76) Chomp by Carl Hiaasen – a funny romp through an Everglades mystery
77) Buck Fever by Cynthia Willis – a hunting story that is so much more
78) Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde – different short stories retelling Little Red Riding Hood
79) The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller- I learn something new every time I read it
80) Brain Camp by Susan Kim, Laurence Klaven and Faith Erin Hicks- you’ve never been to camp like this
81) Amulet: Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi – I now know why these are so popular in my classroom
82) Storm Runners: Eruption by Roland Smith – an action-packed conclusion to the Storm Runners trilogy
83) What a Writer Needs by Ralph Fletcher – so good, so good
84) Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick – made me laugh and cry
85) Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust by Ruth Thompson – haunting text and images
86) Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence by written by Richard Platt and illustrated by John Kelly – fascinating look at germs and disease
87) Vordak the Incomprehensible: How to Grow Up and Rule the World by Scott Seegert – funny, over the top, and way too dangerous to share with my daughter
88) Star Island by Carl Hiaasen (audio book) – a little raunchy, a little over the top, a lot funny
89) Bitter Melon by Cara Chow – powerful story about what it truly means to succeed and find your own voice
90) Pyrotechnics on the Page by Ralph Fletcher – I can’t wait to share with my students and try in my own writing
91) Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble – a definite page turner that raises important questions about war without giving any easy answers
92) Owl Moon by Jane Yolen – I finally got to read it, and I’m glad.
93) Plain Kate by Erin Bow – Kate is not plain at all, and neither is this fantasy of blood and gifts and magic
94) Shimmer by Alyson Noël – I wasn’t expecting the historical twist, but I liked it.
95) Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthall – this is what nonfiction should be–fascinating look at a period of history
96) Mentor Author, Mentor Texts by Ralph Fletcher – I can’t wait to share this gem with my students.
97) Irises by Francisco X. Stork, narrated by Carrington MacDuffie – a quiet story about the strength of sisterhood
98) Going Bovine by Libba Bray – I LOVE this book–smart, funny, and utterly random.
99) Sign Language by Amy Ackley – the writing got in the way of the story for me
100) Tales from the Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang, narrated by Toby Stephens – I listened to the four tales included in this collection
I set a goal to read 200 books this year, and I just might make it. I had hoped to be a little further ahead since I do a lot of reading during the summer months–much more than I can do doing the school year. I didn’t quite make book-a-day for June, but I didn’t do too badly, finishing 25 books in 30 days. I am taking full advantage of audio books, too. I can download them from our public library, and Sync YA is offering two free downloads a week through the summer. Each week they pair a contemporary title with a classic. This week has up Tales from the Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang (made cleaning the house much more enjoyable this morning) and The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. Click the link above for more titles coming up through the summer.
It’s hard to pick favorites this month because I read so many good titles. I loved Going Bovine by Libba Bray, Plain Kate by Erin Bow, Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthall, and Girls, Drums, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. I was pleasantly surprised by Bitter Melon by Cara Chow and Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble. What have been your favorite reads this month? Just wait until you see what Vordak the Incomprehensible has inspired me to do!
Plain Kate is not plain at all, and neither is her story told by Erin Bow in Plain Kate (Scholastic 2010). Kate lives in a world where magic creeps around corners and hides in the shadows. People pay good money for charms to attract good luck and to repel evil, but they are just as quick to blame–and burn–witches for any trouble that comes their way. That’s both good and bad news for Kate. She is the woodcarver’s daughter, and her skill with a carving knife seems to bring dead wood to life in her charms. Her charms are so good that some call her “witch-blade,” a nickname that becomes dangerous when hard times befall her village.
First, her father dies, leaving Kate an orphan with no place to live except a drawer in the market stall. Then a deadly fog wraps its icy fingers through the village, and the townspeople start gathering wood to burn a witch. Desperate, Kate turns to the musical stranger, Linay, for help. He offers a trade: He will help her escape and grant her heart’s desire in exchange for her shadow. With her cat Taggle (who now talks), Kate joins a band of gypsies to make her escape. There she finds friendship as well as mistrust and betrayal. When her path again crosses that of Linay, she realizes that his plans for her shadow will bring more death and destruction. She must stop him, but it will require a great sacrifice.
I loved Kate, not plain at all. Rather, she is brave and resourceful. She also yearns to belong to a community. When her father dies, she brings home a cat, Taggle, to her drawer in the market stall. When the villagers turn on her, she joins the band of gypsies and befriends Drina. When even the gypsies turn on her, she still cannot turn away. Through it all, she keeps Taggle by her side. As Taggle gains a voice, he becomes something more than just a cat. He is proud (as cats are) and funny (even though he doesn’t mean to be). He is the star of her heart, and she is his.
