Childrens Books

Annie and Simone are in Sharry Wright’s Mother Daughter bookclub in San Francisco. Here are some of their favorites: The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson I like this book because the friendship was so strong between the two main characters. I Thought the book was written well because the author used so much detail in everything she described.I loved that it was full of imagination and I didn’t want it to end. I think you will enjoy it too! - Annie, age 9 Simone, age 9,  could not choose just one book. She recommends three! The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester In The Girl Who Could Fly, Piper McLeod lives with her Ma and Pa in Lowland County.  One day Piper decides to jump off the roof, and when she jumps off, she expects to have a hard landing and is bracing herself for the fall.  But instead, she is floating in the air.  She can fly!  When Piper goes to school I.N.S.A.N.E., she meets a sweet-at-first Dr. Hellion but then finds out that Dr. Hellion won’t let her fly and is actually mean inside.  I like this book because I like the concept of flying and of people who seem sweet but are really mean inside.  I find it interesting to read about characters who switch personalities during the story. The Trolls by Polly Horvath The Trolls is very interesting because it has a lot of stories from Aunt Sally’s and their father’s childhood, and the children get to do really fun things and have a great time. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling The Harry Potter series is very special to me because I love it and I take it on trips everywhere with me.  I love it so much because it is funny and interesting and sad, and you have to figure things out that are complicated. What are your favorite summer reads?

Can you guess the classic children’s book by its scathing one-star review on GoodReads or Amazon? There is NO PLOT. And I don’t mean that there’s a very simple plot, as would suit a children’s book, but there is ABSOLUTELY NO PLOT! There are no characters. There is no story. It’s just a collection of ugly 1960s cartoons about dogs, with accompanying sentences. And the worst part is that my little brother loves it and makes me read it to him all the time. WHY?!?!?!?! I wouldn’t at all mind if he wanted me to read something like Oh, the Places You’ll Go! or Where the Wild Things Are. But no, it’s this. Click here for the answer. One Star Review Guess Who (#1) One Star Review Guess Who (#2) One Star Review Guess Who (#3) One Star Review Guess Who (#4) One Star Review Guess Who (#5)

When thirteen-year-old Paolo Crivelli sneaks out for midnight joy rides through Nazi-occupied Florence, he imagines himself a hero on a bicycle. By day, he is cooped up at home with his mother, sister, and faithful dog Guido, with nothing to do but wait for the approaching Allied forces to push out the Germans. At night, Paolo is able to escape into a more exciting world tinged with danger, first by fooling his mother into thinking he’s safely in bed, then by evading military police patrolling the streets and riding past shadowy men lurking about the street corners. Men who could be Partisans just like his father, who was forced into hiding because of his political views against Mussolini and Hitler. What Paolo doesn’t know is that his sister and mother are very aware of his nightly activities, to the point where it keeps them up at night. Constanza, Paolo’s teenage sister, sympathizes with her younger brother’s need to escape. Hers manifests itself in the form of retreating to her room and listening to the same Edith Piaf and Rina Ketty records over and over again, but to Paolo, she just seems moody and aloof. Their mother Rosemary, who is British by birth and Italian by marriage, also understands her son’s need for excitement, but his nightly activities are yet another source of constant worry for her. In addition to her husband’s whereabouts and safety, the daily challenge of making sure her family has enough to eat, and keeping a low profile from both the Gestapo and the Partisans, she wonders every night if she should confront her son about his activities in the morning.   As it turns out, she doesn’t get the chance to decide. Paolo may look to the Partisans for adventure, but when they come to him demanding his family’s involvement in a risky and dangerous mission, Paolo gets more than he envisions for a hero on a bike. Set against the backdrop of WWII with midnight exploits, dangers, and suspense, I never truly believed any harm would come to the Crivellis. That didn’t keep me from worrying about them. Hero is very much character-driven and I found myself rooting for Paolo and his family. And I appreciated Constanza most of all. It would have been easy to write her off as Paolo’s moody teenager sister who mopes about fashion even though there’s a war on. But as the story progress, we see she’s aloof because she’s a typical teenager and because she doesn’t want to add to her mother’s burdens. Better yet, Constanza demonstrates considerable courage and comes into her own as a kind and resolute young adult in a way that stands out to me even more so than Paolo’s big moment. Author Shirley Hughes’ secondary characters are also worth mentioning. We only glimpse them through their interactions with Rosemary, Constanza, and Paolo, but they (aside from the Gestapo officer) still feel fleshed-out rather than black or white. The young German lieutenant who puts friendship above creed, Constanza’s bratty friend who enjoys blackmarket luxuries, the Crivelli’s servant’s relative who finds himself in a tough moral dilemma, the complexities of these individuals also makes this wartime fiction more gripping and real. I appreciated as well that Hughes doesn’t pound her readers over the head with a definition of what it means to be brave or heroic. Instead, we’re told the danger and the risks and given insight to how a character feels inside, and then Hughes briskly continues her narrative with that character’s actions. Lastly, it may sound silly, but I really liked Hero’s length. At a respectable 213 pages, Hughes manages to tell a vivid yet concise story. Perhaps it’s because of Hughes’ rich experience as an author and illustrator of picture books, but she’s mastered the art of saying a lot in relatively few words. In Hero On A Bicycle, the result is an intimate yet satisfying tale. Note: to see more of Hughes’ drawings for Hero On A Bicycle, I highly recommend a visit to her website.

