Happy Thanksgiving

Junie B., First Grader: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff) by Barbara Park

I had planned this post long before the sad news that Barbara Park had passed away.  I decided to go ahead with it in homage to her and the character she created.  Junie B Jones has helped so many kids learn to love reading, including a few in my family.
Thank you, Barbara.

It is Thanksgiving week and Mr. Scary's first graders in Room One have some activities planned to help celebrate the holiday.

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, the kids begin a list of things that they are thankful for to enter into the school's Thankful contest.  The class with the best list will win a homemade pumpkin pie.  Trouble is, no one in Room One likes pumpkin pie, it makes them vomit.  But a Thankful List is begun and includes such things as cranberry jelly in a can (Junie's choice) and exploding biscuits (you know, the kind that you bash on the counter to open).  

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, everyone has a Thankful Bag to fill with something they are thankful for.    But they can't show each other what's in their bag until it is their turn at Show and Tell.  Imagine a whole day of Show and Tell.  This is great until rich Lucille opens her Thankful Bag and waves all the money in it around the classroom and everyone goes diving for ones, fives, tens and twenties.  A trip to the principal's office delays things a bit.  Junie brought in her favorite stuffed elephant and her nemisis May brought in the same exact stuffed animal.  Words are exhanged, another delay and both girls end up having their elephants taken away by Mr. Scary.  But, despite all, by the end of the day, the class has a list of twenty things on their Thankful List, though Mr. Scary seems somewhat dismayed by what the students listed.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the class is to come in dressed as pilgrims or Native Americans.  Junie isn't happy being a pilgrim, and she is especially unhappy when May comes in dressed as the Native American Princess she wanted to be.  First thing in the morning, the winner of the Thankful List contest is named and, much to everyone's surprise, particularly Mr. Scary, it turns out to be Room One because they had the most honest list ever.  Later in the day, invited parents and other relatives arrive to enjoy a feast with the kids of food they brought with them.  And it turns out that some pumpkin pie is better than others!

Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten is a laugh out loud story with lots of lessons to be learned.  The basic theme here is thankfulness and in the end that is was really comes across.  I thought the fact that the teacher didn't try to change the kids' list choices to make it more PC was a nice touch, and I think the list reflects reality more than we might like to think.  But that is OK, kids really do like such things as rainbow sprinkles, cookies, but not the coconut kind, and the big box of 64 crayons (I was pretty thankful the first time I got a box of 64 crayons).

Parents and teachers don't generally like the Junie B. Jones books, but kids do.  My Kiddo and her cousins always read them and, despite some incorrect grammar and sometimes rowdy behavior, it didn't seem to rub off.

And when you are a 4th grade teacher in a failing school, and a few of the kids in your class have discovered Junie B., and the Amber Brown series and want to read their stories, you are pretty thankful that they want to read anything at all.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was purchased for my personal library

It's Monday! What are you reading? #6

It's Monday! What are you reading? is the original weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  It's Monday! What are you reading? - from Picture Books to YA is a kidlit focused meme just like the original and is hosted weekly by Teach Mentor Texts.  The purpose is the same: to recap what you have read and/or reviewed and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week.

Last week I reviewed the following books:

Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber, illustrated by Brian Lovelock  This is a wonderful story about one honey bee named Scout as she leaves the hive to gather nectar to make honey.  There is also a list of things we can do to help prevent bee disappearance and hive collapse. (Picture Book)

Year of the Jungle, Memories from the Home Front by Suzanne Collins, illustrated by James Promois  This is about the year Suzanne Collins's father went to Vietnam and what that time felt like to her 6 year old self.  An excellent book, especially for kids with a parent who is presently deployed. (Picture Book)

After Iris by Natasha Farrant  A funny, sad coming of age, coming to terms book about a quirky dysfunctional family. (Middle Grade)

The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson  Leon Leyson was one of the youngest Jews that Oskar Schindler is credited with saving.  Just before he passed away, Leon write his personal story of surviving.  (Middle Grade)

This week I hope to read and review the following:

Heaven is Paved with Oreos by Catherine Gilbert Murdock  I haven't started this but I am anxious to read it.  I even bought a bag of Candy Cane oreos for the occasion. (YA)

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt  I just finished this actually and I loved it. (Middle Grade)
The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata  I also just finished this and I thought it was a very interesting story and it just won the National Book Award. (Middle Grade)

Junie B., First Grader: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff) by Barbara Park  This was planned even before we received the news of Barbara Park's untimely death. (Elementary, Read Aloud)

A Medal for Leroy by Michael Morpurgo  This looks like another Morpurgo winner. (Middle Grade)

What are you reading this week?

