give us courage that we might otherwise never have discovered in ourselves.  True friendship is a two-way street and we see exactly how that can play out in this novel.

The Lions of Little Rock is one of my favorite coming of age books of 2012, everything about it is just so spot on.  Levine has done a wonderful job researching her subject and I thought that putting the idea of the Magic Square at the heart of Liz and Marlee's friendship pure genius.  Friendship, like the Magic Square, should always yield the same sum, no matter what happens.

What is a Magic Square?  They have been around forever, and was a shared fascination of Liz and Marlee's.  "The simplest was a three by three square with the numbers 1 to 9 arranged so that every row, column, and diagonal added up to 15" (pg 27)

An excellent discussion guide for The Lions of Little Rock with related reading activities and author interview is available here.

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was purchased for my personal library

Olivia Bean,Trivia Queen by Donna Gephart

Olivia Bean is one unhappy girl.  Her father and mother are divorced and he has since remarried - to her best friend's mother and now, the three of them are living clear across the county in California.  Even watching Jeopardy is the same.  Mom's fiancee Neil keeps trying to hone in on it, but Olivia has no use for playing Jeopardy with him.  Trivia and Jeopardy used to be Olivia and her father's thing to do together.  Olivia is still obsessed with trivia, and she's pretty good at it, too.  Well, except for geography.

Then one day her former friend and neighbor turned enemy Tucker Thomas tells Olivia that auditions for kids' week on Jeopardy are going to be held in NY.  Brilliant!  Olivia has been dreaming of seeing her dad again, since he is always too busy to call her and her little brother Charlie.  She knows that once they were together again, things would be better.  And if she could only master geography, she would have a chance of getting on Jeopardy.  And that means going to California and seeing Dad.  And as it happens, Tucker is pretty good at geography.

Pretty soon, Olivia is getting trivia help from everyone - Tucker, Mom, little brother Charles and even pain in the neck Neil.  And Olivia does indeed makes the cut at the auditions. Pretty soon, the whole family, including Neil, is on its way to California.   Olivia's can hardy contain her excitement over her planned reunion with her dad.   But will it all be as perfect as she has imagined it will be?  Or will Olivia finally see her dad for who he is?

When I first started reading Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen I didn't much care for it.  What a selfish, whinny brat, I kept thinking.  But I pushed on and to my surprise, I ended up really liking this novel and Olivia. She is a strong protagonist, and it turns out, a very kind one.  While Olivia may be a girl with a dream who works very hard to make that dream come true, she is really not so self-centered that she doesn't appreciate the people around her who care about her.  Even in the face of so many obstacles, like her mother losing her job and money being so short, she doesn't get so discouraged, she gives up.

Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen is a very nice coming of age story for middle grade readers, many of whom may be facing the same difficulties in their lives as Olivia does in hers - things like divorce, job loss, money problems, dealing with a new dad.  But in dealing with these things, Olivia finds out as much about herself as her does other people.  Personally, I think the biggest most important thing Olivia learns this that people are not always who she thought they were, and she learns to handles this revelation with a new found maturity.

This is a well written, tight story that has as much humor as it does problems, giving it a nice balance.  I do wonder how many kids are so taken with trivia and Jeopardy, but I don't think they would have to be to relate to this book.

I also love the Jeopardy trivia at the end of the novel, interesting stuff for anyone interested in this popular show.

This book is recommended for readers age 9-12
This book was borrowed from the Webster Branch of the NYPL

Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I am by Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis

From the publisher:
Ben lives a charmed life - effortlessly landing the lead in the high school musical, dating the prettiest girl in school.  When he decides to enlist in the army, no one thinks he'll be in read danger.  But his decision has devastating consequences: His convoy get caught in an explosion, and Ben ends up in a coma for two months.  When he wakes up, he doesn't know where he is - or remember anything about his old life.  His family and friends mourn what they see as a loss, but Ben perseveres.  And as he triumphs, readers will relate to this timely novel that pairs the action and adventure of the best war stories with the emotional elements of struggle and transformation.

