Read On!

Mrs. Farquharson’s musings about books for children and young adults

Anne of Green Gables

November4

anneWhen I was young, the first book that I ever owned was an abridged version of Anne of Green Gables. The book was larger than most and lushly illustrated. I fondly remember pouring over this version for hours as my introduction to this spunky heroine. Anne is fearless and imaginative as she tackles the hurdles of finding a family.  While she stands her ground and won’t be intimidated, she has a gentle soul and a kind heart.

Lucy Maud Montgomery based her novel on a story that she had heard about a couple who were sent an orphan girl instead of the boy they requested to help on their farm. She used experiences from her childhood as well as her home in rural Prince Edward Island, Canada as the foundation of the story. Montgomery went on to write many sequels to the original (1908) Anne of Green Gables.

Be sure to mark your calendars for this Thanksgiving evening when PBS will premiere a new film adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. In 2017, Netflix will also be presenting eight episodes of this beloved story.

2017 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award (MCBA)

September23

mcbaOnce again, we will be promoting the nominees for the Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards (MCBA) during the 2015-2016 school year at DCD. Even though I’ve written about this program before, I would like to explain it to parents who have never had a fourth, fifth, or sixth grader before now. This voluntary reading incentive program has become a popular event for many students. Started by Dr. Helen Constant in 1975, it is administered through Salem State University. Twenty-five books are nominated for the award, and our voting for the DCD favorites will take place in late winter.

 
There are many obvious benefits to reading along with us for the next few months. Students are often introduced to authors who are unknown to them before this, and they return looking for other books by them. Some of the authors, like Jennifer Holm and Lauren Tarshis, are already favorites of many intermediate readers. An important benefit that may not be obvious is that our readers become critics. They learn how to evaluate literature through plot, characters, and interest, and they have fun doing so. Throughout the next few months, I’ll highlight some of the nominated titles. Links to the reading lists and our required journal pages can be found on our DCD Library page.

 
From time to time, I’ll be reviewing some of the titles under consideration for the award. So…let me write about two today. Both of the books fall into the same genre, which I term realistic fantasy or magic realism. The (often) contemporary characters live in a world or society that we recognize, but magic happens. When this is portrayed to a reader by a talented author, one accepts this different reality and enjoys the story.

 
blissBliss, by Kathryn Littlewood (HarperCollins), introduces a delightful family who own a bakery that is beloved in their town. The protagonist, Rose, suspects that her parents employ magic when baking some of their special foods. When her parents go out of town, Rose and her siblings are supposed to protect the family’s Cookery Booke, that is kept under lock and key. They are surprised when a flashy and an unknown aunt rides into town on her motorcycle. Rose is drawn in by her new-found aunt, and she begins playing with powerful magic. This is the first book in the Bliss Bakery Trilogy. The other books are A Dash of Magic and Bite-Sized Magic.

 
14thJennifer Holm’s book, The Fourteenth Goldfish (Random House for Young Readers), is a humorous book that tackles the subject of immortality. Humor and immortality? Yes, the main character, Ellie, is a sixth grader who is struggling to navigate middle school. She misses her best friend, and she learns that her mother had been replacing her goldfish every time it died without her knowledge. When a new, weird boy approaches her, he reminds Ellie a lot of her grandfather who is a scientist obsessed with immortality. Many readers may know Holm from her graphic novels featuring Babymouse.

And the winner is…

April15

ivanSalem State University announced the winner of the 2016 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award (MACBA) earlier this month. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (Harper Collins) received the most votes. DCD’s fourth and fifth graders had voted for this as one of their top choices, although they awarded it an honorable mention. The story, published in 2012, is told from the perspective of Ivan, a gorilla in captivity. When a baby elephant is added as an attraction at the same shopping mall, a rare and poignant friendship develops between the two animals. This book has already received many awards given by adults. Many children are touched by the story, even though there are many sad aspects to it.

Two of the MACBA honor books were chosen by our students in a tie as their number one choices. Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein (Random House) and The Wishing Spell: The Land of Stories, #1 by Chris Colfer (Little Brown) were immensely popular. The sequels to both books are in high demand in our library.

librryland

 

 

Massachusetts Children’s Book Award

March4

MCBA_rdax_230x150And the DCD winners are…

What a celebration of books and reading we had this week at school! Thirty-five fourth and fifth graders participated in the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award reading program this year. Eleven students read all of the twenty-five books that were nominated.

landchrisThe discussion was spirited, and when the voting was finished, there was a tie for the best book between The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer and Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein. In The Land of Stories, twins enter a magical world of fairy tale characters through a special book. Grabenstein tells the story of a group of children who stay overnight in the new town library designed by Luigi Lemoncello, a master puzzle maker in Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. They form teams to solve his master puzzle.

Our discriminating readers chose four other books as their favorites:

Kizzy Ann Stamps by Jeri Watts
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Honorable Mention: Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesel Shurtliff and Counting by 7s by Holly Goldbery Sloan

It will be interesting to learn the statewide voting results later this month.