After Iris by Natasha Farrant

It has been three years since Iris Gadsby's death and no one in the Gadsby family has really been able to come to grips with it.  Living in an old house in London, dad is away most of the time, teaching medieval courses at a distant university; mum has taken a job with a beauty products company and must fly all over the world; older sister Flora, 16, is totally involved with her boyfriend and continuously changing the color of her hair; younger siblings Jasmine and Twig, AKA the Babes, are obsessed with their pet rats, and Iris's twin Bluebelle, now 13, hides behind her lens of her new video camera.

Now, the Gadsby parents have hired a dissertating student named Zoran to look after the kids while they are gone, who takes his job very seriously, even if he doesn't always get the cooperation he wants.  Then, along comes Joss, who has been sent to live with his grandparents next door, and things really get crazy in the Gadsby household.  Joss may be Blue's crush, but he is Flora boyfriend obsession.

Communicating with their mother mostly on Skype, and seeing their dad only on weekends, and now only sometimes if then, the kids conclude that their parents are perhaps growing apart and thinking of divorce.  And then the Babes run away.

After Iris is one of the best contemporary novels I have read in a long time, and I have read a lot of really great novels lately.  The Gadsby children are great characters, all different, but all well fleshed out.  Flora is cool and has lots of friends, with the exception of Joss's friends who continually write terrible Facebook comments about her;  Blue is geeky and awkward and no longer has any friends as they have moved on to inhabit the junior version of Flora's world and Blue has chosen to become invisible; the Babes have each other and their rats.  At first, I thought they were twins as well, but Twig (the only boy) is the younger of the two.

Despite the seriousness of coming to terms with and beginning the real healing work that the death of a child/sibling involves, After Iris is not the morbid story it sounds like it should be.  Certainly not when the Babes rats drive into Blue's classroom, dressed and sitting in remote controlled cars.  Nor when they are sent off to visit Grandma's in Dorset, who has some wacky ideas of her own about children.  And there is a softer side of friend and enemy relationships that are more true to life than usually depicted in novels for middle graders.

The whole thing is narrated in the first person by Blue.  Some of the chapters begin with movie transcripts that describe what she is filming followed by diary entries that continue the filmed episode.  The transcripts move the story along more quickly that straight narrative.  And there is lots of humor and funny bits that keep you going in this well written novel, even as we watch compassionately when the family's coping strategies begin to fall away.

After Iris is definitely a novel about coming to terms with death, but it is also a novel about Blue's own personal process of coming of age, which involves but is not limited to learning to accept the death of her twin sister.

After Iris is a novel not to be missed.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from a friend

Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber, illustrated by Brian Lovelock

 By now, we have all heard about how honey bees are disappearing and hives are collapsing at alarming rates and what a disaster that can be for mankind.  After all, bees are the best pollinators in the world.

So it is not surprising that a number of books for young readers have come out recently about bees.  Perhaps in the hope that if we educate young readers about the importance of bees, we, or really, they may be able to help reverse the trend and stop bee disappearance and death.

Flight of the Honey Bee is one of the new bee books to come out and it is a charming, informative look at the life of one honey bee named Scout.

Follow Scout as she flies out of the safety of the hive in search of pollen and nectar.  As Scout searches for just the right flowers to gather what she needs to bring back to the hive for the winter, we discover all kinds of interesting facts about honey bees in general.

Did you know that are hairy all over so they can sense changes in wind?  Or that a bee can travel as far as five hundred miles to find flowers?  And while we may want to avoid a bee sting, honey bees only sting when they feel threatened.

