It's Monday! What are you Reading? 1/25/16

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

Graphic novels are hugely popular amongst my upper elementary students.  I love them for the way that they equalize voracious and struggling readers and give all kids access to wonderful stories.  This past week I read a graphic novel that is really unlike any other that I've seen.  

Child Solder: When Boys and Girls are Used in War by Michel Chikwanine, Jessica Dee Humphreys, and Claudia Davila is the very powerful and personal story of Michel, who grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  I had been hearing about this book, and read reviews that suggested it was appropriate for elementary-aged readers, but I was skeptical.  The title alone, Child Solider, was a little bit off-putting for me, as a children's librarian.  But, I'm so glad I received a copy from NetGalley and gave this book a read anyway.

Child Soldier is a powerful, but surprisingly kid-appropriate look at a horrible reality. This book will not be for everyone - sensitive readers will be impacted by both the text and the illustrations, but the story is told gently and I think that for many kids it will be eye-opening but not traumatizing. 

Chikwanine was five years old when he was kidnapped by a rebel army and forced to become a child soldier.  There is no sugarcoating his horrific experience, which included being forced to use cocaine and commit murder, but neither the text nor the illustrations in this book are gratuitous.  The illustrations often show the expressions on Michel's face, rather than the atrocities he witnesses, which softens the blow for readers a bit.  The book includes extensive back matter which provides additional information and context about the plight of child soldiers globally.

This is not an easy read, but it is an important one and I think there is a large audience for it.  I would hesitate to hand it to some children to read on their own without the opportunity to follow up with questions and discussions, but hopefully Chikwanine's story will lead to just that - greater understanding, and greater dialogue about one of our world's most shameful realities. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/21/15

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

In my view, Don Brown can do no wrong.  All of his biographies quietly portray the life and times of the subject he is highlighting, and Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa is my all-time favorite picture book biography.  I look for excuses to read it aloud frequently!

That said, I think that Mr. Brown has truly outdone himself with his latest book, a graphic novel called Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans.  I have read quite a few books - for both children and adults - about Hurricane Katrina and most of them move me to tears.  Brown's treatment of Katrina, though, hits readers on an even more visceral level.  The illustrations unflinchingly show the devastation and despair of the hurricane, while the text so evenly and plainly highlights the hypocrisy of the political machinations behind the storm.  Art and words together, this book is a powerful indictment of how terribly we failed before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.  While it is not an easy read, and not necessarily one for most elementary readers, it is critical reading for the rest of us.

Other books I read and enjoyed this week: 

If you loved Me Before You, don't miss this one.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/25/15

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

Augusta Scattergood's The Way to Stay in Destiny takes place in Destiny, Florida in 1974.  Theo (short for Thelonious, as in Thelonious Monk) has been uprooted from his home with his grandparents and brought to this small town with his uncle Raymond.  Uncle Raymond is not a sympathetic character - he is verbally abusive to Theo and clearly still reeling from his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam.  Theo is grieving the recent departure from his grandparents and the long ago deaths of his parents and the one thing that brings him comfort - music - has been prohibited by Raymond.  Fortunately, their rooming house has a piano and a landlady who sees Theo for who he is - a lost soul in need of kindness, music and friendship.  Slowly Theo makes another friend in Anabel, a girl who shares Theo's love (or obsession) for baseball.  Together, they try to prove that Hank Aaron once lived in their small town.  

This is kind of a quiet book, with Theo's melancholy slowly giving way to hope.  I love two of the same things that help Theo get through a very difficult time - music and baseball - so this book really resonated with me.  I will hand it to middle grade readers who crave character development more than action and who might appreciate the plight of a lonely boy.  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/29/14

Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting the #IMWAYR meme.

I read a bit from a variety of genres this week and was once again reminded how much I've grown as a reader as a result of working with kids.  I really don't get the argument that children's literature is somehow limiting for adults - in my case it has been entirely expanding!



After reading Jacqueline Woodson's brown girl dreaming, I really wanted to experience Andrea Davis Pinkney's The Red Pencil.  Like Woodson's book, it is a novel in verse.  Set in the Sudan in 2003-2004, it tells the story of Amira who is twelve and dreams of going to school in the city like her best friend. All dreams are dashed when her village is attacked by the Janjaweed and her father is killed. Amira then goes to a displaced persons camp with what remains of her family. The poetic text and illustrations combine to read almost like a diary - a very poignant and heartbreaking one.  Like brown girl dreaming, I almost think this is better appreciated as an adult reader.  That said, though, I'm curious to see how my students in Maine react to this story set in a place so far away and so different from their home.  I hope that it resonates with them as much as it did with me.



Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald is an art heist mystery with a Holocaust connection. Theodora’s grandfather dies leaving her with a mysterious request about a painting, a crumbling old house and a mother who is at minimum unstable (and possibly mentally ill). Together with her friend Bodhi, Theo attempts to discover the provenance of the painting and along the way meets some amazing people (including a truly fabulous tattooed librarian named Eddie) who help her. The ending felt a little bit too tidy for me, but that same tidiness gave the story a sense of having come full circle.  For art-appreciating readers and those who love a good mystery, this will be a hit.