My Thoughts:
I have always like Harry Mazer's books, especially his World War II Boy at War series.  Mazer was an underage enlistee in WWII and knows what he writes about.  Now Harry, together with Peter Lerangis, tackles the Iraq War, a war still fresh in our minds as is the on-going war in Afghanistan.

Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am is written in three parts.  The first part, Before, is the shortest and briefly explores who Ben Bright is, why he made his decision to enlist and the impact it has on those closest to him.  As he is leaving on the train for Boot Camp, he proposes to Ariela, his long-time girlfriend.

The second part, During, is somewhat longer and covers Ben's time serving in Iraq, the bomb that causes him to suffer a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and, of course, the feelings and reactions of his friends, family and Ariela, now his fiancée, when they hear about his injuries.

After is the third and longest part of the story.  Ben's family and friends struggle to come to terms with the way Ben is now, while he must relearn everything, including his memories.  It is a hard struggle and takes its toll on everyone, but there is also a message of hope in this tragedy.

The duo of Mazer and Lerangis shine in Somebody, Tell Me Who I Am.  By not focusing only on Ben, we see that one person's decision, however noble it may be, and the resulting consequences have serious repercussions on the lives of everyone involved.  Oddly enough, Ben has the least amount of action in the novel, in fact, he is almost only a catalyst for his injury, since it is really his TBI that has the real impact on those around him.

Ben's story is a very poignant and very disturbing without being morbidly graphic.  It is well-written and completely realistic.  The characters are believable, compelling and strong and the transition from one point of view to another happens very smoothly.

Ben's story will probably resonate for a lot of young people whose siblings, cousins, friends, husbands or wives may have served in one of this country's wars recently.  And as a result, there are families all over the country whose loved ones may have suffered a traumatic injury while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.  This short, but complex story deals with so many of the issues they are facing for real.  And, at a time when there is talk about cutting veteran's benefits and services, I think this novel is certainly food for thought.

This book is recommended for readers 12+
This book was purchased for my personal library.

Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole

"What would you do if you had the chance to help a person find freedom?" 

This is the question at the heart of Unspoken and it turns out to be a very thought-provoking question in this poignant, wordless story of a young girl during the Civil War and the runaway slave that she helps.

As she is bringing home the family cow to milk, the girl sees some Confederate soldiers passing by.  She continues to go about doing her chores, but when she is sent to the barn to fetch something, she senses she is not alone.

Indeed, there is an eye peering out of the corn crib.  Scared, she runs back to the house.  It is clear she is thinking about the person in the barn during dinner and later that night she sneaks back to the barn, bringing some food to the person hiding there.  She continues bringing more food.  One day, some bounty hunters show up looking for a runaway slave.  Her family knows nothing about the runway slave in the barn that the girl has been helping, but that night the little girl goes to warn him about the bounty hunters.  What she finds, however, isn't the runaway slave, but a gift he has made for her.

Unspoken is such a simple but powerful book.  Without using a single word, Cole captures the all the fear, hatred, and kindness in the actions of the characters that are associated with this period in American history.  The story is enhanced with Cole's detailed illustrations drawn in monochrome pencil on rough textured cream colored paper.

Perhaps what makes Unspoken so powerful is that it is rooted in old family stories that Cole listened to when he was a child, repeated by relatives who were the children of family members who lived through the Civil War.  I can easily believe that these stories would have a powerful effect on an artistic child later in life.

I also found that while the wordless story to be very effective in conveying so much emotion that words might not have been about to capture as well, I found the title to be particularly compelling.  That one word in the title expresses so much able the plight of runaway slaves.  One spoken word would mean, quite simply, a death sentence to the person running away to freedom.  That is a really chilling thought.

Unspoken is an incredible story of humanity and compassion.   There is so much to see and study on each page that can be used to spark dialogue, especially if used as a teaching tool for students learning about the Underground Railroad.

