We called it! The 4th and 5th grade readers who voted on the 2014 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award (MCBA), chose not only the winner, but also the runners up this year. Our readers, who participated in this voluntary reading incentive, were pretty discriminating. At our voting party, we talked about which books had merit, and which books should still be popular in future years. After the DCD votes were counted and sent in to Salem State College, we waited to see how other readers from schools throughout the state voted.
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (Perfection Learning, 2012) was this year’s winner. The popularity for this book happened by word of mouth, as students began recommending this book to their friends. The story is about a fifth grader who suffers from cerebral palsy. When she is introduced to a device that allows her to communicate, her family realize that she isn’t retarded, but instead she is brilliant.
The runners-up for the award each received votes from our students too.
The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann (Aladdin, 2011), The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion, 2010), Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli (Balzar & Bray, 2012), and Chomp by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2012)
While I recognize that every book can’t get, or doesn’t deserve, a special award, there are some books that need to get some recognition so that readers will find them. Those of us who are in the children’s book field need to heavily promote these books to parents and young adults.
When the 2014 Newbery Awards were announced, I was disappointed that one of my recent “favorite” books, Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Dial, 2013), wasn’t mentioned. Sloan’s protagonist, Willow, is the narrator of this realistic story, and she has a unique and profound voice that resonates throughout the story.
I was taken to see an educational consultant that autumn and the woman did an evaluation. She sent my parents a letter. I read it. It said I was “highly gifted.” Are people “lowly gifted”? Or “medium gifted”? Or just “gifted”? It’s possible that all labels are curses. Unless they are on cleaning products. Because in my opinion it’s not really a great idea to see people as one thing. Every person has lots of ingredients to make them into what is always a one-of-a-kind creation. We are all imperfect genetic stews. (Counting by 7s, p.18)
Willow is unique, and depending on your point of view, you will want to be her friend, or teacher, or parent. Her world falls apart when she is in middle school. It’s no spoiler to tell you that in the opening chapter, the reader learns that Willow’s parents die. While this shatters Willow’s world, a diverse group of individuals reach out to save her. It is Willow who saves them and brings out each one’s “giftedness” (my term). Do share this book with a fifth, sixth, or seventh grader, but be sure to read it yourself too.
Holly Goldberg Sloan’s webpage about the book proves that the author is as clever as her character.
“If they want to give me a medal for being me, I’ll take it.” (Quote from Auggie in Wonder)
When I was in elementary school, I read a book called Karen by Marie Killilea (Buccaneer Books, 1952). I can still remember the effect that this book had on me as a child. I felt such empathy for Karen, who was the subject of the biography. Marie shared the story of her daughter’s life and struggles. Karen was born with cerebral palsy, and her parents chose to raise her at home to give her as normal a life as possible. With her parents’ love and support and her own perseverance, Karen went on to live a productive and independent life. My young heart went out to her, and the book opened my eyes to the person inside.
Fast forward to our children today. I believe that there is a book that is touching many of them just as Karen did me. That book is Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Knopf, 2012). While Palacio’s book is a novel, the author has so meticulously crafted her story that the reader believes in the main character. The protagonist, Auggie, was born with genetic abnormalities, and he has undergone many operations. Even after so many surgeries, his face is severely disfigured. When he goes out, adults and children cringe when they see him, stare, or turn away. This story is of his fifth grade year when he enters school for the first time. He faces the daily revulsion that others demonstrate towards him, but he also discovers true friendship. He demonstrates exceptional courage, and many of his schoolmates learn something about themselves too. Palacio came up with the idea for Wonder because of her own family’s experience when they saw a child like Auggie.
This is certainly a book that many of our fifth graders have been discussing, as they have chosen to read it with their teachers. The middle schoolers have also found it. Parents may want to read it themselves if they choose to share it with intermediate readers.
Years from now, I hope that many of today’s readers will remember Wonder, as I remember Karen.
(1930-2013) Elaine Lobi Konigsburg is known to our Fourth Graders as E. L. Konigsburg, the beloved author of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Her books have been honored with Newbery awards by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. The Newbery Medal is awarded annually “to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children”. Konigsburg is the only author who has received the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year. In 1967, she received the Newbery Medal for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was an honor book. She was honored with the Newbery Medal again, in 1997, for The View from Saturday.
Konigsburg made many of her main characters 12 years old. In an interview with Leonard Marcus in Talking with Authors, she said, “Because it is at that age that the serious question of childhood is asking for an answer. Kids want acceptance from their peers, but in two different, opposing ways: They want to be like everyone else and they want to be different from everyone else. So the question is: How do you reconcile these opposing longings?”
How fortunate we all are that this woman, who received a degree in chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, decided to write children’s books as her own children began school!
(Photo of the author taken from Publishers Weekly)
Our fourth, fifth, and sixth graders have been reading some of the nominees for this year’s Massachusetts Children’s Book Award. By this time of the year, there is a buzz among readers as they recommend specific titles to each other. One of the books that many have enjoyed is Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea (Delacorte). The chapters of the novel are told through the voices of different students, and readers gain insight into an event through different perspectives. A review in Booklist described Mr. Terupt, the protagonist of the novel as one of those teachers “who encourage their students to think for themselves, question the conventions they understand about school, and become better people.”