I first discovered Francisco X. Stork when I read and loved Marcello in the Real World, so I was excited to download Irises from the Sync YA website to listen to this past week. Irises is a very different kind of book from Marcello. It is a quiet book, but it has power in the questions it explores. I am still mulling over those questions of love and ambition days after finishing the story.
Kate and Mary, sisters, are left alone after the death of their strict father, a minister in the Church of God. Just before his death, Father told Kate that “love makes everything that is heavy light.” Kate struggles to understand and apply these words as she faces impossible choices that could tear her apart from her sister for good. Kate has dreamed of going to Stanford to become a doctor, but everyone expects her to marry her responsible boyfriend Simon, who offers to take care of them all. The church wants to evict them from the parsonage, but the new minister, Andy, tempts Kate to pursue her ambition no matter the cost to others. Driven by her ambition, Kate doubts and questions the faith she was brought up in.
Mary, a talented painter, faces her own struggles. She no longer has to fight her father to paint, but she’s not even sure she can paint anymore. Ever since her mother’s accident, she has lost the joy she once found in painting. No longer can she see, much less capture, the light she once saw flow from other people. Again and again she turns to her study of Van Gogh’s painting of two irises, but her colors seem lifeless. Then there is Marcos. This onetime gang member has raw artistic talent and keeps coming around to offer and ask for help. Through it all, Mary turns to her faith for comfort.
Then there are the choices Kate and Mary must face regarding their mother, who has been in a permanent vegetative state following a car accident two years ago. Should she live with them or in an institution? How will they be able to pay for her care? Would the most loving act be to let her go? These two sisters are very different in how they face the death of their father and the choices they must make in their lives. Will their choices bring them closer together or drive them completely apart?
It is definitely time to bring back the tradition of Fun on a Friday tradition–usually a book trailer or other literary related video that I’ve discovered in my wanderings over the internet. Since I’m resurrecting a long-dormant tradition, you get two videos today!
It seems libraries (along with many other public services) have come under attack as costing too much. These two videos deal with the cost to society if we lose our libraries, whether public libraries or school libraries. I shudder to think what the world would be like without libraries. I have confession to make. I don’t go to the library as often as I (or my daughter) would like. I’m trying to read my way through the boxes of books in my house. I also have trouble rounding up the books and returning them on time. Those overdue fines add up fast!
Even so, I can’t imagine not having a library card. Visiting the library and getting my very own card is one of the first things I do when I move to a new community. I even talked my way into a library card in the town where I worked for the summer at camp!
First up is Daniel Handler (better known as Lemony Snicket) performing the song “Without Libraries” at the San Francisco Public Library. Thanks to The Hub for sharing this video in blogging about the Printz reception at ALA.
Next is a video that made the rounds of Facebook and Twitter. I love how it reframes the question in the public discourse.
I had Bitter Melon (Scholastic 2011) by Cara Chow in the box of books behind my desk for most of the year before I brought it home for the summer. I wasn’t sure what it was about, so I kept picking up other books to read first, but once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. I was rooting for Fei Ting or Francis from the first moment she explained the contradictions within her names. The tension between “fly” and “stop” and “free” in the meanings of her names carried through the entire novel.
At school, Francis is a top student. She works hard to get excellent grades and is even taking an after school review class to improve an already impressive SAT score so that she can pursue a degree in medicine from UC Berkeley. A scheduling mistake lands her in speech class instead of calculus. She puts off correcting the mistake until it is too late, but speech class just might open her life to possibilities she had never considered before if she can convince her mother to let her continue. Will speech give her a chance to finally fly free?
Known at home as Fei Ting, Francis is never good enough to live up to her mother’s expectations no matter how hard she works and studies. She is not nearly as smart or as talented or as obedient as Theresa, the daughter of her mother’s best friend. She is not allowed to to anything but study–no boyfriends, no dances, no fun. She never knows what might set off her mother’s anger or another guilt trip. I was horrified when her mother beat Francis with the trophy she won at her first speech contest. Even winning first place in a speech competition isn’t good enough.
Chow explores so much in this novel: parent-child relationships, friendship and jealousy, even a little bit of romance. What spoke most powerfully to me was Francis’s ever-changing understanding of success. As she competes in speech competitions throughout the year, her speech changes to reflect her growing awareness of a bigger world.
Yesterday I got to write with Ralph Fletcher at a conference sponsored by the IUS Writing Project. I came away with pages of notes of ideas to think about and tips to try in my classroom. Of course, I also came home with a few more books to read. I can’t wait to dig into Fletcher’s books Mentor Author, Mentor Texts and Nonfiction Craft Lessons. I even got my copy of Pyrotechnics on the Page (our study book for Advanced Institute) autographed.