I've had Cleopatra in Space in my library since August, but until now I couldn't wrestle it away from the kids long enough to read it.  That alone should serve as highest praise for this graphic novel!  What I especially appreciate about it (and the similar Zita the Spacegirl series) is that there is a smart and strong female heroine and readers of both genders can't get enough!  I have one 4th grade student who literally asks me every single week if the sequel to Cleopatra has come out yet.  He's a "reluctant" reader, but Cleopatra speaks to him.  So, I am hoping that Mike Maihack writes many, many more!






Finally, if you've read more than just a few of my blog posts, you know that I am a sucker for nonfiction dog stories (and cat stories, for that matter, although they are fewer and far between).  Super Sniffers: Dog Detectives on the Job is a stellar example of informative and engaging nonfiction for middle grade readers.  Author Dorothy Hindshaw Patent goes above and beyond the standard jobs that dogs have typically done and includes an array of examples of dogs working in medicine and environmental science.  I was fascinated and I am sure my students will be too!



Here's to another great week of reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/9/13

I am excited to be a part of the conversation at #IMWAYR! Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting this meme.

It feels like crunch time for me as a reader on the Maine Student Book Award Committee.  The committee meets in January to put together a short list and I still have quite a few books that I want to get my hands on before that.  It's an exciting time because everyone is publishing their "best of" 2013 lists and of course I want to read every title on every list!

Rec. for grades K-5

For this week, I started with one on the Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Books of 2013 called Akissi: Cat Invasion.  This is a really unusual graphic novel, originally written in French by Marguerite Abouet and illustrated by Mathieu Sapin.   Have you ever seen a graphic novel set in West Africa?  Nope, me neither.  Since West Africa is a place that has long fascinated me, this book was a definite hit for me.  The author and illustrator team up brilliantly to share the exploits of Akissi, a young girl who knows how to get in and out of trouble.  I absolutely love the subtle humor, the artwork and the character of Akissi and I hope that the graphic novel format will tempt my elementary students in Maine to discover a culture they might not otherwise come across.

Rec. for grades 4-6

Sharon Creech's latest, The Boy on the Porch, has been getting some "best of" buzz as well.  This spare, short book tells the story of John and Marta, a young couple that discovers a boy on their porch.  He has a note in his pocket which explains next to nothing about why he is there, but John and Marta take him in and gingerly, gently, carefully, begin to love him.  I read this book with all sorts of questions in my mind (what’s the deal with the couple? How in the world could they keep this kid for so long without telling anyone? Where did the kid come from? Why doesn’t he speak? etc. etc.) and I very much appreciated Creech's spare and understated approach. It would be an amazing book to read aloud in order to tease those questions out of kids through conversations and it definitely lends itself to imagining the circumstances that brought the couple and the boy together. That said, the slower pace and many unanswered questions might not work for everyone.

Rec. for grades 6-8

Twerp by Mark Goldblatt was a surprising read to me.  I have had several conversations about it with other librarians - some of whom hated it, and others who loved it.  One of my friends said that it reminded her of Wonder which is what finally motivated me to track down a copy.  Set in 1969, Julian has been given the assignment of writing about an incident that led to his suspension from school.  Instead of tackling the assignment head on, Julian begins a journal, detailing the many exploits that he and his gang of friends have in their Queens neighborhood.  Julian is an interestingly sympathetic protagonist who, as it turns out, is also a bully. Seeing the story from the bully’s perspective is unusual and I found his remorse to be genuine.  I can understand why some readers might not love him - he definitely does some things that are extremely unlikeable, but then, who amongst us hasn't done something we regret?  Julian's evolving emotional maturity shows the way in which we all have the potential to recover and redeem ourselves after causing someone else pain.

For adults

In a rare reversal in my household, my husband recommended a book to me that I read this past week called The Orchardist (by Amanda Coplin).  It seemed like it would be an automatic winner for me - historical fiction, set in the Pacific Northwest - but as it turned out, I think I wanted something other than what Coplin delivered.  This is a quiet book about a man, Talmadge, who spends his entire life tending to his fruit tree orchards.  At a young age his mother dies and then his sister mysteriously disappears. When he is an adult, two pregnant girls wander onto his property.  Through tragic circumstances, only one of the girls and one of the babies survives.  As their lives become deeply entwined, Talmadge grows old, the baby grows up and the girl grows increasingly wild.  Despite all that, though, the pace remains slow and easy and the action never seems to crescendo in the way that I was expecting (ok, hoping) it would.



Finally, I have to end with a plug for the book that I am currently in the midst of: The Twistrose Key.  It is beautiful and haunting and I can't wait to get back to it (yes, I  was hoping for a snow day today so I could stay home and read).

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 11/18/13

I am excited to be a part of the conversation at #IMWAYR! Thank you to Sheila, Jen and Kellee for inspiring and hosting this meme.

My head is spinning after getting home from the AASL national conference in Hartford, CT.  It was a wonderful experience, highlighted by seeing and hearing some of my favorite authors.  Although I don't read a ton of YA at this point in my life, I can't wait to get my hands on Neal Shusterman's dystology series after hearing him speak on a panel about fantasy.  He was brilliant and thought-provoking in person, so I have high hopes for his books!  In the mean time, this is what I read this past week:

Battling Boy by Paul Pope

The Other Side of Free by Krista Russell

Darling, Mercy Dog of World War I  by Alison Hart

Byrd & Igloo: A Polar Adventure by Stephanie Semple

I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe