Things Hoped For - by Andrew Clements

So we all know that Andrew Clements can right for fifth and sixth graders, and he does it well. Who doesn’t enjoy a little Frindle now and then? I was totally surprised when I picked up a copy of Things Hoped For ( the sequel to Things Not Seen) in the library, and it was aimed at kids a little bit older. I found myself wondering if Clements can write something most ninth graders would enjoy. I had to pick up the book and find out.

Truthfully, the whole book is a conundrum to me. In the beginning it starts out as your average middle grade fiction Gwen lives with her grandfather in New York where she is preparing for a Julliard Audition. Then her grandfather disappears and only leaves her a mysterious phone message telling her not to worry and I find myself thinking, “ok, so it’s a mystery.” After that she meets Robert and the romance part of the novel begins. It’s a lot to fit in a novel, right? So I was totally thrown when Robert confides in Gwen that one morning he woke up and he was invisible. He was invisible for a whole month and now even though he’s visible again, other dangerous invisible people are following him trying to find out the secret of how he became visible again. WHAT? I did not expect the book to go there. Suddenly halfway through the novel Clements got all Sci-fi on us! But wait there’s more! It turns into a bit of a horror novel when Gwen discovers what really happened to her grandfather. Oh, and did I mention that Gwen and Robert manage to solve a major crime that doesn’t involve any of the main characters in the meantime? As you might imagine trying to fit all that into a novel made things seem a little bit disjointed and added up to an ending that wasn’t completely satisfactory. I do have to say that it made things unpredictable at times. Maybe it all would have fit together a bit more if I had read Things not Seen, but then again, maybe not.

I'm still a huge fan of Andrew Clements's books aimed at slightly younger readers. I just picked up his newest, No Talking, and I can't wait to dive into it.

American Born Chinese - by Gene Yang

Normally Printz Award winners tend to be a bit too ronchy and edgy for my taste, but my curiosity was peaked when American Born Chinese, a graphic novel by Gene Yang, won the award. A graphic novel winning a major children’s literature award is unheard of. As the genre grows, so does the variety and quality. I’m a huge fan of the Babymouse graphic novels for younger kids so I had to check out American Born Chinese, and I was well rewarded for my curiosity.

I heart American Born Chinese! It begins by alternating chapters between three different storylines (they are probably not called chapters, but I’m not up on my graphic novel lingo). There’s the story of the Monkey King who wishes to be accepted and respected by the other Gods, the story of Jin Wang the only Chinese American in his class who is soon joined by another Chinese American student who is unashamed of his strong accent and black hair, and the story of All American Danny who is embarrassed by visits from his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, a portrayal of the racist stereotypes of Chinese Americans.

At first I didn’t see the parallel between the three stories, but they come together in such a beautiful intricate way in the end unified in telling the story of the struggle to overcome the want to fit in, in order to become comfortable with who you are. The perfect graphic novel to share with those who think graphic novels have no literary value.

Picture book Spotlight

I haven't highlighted any pictures books here in a long time (ok, I haven't highlighted anything here lately, but my goal of the month is to get back on track). This month I'm highlighting a few new picture books that are guaranteed to make parents chuckle.

First comes Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt. If you didn't have a chance to read this one during Reba's picture book month you must pick it up because it's hilarious. Ok, technically this one is not new, it came out last year, but I had to mention this title before I highlight it's sequel, Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend. Scaredy Squirrel's plans continue to go awry in this sequel that's even more hilarious than the first book.

I discovered Antoinette Portis's Not a Box awhile ago, but just got around to picking up my copy. This book is delightfully simple in design and text. The book begins with a black and white line drawing of a rabbit playing with a box. Every time the rabbit is asked about its box, it proclaims that its NOT a box, and we're presented with a black and white line drawing of the rabbit and the box with a red sketch over it illustrating all the things the rabbit imagines the box to be. So simple and yet entertaining. A great illustration of what an imagination can do.

I also fell in love with The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers this month. This book is clever and quirky. It's about Henry who loves to devour books (literally, not figuratively live). As he digests them, he absorbs all of their information and become incredibly intelligent, until he eats too many and they get jumbled up inside him and he feels sick. When doctors tell him he must stop eating books he is stricken until he picks up a book and leafs through its pages longingly and starts to read it. He discovers he loves to read books! As a book lover myself, you know I couldn't resist this picture book, but it's Oliver Jeffers illustrations that really make is great. School Library Journal's review says that, "The simple cartoon illustrations twinkle with humor and feeling." I wholeheartedly agree that this book will charm its audience.