One of our writings used Fletcher’s poem “The Good Old Days” as a mentor text. Fletcher asked us to use his opening and closing stanza, but to write about our own memories in between. I found it fascinating to see how different people in the room connected with different parts of the poem to copy in their poems. I borrowed the beginning and ending stanzas (as we all did). I also used the two-line stanzas, included lots of gerunds (though I kept thinking I was using too many), and adopted a nostalgic tone. Other people focused on a memory involving their mother (as Fletcher’s did) or father.
It was a good reminder to trust my students to take away from a mentor text what they need for their own writing. There are many lessons a single text can offer, not just the one I see. I’ve had success in the past using mentor texts in getting students started with a piece of writing. (Raise your hand if you’ve used George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From.”) One of the things I like about such writing is that the structure allows students (and me) to get ideas down on paper in a way that makes us look good. Here is what I came up with yesterday in just a few minutes. It brought up a memory I haven’t thought about in a long time. I just might go back and keep working with it.
Sometimes I remember
the good old days,
rolling down the grassy hill
until the blue sky whirled above me.
I lay in the sun-soaked grass
feeling the earth tilt and spin beneath me.
I staggered to my feet,
grass tickling my toes
and raced my brother to the top
and paused before doing it again.
I still can’t imagine
anything better than that.
I had no idea that the US Army trained a division of skiing soldiers known as Phantoms in the mountains surrounding Camp Hale, Colorado. The Tenth Mountain Division trained in brutal conditions to be able to tackle any mountain through skiing, rappelling and climbing, no matter the weather. When not training, they looked to enjoy wild adventure before being sent to the Italian Alps at the end of World War II.
In Phantoms in the Snow, Kathleen Benne Duble throws fifteen-year-old Noah into Camp Hale after he lost his parents to small pox. Now he is being sent to live with his Uncle Shelley, whom he has never met, at Camp Hale. There are just two small problems. First, Noah is only fifteen, and you have to be sixteen to sign up to join the war effort. Second, Noah was raised as a pacifist. How will he ever fit in with a group of soldiers? Not to mention, how will this Texas farm boy deal with snowy mountains and learn to ski?
I love how Noah grapples with the questions raised by his experiences at Camp Hale. The training pushes him to the limits of his physical and mental strength as he learns to ski, dig foxholes, rappel, and handle a gun, but he is proud of his accomplishments. He comes to respect and even care for his gruff uncle. He treasures the acceptance and camaraderie that he gains with the other boys, but he doesn’t know how he could ever go to war. When he learns of the atrocities the Nazis are inflicting on the Jews of Europe, he questions if avoiding war is still the right thing to do.
Duble doesn’t give any answers to Noah’s predicament. Just as in life, he has to make a decision with the incomplete information he has and wait for the future to unfold to learn if it was the right choice to make. The characters, too, are mixes of good and bad. Noah is far from perfect. In fact he is often wrapped up in his own self-pity. His uncle Shelley is a daredevil who appears not to care, but he risks his own life to save others. Not only does Phantom in the Snow explore difficult questions of right and wrong, it also shines a light on a little-known part of World War II history.
I haven’t been jumping in with updates the past week, but I have been writing. I am making good use of Kate’s post last Monday about outlining. I know part of the reason I’ve stalled on my Little Red Riding Hood novel is that once I ran out of fairy tale, I still have lots of story left, and I have no idea where to go next. I started outlining the ten chapters I’ve written so far. (I made it through six so far.) My goal for this week (on Friday when I have time and space to spread out all over the living room again) is to finish outlining what I have and start brainstorming where the story goes next.
I also wrote poems for my daughter’s birthday. I started the tradition of writing a poem for her birthday once she learned to read. I’ve written one for her every year since. (Confession–I skipped last year, so I wrote her two this year!) I’ll see if she’ll let me post them later. I used Jo Knowles’ writing warm-up to write one of them!
Meanwhile, this week I’m reconnecting with the National Writing Project through the Advanced Institute at Indiana University Southeast. We’re celebrating successes, sharing ideas, and writing, writing, writing. This afternoon and tomorrow we’ll work with Ralph Fletcher as we discuss and try out ideas from his book Pyrotechnics on the Page. Yes, I am excited. I can’t wait to try some out in my own writing and with my students next year!
During writing time yesterday, I tried Kate’s Tuesday Quick Write. I chose the prompt from guest author Joy Preble about getting to know your characters. What I came up with is not something that will go directly into my novel, but it definitely helped me to get to know my main character better and to hear her voice more clearly. Here is what she had to say in response to the questions. What do you think of her?
How do you see yourself?