Perfectly Percy by Paul Schmid Percy is a porcupine and one of his favorite things of all are balloons!  But it’s hard when you are a prickly porcupine, balloons don’t last long at all.  So Percy decides to figure out how he can solve the problem with balloons.  He thinks and thinks, but no good ideas come to him.  He tries hanging upside down, riding his tricycle, but nothing.  It’s not until he’s having breakfast that suddenly he has an amazing, incredible idea! Schmid’s story is quite simple, focused on one little porcupine’s problem with balloons and how he solves it.  I appreciate a picture book that gives so many pages over to coming up with a solution and just thinking and thinking.  It makes for a thoughtful and quiet book.  Best of all, Percy comes up with the solution all on his own with no adult help.  The illustrations here have a wonderful feel to them.  Done in simple lines with pastel backgrounds, Percy shines.  Throughout the book has a cheery feel, one never doubts that Percy will find a solution to his problem.  Once that solution is found, the cheer turns to sheer joy and delight.  That is one merry porcupine.  Thoughtful and empowering, this book stays jolly as well.  Percy would be a perfect addition to story times.  Appropriate for ages 2-4. Reviewed from copy received from Harper Collins. Filed under: Book Reviews, Picture Books Tagged: balloons, porcupines, problem solving

When I was a kid, my idea of summer camp involved bunking in a cabin, singing around a campfire, and canoeing on a tranquil New England lake. Unfortunately, it didn’t really turn out that way. Sure, there was some singing, but on the whole, my experience could be pretty accurately summed up by James and Eamon, the characters in Marla Frazee’s A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever: James: “I think it should be called Sit-Around Camp.” Eamon: “Yeah, or Sweat-a-Lot Camp.” There’s a big difference between my week at camp and the boys’ week at camp, though: I didn’t get to stay with James’s grandparents, Bill and Pam, while attending camp during the day. With a view of the ocean, unlimited TV and banana waffles, and coffee ice-cream icebergs with hard chocolate sauce on top (!!!), Bill and Pam’s house is pretty much a kid’s paradise. Marla Frazee, a two-time Caldecott honoree, based this story on the real-life experiences of her son and his best friend. And Lucky readers will definitely be able to tell. James and Eamon are thrilled to sleep on an air mattress (with an automatic pump!), which doubles as a tent as needed. And when Bill gives them each a set of binoculars, the kids are way more interested in studying one another’s freckles than in bird-watching. But more than anything, summer is a time for creativity and play. And the very best part of the Best Week Ever? The surprise James and Eamon assemble for Bill and Pam on their last night. It just might get kids thinking about ways to use their own imagination to fill the long months of summer. As for me, I’m convinced that friendship and freedom are more important ingredients for a great summer than anything that happens at camp. Even canoeing. A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee is available in Lucky June. Author Bio: Morgan Walker does online title presentation for Scholastic Book Clubs.