And how could I post about picture books this month without mentioning the release of Diary Of a Fly, Harry Bliss and Doreen Cronin's followup to the Diary of a Worm and Diary of a Spider? This book looks into the life of a fly who dreams of being a superhero. Bugs and superheros, what kid wouldn't like this one?

And now if your little one loves these books, you can buy the finger puppets to they can act out the stories on their own.

September - Sharon Creech

Since we've had so many new members over the years, we've decided to do a few throw backs and redo a couple of our favorite previous topics. The first repeat will be a Sharon Creech author study, because if you haven't read her books, you must! And if you have read them, you know you can't wait to read them again. Since we're all having a busy summer, we only picked a few:

Walk Two Moons

Love That Dog

Chasing Redbird

If you finish those and want to read more there's quite a long list, Absolutley Normal Chaos, Bloomability, Heartbeat, The Wanderer, Ruby Holler, Replay, Granny Torelli Makes Soup, Pleasing the Ghost, and The Castle Corna is scheduled to be released October 1st!

Sharon Creech also has a few picture books: Fine, Fine School; Who's That Baby, and Fishing in the Air

August - New books by Authors We've Previously Enjoyed

Here's the August Reading List:

Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

The Newest American Girl

So I know a lot of people hate the marketing giant that is the American Girl Company, but I have to admit that I devoured the books when I was little, and I think my parents still have my Kirsten doll stored at their house. There's still a little part of me that gets excited when I hear there's a new American girl.

According to Children's Bookshelf American Girl will be introducing Julie Albright this fall. The books will be set in San Fransisco in the 70's. The coolest part is that the author of the series will be Megan McDonald, the author of the Judy Moody series! But wait, it gets even better; Julie's best friend is a Chinese-American girl named Ivy and the one and only Lisa Yee will be writing a book about her! You can read more about it here.

July - The latest Newbery and Caldecott winners

Since the first Tuesday in July is July 3rd, we've decided to meet on the second Tuesday, July 10th. We'll be discussing the latest Newbery and Caldecott winners/honors:

Newbery medal winner: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Newbery honor: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Newbery honor: Rules by Cynthia Lord

Caldecott Winner: Flotsam by David Wiesner

Caldecott honor: Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet by David Mclimans

Caldecott honor: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford (Illustrated by Kadir Nelson)

And if you finish reading all of those there's one more Newbery honor: Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm. We won't be including it in our discussion, but if you're looking for more to read you can pick this title up.

June - Picture Books

Reba is hosting June's meeting and here's what she had to say:

I thought it would be fun to discuss how picture books have changed within our lifetimes. I'd love it if everyone brought a favorite picture book (or two or five) from their childhood and one (or multiple ones) that they enjoy reading now.

And here's a quick wikipedia overview of the history of picture books http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_book

Suggested reading:

Old:
Noisy Nora (Rosemary Wells)
Hand Hand Fingers Thumb (Al Perkins)
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub (Don and Audrey Woods)
Where the Wild Things Are (Marcus Sendak)

New:
Tanka Tanka Skunk (Steve Webb)
Scaredy Squirrel (Melanie Watt)
Bee Bim Bop (Linda Sue Park)
Knuffle Bunny (Mo Willems)

List your favorite picture books here and we'll compile a list to hand out at book club.

Book Expo

It's Book Expo time, and that means that Publishers Weekly has posted a list of the hottest Galley copies for kids available there. Check it out here.

A few highlights, Sharon Creech is coming out with a new book called The Castle Corona, Christopher Paul Curtis is coming out with Elijah of Buxton, E L Konigsburg has a new one too, The Mysterious Edge of the Herioc World. I know I already mentioned that Jerry Spinelli is coming out with a sequel to Stargirl, but I had no idea that Scott Westerfeld was coming out with a new book in the Uglies series called Extras. I can't wait!

Sheesh, I'm drooling just looking at the list!

Sequels I can't wait to get my hands on!

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 3) by Rick Riordan

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Kiki Strike: the Empress's Tomb by Kirsten Miller

Charlie Bone and the Beast by Jenny Nimmo

Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer

Knuffle Bunny: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

And two other books that aren't part of a series that I'm really looking forward to are Shannon Hale's new novels, Book of a Thousand Days and Austenland.