These are just some of the interesting facts that you can learn about as you fly along with Scout on her mission.  Raymond Huber has written a nonfiction book for the youngest readers that is both entertaining and informative.  And he does include ways that we can help rejuvenate bees and pollination before they die out.

Flight of the Honey Bee is delightfully yet precisely illustrated in watercolor, acrylic ink and colored pencil and gives us an up close and personal view of a honey bee's life.  Writer Raymond Huber, who is also a beekeeper, and illustrator Brian Lovelock are scientists as well, and their genuine interest and concern shine through this wonderful book.  Together these two talented New Zealanders have created a book that can be enjoyed by everyone interested in our saving our world.

I loved this book and I learned a lot about bees and how they make honey.  And the next time I stir a spoonful of honey into my tea, you can be I will remember that one jar of honey requires bees to harvest nectar from more than 2 million flowers.

This book is recommended for readers age 3+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Nonfiction Monday Roundup is hosted this week by NC Teacher Stuff

This is book 12 of my 2013 Nonfiction Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy

Revisiting my very first post - Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

This is a copy of my very first review posted on September 4, 2012 on Randomly Reading. It is always interesting to see how things have changed and evolved.

From the Publisher:
When seventh grader Georges (the S is silent) moves into a Brooklyn apartment building, he meets Safer, a twelve-year-old coffee-drinking loner and self-appointed spy.  Georges becomes Safer's first spy recruit.  His assignment?  Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs.  But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend?

My Thoughts:
When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn (Flatbush, as a matter of fact) my best friend and I became fascinated with a lady that lived in the building next to ours.  We would sit on the stoop, endlessly speculating about the incredibly exciting life we had convinced ourselves that she led.  After all, she was a singer, always wore lots of perfectly applied makeup, even to walk her dog, and to us that meant a glamorous life.  We kept up our speculations for about five days, but it turned out that things were not what they seemed (her life may actually have been duller than ours) and then the allure of games and friends proved to be more fun.  I hadn't thought about that summer in years, until I read Rebecca Stead's new novel Liar & Spy.

Something about Georges and Safer and their spying adventure reminded me of our youthful selves.

Well, almost.  Things aren't going well for Georges.   His dad has lost his job, his mother, a nurse, is working more hours than ever to make up for it, and they have just moved from the house to an apartment.  At school, his best friend has abandoned Georges for some much cooler kids and he is being bullied by some boys who have nicknamed him Gorgeous.  Homeschooled Safer looks like a pretty good bet as a friend at this point, except that he doesn't ever leave the building.   And Georges never sees his mother because she is always at the hospital, but they do communicate by leaving messages for each other using Scrabble tiles.

It all seems so straightforward, not good, but straightforward.  But one must remember that at the heart of this novel is a 19th century Impressionistic painting by Georges Seurat and as his namesake explains "What you can't tell from our poster is that the picture is painted entirely with dots.  Tiny little dots.  Close up, they just look like blobs of paint.  But, if you stand back, you see that they make this whole nice park scene, with people walking around in old fashioned clothes.  There's even a monkey on a leash." (pg11)

And that is the whole point of the novel - that sometimes things are not what they seem to be until you look at the big picture. 

I have to admit I was a little disappointed with Liar & Spy when I first finished it, especially when I thought about how great Stead's Newbury winner When You Reach Me was.  But then, the story started to worm it way into my thoughts and the more that happened the more I began to really appreciate the incredibly clever way the story is woven together, each part adding to the whole picture and the wonderful subtleties of Stead's writing. 

And it is all peopled with characters that are unique, full bodied and perfectly suited to Liar & Spy.  Even the not-frequently-appearing bullys are drawn so well that you can really feel the bullying.  And Safer's smart, sassy, sweet-loving little sister Candy is just the right humorous touch to make the spying not spill over into creepy.

One small piece of advice: there are lots of little hints in this novel to enable the reader to begin to form a big picture.

This is a book not to be missed and I wonder if enough time has passed since Stead's 2010 Newbury award so that it can be a Newbury contender this year.