Book: MousenetAuthor: Prudence BreitroseIllustrator: Stephanie YuePages: 416Age Range: 8 and up  Mousenet is a middle grade novel written by Prudence Breitrose and lightly illustrated by Stephanie Yue. The premise has oodles of kid-appeal. Mice have learned to read, and to use human computers (though it takes a whole team of mice to accomplish anything using a full-size PC). When a quirky inventor in Cleveland invents a teeny, tiny laptop (dubbed the Thumbtop), mice spring into action. They enlist the inventor's niece, Megan, in their quest to put "a Thumbtop in every mousehole" so that they can stand beside humans as the next intelligent species.   The mouse society and hierarchy in Mousenet is fully fleshed out, and quite entertaining. The mice have figured out a way to travel by Greyhound bus (though this remains rare). They use sign language to communicate. Because they have eyes everywhere, they are able to intervene with humans in surprising ways. They have their own, hidden internet (Mousenet). They are based in Silicon Valley, for a completely logical reason. This whole shadow society of secretly smart rodents calls to mind books like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (which I now want to re-read) and Malcolm at Midnight.  The early part of the book is told from a third person (er, mouse) mouse perspective, which I particularly enjoyed. In fact, I found it a bit jarring when, in the middle of chapter two, things shifted to Megan's perspective. After that, things shift back and forth between mouse and human viewpoints. Here's an example of the mouse point of view: "The mice felt more hopeful about picking up clues to the megging's wildness later that afternoon, after the big female had spent some time doing things to food that they'd never seen happen in this kitchen--slicing, steaming, chopping, mixing. When the girl and her uncle came in to eat, the mice looked anxiously at their inventor to see how he'd react, because the dishes that the big female had put on the table didn't look at all like his usual dinner, which tended to be either delivered or thawed." (Chapter 2) I understand that it wouldn't have been possible to tell the entire story from the perspective of the mice (or certainly it would have been quite difficult), but I personally enjoyed the mouse point of view more than Megan's. Megan is a perfectly nice character, with passions and quirks of her own, but the mouse viewpoint is more unique.  Anyway, the plot in Mousenet moves along quickly. There isn't really a bad guy in the book, but Breitrose finds other sources of conflict (like the need to keep the existence of the mouse society hidden). I particularly liked the way the author developed the relationship between Megan and her step-cousin Joey, slowly and with friction along the way.  My one complaint, story-wise, is that I felt that the author's anti-global warming message came on a bit too strong at times. Not that there's anything wrong with the message itself, but towards the end of the book it comes perilously close to dominating the story. By making environmentalism a central trait of Megan's character, the author keeps things in hand, but only just barely. But I have admittedly very finely honed radar when it comes to messages inserted into fiction. Most young readers delving into Mousenet today will probably be fine with this aspect of the book.  Yue's black and white pencil illustrations are generally small in size, and are found about once per chapter. I found them helpful in visualizing Megan (who has unusual hair that's hard to describe), and of course in picturing the intrepid mice. There are also mouse silhouettes included atop the large-format first letter of each chapter. Emails integrated in with the text also add visual variety. Together, these visual elements of the book help make it non-intimidating to younger middle grade re

Windblown by E?douard Manceau Scraps of paper blow across the page, first one then several appear.  But what are they and whose are they?  First the chicken insists they are his since he found them.  Then the fish says that he cut them from the paper.  Then the bird, the snail and the frog explain that they are theirs as well.  Each animal fits them to their body to demonstrate why they belong to them.  Then the wind itself speaks about blowing the pieces around and offers them to the reader, “What will you do?”  Superbly simple and entirely engaging, readers will be playing along with the book before they even open the pages.  Manceau has cleverly selected shapes that fit together in many different ways.  He demonstrates this over and over again, then turns it all over to the reader to continue.  This is also a book that would make a great art project for little ones.  Share the book, then give each child the pieces shown in the story to make their own picture.  An ideal way to end a creative story time.  Appropriate for ages 2-4. Reviewed from library copy. Filed under: Book Reviews, Picture Books Tagged: art, creativity, shapes, wind