Second Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

MotherReader is hosting her Second Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge. She set the date for June 8 - 10. It's a great way to catch up on your reading! Here are the rules from MotherReader:

1. The weekend is June 8–10, 2007. Read and blog for any 48-hour period within the Friday-to-Monday-morning window. Start no sooner than 7:00 a.m. on Friday the eighth and end no later than 7:00 a.m. Monday. So, go from 7:00 p.m. Friday to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday... or maybe 7:00 a.m. Saturday to 7:00 a.m. Monday works better for you. But the 48 hours do need to be in a row.
2. The books should be about fifth-grade level and up. Adult books are fine, especially if any adult book bloggers want to play. If you are generally a picture book blogger, consider this a good time to get caught up on all those wonderful books you’ve been hearing about. No graphic novels. I’m not trying to discriminate, I’m just trying to make sure that the number of books and page counts mean the same thing to everyone.
3. It’s your call as to how much you want to put into it. If you want to skip sleep and showers to do this, go for it (but don’t stand next to me). If you want to be a bit more laid back, fine. But you have to put something into it or it’s not a challenge.
4. The length of the reviews are not an issue. You can write a sentence, paragraph, or a full-length review.
5. For promotion/solidarity purposes, let your readers know when you are starting the challenge with a specific entry on that day. When you write your final summary on Monday, let that be the last thing you write that day, so for one day, we’ll all be on the same page, so to speak.
6. Your final summary needs to clearly include the number of books read, the approximate hours you spent reading/reviewing, and any other comments you want to make on the experience. It needs to be posted no later than noon on Monday, June 11.
7. Sign up in today’s comments. You’re welcome to post the challenge on your site to catch the bloggers that come your way but don’t come mine. Point them to today’s post to sign up. On Friday, June 8, I’ll have a starting-line post where you can sign in to say you’re officially starting the challenge.

Where have I been?

I apologize for the lack of posts lately! I've been busy adding a new addition to the family.


I am finally getting back on track so look forward to lots of new posts!

May - Historical Fiction

We'll be meeting at Emily's in May to discuss historical fiction set during WWII. Here's what we're reading:

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

The Loud Silence of Francine Green by Karen Cushman

And if you finish both of those and want to keep reading, check out Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.

April - Books being turned into movies

I know this is late, but to keep the record here, for April we read books being turned into movies. Here's the list:

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz (the novel or graphic novel version)

Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

A Day With Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce

Looking for other upcoming titles? Check out Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13th), Nancy Drew (June 15th), The Dark is Rising (September 28), The Spiderwick Chronicles (February 29th 2008), Horton Hears A Who (March 14th 2008), The Chronicles of narnia: Prince Caspian (May 16th 2008)

Uglies - by Scott Westerfeld

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I often do, which is why I glanced at a copy of Uglies when it came out a few years ago, and I wasn’t even tempted to pick it up. As the adult Chick-Lit genre has blossomed so has the young adult version. I have no problem with the popularity of the genre, I’m just not particularly interested in it myself. I mistook Uglies to be one of those books with a female main characters obsessing over romantic possibilities and clothing, and while it contained both of those elements, it turned out to be much more.

Uglies is set in a futuristic society where everyone receives plastic surgery at the age of 16 to make them beautiful. The idea behind the transformations is that if everyone was beautiful, no one should feel better than anyone else, no wars would be fought over the color of people’s skin if everyone looks similar.

Tally, the main character, begins the book eagerly awaiting her 16th birthday so she can join the other “pretties” in their carefree lives. The thought that someone might not want to be changed never occurs to her until she meets Shay, another girl in her class about to turn sixteen. At first she doesn’t believe Shay’s stories of a place that people escape to if they don’t want the surgery, but after Shay disappears the authorities show up to question Tally and they confirm Shay’s story. They tell Tally she must help them find Shay and the other runaways or they will never do her surgery and she must remain ugly in a world of beauties forever. Tally is torn between her promise to her friend, her curiosity to know the truth, and her desire to become beautiful.

I found myself thoroughly caught up in Tally’s predicament and my reading became progressively slower as I neared the end of the book because I didn’t want it to be over. Luckily for me, it’s part of a trilogy and I just picked up the next book, Pretties at the library.