This book is recommended for readers age 4-8 by the publisher, but I think it would be better aged at 7+ given the subject matter.
This book was purchased for my personal library

Indulging in Reading Challenges

I can't believe I am doing this, but besides the three reading challenges I have already signed up for, I am adding two more to the list - they are just too good to pass up.

The first new addition is the 2013 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy.  For this reading challenge, I am hoping to read 25 nonfiction picture books from various years, not just 2013.

The next reading challenge is hosted by Gathering Books and is the 2013 Award Winning Reading Challenge. I think, however, I will sign up for level 1 (10 books or less) - Bronze Medal and stick to picture, middle grade and YA books.  Any medial counts so this is a really broad category.

Both of these should be lots of fun and I am looking forward to them.

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

From the Publisher:
Callie loves theater.  And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she can't really sing.  Instead she's the set designer for the drama department stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget.  But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together?  Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen.  And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier.

My Thoughts:
OK, I didn't read Telgemeier's first graphic novel Smile.  This dental story brings back too many painful memories.  So I wasn't familiar with her work when I picked up Drama and started to read it.  Well, at first, I didn't like it very much, I thought it was going to be another tween-girl -lovesick-for-taken-boy story.  But as I read, I began to see something emerging and I really changed my mind.  It was middle school just as I remembered it - more or less.

The main character is Callie, a  7th grader who loves theater so when her school, Eucalyptus Middle, decides to put on a production of Moon Over Mississippi, she there.  What is refreshing is that Callie does not want to be the star, she is perfectly happy being part of the stage crew,  Set design is her passion and what she wants when she grows up.  Callie's life isn't bad for a 7th grader, that is, until it comes to boys.

Right from the start, Callie falls for the wrong guy, who has just had a fight with his girlfriend, popular Bonnie, and leads Callie on with a kiss.  Disappointed, Callie never notices who does like her.  And worst still, Bonnie gets the lead part in the play and is a total diva.  Then new students, twins Justin and Jesse, arrive and prove themselves able performers, but only Justin tries out for the play, Jesse is too shy and prefers to work behind the scenes.  Justin and Jesse add a very interesting dimension to the story, but I think it would be too much of a spoiler to say why.

Rehearsals, set building and costuming all progress with all usual problems that come with school plays, but, to her credit as a writer, Telgemeier lets the kids work things through, just as she lets them work through their romance dramas.

Drama turns out to be a really great graphic novel.  One thing I noticed right off is that you really get the sense of time passing, of things advancing and I loved that sense of movement towards their goal.  The characters are all have individual personalities and are drawn so they are easy to differentiate (which can sometimes be a problem with graphic novels).

But the thing that clinched this novel for me was how diverse it is.  There is a very nice cross-section of kids, they weren't all white, straight and perfect.  These kids made mistakes, worked them out and carried on, just like I watched my own daughter and her friends do in middle school.

Drama is such a charming, middle grade graphic, with lots of not -over-the-top drama and a great positive book to give to those kids on their way to middle school (I know I did this past Christmas).

This book is recommended for readers 9-12
This book was obtained from the publisher

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I started Randomly Reading too late in 2012 to really participate in any reading challenges, so it is rather exciting to be able to do that now.

I am reading a lot of MG/YA Fantasy now since I am on a children's book committee so naturally I was drawn to the 2013 YA/MG Fantasy Challenge hosted by The Book Cellar.  The goal is to read 10 YA/MG fantasy books over the year, which should be lots of fun.



The next reading challenge I am interested in is the Dystopia 2013 Reading Challenge hosted by Blog of Erisred.  I am committing to Level 1: Recruit 1-6 books.  There are several novels or sequels that fit this category that I haven't read yet, so I am really looking forward to it.


The last reading challenge is on I also signed up for on my other blog, The Children's War.  It is the 2013 Pre-1960 Classic Children's Books Reading Challenge hosted by Turning the Pages.  I love old children's books and have saved many from my own childhood that would probably qualify for this reading challenge since they were hand me downs to begins with.

I am really looking forward to the coming year.