How exciting it must be for the students who have the author, Rob Buyea, as a teacher. Rob taught elementary school in Connecticut before he moved to Massachusetts where he currently teaches at Northfield Mount Hermon School. In the following video, Rob is interviewed by John Irving about his writing.
It’s fun to pair some of the titles and make comparisons and contrasts within the MACBA nominees. There are two that beg to be discussed together – Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm (Random) and Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (Random). These also happen to be titles about which I have been raving to anyone who will listen. Both novels are set during the Depression years, the main character is sent off to unfamiliar relatives/friends, there is only one custodial parent, and she has to figure out how to navigate her new relationships and surroundings. Both protagonists, Turtle and Abilene, are feisty girls who are intelligent and introspective.
Turtle in Paradise can be enjoyed on more than one level. Some of our intermediate readers have just enjoyed the plot. I have had some great conversations with other readers who are intrigued by Turtle’s mother’s decisions and the relationships between the characters. Those readers want to talk about how they imagine the story continued after the last chapter.
Check out Jennifer Holm’s website and Brian’s post about Turtle in Paradise over at Helping Readers Love Reading. He has pictures of the areas of Key West that appear pretty similar to those described in the book.
It is 1936, and Abilene Tucker isn’t happy that her father sent her off to strangers in Manifest, Kansas. She is sure that she won’t be staying there for long, but she is intrigued by the items that she finds in a hidden box. An elderly recluse, Miss Sadie, begins a story from 1918, and Abilene finds that tale entangled with her own identity.
Clare Vanderpool describes where her idea for the novel originated on her website.
Russell Freedman’s book, Children of the Great Depression (Clarion), features memoirs, diaries, and letters to depict the conditions that children faced while growing up during the Depresssion.
Pie by Sarah Weeks (Scholastic, 2011) is one book that I confidently recommend to many of my intermediate readers. This novel has humor, a misunderstood protagonist, and just enough of a mystery to keep the reader turning the pages.
Alice Anderson loved her Aunt Polly, and it wasn’t because Polly made the best pies in town at her bakery, Pie. More important than that was that the pie shop was “…a home away from home, a safe place where she could truly be herself.” No one ever paid for a pie at Aunt Polly’s shop, but they expressed their appreciation by leaving gifts of pie ingredients. The pie shop was known far and wide for the delicious pies and exceptional piecrust.
Alice was as baffled as her parents and the rest of the town when Aunt Polly’s lawyer read her will. Aunt Polly left her secret piecrust recipe to her beloved cat, Lardo, and she left her beloved cat, Lardo, to Alice.
This book is scrumptious, and so are the pie recipes that begin each chapter!
The winner and honor books for the 2012 Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards were announced this month. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009) is the winner of the award this year.
The honor books are Scat by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, 2009), Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum, 2007), The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman (Perfection Learning, 2009), and Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road) by Kate Klise (Harcourt, 2009).
It was so interesting to learn of the statewide winner and honor books and compare them to the results of the voting by our students at DCD. We had a tie for first place between Scat and Dying to Meet You. Our honor books are When You Reach Me, Cracker!, and The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggott (Harper Collins, 2009).
Obi-Wan Kenobi used this phrase when he wished Luke Skywalker luck when they were saying good-bye to each other. We’ve been channeling the Force as I’ve been sharing Tom Angleberger’s book, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (Amulet, 2010), with our Fifth Graders. This title is written in notebook or journal form with short chapters that are narrated by different characters. It seems that Dwight, probably the nerdiest student in McQuarrie Middle School, has begun carrying around his origami creation of Yoda. When he puts Origami Yoda on his finger and answers his classmates questions, Yoda is much wiser than Dwight could ever be. Tommy and his friends struggle to decipher whether Origami Yoda truly does have power. He must because that’s the only way to explain how someone as clueless as Dwight could offer such sensible advice.
Tom Angleberger’s sequel to this comic tale of everyday occurrences of middle-schoolers is Darth Paper Strikes Back (Amulet, 2011). Harvey channels the Force in a negative way when he constructs an Origami Darth Vader.
Of course, we had to make our own Origami Yoda’s by following Tom Angleberger’s video. Stay tuned for Darth Paper, and remember to use the Force wisely!
Every year there are new holiday books published to entertain young readers, but there are only a few that entertain and educate them. Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World by Douglas Wood, illustrated by Barry Moser (Candlewick Press, 2011). Douglas Wood chronicles December of 1941 when Winston Churchill braved a trip across the Atlantic to spend Christmas with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During that visit, the two leaders forged a strong friendship and plotted their strategy as their countries engaged in WWII. The illustrations that accompany the text are vintage Barry Moser, as he genuinely captured the personalities of the two leaders.
Check out this clip of Churchill’s visit to Washington, D.C. The first 15 seconds are silent, but after that, there are excerpts of his address to Congress.
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (Perfection Learning, 2012) was this year’s winner. The popularity for this book happened by word of mouth, as students began recommending this book to their friends. The story is about a fifth grader who suffers from cerebral palsy. When she is introduced to a device that allows her to communicate, her family realize that she isn’t retarded, but instead she is brilliant.