Now that I look at the cover, it’s more appropriate than I originally thought. I hesitate to classify this book as science fiction simply because it might discourage chic-lit readers from picking it up too, and I think they would enjoy it. Stephenie Meyer says that Twilight is a vampire novel that she wrote for people who do not like vampire novels and her next project is a science fiction book for people who don’t like science fiction. In the meantime, that’s what I’m calling this novel. Besides, who can resist picking up a book that begins with the line, “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit”?

Olivia & Eloise Dolls

I'm not the biggest fan of Madame Alexander dolls, but I love their version of Olivia. I could only find the complete bedroom set on the Madame Alexander site (which is a bit pricey to say the least), but on this site you can buy just the doll or extra outfits for your doll.

Now Madame Alexander is making a doll version of Eloise too.

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

I received a review copy of Jeremy Fink in a flood of books for consideration for the Middle Grade Fiction Cybil Award, and it took me awhile to get to it. I couldn’t help thinking, “What kid wants to read about the meaning of life? I’m an adult and I don’t even want to read about it.” I could eat those words now because this book was wonderful from start to finish. Wendy Mass is a genious. How does she draw her readers into a quest for the meaning of life? She makes it a mystery even the most skeptic of readers can’t help but be curious about.

12 year-old Jeremy Fink and his best friend Lizzy are hanging out in his New York City apartment when the mailman delivers a package addressed to Jeremy’s mom. Jeremy lives by the rules, but Lizzy can’t overcome her impulsive nature and convinces him to open the package. Inside they discover a wooden box with a keyhole on four of it’s sides and the words, “THE MEANING OF LIFE: FOR JEREMY FINK TO OPEN ON HIS 13TH BIRTHDAY.” Jeremy immediately recognizes the box as the work of his father, who passed away several years earlier. This makes the note explaining that the friend taking care of the box lost all of the keys, even more disappointing. Jeremy and Lizzy are determined to find a way to open the box. A locksmith tells them that he can’t pick the locks or break it open without destroying the box and possibly the contents so they set a goal to find the keys by the end of the summer so Jeremy can still open the box on his 13th birthday.

Lizzy’s impulsiveness gets them into trouble and they wind up having to spend a good part of their summer performing community service. Luckily they are assigned to work for Mr. Oswald, an antique dealer preparing to retire to Florida. He assigns them to run errands for him delivering some special antiques. They have no idea until they reach the first home that they are returning valuable items to their original owners who pawned the items dearest to them when they were only teenagers. Each item is being returned with the original letter stating why they chose to pawn the item.

They are countless mysteries in this book: what is the meaning of life, where are the keys to the box, did the people who pawned their items get what they wanted, why is Mr. Oswald returning the items now? Interwoven between the answers is the story of an admirable friendship between Lizzy and Jeremy as they try to grow and transition into the teenage years. As with any book by Wendy Mass, there are also millions of delightful details, only she could invent.

Pick up a copy! Even if you don’t discover the meaning of life, you’ll have an enjoyable time trying to figure it out, and even if the plot sounds a bit too ridiculous too you, you’ll find the ending satisfying.

Bridge to Terebithia the movie

I know many of you have seen the previews for Bridge to Terebithia and thought the same thing I did, "WHAT? This movie is supposed to be based on the book right? I mean, it has the same title, but I don't remember it being a fantasy adventure!"

Well, a while ago Fuse #8 posted that she heard from friends that the movie actually sticks fairly close to the book and a group of librarians who caught a preview of the movie were happy with it. Add to that this article about the movie by School Library Journal, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing the movie.

The advertising seems fairly misleading and I wonder how many kids will be disappointed when the major plot of the movie takes place in the "real" world.

The Cybils Awards have been announced!

Did you catch the Cybils Award announcements yesterday? If you missed it, you can check out the winners here.

I have to say that I'm a little surprised that A Drowned Maiden's Hair won the middle grade fiction category; it was the last book our nomination committee selected and we had a bit of a hard time agreeing on a fifth book, but I think those who pick it up will really enjoy it.

Congratulations to all of the winners. There are a few that I haven't read and I can't wait to pick them up!

Olivia Fabrics

Continuing my theme of Children's book related products, if you sew or know someone who sews, you must check out this new fabric featuring Olivia by Ian Falconer! They even provide a link to a pattern to make your very own Olivia quilt.

If I ever have a little girl I think I just discovered what her bedding will look like!

And did all of you Olivia fans know that a new Olivia book is coming out in October? It's called Olivia Helps With Christmas.