Text complexity is certainly a hot topic this year in education. I have heard in particular, “Teachers must increase text complexity.” As I’ve become more aware of how to implement Common Core standards in the classroom, I have realized I am choosing literature more for content (historical content, for example, where the students have to make a lot of inferences), figurative and sensory language, word choice, and sentence complexity. I have been more careful in choosing the books I use with my students for mini-lessons. Though my students have struggled a bit when I shared a few of the books, they heard my read-alouds and realized that reading a book is a unique learning process all in itself. Reading a text complexity PDF from Scholastic Scope inspired me to write about text complexity revolving around Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes. I actually never read it before this lesson, but that makes my inferring more “raw” and my awareness of figurative and sensory language as well as descriptions more acute. When I present the thoughts below to my students, I use the Storia features to highlight the word choice and add notes with think-alouds and prompts as reminders for me so I can guide them through digitally. Page 1: Inference/an excerpt to remember as students continue reading the book: “On the first day of school, Miss Loupe approached the left edge of the front row of her first-ever sixth-grade classroom. Before her new students’ eyes, she knelt and stuck one end of a giant roll of beige tape to the floor at their feet. Then she crept backward on her knees, tacking the three-inch-wide strip of tape to the heavily waxed linoleum. As she moved away from them, toward the cracked chalkboard that hung on the front wall, the tape unspooled in a straight line. The students gawked.” After students read this page, they may not understand why the teacher is eccentric, yet this paragraph is important to remember as the plot progresses. Looking at any bit of text that focuses on Miss Loupe is important, and I recommend teachers write details about her personality and actions on an anchor chart. Page 2: “The names simply floated up from the floor randomly, like she was drawing raffle prizes.” Of course, this is figurative language. Why does the author say “like she was drawing raffle prizes”? Page 2: When Trey Obermeyer states “Reporting for duty, ma’am,” what is the tone of his statement? Why does his friend Bo give him a virtual high five in the space between their desks? Page 4: Miss Loupe’s eccentric personality really comes out on this page when she asks, “WHERE AM I?,” which the author writes in all capital letters. The author also uses this example of figurative language: “…like she was an announcer at the annual air show.” Page 6: On this page, why do you think the author capitalizes “Taped Space”? Page 7: I learned from this chapter that Allison seems like a “goody-goody” who only wants to be accepted. The author even states here, “Allison smoothed the ends of her hair so they curled against her silky pink sweater. Bo wondered if her grandfather had really been a POW. Last year, when he’d first gotten to this school, he had believed Allison when she told the whole fifth grade that her older brother was with the CIA in Afghanistan. Thanks to Trey, who had been at Young Oaks since kindergarten, Bo now knew she didn’t have an older brother, only a little one named Tony in first grade, who told everyone his big sister was an exchange student in Rome.” Page 7: Students may not know what an exchange student is. Page 8: What does the phrase “His teacher was tight with the principal” mean? Page 8: I like how Miss Loupe responds to Bo’s question of “Was she big then, too?” with, “Not as… substantial,” which shows a synonym for the word big. Page 8: I also like how Miss Loupe points out how the principal (when she was Miss Loupe’s sixth grade teacher) painted the map of the United States in the main hallway—and Bo thinks, “In th

I said, “Look like that’s the best book you’ve ever read in your life.” I said, “Look like you’re having so much fun.” I should probably leave this kind of thing to Jeffrey.

Although it might not feel like it, spring is here. One of my favorite springtime stories to share is Fran’s Flower. In this story, a little girl finds a plant and decides she wants to make it grow. Unfortunately, she decides it needs food and feeds it a piece of cheeseburger, some spaghetti, ice cream and even a chocolate chip cookie. Of course, this doesn’t help the plant grow and fed up with the flower she throws it out the door. Once outside, the flower gets all the things it needs, and it grows! The colorful illustrations add to the fun. Before you start planting, share this one along with The Carrot Seed by Krauss. Posted by: Liz