Historical Fiction

November20

Alice whenSome books that I pick up as just an entertaining read pique my interest to further investigate the subject they present. That’s what happened with Rebecca Behrens’ contemporary story, When Audrey Met Alice (Sourcebooks, 2014).  The main character portrayed in the book is Audrey Rhodes, and she is the “First Daughter” in the White House. With her mother as President of the United States and her father a busy scientist, Audrey has no one to share her challenging experience as an only child who faces the spotlight. She attends Friends Academy in Washington, D.C., and it is difficult for Audrey to determine whether her fellow students are interested in being her friend only because of her mother’s position. It is also a bit difficult for a middle school girl to even talk to a boy when her Secret Service agent is hovering nearby.

Audrey plans a pizza and movie party for the entire eighth grade to see an advanced screening of a popular movie. When there is a security breach before the party, the White House is locked down and Audrey’s party is canceled. This furthers the First Daughter’s feelings of loneliness and isolation.

AliceShortly after the party, Alice discovers a treasure under an old floorboard in a closet in the Family Residence Dining Room. It was a fabric wrapped bundle that contained some old postcards, a pack of old cigarettes, and a leather diary. The items belonged to Alice Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt’s oldest child, and the diary was written during Alice’s years living in the White House. Instead of sharing her find, Audrey hides them in her room and begins to read Alice’s diary. At last, she has found someone who understands what life as a First Daughter means.

The author did extensive research on Alice Roosevelt. She incorporated true information about Alice into the diary that her fictional character, Audrey, found. Alice was certainly a colorful character for her times, and probably even by contemporary standards. In Alice’s fictional diary, she writes about wearing a color of blue that she enjoyed. There was a shade that was named after her, “Alice Blue” became popular in women’s fashions of the times. The color is used by the United States Navy in insignia and trim on vessels named for Theodore Roosevelt. There was even a hit song in a Broadway musical, Irene that was “Alice Blue Gown”. Rebecca Behrens website has interesting information to further investigate Alice.

I hope that some middle school readers might enjoy When Audrey Met Alice as much as I did.

(Photo of Alice Roosevelt from Wikipedia)

posted under Novels | No Comments »

Rediscovering Harry Potter

November6

harryHarry Potter fans will be thrilled with the new, illustrated version of J.K. Rowling’s first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Scholastic). Jim Kay, the illustrator, was honored in 2012 with the Kate Greenaway Medal. This award is given to an artist in Great Britain whose illustrations in a book for young people demonstrate outstanding merit. Kay has produced dozen’s of colorful illustrations to compliment Rowling’s popular tale.

 

The publisher, Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic, should be commended for this project. Undoubtedly, they will make money on this edition, but the quality of the book is remarkable.

 

When the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the UK) was first published, readers only had the thumbnail illustrations at the beginning of each chapter as visuals. Once the series became the phenomena that it is, the movies appeared. Readers then pictured Harry Potter as Daniel Radcliffe represented him. Each year, there are children who are discovering Rowling’s magic for the first time. Jim Kay’s Illustrations are colorful and full of details. He hasn’t depicted the characters and events as copies from the movie. His art is fresh and unique. I’m already anticipating Kay’s art for the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

 

How amazing it is to compare the initial number of books printed for Rowling’s first book of Harry Potter in 1997 to this new edition. In 1997, several British publishers rejected Rowling’s manuscript. When Bloomsbury Press published it, the first run was of 500 books. Scholastic bought the U.S. publishing rights for the book, and less than a year later, their first run was for 50,000 copies. The 2015 publishing run for this illustrated edition is 1,000,000 copies.

 

This volume is a wonderful gift for any child or grown up who appreciates the series. Even though I own the originals, I have it on my wish list for the holidays.

 

 

 

Nooks & Crannies

October16

cranniesIt’s always a happy time for me when I discover a new author to share with students. Jessica Lawson is my latest “find”, and I’ve been recommending her latest book, Nooks & Crannies (Simon & Schuster).

In the beginning chapters of Nooks & Crannies, I thought that I knew the formula that Lawson was following for the plot. The setting is London in the early 1900s, and six children received an invitation from the Countess of Windermere to spend a weekend at her “magnificent and secluded home”. Hmm…that was sounding like Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the more recent Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein. I predicted that the most deserving child would be recognized by the generous benefactor. The author soon surprised me with an early twist in her plot by introducing a rather nefarious Countess.

As I continued into the story, Nooks & Crannies began to remind me a bit of an Agatha Christie mystery for our middle readers. The heroine is an eleven year-old girl, Tabitha Crum, whose parents have arranged to put her in an orphanage as soon as the weekend is over. Because of their neglect, she had to fend for herself, and her only friend and confidant is Pemberley, a mouse. Once at the estate, Tabitha and the other children learn that one of them may be an heir to a fortune. Not everything is as it appears to be though, and Tabitha soon has questions about the Countess and her knives, a sick old lady, secret passageways, and mysterious happenings.