My only objection to Liar & Spy as far as the middle grade reader it is aimed at is that there is no picture of the Seurat to use as a point of reference, since it plays such a big part and maybe not many kids would bother to go look it up.  So here it is for anyone who wants to know what it looks like:

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte - Georges Seurat

This book is recommended for ages 9+

This book was received as an E-ARC from Net Galley

NB. This isn't the first time Seurat's painting served as inspiration.  The musical Sunday in the Park with George, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, was based on the book by James Lapine.  It won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, among other awards.  

Africa is My Home: A Child of the Amistad by Monika Edinger, illustrated by Robert Byrd

The Amistad Revolt has been the subject of many books, movies and classrooms and even law schools for many years now.  Which means that we have learned about the Amistad from various male points of view, but never have we heard about it from the vantage point of one of the four underage female children that had also been abducted from Mendeland, West Africa (now Sierra Leone) and shipped to Havana, Cuba to be sold.  Until now.

Africa is my Home is the story of Margru, only 9 years old sold to slave traders.  Her journey began when famine struck her country.  Her father was forced to pawn her out for rice to feed the rest of the family.  But when he couldn't pay his debt, Margru was sold to traders and put on the ship Amistad along with 52 other men, women and children, who had either been abducted or used as pawn and sold like Margru.

In Cuba, the adults and four children were sold and put on the Amistad, heading to a Caribbean plantation.  But along the way, the men, led by a young African man nicknamed Cinque, rebelled, and after much fighting and death, took over the ship and attempted to sail back to Africa.  But, deceived by the ships navigator, they found themselves landing on the eastern tip of Long Island, NY and from there, they were placed into custody in New Haven, CT.  The adults went on trial, the children were used as witnesses.

And it is here that Margru's education began, leading her all the way to Oberlin College and eventually returning to Africa as a teacher.

Although Africa is my Home, is based on real persons and events, it should be remembered that it is a work of historical fiction.  I say this because you might have a little trouble remembering it, since the writing is just that good.  It is clear that Monica Edinger feels quite passionately about this story and has  really done her research.

Writing from a child's perspective, we can palpably feel Margu's homesickness, confusion and fear, as well as her ambiguity about putting on western-style clothing, her dislike of snow and her desire for a "free" name, eventually choosing to call herself Sarah Kinson.

I did find that the writing was somewhat uneven.  Sometimes it is just beautifully lyrical, the poems that are included are truly lovely, but the prose was occasionally flat, and it jarred me out of the story, despite the enthusiasm that I know Edinger feels for her subject.  Still, this is a solid 4 Star book.

Africa is my Home is wonderfully illustrated by Robert Byrd, whose work prompted me to buy Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! a few years ago, before I had even read it.  The ink and watercolor illustrations are all done in colors, shades and tones that reflect the greens and blues of Africa, the colorful images of Cuba, the darkness of the Amistad, and pastels of dreams and poems, enhancing and extending the story being told.

Africa Is My Home is wonderful supplement to a difficult topic and time in American history and is a must for all school libraries or, better yet, all classrooms.  Back matter includes an Author's Note and list of selected sources.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from a friend

The National Archives offers original documents pertaining to the Amistad Rebellion, including teaching activities and a printable document analysis worksheet.  You may access them HERE

Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Sugar is 10, an orphan and although she is not longer a slave, she sure doesn't feel free.  She has lived on the River Road plantation where they grow sugar cane in Louisiana her whole life, but she really just wants to go north and see what the world is about.

It is 1870 and reconstruction is in full swing and things are changing, or so says Mr. Wills, owner of the plantation.  Sugar is secretly friends with his son, Billy, who tells her that his father has now hired some Chinese men to come and work on the plantation.  Even though he swears her to secrecy, word gets our and the older former slaves that Sugar lives with are afraid they will be out of a job and their homes, ramshackle shacks though they are.

Sugar is excited when the Chinese workers arrive and is immediately drawn to the youngest of the group (who, although his age isn't given, thought thought was in his teens) who teaches right off the bat her to say hello in Chinese.  Although forbidden to go near them by Mister and Missus Beale, her unofficial grandparents, Sugar can't resist and pretty soon has managed to bring Chinese and African Americans together.