I yearn for adventure, but I have been held captive for so long by my mother’s fear. I choke on unasked—and of course unanswered—questions. Why do we move so often, each time to a village smaller and more wretched than the last? Who is my father? Who is the rest of our family? Why won’t Mother let me play with the other children? I’ve grown up lonely at times, but now I can spend hours alone. It’s a good thing because I do spend hours alone. When I was younger, Mother used to take me with her on her trips through the woods to collect herbs, but ever since we’ve lived in Kell, she has left me behind. I know every crack and stone in this cottage. I’ve named every rock along the path between our back door and the spring up the hill. I have organized and reorganized the bottles and jars and drying racks and braided bundles of dried plants. If bored enough, I’ll even sweep the dirt and dust out the door.
I’m getting restless. I loved walking the twisting trails through the forest with Mother. I’d pick flowers to braid into crowns for our head. The children in previous villages stared at me in awe. They may have had free run of the village streets, but most had never been outside the split-rail fences that surrounded each village. I had been past the fences and deep into the forest and survived. I never had the chance to tell them that we never saw anything more dangerous than poison oak. No bears ever peered out of the leafy branches to growl at us. No WolfRiders ever thundered behind us on black stallions. It was just me, Mother, and baskets spilling with fresh herbs snipped from our secret places. I’m getting restless without those trips. I look for anything to break this monotony. I want to fly away. I want to explore more than this cottage. I want to know who I am and where I came from. There must be more to life than fleeing from one poor village to another.
How do others see you?
Mother refuses to see that I am growing up. Or maybe she sees, but wants to stop it anyway. Why else would she keep me at home while she traipses through the woods? Mother expects me to be responsible—to dry and store the herbs and to bring them to her when she’s treating an illness or injury in the village. Sometimes she questions me: What would you do to treat a fever? What herb do you mix with oil to clean a wound? I know nearly as much as she does now, but the villagers always wait for her return. What’s the point of leaving me behind to care for the villagers when they just wait for her to get back?
I only see the other children from a distance when I accompany Mother down the main path of the village. I’m not sure what they think of her silent shadow. Since they’ve never seen me leave the village for the forest trails, they don’t look at me with awe like the children in past villages did.
I definitely want to go back and try the poetry prompt from Sarah Lewis Holmes later. Maybe I can get to it today since I didn’t lug the huge binder with my novel down to New Albany with me.
The pests themselves lead you on a tour of some of the most gruesome diseases throughout human history. After reviewing the roles played by protists, bacteria, and viruses (in order of decreasing size) and their discovery with the invention of microscopes, they introduce some of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. Learn the symptoms (truly disgusting) and travels (far and wide) of bubonic plague, small pox, various strains of flu, HIV, yellow fever, typhus, leprosy, malaria, tuberculosis, and more. Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence (Scholastic 2011) by Richard Platt is packed with information. Did you know that Asian warriors used early biological warfare against the city of Caffa? They threw diseased bodies over the wall to infect the people on the other side.
Colorful illustrations by John Kelly add a dose of humor to supplement the rather disgusting and disturbing information. Dr. Scratch (a flea), Professor Attious (a rat), Lab assistant Mozzy (a mosquito), and lab assistant Tik-Tik (a tsetse fly) serve as guides through the world of infectious disease. My only complaint is that some of the type is too small for my bifocal eyes to read comfortably.
I’m just glad to know that we have made progress in fighting these diseases that once ravaged populations. Keep up the good work, doctors!
Ruth Thompson has collected a haunting assortment of images and writings from Terezin, a small fortress town in the Czech Republic that the Zazis turned into a Jewish ghetto during World War II. Thousands of Jewish people from across Europe were imprisoned here. Many of them left for their deaths at Auschwitz. The ones who remained struggle to survive the harsh physical conditions and debasing treatment by the Nazis.
Words quoted from the letters, journals, diaries, memoirs, and interviews of the Jewish people who were transported to Terezin tell the story of deception and cruelty. It begins with Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia. It continues with the passage of laws that placed more and more restrictions on Jews until they were gathered onto railway cars–freight cars, not passenger cars–and deposited at Terezin. In spite of impossible conditions–starvation, disease, hard labor–the people of Terezin carried on. Teachers taught children in secret. Musicians and professors gave concerts and lectures. Artists who were supposed to draw propaganda for the Nazis also created secret drawings that showed life as it really was at Terezin.
The drawings of these brave artists fill the pages with raw emotion. There is such stark contrast between the drawings they were forced to do for the Nazis and the drawings that reveal the truth. One of the artists, Friedl Dicker Brandeis secretly taught the children in Terezin art and hid over 4,000 of their drawings before she was transported to Auschwitz. There are also photographs of Terezin as it is now and photographs from Nazi propaganda that showed a false front to cover up the horrors when representatives of the Red Cross visited in 1944.
I first read about Terezin in Inge Auerbacher’s I Am a Star. These two books would be good to read together. Terezin Voices from the Holocaust gives the historical context while I Am a Star lets you inside the memories of a child who survived it. Together, they give students today a glimpse into the horror caused by prejudice and intolerance.