This novel is great fun, and I look forward to reading Lawson’s previous book, The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thacher which is a take-off of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Let’s hope that Lawson will have many more books in the future.

Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards

September18

MCBAOnce again, we will be promoting the nominees for the Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards (MACBA) during the 2015-2016 school year at DCD. Even though I’ve written about this program before, I would like to explain it to parents who have never had a fourth, fifth, or sixth grader before now. This voluntary reading incentive program has become a popular event for many students, and it was started by Dr. Helen Constant in 1975. It is administered through Salem State University. Twenty-five books are nominated for the award, and our voting for the DCD favorites will take place in late winter.

There are many obvious benefits to reading along with us for the next few months. Students are often introduced to authors who are unknown to them before this, and they return looking for other books by them. Some of the authors, like Kate DiCamillo and Patricia MacLachlan, are already favorites of many intermediate readers. An important benefit that may not be obvious is that our readers become critics. They learn how to evaluate literature through plot, characters, and interest, and they have fun doing so. Throughout the next few months, I’ll highlight some of the nominated titles. Links to the reading lists and our required journal pages can be found on our DCD Library page.

From time to time, I’ll be reviewing some of the titles under consideration for the award. So…let me write about one today.

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy-tale.” – Hans Christian Anderson

(Quote taken from Liesl Shurtliff’s website.)

rumpWhen I first started to read Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff, I was skeptical. For me, as a reader, the writing was not enticing. The story wasn’t grabbing my attention in a positive way, but I decided to give it more of a chance. I’m certainly glad that I did since I became a part of the fantastical world that Shurtliff created. Her clever explanation and imaginative retelling of the traditional tale of Rumpelstiltskin made me sorry to see the tale end. The trailer for the book might give you some indication of how I was at first “put off” by the beginning chapters. Since I’m now promoting the book to students, and discussing it with them when they have finished it, many of them have expressed the same thoughts. They weren’t sure at the beginning, but they enjoyed it as they got into it.

This book is a perfect example of a child’s growth as they begin to read critically.

 

Two Novels

June5

There have already been a number of quality books published in 2015 for our intermediate and young adult readers. Two of my latest favorites are Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan (Scholastic, 2015) and Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015). These books are each challenging with their content and intriguing with their plots.

echoEcho is a difficult book to describe because it shifts back and forth from fantasy to reality. In a mysterious and forbidden forest, a man meets three strange sisters who deliver a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. That harmonica is intertwined within three other stories. Readers will be drawn to the challenges that Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California face during different time periods. This is a long book with 592 pages, and readers will be so engrossed in the plot that they will be disappointed to have it end.

Pam Munoz Ryan speaks about her writing and another of her books, The Dreamer, in this video.

stellaStella by Starlight is realistic fiction that challenges readers to face the realities of racism in the United States. The main character lives in Bumblebee, North Carolina, in the heart of the segregated south. In this Depression Era story, the Ku Klux Klan are making a reappearance and terrorizing many in the area. Sharon Draper talks about her inspiration for her latest book.

***On an unrelated note, “Stella by Starlight” is also the name of a 1940s jazz classic. To hear Miles Davis perform it, check out this video.

Spring Reading

May15

There are some very entertaining new novels for children and young adults that have been published this spring. I have a stack of books to read, and I want to recommend two this week.

fishFish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Penguin, 2015) is a novel that many readers from ages 10+ might enjoy. I did! The narrator of this story is Ally, a sixth grader who is struggling to navigate school. She is contending with the typical social issues that occur during those middle school years. As an outsider, Ally is trying to fit in. Her difficulties are compounded by the fact that her father is in the military, and he is currently stationed overseas. Her family has moved around a lot because of her father’s assignments, and school hasn’t been easy for Ally or her older brother. Maybe it’s because she was never in one school for very long, or maybe Ally was very good at faking her ability, but no teacher had picked up on Ally’s academic deficits. The situation in her present school is similar to that in her previous one, she gets sent to the principal’s office often for causing problems. Her new sixth grade teacher realizes that Ally can’t read, and that she is dyslexic. Even though the main character is a girl, one of her best friends is an interesting boy, and this might help with the appeal to our male readers. Ally’s teacher’s words to her are some that all children who struggle need to hear,

Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.

allKate Messner is another novelist who can speak to youngsters as if she were their peer. In All the Answers (Bloomsbury, 2015), her middle-school protagonist is Ava, a girl who is often overcome by her fears. Whether it is family, social or academic issues, Ava feels that she doesn’t have the courage that her best friend, Sophie, does. Ava is also worried about her grandfather in a nursing home and her parents arguing a lot. When she uses a pencil from her family’s junk drawer, Ava is shocked to learn that the pencil has magical powers. When she writes out a question with the blue pencil, she hears a voice that gives her the answer. The pencil tells her that it can only divulge facts, and that “People have free will.” Still, there are not only academic facts that Ava and Sophie learn, but also facts about the boys and girls in their class. Perhaps they weren’t supposed to know some of these facts. How ethical is it to use the pencil?

« Older EntriesNewer Entries »


Skip to toolbar