It is Mr. Will's hope that his son will on day take over the plantation and so Billy decides to work in the fields to start learning about sugar cane production.  And when his mother brings out lemonade and ham stuffed biscuits, the Overseer gets angry because Billy is slowing down production.  He and Mr. Wills exchange some heated words and the Overseer is fired.  He leaves, vowing revenge.

Times are indeed changing and when the Overseer takes his revenge, the result brings changes for everyone though not what might be expected.

Narrated in the first person by Sugar, she is a sweet, engaging, funny, intelligent, spunky girl who has trouble obeying orders and has a curiosity as big as the world.  She wants to be a kid, to play and explore and pretend, but she had to work and that part of her story was hard to read.  And she has her own way of looking at things, all told in speech that is clipped in that way I have noticed kids who are always busy and think sometimes speak, almost telegraph style.

And I learned something new.  I knew that Chinese immigrants had arrived in this country in the late 1800s but I thought they had mostly settle on the west coast.  That they were hired for plantation work after the Civil War and Emancipation was very new to me, but as Sugar tells out, many former slaves went north and workers were needed.

Mr. Will isn't by any means the kindest man in the world, but he does represent those plantation owners (and others) who recognized that things had change and would continue to change.  He was the forward looking foil to the Overseer's backward looking character.

Jewell Parker Rhodes, who also wrote the wonderful Ninth Ward, really knows how to convey hard, back-breaking work under a burning sun as well as the piteously poor living conditions that former slaves found themselves in.  Freedom clearly does not mean better living conditions.  The former slaves were really now working for very little money - hence the Great Migration north.  On the other hand, Rhodes can convey the feeling of joy and sense of freedom that flying the first kite Sugar had ever seen brought gave her.

On the whole, Sugar is just the kind of book I would have read and loved when I was around 10-11 years old.  BUT...there were some things in the book I find hard to believe as an adult and truly wonder what my 10 year old self would have thought about them.  And I would be curious to know how others feel about them.

The one word that kept playing around in my head while I was reading Sugar was fanciful.  But in a good way for young readers.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was borrowed from a friend

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

Just before Billy Miller, 7, begins 2nd Grade, he gets a bump on his head.  This bump makes him a little anxious that perhaps he might have trouble with school, especially after he overhears his parents talking about it.  It didn't help matters that on that very first day, his dad reread the letter from his teacher that said 2nd grade would be "a wonderful, joyful, exciting challenge."  When he heard the world challenge, Billy really began to worry.  Then, to make matter worse, on the very first day he insults his teacher.

But wait, hadn't his dad told Billy on the way to school that this was "the year of Billy Miller?"  And so it is.  From his first humiliating moments on the first day of school, through to the end of the year, we journey with Billy as he grows in confidence, as he learns new and interesting things, and culminates is an wonderful poem to his mother, presented in the auditorium.

The Year of Billy Miller is a very gentle, funny, sad, and entertaining book about one kid trying to navigate himself successfully through school and life.  It is written with the characteristic Kevin Henkes simplicity but not in the least bit condescending and includes lots small,whimsical, marginalia-type drawings throughout.

But the question of who this book is for has come up again and again.  It looks and feels like a middle grade novel, but the character and story are too young to appeal to that age group.  It is definitely not a chapter book for beginning readers, which is what usually happens around 2nd Grade.  And although it reminds me and others of the Ramona books, it is really still too young for those 7-11 year old readers.  It also reminded me of Tomie dePaulo's 26 Fairmount Avenue series, but those are indeed chapter books for 7-10 year olds.

The way I see it is that The Year of Billy Miller is an episodic novel and for that reason, I think it is an ideal read-aloud book for 6 and 7 year olds, especially at bedtime, where a chapter a night can be manageably read, by or with an adult or older sibling.  And it is a perfect as a classroom read aloud, offering so many teachable moments, classroom activity possibilities and new vocabulary words to learn.  And what a wonderful book for a 1st Grade teacher to read at the end of the school year, helping to prepare his/her students as they are promoted into 2nd Grade.

I really enjoyed reading this compassionate story and I hope we get to meet Billy again, as he traverses 3rd, 4th and even 5th grade, growing and accomplishing each year, facing problems and anxieties that all kids have to deal with at that age.

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